After the official greetings, Sister Patricia Parraguez, representative of the ESA Central Commission, presented the strategic planning for the three-year period, 2021-2023, organized according to 4 fundamental axes, with 3 lines of action and 2 specific activities for each of them. In addition, she shared some of the results of the 2020 survey applied to 300 headquarters in the Region to understand how schools are managed in different countries.
Fr Rafael Bejarano, SDB, of the Youth Ministry Department, spoke about the shared mission and the challenges it presents: he recalled that Don Bosco's pedagogical model was based on people and the wealth of relationships, and explained that this requires inculturating the Preventive System in pastoral educational contexts, discerning the paths that Salesian works require today, identifying the formation needs of people and making the most of the evaluation process.
Starting from the Magisterium of the Church on the subject, Sister Laura Guisado, FMA of Uruguay, then contextualized the development of the shared mission, underlining the need to foster identity, vocation and growth in faith, giving space to shared formation for the purpose of communion.
The work in groups, coordinated by Rossanna Benitez, referent of the SepSur - SDB School Sector, and by Sister Myriam Celeste Benitez, her counterpart for the FMA, revolved around four questions: What is most appreciated in the common work of religious and laity? What challenges await us? What are the dreams? How can relationships and the journey be enriched?
The SDB and FMA delegates of Youth Ministry of the SepSur then presented the booklet of Youth Ministry n. 43, whose theme is “Young people and synodality, with them and starting from them. Dreams and challenges of a Youth Ministry in the Southern Cone.”
Sister Sarah Garcia, FMA, Referent for the Geneva Human Rights Office, presented a project to build a network of young people for the defense of human rights - and Guillermo Gutierrez, from the FMA Province of Uruguay, was identified as the training coordinator related to this proposal.
Finally, Sister Goulart and Fr Cartes presented the Identity Card of the Salesian Schools, prepared by the ESA Central Commission after the IV ESA Continental Meeting (Medellín, Colombia - 2017).
Investing in education is contributing to world peace, to building more just and supportive societies: "Education is one of the pillars of the most just and supportive society" states the Message for the 54th World Day of Peace.
