austraLasia #3263
FIN PROVINCE HOLDS CONGRESS ON NEW
EVANGELIZATION
BATANGAS
(PHILIPPINES) 13 August, 2013- The FIN Province held
a Congress on New Evangelization on August 2-4, 2013 with some
140 participants representing all sectors and Salesian houses
of the Province. The three-day affair, held at Lima Park
Hotel in Malvar, Batangas, was the collective response of the
Province to the challenges of the General Chapter 26 and the
Synod of Bishops on New Evangelization.
The congress began with the lectio divina, facilitated by Fr.
Francis Gustilo SDB, followed by an hour of prayer before the
Eucharistic Lord.
Fr. Eligio Cruz SDB, FIN Provincial Superior, the convenor of
the congress, appointed Fr. Vicente Cervania SDB (Vice-Dean of
Don Bosco Center for Studies) as chairman. Fr. Renato De
Guzman SDB (a peritus who attended the recent Synod on New
Evangelization) served as the process facilitator of the
congress.
The goal of the congress was “to create an environment for the
New Evangelization that leads to positive personal and social
transformation.” The output of the congress would steer the
FIN Province towards new evangelization by providing
guidelines for the planning of the different commissions
appointed to animate the various ministries.
No less than His Eminence Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales,
archbishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of Manila, came to
celebrate the Eucharist at the close of the congress.
After the congress, the Province is expected to come up with a
handbook and an “Integrated Pastoral Plan” detailing the FIN
Province journey to new evangelization; this will serve as a
fitting gift to St. John Bosco on his 200th birthday.
Among those invited as observers were representatives from the
FIS Province, the FMAs, the Cooperators, the DB Volunteers,
the Past Pupils, and the Association of Mary Help of
Christians..