Rome (Italy). On 22 May 2022, in Rome, at the Generalate of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (RCG), a group of FMA students interns in the Master’s Degree Courses in Catechetics and Youth Ministry of the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences «Auxilium» and students of the 2nd year of the Spirituality Course of the FMA Institute of Mother Ersilia Canta House, of the Preprovince Mary Mother of the Church (RMC), lived a formative day with the Sisters of the Youth Ministry Sector of the Institute. Present with them were Sr. Rosangela Siboldi, Professor of Youth Ministry in the two Courses, and Sr. Eliane Petri, Professor of the Spirituality Course.
They were welcomed by the Councilor for Youth Ministry, Sr. Runita Borja, and the collaborators of the Sector, who animate the apostolic action of the Institute in various expressions, in fidelity to the charism and the needs of the reality of youth, with particular predilection for poor and abandoned youth.
Sr. Runita Borja shared with the FMA the pastoral journey made in the Institute over the years and spoke of the importance of learning from the past to plan the future with joy and hope. A privileged ‘space’ for building an effective Salesian environment is the Educating Community, the subject of the mission. In it each person, according to their specific role, carries out the Salesian mission and spirituality. The educational mission takes place in a plurality of environments and, faithful to the charism, each member of the Educating Community tries to respond to the needs of the mission listening to reality.
Sr. Lolia Annie described the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) as a concrete educational proposal capable of giving visibility to the various Groups and Associations present in the Educating Communities that assume Salesian Youth Spirituality as a personal and community journey of formation and growth.
Sr. Ivone Goulart Lopes shared on the Network of the Institutions of Higher Studies (ISS- FMA), composed of 42 University Centers in the whole world under the FMA, who network to carry out studies and innovative academic proposals, directed to the integral formation of the young.
Sr. Elena Rastello spoke on the importance of Formal and Informal Education as expressions of the gift of predilection for young people and as an instrument that prepares for the future for and with young people. She then underlined the importance of deepening reflection on the new models of evangelization.
Through an online connection with Sr. Sarah Garcia, the students had the possibility to learn of the work of the YM Sector at the Human Rights Office in Geneva, Switzerland, an organism that sets itself the objectives of defending the right to education, especially of children, young people, and women. It also aims to form those who are involved in protecting human rights in local realities, promoting peaceful social coexistence, and the construction of a world of justice, fraternity, and peace.
Sr. Ana Victoria Ulate concluded the morning with the presentation of the Integral Ecology dimension and the Laudato Si’ Action Platform. The FMA Institute has accepted the invitation of Pope Francis and the Church to join the LS Platform to help guard and protect the common home, seeking together ways for sustainable and integral development.
In the afternoon, the group had the joy of a meeting with Mother General Emeritus, Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, who reminded them that the entire life of the FMA is ‘pastoral’, and recommended attention to the real needs and questions of young people of the places where they are, to respond with realism and creativity to their desire for life.
The experience ended with the expression of gratitude to the Sisters of the Sector for the richness shared and with the words of the Vicar General of the FMA Institute, who encouraged the young FMA to embrace with trust and love the new mission that the Lord will entrust to them, underlining that the principle that animates the Daughter of Mary Help of Christians is charity in the style of the Preventive System. “It is a call of love and certainly something new is being born to love and serve more. The great novelty will lie in looking at life with new eyes, in order to be a presence that walks with others through a culture of reciprocity and within a dynamism of gratuitousness”.
