Manaus (Brazil). From 2 to 7 September 2019 there takes place in Manaus (Brazil) in “Laura Vicuna” (BMA) Province a seminar on the theme of Accompaniment of indigenous vocations, organized by the Sectors for Formation and Missions.
65 FMA sisters are participating from Latin America, Provincials, those in charge of formation at various levels, coordinators for the missions, indigenous sisters, and indigenous formators from the Provinces of ARO, BOL, BBH, BCB, BMA, BMT, BPA, BRE, BRJ, BSP, CAM, CAR, CBC, CMA, CMM, ECU, MME, MMO, PAR.
Sr. Alaide Deretti, Councilor for the Missions, Sr. Nieves Reboso, Councilor for Formation, and the collaborators Sr. Maria Fisichella and Sr. Blanca Sánchez, are coordinating the meeting.
The purpose of the seminar: reflection, in synergy, on the vocational reality of the young of indigenous peoples and cultures in the American context:
– Have a clearer understanding of these cultural realities.
– Identify the formative guidelines for work with the native sisters, for the communities, and the formators of these realities, integrating the native cultures and the charism.
Objectives of Formation:
a) Listen to the voices of the original peoples and recognize their wisdom as a contribution to society and to the Church at the present time.
b) To know briefly the processes carried out by the Church in the Latin American continent (CELAM, local Churches, CLAR, AELAPI) for the inculturation of the Gospel among the original peoples and the impulses in the elaboration of “Indian theology”
c) Listening, knowing, and thanking for the gift of the call to Salesian life in different cultures.
d) Evaluate the contribution that each gives for mutual enrichment and for an efficient inculturation and development of the charism.
e) To illumine in order to know and study the cultural and charismatic realities in view of a fruitful and effective formation course.
f) Focus on the elements that help to integrate one’s own cultural reality and the values ​​of the consecrated life of the FMA.
g) Identify the processes to be used to enrich and accompany each other in the integration and deepening of the FMA identity in an intercultural community.
h) Start the development of guidelines that encourage a responsible participation of indigenous vocations in the assumption of their own formation, starting from initial formation.
Themes that will facilitate the journey:
– An overview of indigenous cultures in America. Criteria and interpretations to understand the reality of young people belonging to various indigenous cultures. (Father Fernando Lòpez, SJ)
– Interculture and the indigenous world. Some contributions on the wisdom and ‘spirituality’ of the original peoples for society and the Church today. (Father Roberto Tomichá, OFM conv.)
