The formation event will focus on the theme "Charism and Mission. Faithful to the roots and innovative in being embodied today", inspired as usual by the Message of the Holy Father for the World Communication Day, which for 2024 reads: "Artificial intelligence and wisdom of the heart: for a fully human communication".
The theme will thus conclude a three-year cycle which began in 2022 based on "Being Christians in a changing world", and continued in 2023 with "Reading and interpreting to announce".
"The Salesian Days of Social Communication are something the Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians very much believe in as a sure investment for the future of the two Congregations and the young people entrusted to us" said Fr Gildasio Mendes, General Councillor for Social Communication. "We have already been carrying them out for 14 years, with a joint effort of several Sectors and universities, because we know and have found over the years that a valid critical capacity for communication and the use of the media is now essential for consecrated persons. And this year's theme, which focuses on our charismatic roots, will allow a careful reading of the present in the light of our origins."
The Salesian Social Communication Days are promoted and organised by the Sectors for Social Communication and for the Formation of the Salesians of Don Bosco, and the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, by the Auxilium Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences in Rome and by the Faculty of Social Communication Sciences at the UPS – which also hosts the work sessions.
The question from which the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians started for this edition of the Salesian Days of Social Communication is how to live as Christians in a changing world, in a cultural context in which God is not essential to give meaning to life. So how can contemporary events be read and analysed? The pandemic, ongoing wars, cataclysms such as the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, but also growing suicides among young people, the drama of those who lose their jobs, of those who remain on the street. They are realities of life that reject ready-made answers and fundamentally test the humanity of each individual.
The work, therefore, includes, in the afternoon of Friday, 3 May, two sessions on the theme of fidelity to the charism and innovation, entitled "Uniqueness and relevance of the Salesian charism today" and focused respectively on Don Bosco (curated by Fr Carlo Maria Zanotti) and Mother Mary Domenica Mazzarello (by Sister Eliane Anschau Petri). After the times for discussion and questions to the speakers, the afternoon will end with an exchange of reflections in mixed groups, followed by prayer and agape for all participants.
On the morning of Saturday 4th, after the community Eucharist presided over by Fr Gildasio Mendes, the Dean of the Faculty of Social Communication Sciences at UPS, Fr Fabio Pasqualetti, will illustrate the report on the theme "Artificial intelligence and wisdom of the heart: for a fully human communication". After an opportunity for resonances and reactions, the last working session will take place with the possibility for members to participate in various thematic workshops related to various current topics:
– "Pastoral care in digital culture and Artificial Intelligence";
– “Pray today. What is the point and how to do it";
– "Affectivity and sexuality in celibacy";
– "Salesians in the social world";
– "Artificial Intelligence and Information".
Finally, it should be noted that in preparation for the Salesian Social Communication Day 2024, several short videos of a few minutes were made and shared in which FMA and SDB analyse and propose a significant charismatic aspect, concluding with some questions addressed to the participants.
The experience of the Salesian Days of Social Communication, which began in 2012, highlights the attention of the two Congregations of the Salesian Family to implementing wide-ranging communication formation processes among their members, starting from the youngest. The formation event not only aims to offer techniques and tools to be used with young people, but also to develop an awareness and a communicative action at the service of people who meet in the mission, starting from a Christian and Salesian interpretation of the contemporary scene.
