Appointment of the FMA Salesian Cooperators Delegate

Rome (Italy). On 9 May 2020, the Mother General of the FMA  Institute, communicated the designation of Sister Carmen Lucrecia Uribe of Colombian nationality, as the World Delegate of the Association of Salesian Cooperators (ASSCC) for the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and wished her passion and charismatic creativity

Mother, Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, expressed words of gratitude to Sr. Leslye Sándigo for her competence and charismatic enthusiasm, for her availability with which she accomplished her service as Delegate of the FMA Institute in the Association of Salesian Cooperators during these years.

The Councilor for the Salesian Family, Sr. Maria Luisa Miranda, thanked Mary Help of Christians Columbian Province (CMA) for their sense of communion and belonging to the Institute, and she received Sr. Lucrecia with hope in her new mission at the service of the Church and of the Institute.

Here is the interview with the FMA Delegate of the Salesian Cooperators, Sr. Carmen Lucrecia Uribe.

Sr. Lucrecia, could you tell us something of your formation as an FMA.

I am a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians since 1982, the year of my Religious Profession in Mary Help of Christians Columbian Province (CMA). Since the start, I felt that ‘being a teacher was my passion.’  I had the opportunity to form myself in the Psychology of Education at the Faculty of the Science of Education ‘Auxilium’ in Rome.  I then specialized in Educational informatics.  I worked as an educator, coordinator, Animator, in both private and state schools.

Accompanying the young people, being close to them, and to the families was always a strong call in me and helped me to strengthen my Salesian identity, to study the Preventive System, and to contextualize it.  The challenges of the contemporary world have brought deep changes in my life for humanizing and evangelizing the mission.

Your experience with the Salesian Family  

In 1998, when I was the Province Vicar, I had the opportunity to be part of the Province Consult of the Salesian Family and to have a concrete approach toward the various groups of the Salesian Family at both the local and national levels.

As Provincial (2005-2010) I carried out a work of joint animation, above all with the Past Pupils Group and the Salesian Cooperators.  It was a privileged time to accomplish common projects, to strengthen bonds, and to grow in communion and in the Salesian Charism.  Participation in the last two General Chapters of the FMA Institute, allowed me to broaden my vision and grasp the precious journey that the Salesian Family has made in these years.  The charismatic roots are well grounded by the Spirit and by the hand of Mary in the heart and experience lived by Don Bosco.  The branches of this fruitful tree continue to spread and to show real vitality and lymph.  We live in the awareness that the Spirit pours out the Charism on many lay people, men and women, in a shared mission at the service of the neediest children, teenagers, and young adults, in ways and expressions that are very different.

The future directions of the Salesian Cooperators Association

At the World Convention in 2018, SSCC indicated the principle options that represent the trampoline to launch us where the Lord calls us ‘to be Don Bosco today’.  He bases his actions on the essential values of the Association: to strengthen fidelity to the apostolic promise, to grow in a sense of belonging to the Church, to the Association, and to the Salesian Family, attentive to the family spirit and the shared responsibility.

Therefore, as the World Delegate, I commit myself to accompany the Association, walking together with the young to build a society that is more Christian and human, facing with healthy Salesian optimism the new challenges that present themselves in the certainty that the Lord Jesus continues to walk with us in history, above all after this serious pandemic that is changing the face of the world and of history.

I am grateful for the trust that the Mother General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, and the Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr. Ángel Fernández A., SDB have placed in me to accompany the Association.  I am grateful for the journey accomplished by the Delegate who preceded me, especially Sr. Leslye Sàndigo who worked in communion to spread the charism during these years.  I entrust myself to the Lord to sustain me in this new mission and I ask everyone to accompany me with prayer and fraternity.

In this special novena, Mary Help of Christians is entrusted with the mission of Sister Carmen Lucrecia Uribe, FMA World Delegate of the ASSCC and all the groups of the Salesian Family.