Paderno del Grappa (Italy). From 17 to 23 August 2025, at the Filippin Paritari Institute (Scuola Lasalliana), more than 270 people participated in the XXI edition of the Formation School for Family Animators, promoted by the organization “Cerchi d’onda” (APS), which deals with socio-educational assistance for young people and families in difficult and at-risk situations, as well as family pedagogy and psychological and spiritual assistance for the parental couple.
Sister Lucrecia Uribe, World Delegate for the Salesian Cooperators, and Sister Sangitha Maria Soosai, World Delegate of the FMA Past pupils Association, took part in this formation space to accompany families closely and give priority to relationships with the couples who participated.
SFAF is a place of formation, discussion, and aggregation to offer an opportunity for personal and group growth, live a family formation experience in Salesian style. They delve deeper into the method of animation and family pastoral care; qualify family leaders with the contribution of human and theological-pastoral sciences; and address various educational-family themes relevant in interpersonal relationships.
The recipients of the experience are families, couples, individuals, religious, workers sensitive to a family formation and/or pastoral path with groups of families or young couples within their own contexts of action: oratories, parishes, schools, family groups, etc.
The aims are: to deepen the family experience as a place of permanent formation; to study the educational-family aspects inspired by the preventive style of Don Bosco; to learn the method of animation, pedagogy, and family pastoral care applied to groups of families.
Each day began with the prayer animated by Fr. Jonathan Pierrot, Salesian of Don Bosco. Subsequently, while the animators offered various activities to children and pre-adolescents divided into groups, the adults participated in the catechesis held by Fr. Francesco Pilloni, priest of the Diocese of Verona, former professor of Marriage Theology and Marital Spirituality. Fr. Francesco took inspiration from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah to bring the exile, the covenant, and the reconstruction of the temple back to the reality of the sacrament of marriage.
After a short break, the workshops began, aimed at all types of couples and educators present:
- For young couples from 0 to 10 years of marriage: Tools to tell the story of the couple: cinema, fairy tales, body, art. (Marco Scarmagnani, couples counselor, journalist, formator).
- For parents or educators of adolescent children: We will change the leaves; we will cultivate the roots. (Mara Scogliere, psychotherapist, UPS teacher and Salesian Cooperator; Marco Diella and Claudia Uggeri, psychotherapist spouses and formators).
- For parents and educators of children aged 0-12 years: Children to be raised in grace and wisdom. (Claudia Magliocchetti and Maurizio Maltese, psychotherapists, formators).
- For educators and family leaders: Pastoral animation: group management. (Raffaele Mastromarino, psychotherapist, Lecturer at the Salesian Pontifical University and Salesian Cooperator); Dario Marini and Maria Francesca Triulli, psychotherapist spouses and formators).
- For educators and family leaders: The formation of companions: the lighthouse and the torch, the form of light that creates relationships. (Nicoletta Musso and Davide Oreglia, who dedicate themselves to family pastoral care).
Afternoons were run in different ways: family game competitions; cultural visits to various places in the town, mountain trips…
After the Eucharistic Celebration, presided over by Fr. Elio Cesari, SDB, and the dinner, the animators offered Salesian evenings full of music and lots of movement, appreciated by children and adults. In two evenings, Eucharistic adoration under the stars was placed at the center, to encourage prayer in harmony with creation.
At the end of the experience, Sister Lucrecia and Sister Sangitha affirm, “Feeling good in relationships is important for all aspects of life: life as a couple, family, and work. It is an art that can always be learned and that allows one to make life a masterpiece!”
