Rome (Italy). From 5 to 29 May 2025, it is being held in Rome, at the Generalate of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, with stops in Mornese (AL), Nizza Monferrato (AT), Colle Don Bosco (AT), Chieri, Turin. The Ongoing Formation Course Missionaries ad gentes is animated by the Missions Sector with the theme, “With Mary, be a ‘presence’ that generates life” (Acts GC XXIV).
The objectives of the course, which involves 17 FMA from all over the world – South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Congo Brazzaville, Japan, Guatemala, Paraguay, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Zambia – are to awaken the original freshness of missionary vocational fecundity and live this charismatic pause “at the origins” to revive the missionary passion of the da mihi animas coetera tolle.
In the exceptional concomitance with Jubilee 2025 and the election of Pope Leo XIV, the participants had the gift to live in Rome a time of special grace as “pilgrims of hope”, with the Pilgrimage to the Holy Door in the Basilicas of Saint Peter, Saint Mary Major – stopping to pray on the tomb of Pope Francis, – and St. John Lateran.
During their visit to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome on 9 May, they had the pleasant surprise of meeting the “newly elected” Rector Major of the Salesians and center of unity of the Salesian Family, Fr. Fabio Attard.
In the fraternal greeting addressed to the missionaries, the Rector Major pointed out that “one of the most beautiful things we have as a Salesian Family is the capacity for human relations. Most of the time, the only possibility is to say ‘how are you?’ We must not lose this ability; we would lose the beauty of the human being and you, who have been in the missions immediately understand.
You have a gift that we do not have: the gift of motherhood that opens to dialogue. I have seen extraordinary things in the missions. When there is a Sister, all the walls fall. Continue to live it in a serene way. The challenge of the West is the challenge of post Christianity. To the young people of today, when you stand next to them and ask, ‘how are you’, ‘what do you do’, the heart expands. It is from the human that we then arrive at the divine.
In the lives of the three young people Besucco, Magone, and Savio, written by Don Bosco, the Saint of the young does not begin by saying ‘why do you not come to the oratory?’ or ‘I will make you do’…. Don Bosco says ‘how are you? ‘ and asks Bartolomeo Garelli a question that he can answer, ‘Do you know how to whistle’?”
Fr. Fabio concluded by saying: “Today in the West the secret is humanity, which we can share if we are authentic. In our consecrated life, if we are not authentic, we are living a farce that ends in tragedy. When a consecrated person says one thing and does another, young people can’t stand the hypocrisy; there is enough already. We must not be ‘first in the class’, but authentic and we have the duty to love these young people with their fragility, but also with their potential. The challenge of consecrated life is within us; It is not outside. Do we really have Jesus in the center? This is the question that everyone must answer. I encourage you to this humanity, to welcome the times with a personal authenticity.”
In the early days of the Course, the missionaries began to recount to each other, to narrate their stories, pieces of “sacred history” hidden deep in their hearts. From 15, 20, 40, 49, 50, 62 years in mission, they are committed to involving all those they meet in weaving a better world, building bridges, being artisans of peace. Without fear of compromise in the dramatic situations of war, violence against children and women, they have done and do everything to improve the situation of the people entrusted to them.
Women who weave peace in their silent daily work, rebuild the world with unceasing labor, extraordinary determination and tenacity, and who, day after day, with love and strength, continue to struggle, making possible what otherwise would remain only an illusion.
The journey of the participants in the course continues with the Spiritual Exercises in Mornese from 11 to 18 May, together with new missionaries and some missionary Sisters ad gentes in Italy, with the opportunity to live the Feast of Mother Mazzarello in Mornese on 13 May. From 18 to 20 May, they will be in Nizza Monferrato (AT) and from 20 to 24 May, “in the steps of Don Bosco”, they will be at Colle Don Bosco (Castelnuovo Don Bosco, AT), in Chieri and Turin, where they will participate in the celebration of the Solemnity and the procession of Mary Help of Christians at the Basilica, in Valdocco, Turin.
Upon their return to Rome, until 28 May, they will have the opportunity of a personal encounter with the Councilor for the Missions Sector, Sister Ruth del Pilar Mora, with Mother General, Sister Chiara Cazzuola, and further insights, and then return to the missions of origin.
