General Councilor for Missions
Sacro Cuore, Rome, 10 June 2020 -- At the outbreak of COVID-19 virus pandemic, the Missions Department of the Salesian Headquarters in Rome, with the support of Don Bosco Network, organised an on-line strategic planning meeting last March 25, 2019. Thanks to the untiring effort of Fr. George Menamparampil, the Coordinator of Don Bosco Worldwide Solidarity Against COVID 19, Salesian Mission Offices in all continents, in rich and poor countries, are all networking and coordinating our initiatives to save human lives.
Now, the pandemic is gradually decreasing in many countries, while in some others it is just reaching its peak. Experts warn of a more deadly second wave. However, this emergency is already teaching us important missionary lessons. Above all, the pandemic pulled the curtain back to a hard truth: we neither have all the answers nor the means. Sometimes, we might not be even asking the right questions to respond to an emergency. Hence, we cannot just be satisfied with the good we do. We need to coordinate with others to effectively help more people. This could be intimidating, but it is also inspiring and refreshing.
Now we realise that no one should even think ‘this is how it’s always been done’. Learning from our past mistakes, the pandemic is teaching us that one needs love, commitment, dedication and concern for human life in order to extend a helping-hand - even at the risk of contracting the virus ourselves - to the most abandoned, the forgotten, the ones that are not capable of asking for help.
This emergency reminds us that it takes humility to be able to collaborate with others as equal partners; It takes imagination and creativity to innovate solutions to emergency situations we never faced before; It takes self-discipline to ensure proper documentation, financial transparency and accountability of help received from our donors; It takes the missionary spirit to realise that crisis situations are fertile moments for initial proclamation even among agnostics and atheists; above all, it takes faith to remind ourselves that we launch all these initiatives as concrete expressions of our love for Jesus Christ, who assures us that at the end Life will triumph over death; God, not evil, will have the last word. Indeed, this month of the Sacred Heart, is a powerful reminder to live our lives in such a way that we reveal the Loving Heart of a Merciful God to the whole world!
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