(ANS – Rome) – The Oratory of St Francis de Sales was the small seed for the great Salesian work. With the small group of children and young people who were the oratory, Don Bosco founded the new religious congregation which he placed under the protection and patronage of Saint Francis de Sales, so as to give its members the name  “Salesians”.

(ANS – Paris) – In the second and final part of his reflection on the spiritual legacy of Saint Therese of Lisieux from an educational point of view, Father Jean-Marie Petitclerc, Vice-Provincial of the Province of France-Belgium South (FRB), focuses on the constitutive elements of his "little way" and also establishes some parallels with Don Bosco and his educational thought. Here are his remarks.

(ANS – Sliema) – On the feast of St. Francis de Sales marking the 400th anniversary, the Don Bosco Foundation in Malta has launched a new educational institute for non-formal education, offering courses to train educators as well as young people and provide them with an array of soft skills that will be useful throughout their lives.

Padua, Italy - January 2023 - Today, January 24, for the liturgical feast day of St. Francis de Sales, a preview of the video that aims to render current aspects of the figure of the patron saint of journalists was published at cuberadio.it/sales. The short film was produced by the young reporters of "Cube Radio," the academic station of the Salesian University Institute of Venice (IUSVE), in view of the conference that will celebrate the centenary of the proclamation of St. Francis de Sales as the patron saint of journalists and will take place inside the Theological Studio of the Basilica of St. Anthony, in Padua, on January 28. Direction and video editing of the short film are by Matteo Contarin, graphics by Marica Padoan, who also penned an illustration that “updates” the figure of St. Francis de Sales, while editorial coordination is by Aurora Simionato, programming manager of Cube Radio. "The research path we activated on the figure of the holy bishop of Geneva," Simionato explains, "revealed to us the physiognomy of a man capable of communicating through images and convincing without opposing. Yesterday as today, however, the path of receiving information is distorted by mental shortcuts that lead us to select information homogeneous to our thinking, rather than to seek the truth. We can activate training pathways to try to crumble, brush aside, cognitive bias." The teaser video of the short film is available at https://cas5-0-urlprotect.trendmicro.com:443/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=www.cuberadio.it&umid=dfe3810b-21c4-4099-abe7-802973713015&auth=6cc987f3dfa1cb7dfd06408fea7221069b082a27-5d0c7854269447346365c508c1e263c442c760e1, as well as on the websites of the Italian Catholic Press Union (UCSI) and the Salesian International Higher Institute of Educational Research (ISRE), while the full 5-minute documentary will be released through the same channels starting Jan. 28. The Jan. 28 conference will be accessible to the hearing-impaired, of whom the Holy Bishop of Geneva is Patron, thanks to translation into the Italian Sign Language.

(ANS - Rome) - Interview with the General Councilor for Social Communication, Fr. Gildasio Mendes. The publication of the series of articles by Fr. Gildasio Mendes, General Councilor for Social Communication, on the theme "Don Bosco and digital and virtual reality" continues. In the contribution proposed today, the Feast Day of St. Francis de Sales, the focus is on the Valdocco Oratory: virtual reality and "immersion," a new way of communicating. On January 24 we celebrate with the whole Church the feast day of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of Catholic journalists and writers, titular and patron of the Society of St. Francis de Sales. To give even more meaning to this occasion, we interviewed Fr. Gildasio Mendes, General Councilor for Social Communication, who states: "The Bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church was one of the great communicators of the Church and of humanity because he knew how to put the person at the center of the human relationship, listening, dialoguing and creating trust in the relationship with people."  

(ANS - Padua) - An event to celebrate the centenary of the proclamation of St. Francis de Sales as Patron Saint of Journalists and Writers will take place in Padua on January 28, 2023, organized by the Italian Catholic Press Union (UCSI) and the Salesian International Higher Institute of Educational Research (ISRE). Scheduled at the Theological Study Hall of the Basilica of St. Anthony, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. (UTC+1), the event shall also contribute to an in-depth discussion of some of the themes proposed by Pope Francis in his recent apostolic letter "Totum amoris est" (Everything pertains to love) on the figure of the holy bishop of Geneva.