austraLasia

International Congress YM and Family - Madrid

Madrid, Spain, 28 November 2017 -- The International Congress organized by the SDB Youth Ministry Sector in Madrid, Spain (November 27-Dec 1) is already in full swing heading to the succesful and fruitful end. Apart of the workshop, confrerences, liturgy and non formal sharing during break times among the 300 participants from all five continents we found also time for the EAO regional group meeting and sharing. In the absence of our Regional Councilor it was Fr. Guillermo Basanes (Councilor for the Missions) who spent some quality time with us. As you can see on the photos, there is a large representation of lay mission partners from most of the EAO province as well.

As Rector Major declares at the beginning, this Congress is not an academic event, it's more about reflection on the Catholic community and Salesian family commitment to the family ministry in the diversity of our educative-pastoral environments. Each of the 90 SDB provinces was asked to present one short video or visual presentation of good practice:

"Our Macau group (China Province) was happy to share our good practice - experince of 'PARENTAL ORATORY': The ‘Salesian Educative Pastoral Center for Youth and Family’ is located in the low economic and new immigrant families in Macau. The center serves as ‘Parental Center’ as well as ‘Daily Oratory’ where parents can walk in with children but they must stay and play together, unlike in the nursery. This way of operation does enhance the parent-children relationship. There is a space for games, for life skills counselling, personality growth training and other programs. As families come to the center, it starts the connection and creates a social network, step by step with their self-supporting group."

This Macau experience was the only one from the EAO provinces among the 30 good practices presented during the Youth Ministry and Family Congress and was warmly welcomed and appreciated!