Rome (Italy). From 22 to 25 August 2025, the Missions Sector of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, with the members of the Global Misso Team, animated the online formation meetings for the Provincial Coordinators and for the missionaries ad gentes of all the Provinces of the world, foreseen by the programming of the six-year period 2022-2027 of the General Council.
These meetings are part of the journey of the three-year period of preparation for the 150th of the First Missionary Expedition, “Now is the time to rekindle the fire – 150th of the FMA missions” (14 November 2024 – 2027).
“Sister Maria Troncatti, artisan of reconciliation and peace” is the theme developed in the meetings by Continents, in view of the imminent Canonization of Sister Maria Troncatti (19 October 2025), presented by Sister Francesca Caggiano, FMA Vice Postulator of the Cause.
In the opening greeting, Sister Ruth del Pilar Mora, General Councilor for the Missions, connecting from Fusagasugá to Colombia, where she was with Mother and other General Councilors for the CINAB Triennial Verifica – shared that the climate of preparation for the Canonization of Sister Maria Troncatti, “resonates strongly in the assembly of these Bolivarian countries, of which Ecuador is also a member, with this great missionary passion. We feel very motivated – Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, lay people, young people – to continue to truly keep this fire lit. When we planned this Triennium, we did not think that the Lord would actually grant us in His Providence this great gift of the Canonization of Sister Maria Troncatt. For us, having a Missionary Daughter of Mary Help of Christians canonized after Mother Mazzarello is a great sign of involvement and commitment at all levels of the missionary spirit.”
Sr. Ruth continued, “The final message of Sister Maria Troncatti’s life was this profound attention to reconciliation, to peace between peoples, and she sealed this with her own life. It is a very strong message for us today. Sister Maria truly invites us too to be artisans of peace and reconciliation with our words, with our gestures, fueling in our hearts this desire to create bridges with everyone, everyone, everyone, as Pope Francis said.”
Sister Francesca Caggiano, in her passionate intervention, taking inspiration from the Message for World Mission Day with the motto, “Missionaries of hope among the people,” she drew attention to Sister Maria Troncatti Missionary of hope. “Sister Maria was able to listen and give voice to the poor who asked her for life and health, dignity and rights, and she made their hopes and their suffering her own. She was an attentive woman who protected everyone, especially the weakest. While she took care of the Shuar, she fought for their rights, especially land, wages, purchases, and sales. She followed every phase, although she knew that some settlers were not happy with this progress.”
Sister Francesca continued, “Sister Maria had said that she would be very happy to be able to offer her life so that peace could return among this population. She had said this with the heart of a mother, because only a mother can say this. On the day of her death, both the settlers and the Shuar said that their mother had died, that the saint had died. Consoled by the heart of Christ, Sister Maria became a sign of consolation and of hope. With her life and death, she was a true artisan of reconciliation and peace, as well as a restorer of an often distracted and unhappy humanity.”
The presence of the Coordinators and missionaries ad gentes from every Continent was numerous and actively participatory, eager to share these moments of communication which become a greater possibility of encounter, fraternity, solidarity, synodality, and creative belonging to the Institute.
All the participants expressed gratitude to God for the gift of the Canonization of Sister Maria Troncatti, 74 years after the Canonization of Maria Domenica Mazzarello, certain that this is a strong time for the Institute and the Church, to be lived with enthusiasm and apostolic interiority.
