The COM province is dynamic, fraternal, with a great diversity of works in areas of particular Salesian predilection, faithful to the charism, attentive to the Salesian Family, and well-organized and structured in its provincial commissions. Thanks to the works that focus on the poorest and most needy, it has more than 1,300 lay employees and many more volunteers that make the province a reality with great potential.
The final report that Fr García Morcuende presented to the Salesians is an "orderly enumeration" of strengths and opportunities, as well as challenges that become calls to action and require new steps.
Composed of 18 religious communities spread across 12 dioceses, the province, with the work of Salesians and lay people, responds with credibility and a clear impact to the needs of the preferred recipients in the Colombian reality and in the local Church. Salesians are open and integrally involved in society and its problems. They care about the present of society and the most vulnerable youth. They often connect "live and in-person" with the simplest people.
The visit is not an isolated event, but a process of discernment from which all emerge stronger. It served to strengthen the ties between the Congregation and the province, between the communities, whatever their configuration, and in the desire to continue to make the province the common home of so many young people in western Colombia.
For his part, Fr García Morcuende encouraged all Salesians to be truly aware of the revitalization of consecrated life and the primacy of God: "Let us take care of ourselves, to be well and vocationally fit. If we lack this spiritual energy to guide us, we will not be an expression of self-giving to God, forgetting the why and the how of our lives. Neither the inertia of positions nor the management of works should become chains, nor can they enslave us or make us invisible. 'To become what I am: a Salesian' is more than a motto; it is a whole program," said the General Councilor.
Fr García Morcuende also thanked everyone for their generous work and willingness to carry out the Salesian project, especially in this year when we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of St. Francis de Sales. "Salesians is the name that identifies us. Don Bosco had this happy idea of wanting to place us not only under the protection of the Virgin Mary but also under that of the Holy Bishop of Geneva. Our Founder saw in St. Francis de Sales the typical model of tireless and apostolic activity. That is why he chose him as a model for himself, for his work, and for his disciples. On the one hand, apostolic energy; on the other, evangelical gentleness in the way of exercising this apostolate," he said in conclusion.
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