Salesian Mission Office Conference 2019
Rome, Italy, 18 January 2019 -- Two years after the previous encounter in January 2017 the Salesian Mission Office Director, SDB staff and Lay mission partners have gathered in Rome once more, this time in the Guanellian house 'Domus Urbis' (Via Buffallotta, 550 - Rome), January 16-19, 2019. It is a colourful community of 90 participants coming from 45 countries and 54 SDB provinces and 6 other organisations. There are 68 Salesians of Don Bosco (a high percentage of them Salesian Brothers!), one FMA and 21 lay mission partners (12 women and 9 men). The venue is located about 20 minutes by car or 50 minutes by public transport from the General House at Sacro Cuore. There are numerous provincial economers, Mission Office or PDO directors, their staff and also many who came to learn 'How to start the Mission Office'.
The 'World Conference of Salesian Mission Offices' was led by the Missions Sector (Fr Guillermo Basanes, General Councillor and his team - Fr MC George, Fr Gianni Rolandi and Fr Martin Lasarte - with help from many other SDB and lay mission partners for the logistics. On the third and fourth day Br. Jean Paul Muller (Economer General) and also the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel F. Artime will join this Conference, the latter before his departure for the WYD 2019 in Panama. Simultaneous translation is going smoothly with the help of highly qualified interpreters and the 'Patagonia' App working in 3 languages: English, Spanish and Italian.
On the first two days the 90 participants listened to keynote addresses on Identity, Formation, Solidarity and Subsidiarity, Spirituality of the Salesian Mission Office. All materials are accessible on the 'EAO sector' > 'Missions' platform of Boscolink. On the second day the EAO participants especially appreciated actual experiences involving the starting phase of the Mission Office, and the motivations, spirituality, structures and and methods of fundraising and supporting the Salesian mission.
There are numerous participants from 9 provinces in EAO (AUL, FIN, FIS, GIA, INA, KOR, PGS, TLS and VIE) - four provincial economers (FIS, INA, KOR and TLS), Mission animation delegates, PDO executive staff, lay mission partners (Ms Leah from Cebu PDO was also among the main speakers on the second day - on solidarity and subsidiarity). There is a variety of expectations from our EAO Mission Office Salesians and LMP. But all together are trying to continue after this meeting with some kind of networking (peer group learning and support). Fr Andy Satura (EAO Economers coordinator) is facilitating this EAO mission office sharing for mutual exchange.
Within the global society where the inequalities and the rich-poor gap and number of poor youth are on the increase, ways for supporting the Salesian Mission become also more challenging. Participants expect a lot from this meeting - each one according his or her own situation. But among the common points are growth in solidarity for the sake of poor young people, more transparency, more missionary drive and animation in our daily life and especially better formation of the SDBs for mission solidarity in concrete terms.
What kind of Salesian Mission Office Salesians for the Young people of today?
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