RMG – Team Visit: facing the challenges of the new society with concrete decisions

19 May 2017

(ANS - Rome) - The Team Visit "is an opportunity to update our response to the Lord” said the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime. “Our vision is that of believers and religious who want to grow in fidelity to God and to the charism of Don Bosco, and to know that our priority is children and young people, and among them the most needy." Fr Tadeusz Rozmus, Councillor for the Region of Central and Northern Europe, expressed satisfaction with the progress of the Visit to the Atlantic-German Zone in the region because, he said, "we are strengthening the unity between the Provinces, acknowledging a reality which is changing, and facing the challenges of the new society with concrete decisions.”

On Thursday, 18 May, the day began with the Eucharist and a group photo session of the various Provinces with the Rector Major.

The first report of the morning was then given by Fr Filiberto González, Councillor General for Social Communication. He insisted on the need for "Provincial Communication as the soul of the Salesian mission sector." He presented the challenges that await the Salesians in this area in order to have real communication: "to promote and elevate the profile of Don Bosco's charism in society, to assume the responsibility of working as a region in every province with the Salesian System of Social Communication and working in communion, in synergy and collaboration with all sectors." Faced with a constantly changing Europe "we must live the prophecy of communion," he said.

The second report was by Fr Eusebio Muñoz, Delegate of the Rector Major for the Salesian Family, who outlined three guidelines concerning the reality of the Salesian Family, the vocation of the laity, the presence of this reality in the Special General Chapter, and the Salesian charism. "We must know how to exploit our present situation at the level of the Salesian Family and the need for quantitative and, above all, qualitative growth. It is necessary and urgent to pay attention to formation. "

In the afternoon, the Salesians visited the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo and the Barberini Garden and, at the close of the day,they visited the Salesian work of Castel Gandolfo and its oratory.