Carisolo (Italy). From 27 to 30 October 2023, at the Holiday House Casa Alpina “Don Bosco” of Carisolo, in the province of Trento, the first of the formation meetings for the year 2023-2024 of the Salesians of Don Bosco of the Lombard-Emilian Province of St. Charles Borromeo (ILE) and of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of the Holy Family Province (ILO) for those in initial formation took place on the theme, “Re-recognized identities”.
The meeting consisted of residential study days, accompanied by interventions by Mr. Paolo Zini, SDB. The ILE Provincial, Fr. Roberto Dal Molin, and the ILO Provincial, Sister Stefania Saccuman, were present and offered important interpretations for the success of the experience.
The program also included a time for group work, sharing in the assembly, and spiritual retreat. There was no lack of spaces for fraternity and a walk to the nearby Hermitage of San Martino and the Nardis waterfalls in Val di Genova, thanks to the favorable weather conditions.
The topics addressed according to a progressive sequence, focused on the theme of sexual identity, an essential educational challenge to accompany young and less young, provoked by the current culture to immediately live every experience of self, of others, and of the world.
A first series of interventions was dedicated to the anthropological foundation of the different dimensions of identity, starting from the clarification of the specific meaning of the terms affectivity, sexuality, and genitality.
In a second cycle of interventions, Mr. Paolo Zini analyzed from a psycho-social point of view, the contemporary conditioning that marks the reflection and experience regarding questions of identity, considering affective illiteracy and reductionism, which includes the most common sexual dynamisms.
A third intervention was dedicated to the theological-biblical framework of the identity challenge, starting from the reading of the passage from Chapter 1 of the Letter to the Romans as an illuminating scriptural text, the key to understanding the Christian doctrine of creation, of original sin, of redemption, with their historical and eschatological projections.
For a Christian, in fact, the sense of sexual personal identity wounded by original and personal sin, redeemed by the Paschal mystery and in sacramental actualization cannot be thematized outside of God’s plan of love.
The last cycle of interventions was dedicated to the pastoral and charismatic-Salesian dimensions, mentioning some guidelines for action and personal study of themes which certainly cannot be exhausted in the first annual formation meeting.
The great sharing of the experience between the SDB and the FMA proved to be of great mutual enrichment, in a communion that is a prophecy of the future.
The formation experience was also enriched and supported by the presence of the Bonalda family, who manage the holiday home. Simona and Gilberto, Salesian Cooperators, dedicate themselves to their three children, giving to those who reach the Salesian alpine home in Carisolo, the atmosphere, space, and the family’s own words, testifying to the simple and persuasive beauty of Christian love that shapes the identity of every Daughter and Son of God in the joy of self-giving.
