Rome (Italy). On 8 December 2022, with the Eucharistic Celebration of thanksgiving presided over by the Rector of the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS) in Rome, Fr. Andrea Bozzolo, and the awarding of attendance certificates, the 24th Ongoing Formation Course in Missionary Pastoral concluded.
The Course, which was attended by fifteen Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, eight Salesian priests of Don Bosco, two Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians, and a lay catechist took place from 4 October to 8 December 2022 at the UPS in Rome and was coordinated by Fr. Samuel Amaglo, SDB of Togo, assisted by Sr. Blanca Sanchez, FMA of Mexico, and by Fr. Reginaldo Cordeiro, SDB of Brazil, who animated and accompanied the group in the various activities.
The origin of the course participants was from a good variety of nationalities: Vietnam, India, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, Belgium, Italy, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mexico, Paraguay, Poland, Slovakia, East Timor, Venezuela, and Zambia. This constituted a great multicultural richness and the inevitable difficulties of understanding during the lessons were soon compensated for by the fraternity woven among them.
The lessons for a total of 400 hours were held by more than twenty teachers on various basic, theological, spiritual, pastoral, communication formation contents; and on current issues: ecology, communication, interreligious dialogue, reception of migrants, women and mission, gender and family… highly appreciated for their topicality and usability. A student expressed it this way, “I feel that the contents are appropriate because they highlighted all the aspects: communication, spirituality, ongoing formation, joint work, fraternity, the believer’s reading of life. They are contents to bring to our schools, to our collaborators, to continue to enrich our recipients and the Church.”.
There were also various outings that enriched the experience and nourished fraternity. There was an initial week of sharing between long-term and new missionaries; participation in the celebrations for the canonization of Artemide Zatti; a visit to the community of Sant’Egidio in Rome and to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls; the pilgrimages to Assisi, to Subiaco and the San Biagio FMA Community; the visit to the exhibit of the Charism of the FMA Institute; and participation in the Conference on St. Francis de Sales, held at the UPS from 18 to 20 November 2022.
Another aspect highlighted by the participants was precisely the family spirit that was created between them, thanks to the contribution of each one. “The human, fraternal, welcoming, and sharing relationship that we have experienced among ourselves in these days is that which I liked the most, because it enriched my experience regarding work in the mission and what awaits me; this international relationship, in which we are all different, but we can walk and work together.”
Among them were two Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians who were grateful for the opportunity, as the first members of the Congregation, to follow this Course that provided them with the necessary insight for the mission.
“From my position as a lay person, it was a wonderful to experience a Church that is reflecting on its synodal sense of communion,” are the words of the only lay missionary, who hoped for the future participation of many lay people, “in order to better give reasons for one’s faith.”
After the bestowal of the certificates of attendance by the Dean of the Faculty of Theology and the group photo, the students said goodbye. One group continued the formation with a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; others returned to their respective mission lands: Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Italy, Laos, Malta, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, DR Congo, Slovakia, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam, ready to apply the richness of what they learned.
