Rome (Italy). On 26 January 2026, a fraternal meeting of sharing and dialogue took place in Rome at the General Headquarters of the Salesians of Don Bosco between the Salesian Missions Sector, led by the General Councilor, Father Jorge Mario Crisafulli, and the Missions Sector of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, animated by the General Councilor, Sister Ruth del Pilar Mora.
The meeting highlighted missionary animation and formation, sharing orientations, perspectives, concrete achievements, and the challenges that the global context presents to male and female missionaries in the realities in which they are involved.
The Salesian Congregation and the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians have been characterized by missionary passion since their very beginnings. The evangelizing zeal of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello fueled and ignited the apostolic fervor of the first communities of Valdocco and Mornese, from which the first missionary expeditions departed in 1875 (SDB) and 1877 (FMA), whose 150th anniversaries are currently being celebrated.
The Missions Sector has recently begun working with its Councilor according to the programmatic guidelines set by the 29th General Chapter, held in 2025, while the Missions Sector is preparing to conclude its mandate, in view of the 25th General Chapter which will be held in 2027.
Father Jorge Mario Crisafulli and his team presented the four areas of intervention – formation, animation, solidarity, and new frontiers – highlighting some specific points of the Sector’s work and some lines of action for the coming years. The Missions Sector is rethinking the entire process of discernment, formation, and accompaniment of Salesian missionaries ad gentes through the administration of questionnaires at various levels (for missionaries, for the Provincial Delegates for Missionary Animation, for the Provincials, for the General Council, etc.) and from next month will be involved in four continental meetings for missionaries sent out in the last five years.
Sister Ruth del Pilar Mora, together with her collaborators, presented the priority areas of focus for the animation and formation of the provincial coordinators for the missions and the missionaries, carried out by the Missions Sector in recent years, particularly through online sessions twice a year, addressing themes according to the General Council’s 2022-2027 program (Migration phenomenon, Missionary Volunteering, Integral Ecology; Ecumenical interreligious dialogue; First Proclamation in the Digital Continent; Sister Maria Troncatti: artisan of peace and reconciliation), in addition to the online PEM Pilgrimage throughout 2026.
The Department has also shared the formation journey dedicated to missionaries working in different parts of the world, participating in person in the Ongoing Missionary Formation Courses that are held every year – in May and October in collaboration with the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS) – in Rome and in the charismatic places of the Order’s origins, and accompanying the new missionaries during the months of preparation and training before their mission assignment.
It also emerged that, for both the SDB and the FMA Sectors, networking with national and international missionary organizations is of vital importance for a broad-based missionary animation. Examples of such organizations include SEDOS (Service of Documentation and Study on Global Mission), Fondazione Missio and Fondazione Migrantes, Caritas, Solidarity with South Sudan, the Pontifical Mission Societies, and others.
The meeting concluded with the Eucharistic Celebration on the Feast of Saints Timothy and Titus, during which the readings, with their strong missionary character, fostered the sharing of the Word and communion.
