Rome (Italy). On 28 and 29 April 2023, in Rome, at the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS), the XIII edition of the Salesian Social Communication Days (GSCS) is held, an annual event that involves young people in initial formation of the Salesians of Don Bosco, of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and other religious Congregations, to promote formation in communication.
The two days of reflection are organized by the Dicastery for Social Communication of the Salesians of Don Bosco, by the Communication Sector of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, by the Faculty of Social Communication Sciences of the UPS, and by the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences “Auxilium” of Rome.
At the event, inspired as usual by the Message of the Holy Father for the World Day of Social Communications (GMCS) 2023, Speaking with the heart. “The truth in love (Eph 4:15), in which the theme “Reading and interpreting to proclaim” will be explored, around a hundred participants are expected. During the work of the Days, the General Councilors for Social Communication, Fr. Gildasio Mendes, SDB, and Sr. Maria Ausilia De Siena, FMA, and the Councilor for Formation of the FMA Institute, Sr. Nilza Fátima de Moraes, will be present.
The program includes at the opening, the report by Vincenzo Corrado, Director of the Social Communications Office of the Italian Episcopal Conference, on the theme of the Message of GMCS 2023. This will be followed by a time for reflection and sharing in mixed groups on how to read and interpret the changing world, in an era that interrogates and challenges one’s own way of being Christian, religious, and Church.
This year, valuing the cultural riches of Rome, a nocturnal visit to the Basilica of St. Augustine and the Church of St. Luis of Francesi will take place on the evening of 28 April. Fr. Andrea Lonardo, Director of the Office for Culture and of the University of the Diocese of Rome, will lead the participants on a journey through the precious paintings by Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, contained in these churches, helping to read their modern characteristics imprinted in the shapes and colors painted by the famous painter.
On Saturday morning, after the Eucharistic Celebration presided over by Fr. Gildasio Mendes, work will continue in the Seminars chosen by the participants on topics related to the theme, with attention to the dimension of communication and conducted by experts: Development, economy and poverty; The “war” and other wars: geopolitics of the world; The media story of migrations and the southern hemisphere; The world from the point of view of the human rights of young people; The storytelling art of contemporaneity; Post Covid-19 and educational emergency; Western youth and the irrelevance of religions; Human – intelligence – artificial: the ChatGPT case; Information disorder and the search for truth.
The experience of the Salesian Days of Social Communication, launched in 2012, highlights the attention of the two Congregations of the Salesian Family to activate among their members, starting from the youngest, wide-ranging communication formation processes. The proposed formation, therefore, does not aim only to offer techniques and tools to be used with the young people, but rather to develop an awareness and a communicative action at the service of the people who are met in the mission, starting from a Christian interpretation of contemporaneity.
