Rome (Italy). On 7 April 2022, in the 6th and final appointment of the “Salesian Thursdays at Auxilium” – the initiative of the Studies Center on the FMA of the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences “Auxilium” in Rome with in-depth studies on pedagogy, spirituality, and history of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Sr. Piera Cavaglià, Secretary General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians from 2002 to 2021, and Emeritus Professor of the Faculty, presented the theme, “FMA at the origins of other religious institutes, in formation and in government”.
The horizon in which the research is located is twofold. On the one hand, the ecclesial horizon, on the other, the experience of Don Bosco. The image of the road chosen as the background for the slides evokes the journey of the Church convened in the Synod, an appropriate and current context for this sharing. Inter-congregation is a precious experience of synodality in the perspective of the ecclesiology of communion.
Pope Francis recalled this in his visit to the Chapter members on 22 October 2021, in which he encouraged them “to carry on the commitment to work with other Congregations, trying to live relationships of reciprocity and co-responsibility. This is a concrete way of living synodality.” With a view to synodality, the appointment of Sr. Ivonne Reungoat, Mother General Emeritus of the FMA Institute, as President of the Union of Major Superiors of Italy (USMI) in 2018, is part of a path of effective collaboration between religious Congregations in the Church and in society.
Don Bosco has woven a dense network of relationships with other religious institutes, with founders and foundresses, united by the concern for education. He put himself in synergy with others to seek the best answers to the needs of young people, “There is a giving and receiving from all. We are daughters of a Founder open to the life of the Church, keen observer of reality, available to give his own contribution, but also able to value that of others,” emphasizes Sr. Piera in her presentation.
The very broad theme is divided into three parts:
- At Mornese: an interesting synergy among the Religious Institutes. The FMA, in the short period of time in which the first community lived in Mornese, established relationships with 4 religious Institutes with different purposes: the Sisters of St. Ann of Providence, founded in 1834, with a consolidated educational and religious tradition, who exercised a managerial and formative role in the first community. Don Bosco had turned to Mother Enrichetta Dominici to draw up the first Constitutions and to request two Sisters as guides for the FMA. The Daughters of Mary Missionaries founded by Fr. Giacinto Bianchi on 11 February 1875, who “Before letting them depart [to Bethlehem] considered it right and prudent to send them to Mornese (Diocese of Acqui) for a period of immediate preparation together with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.” The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity (Sisters of the Child Mary). In Mornese and Nizza, the 14 educational principles used for teachers, written by a Sister of this Institute, Sr. Giuseppa Rosa di Lovere (1814-1865), were principles of strong preventive resonance. Finally, the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis of Toulon, two of whom who were in the orphanage of St. Cyr-sur-Mer, in 1878 asked Don Bosco to join the FMA. Don Bosco asked that they spend time in Mornese. The first FMA were therefore inspired by Institutes with a longer and more consolidated pedagogical tradition, 14 in all, to formulate their educational mission.
- Congregations accompanied by FMA both in the government of the Institute and in the formation of the Candidates. From 1925 to 2018, 20 religious Institutes asked the FMA, through the Holy See, for formation and/or governing support. 14 Institutes are of diocesan right and 6 of pontifical right. Six belong to groups of the Salesian Family. With one exception, all the other Institutes have an apostolic purpose. Sr. Piera Cavaglià reviewed these experiences of collaboration that took place not only in Italy, but also in Asia: in China, India, Thailand; in Africa, in Equatorial Guinea, and in Latin America: Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela. She cited the expressions of gratitude of the founders to the FMA who accompanied the religious with passion and loving kindness, residing in other religious Institutes from a few months up to 50 years.
- Collaborations sui generis (incorporations, mergers, aggregations). These regard above all incorporations or mergers of religious Institutes, as well as a specific form of accompaniment of a diocesan religious Institute in extinction, entrusted as a spiritual aggregation to the FMA, and lastly, to the foundation of a religious institute in India by an ex- FMA.
“This research contains the life stories, on a personal and institutional level, of religious women who placed themselves alongside other religious, walking together, seeking the same Lord, serving the same Church, and the same people of God. It is an intertwining of people, of charisms, an exchange of gifts, of projects, of dreams, which mutually enriched the religious institutes, (…) a journey of missionary synodality, which contributed to strengthening their own attitudes of listening, discernment, docility to the Holy Spirit, fraternity, the exchange of gifts, the openness to allow oneself to be enriched, but also to give, with humility and discretion,” concluded Sr. Piera.
The Principal of the Faculty, Sr. Piera Ruffinatto, thanked for all the contributions to the Salesian Thursday encounters, with the aim of reflecting on the contribution of the FMA to education in the 150-year history of the FMA Institute, and of preparing for the International Congress, entitled “Contribution of the FMA to education (1872-2022) Paths, challenges, and perspectives”, which will take place from 25 to 30 September 2022 in Rome at the Generalate. The Conference, addressed to FMA, Educating Communities, Salesian Family, parents, Teachers, etc., will also be in online mode. It is possible to register on the site www.convegnofma150.org.
