Summoned by the Provincial Delegate for Youth Ministry, Fr Xabier Camino, and accompanied by the Provincial Coordinators of the pastoral environments and areas, the participants faced an intense agenda, organized in two blocks of work.
The first part of the morning was a moment of pastoral reflection, followed by a dialogue in small groups. “We try to help each other to situate in the light of faith what our world and our educative-pastoral communities are experiencing in these adverse times. We want to revitalize the precious charismatic task we have, cultivating hope in our provincial and local teams, to respond to the new and recurring needs of the children and young people that God entrusts to us in our Works,” said Fr Camino.
The speaker invited to develop this reflection was Fr Fabio Attard, former General Councilor for Youth Ministry, currently Coordinator of the Ongoing Formation Project for Salesians and Laity in Europe.
Under the motto "Some pastoral challenges in this time", the Maltese priest invited pastoral coordinators to "generate, with the few resources available, those processes that are possible, to exploit those spaces that are available, even if everything seems reduced and limited." This pandemic time that we are experiencing, continued Attard, is a “real opportunity for conversion, for transformation, to rethink our way of life. May this period be a fruitful time of purification and re-launching of the Salesian charism for the good of young people, especially the poorest, the most needy and the most vulnerable.”
The second part of the morning focused on pastoral coordination. There was time to follow the Pastoral Campaign and the formative proposals for this year in the individual sectors: education in the faith, vocation animation, missionary animation and volunteering, youth centers, schools, social platforms and parishes. At the end of the meeting, the Provincial Delegate for Youth Ministry presented some reference documents: a pastoral chronogram for 2020-2023, a map for documents of the Salesian Youth Ministry, and an aid for the animation of the Educational-Pastoral Community. He also encouraged those present to consolidate a few ongoing processes in view of the celebration of the next Provincial Chapter in 2022.
With best wishes for a happy feast of Don Bosco, the coordinators set a date for the next meeting, scheduled for April 29-30.
