The first PGS Games were held in Italy in 1967, on the initiative of a Salesian priest, Fr. Gino Borgogno. Since the 1990 edition, the first to be celebrated outside Italy (in Malta), the games acquired an ever-growing international dimension. This last edition, which was celebrated in May, was the 27th, the first to be held in two cities of two different countries (Bratislava and Vienna). The participants were over 1000 athletes coming from 13 different European countries. In previous years there were also delegations from the Middle East. From the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea, Salesian sports, through these youth, builds bridges of future for a more united Europe.
The young people who participate in PGS-I come from Salesian Youths Sports Games or from some Salesian Schools in Europe. When they take part in these international games, many of them experience the wonder of being able to practice their favourite sport in an international environment in which Youth Salesian Spirituality is also breathed.
For the last edition, the organizers tried to offer an integrated response of sports and spirituality: at the centre of the sports facilities there was the “Valdocco” area, a great roofed playground for the distribution of meals, offices for registration and information, a space for personal dialogue with Salesians and FMAs or for confession and the Tent of the Encounter, with two daily Masses.
Not only sports and fireworks: PGS-I is a constant presence of significant adult people who accompany the young in a unique experience of sports and friendship, in the sign of Don Bosco. Next year will be the FMAs in Seville, Spain, to host the manifestation: preparations are already being made, while possible synergies are also being studied to guarantee such encounters continuity and sustainability.
However, for European Salesian Youth Ministry, the challenge is above all to match these international events with the ordinary, local and daily care, of so many young sportspersons, families, technicians and managers, rediscovering the importance of the Salesian proposal in sports. Restoring, where needed, priority and balance for a healthy synthesis between evangelization, education and sports.
The Frame of Reference of Salesian Youth Ministry (Chapter VIII Par. 2.6.C) states that “sport is recognized as a value in the Salesian educative system” and proposes “popular”, “humanizing”, “preventive”, sports “with a ludic dimension”, “integrated in a vast Pastoral-Educative Project”, and therefore “structured and organized”. By orienting in this direction the pastoral choices in the field of sports, this effort, which to the adults is a challenge, will become an opportunity for many young men and women.
