(ANS - Rome) - In 2022, the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS) launched an inter-disciplinary research project on the theme "Young people, affections, identity", involving the professors of its various faculties. In order to share the fruits of this research and promote the accompaniment of young people towards an affective sexual education, UPS is proposing now a Conference for educators of young people, formators, men and women religious, priests and pastoral workers from 1 to 3 March 2024.
(ANS – Rome) – Everything is now ready for the Grand Finale of the 2023 edition of the Don Bosco Global Youth Film Festival (DBGYFF), the global Salesian youth film festival. The spotlights will be officially turned on, on Friday 13 October and for 48 hours, in the hundreds of officially registered Salesian Family venues around the world, the fascinating spectacle of youthful creativity expressed through the means of the “seventh art” and used to give shape to the theme “Love builds peace and solidarity” will be staged.
(ANS – Rome) – This is the letter of commitment of our Salesian youth after the beautiful experience of the World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal.
(ANS – Rome) - On the morning of Wednesday, 2 August 2023, while hundreds and thousands of young people were already flocking and filling the streets of Lisbon with enthusiasm, a selected group of boys and girls from the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) participated in the "SYM Forum". Their mission was to jointly dream and visualize a worldwide Salesian Youth Movement. Now, after many days after the SYM forum, and collecting and organizing the large amount of material produced and shared during that meeting, the Youth Pastoral Sector of the Salesians of Don Bosco, led by Fr. Miguel Angel García Morcuende and his team present the results of this workshop.
East Asia – Oceania – August 10, 2023 - The Salesian Communicators of the EAO Region once again held their online school of formation on August 10, with the topic “New Realities, New Behaviors: Understanding our Youth Situation Today”. Ms. Genevieve Lavadia, a licensed and registered guidance counselor working in the Department of Education in the Philippines gave the talk. She outlined the youth experience of the pandemic and the scientific reading of youth behavior by contemporary psychology. She stressed on the need for educators to deepen their knowledge of their learners in order to adequately understand their behavior. Communicators from all over the EAO region attended the online session. The communicators afterwards shared their own experiences of new youth behaviors in their own contexts and their struggles with establishing personal connections with them. The online school of formation for Salesian communicators is now on its third cycle where different topics on youth and communications are tackled in monthly sessions. While organized primarily for the Social Communications delegates and their teams, it has been open to all those directly involved in Salesian education, Salesian family, Youth Ministry and others interested in the session. It aims to equip, update and upskill Salesian educators and others in their ministry of education and communication.
Piracicaba, Brazil – July 2023 – More than 200 teenagers aged 15 to 17 from the Salesian Dom Bosco school in Piracicaba participated in the two sessions of Missionary Week 2023 – from 1 to 9 and from 16 to 23 July – in the cities of Rio Claro and Piracicaba. The goal of this pastoral project was to carry out a missionary experience with young people and with the community that welcomes them, one of the experiences of discipleship of Jesus Christ in the service of brothers and sisters in the faith. In communion with the Diocese of Piracicaba, which established the Diocesan Missionary Year, the young participants served in three diocesan parishes, visiting and blessing the homes of families, animating a festive oratory with children, and offering vigils of prayer and spirituality. "It is through service, prayer, solidarity and Salesian spirituality that we bear witness to the love of Jesus Christ for all of us," said Fr Douglas Verdi, Rector of the Salesian community in Piracicaba, who led the group of young missionaries.
PHOTO GALLERY
INTERVIEWS
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Italy – A Salesian on the front line of the war in Ukraine: "Being close counts, words come later"(ANS - Rome) - As he tells with a gentleness that does not seem to come from horror, he is "resting a little bit" in Rome these days. Fr Oleh Ladnyuk is a Ukrainian Salesian priest who is a military chaplain at the front, among the soldiers who fight in defence of their country and among the civilians who for over two years have seen their lives wiped out. He brings humanitarian aid where the missiles fall and from those places he helps with the evacuation of young people and adults - so far at least 500 people, but there are probably many more. These days the Salesian – who carries out his ministry in Dnipro and teaches History in a state school in the city – is in Rome to take part with two other priests and a dozen lay people from his country in the "Accompanying when Trauma Hits" course hosted by the Pontifical Salesian University in collaboration with the Faculty of Educational Sciences, with the DON BOSCO NEL MONDO Foundation and the Don Bosco Network. A project that aims to provide theoretical and methodological tools to deal with the traumas caused by war.
EDITORIAL
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Myanmar – Tragedy of Innocent Children in the midst of Armed Conflicts(ANS – Naypyidaw) - Myanmar finds itself immersed in profound grief and anguish as innocent lives, particularly those of children, continue to be mercilessly lost in the enduring armed conflicts. Families are left devastated by the tragic loss of their loved ones while the relentless violence shows no signs of abating. This week, a heartfelt plea from Myanmar reached our community, shedding light on the heart-wrenching death of a young girl Juliet in a military airstrike, prompting a unified call for prayers and action.
EVENTS
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Italy – "Education and culture of safeguarding in sport. Towards the establishment of protection and prevention models": PGS conference with UPS(ANS – Rome) – The synergy between the Salesian Youth Sports Centres (PGS) and the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS) in Rome gave rise to the conference on "Education and culture of safeguarding in sport. Towards the establishment of models of protection and prevention", which will take place on 13 April, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., at the UPS facilities in Rome.
SPECIAL REPORTS
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Latin America – Strengthening Vocational and Educational Commitment Today: 30 Years of the Salesian School in Latin America(ANS) – Since the first meeting in Cumbayá (Ecuador), 30 years ago, educational processes on the continent have found a collaborative epicentre which has given rise to the Salesian School in (Latin) America – ESA, in Spanish – as a forum for reflection and a common path. Many Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA) and other groups of the Salesian Family (SF) have enriched this synodal journey, focusing on young people and their integral development. What are today's demands of us in the educational field? How are we building the Salesian School of the future? Can we further strengthen this great Salesian educational network in America? Some FMAs and Salesians who were at the first meeting in 1994, share their experience and their vision of how this journey has allowed a growth in the understanding of the youth reality, in the strategic decisions within the Provinces themselves and in the challenges that emerge for Salesian education.
MESSAGES OF THE RECTOR MAJOR
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I’M A SALESIAN AND I’M A BOROROTHE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, SDB
Diary of a Happy and Blessed Missionary Day
Dear friends , I’m writing to you from Meruri in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. I write this greeting almost as if it were a journalistic report, because it has been only 24 hours since I arrived in the middle of this Brazilian state.