Santa Marta (Colombia). From 20 to 22 February 2026, representatives of the animating nucleus of the network of Salesian Normal Schools of Colombia, members of the ISS FMA network, met in Santa Marta, at the Casa Maria Ausiliatrice of Mary Help of Christians Province (CMA).
The meeting was attended by 16 teachers and students from the 8 Normal Schools of Colombia, with the following objectives:
- Strengthen knowledge, interaction, and family ties among the members of the animating nucleus of the network of Salesian Normal Schools of Colombia.
- Recognize the potential of the network in this historical moment and the contribution that each School can give to it, strengthening its institutional capacities thanks to the strength of the Salesian Charism.
- Develop the network’s action plan for the next few years, work that will be shared in the IV ISS FMA World Meeting to be held in Manila from 9 to 13 March 2026.
The first network is affective, as the bonds of academic collaboration are woven through interpersonal relationships. Therefore, the meeting began with mutual acquaintance and discussion among the participants. It also provided an opportunity to recognize the traces of the Salesian Spirit in each individual’s life and in that of the Institutions they serve, thus forming a chronological line that awakens a sense of gratitude for the gift received in a Charism expert in the art of educating and forming educators.
The first day concluded with a Laudato si’ prayer, where contemplation of the sunset by the seashore inspired landscape paintings, in keeping with a typically Salesian approach to education through the pedagogy of art.
The start of the second day was enlivened by the presence of young people from the host Normale School. Through the metaphorical language of fishermen and nets, they expressed the identity of the region, weaving to the rhythm of music and dance the thread that constitutes the Colombian context and the common identity that the network of Salesian Normale Schools has forged in its member institutions, starting from the experience of fraternity and pedagogical and educational synergy.
The in-depth study of Pope Leo XIV’s Apostolic Letter “Drawing New Maps of Hope,” approached using a methodology inspired by the Rector Major’s Strenna 2026—look, listen, choose, and act—offered paths for dreaming about the future and mapping out the Network’s new action plan. The three priorities proposed by Pope Leo XIV have thus been added to the seven paths proposed by Pope Francis in the Global Educational Pact.
Assessing the progress made filled the participants’ hearts with joy. Through the Seminar on the Preventive System—which this year will be its sixth edition—the internships undertaken between Institutions, the text they are co-authoring on this topic, and the research on integral ecology they are conducting inter-institutionally, the institutions have the opportunity to experience themselves as one great Salesian Family in Colombia and around the world.
During the meeting, a step forward was also taken, with the approval of the statutes leading to the legal establishment of the network. This opens up new possibilities for collaboration and joint action, ensuring that the forming of new Salesian teachers in Colombia will be the fruit of an experience of collaboration, synergy, and synodality that testifies to the prophetic power of the Charism.
