The comments from the participating Provincials are an enthusiastic testimony of the validity and effectiveness of this appointment:
Fr Roland Mintsa, Tropical Equatorial Africa (ATE): “I am very happy about this course, and I have received lots of useful information on how to govern and handle the province. I am going back with a lot of enthusiasm and positive energy, and I feel I can enlighten our confreres and share with them with more knowledge on the various services and the activities that are being taken forward at the level of the Salesian Congregation.”
Fr Gerardo Martin, Northern Philippines (FIN): “I am so happy to be in the new provincials’ course. It is a wonderful experience to have a personal encounter with the Rector Major and the General Council. I was so happy to experience the camaraderie and the community experience in the Generalate. It is indeed a very memorable and enriching experience for me.”
Fr Hailemariam Medhin Tesfay, Africa Ethiopia (AET): “It was a wonderful experience for me being part of this group and getting to know about the general governance of the Salesian Congregation, and I really experienced the care, concern and fraternity of the Rector Major, the Vicar General and each of the Councilors. I feel more confident, enthusiastic and refreshed after this course.”
Fr Luis Fernando Valencia, Colombia-Medellín (COM): “A great meeting with the confreres of the Generalate of the Congregation, who encourage us, listen to us, excite us to be among the young people of our various Provinces, working together for the Kingdom of God and its justice.”
Fr Leader Justiniano Flores, Bolivia (BOL): “I felt at home. This meeting was a very beautiful, very profound, very heartfelt experience. We were welcomed in an atmosphere of great fraternity, it was a blessing. The meeting with the Rector Major gave us a climate of great fraternity and we learned important aspects for leadership, to carry our Provinces forward, where we return enlightened by the words of the Rector Major, of each of the Councilors and of the other confreres of the Central Office we met with. I return happy with the hope and conviction that, in the service we have now begun, God and the Rector Major accompany us with all their advice.”
Fr Ricardo Carlos, Brazil-Campo Grande (BCG): “This course is actually a real encounter. It is a great opportunity for sharing information and above all for fraternity in the group of new Provincials. We spoke with the Rector Major and with the Sector Councilors. We lived days of joy and also of deepening on various topics. We want to bring all this enthusiasm to our Provinces to be able to put into practice all that we have lived, learned and meditated on here. I am convinced that this experience will help me to carry out this service for young people even better. ”
Fr Adolfo de Jesus Sarmento, Mozambique (MOZ): “For me it was a very beautiful experience, with all the provincials from different regions of the world. We truly lived a very fraternal experience with the Rector Major, the General Councilors and the confreres of the Generalate. I was able to feel the Spirit of Don Bosco in my heart, and experienced the Salesian charism in a great spirit of communion.”
The Rector Major commented: “I am really very satisfied with these experiences with the new Provincials as they allow us to get to know each other in depth, to live days of true fraternity and sharing of the charism, and they also help the mutual exchange of knowledge: for the General Council to know the reality with which the Provincials are confronted every day, and for the Provincials to see with their own eyes the course and the path of the Congregation on a global level. I am convinced that these meetings are a blessing and an important resource for growing in the service of animation and government for the benefit of all the confreres and young people of whom we are and will always be at their service.”
