Sent on a mission: Summer Children in Vatican

Vatican City. From 3 July to 4 August 2023, two Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, students of Salesian Spirituality in Rome, Mother Ersilia Canta House(RMC), Sr. April Diane Hoffman from St. Joseph Province (SEC) and Sr. Beatriz Odete Chilombo Quintas from Queen of Peace Preprovince (ANG)  were involved in the Children’s Summer in the Vatican, together with 35 men and women animators and three Salesians of Don Bosco, in collaboration with the company “Play It”, and the entertainment agency “It is all a Party”.

“Bee heroes – team of heroes” was this year’s theme, a play on words that recalls the world of bees, to become daily heroes of the fraternity with the participation of 250 boys and girls, divided into 3 groups based on age (from 5 to 7 years, from 8 to 10, and from 11 to 13), held in Paul VI Hall and outdoors, behind the Vatican Museums.

After the experience, Sister April and Sister Beatriz tell how they lived it:

“‘It is the Community that sends’ (cf. Const. 64)… It is an expression that we have often heard in the Salesian context, and this summer we studied in depth what it means to be sent on a mission for young people to represent the Community. For the summer period, the FMA of our Community were assigned apostolic assignments in all the Italian Provinces. We were happy to accept the proposal to remain in the Community and to ‘go back and forth’ for the Children’s Summer in the Vatican for five weeks.

The summer camp, coordinated by Fr. Franco Fontana, is in its fourth edition and was initiated by the SDB Community to offer a summer oratory experience to the children of Vatican employees. This year’s theme, Bee Heroes, is based on Pope Francis’ Encyclical Fratelli Tutti and develops the idea that to be heroes and to be truly human, we must recognize that God created us all equal and calls us to live together as brothers and sisters (cf. FT 5).

Following this theme, every week we presented the boys and girls with some real heroes: our Salesian saints! We also had the good fortune to receive the visit of some of our living heroes: Pope Francis, Sr. Maria del Carmen Canales, Superior of Mother of the Church Preprovince (RMC), and the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernandez Artime!

It was a unique experience in so many ways. We met in the huge Paul VI Hall, transformed to house bouncy houses, soccer goals, basketball hoops, tennis nets, ping-pong tables, and giant Lego bricks, in the same space where thousands of faithful gather for audiences with the Pope.

Every day we maintained the sense of wonder as we passed St. Peter’s Basilica, watched children being greeted by the Swiss Guards, tried to wade through the sea of tourists to join the camp participants as we went to the swimming pool, visited parts of the Vatican Museums and Gardens. We listened to interviews with our young people over the radio and the media and shared life as an Educating Community.

Another fundamental aspect for building the community and working for the common good was developed through the daily keywords introduced during the morning prayer moments and explained in the afternoon formative activities. We ourselves tried to bear witness to these attitudes and virtues in mutual collaboration.

We were a team of 6 Salesians: Fr. Franco Fontana, Fr. Benny Joseph, Avil Correa, Adriano Sitongua, and the two of us FMA. We built a good relationship with our lay collaborators and with the young animators, some of whom were working with us for the first time, but were very open and curious.

It was wonderful to answer questions about our religious vocation, to share the Salesian Preventive System as a method for responding to the needs of young people, and to bear witness to the transforming power of our Charism at work. Witness is thus strengthened by the presence of more members of the Salesian Family and allows the almost 300 young people we have the good fortune to meet to experience a wider dimension of our family spirit.

The support from our Community that sent us on this mission is really what sustained us. We remained united with them in the Heart of Jesus through prayer and daily offering, encouragement and interest in the activities and the young people we were called to serve, the willingness to look for and prepare materials for the participants, and the openness to invite some of the young men and women animators to our community for prayer and supper.

We thank God and the Salesian Family for this incredible opportunity to truly experience being sent for young people in the spirit of the da mihi animas”.

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