This volume contains the interventions and conclusions of the three meetings of the Salesian missionaries sent to Europe in the context of Project Europe. Don Guillermo Basañes, General Councillor for the Missions, presents this volume as a subsidy to "offer in a very condensed yet complete form, the main projects of the first three meetings of the missionaries of Project Europe (Rome 2010, Torino 2013, Monaco of Bavaria in 2016), with the aim, above all, of keeping alive the memory of this project. "
At the same time, this volume can be used as material for initial and ongoing formation; as a tool for pastoral discernment for the new frontiers that the missionary challenges of Project Europe constantly offer us; as an initiation tool for new missionaries who are coming and who will continue to come; and as material which could be made available to local churches and religious congregations.
During the first meeting in Rome (2011) the focus was on understanding the reasons which gave rise to Project for Europe and on the welcome and hospitality extended to the missionaries in the European Provinces. In the second meeting in Valdocco (2013) the reflection was on the accompaniment of the missionaries and the way they had enriched their new Provinces. Finally, the last meeting in Monaco of Bavaria (2016) discussed the role played by missionaries in the revitalization of the Salesian charism in the continent.
In the text are included the interventions by the former Rector Major, Fr Pascual Chávez, and the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, during the meetings of the Provincials of Europe, as a help for the reader to understand the growth, the development as well as the way forward for the Project Europe.
In the introduction Fr Alfred Maravilla said that "Project Europe cannot be seen as a mere survival congregational strategy. Neither could it be reduced only to the sending of missionaries.”
If Project Europe is viewed only in this way, then one can understand why some embrace it with skepticism, while others accept it with reluctance. However, "only with faith can we recognize Project Europe as kairos of the Spirit in our Congregation, who 'wants to see it vibrant for the good of the Church and never ceases to enrich it with new apostolic energy' "(Const. 22).
The book is available, in Italian language, on on the sdb.org site
