The Permanent Formation Course in Missionary Pastoral Care, which restarted this year after a two-year suspension due to the pandemic, was attended by 26 students: 8 Salesian priests, 15 Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, 2 Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians, and a lay catechist, of all ages - from 30 to 80 - and of 16 nationalities: 5 Vietnamese, 4 Indians, 2 Brazilians, 2 Colombians, 2 Filipinos, and one person from Belgium, Italy, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mexico, Paraguay, Poland, Slovakia, East Timor, Venezuela, and Zambia. This wealth of nationalities posed the problem of language: classes were given in Italian with the possibility of interventions in other languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French).
Coordinated by Fr. Samuel Amaglo, a Togolese, Academic Director of the course, the team of 23 lecturers - 17 Europeans, 5 Africans, 3 Indians - had 400 hours of teaching time at its disposal: each lecturer had 5 to 12 hours, except for the Director, who had 30 hours for introduction, conclusion and the central theme (mission). Each lecturer thus had to concentrate on the essentials of an always abundant subject in a short time. It was a beginning of a lifelong formation, which is to continue throughout life in an ongoing debate between theory and practice with the help of aids and a select bibliography.
The lectures were very useful for basic or refresher training. For almost all students, certain topics were new and topical (ecology, communication, interreligious dialogue, welcoming migrants, women, mission, gender, and family...).
Moreover, Sister Blanca Sanchez, from Spain, and Fr. Reginaldo Cordeiro, from Brazil, both always present, animated the various activities in the life of the two subgroups, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and Salesians of Don Bosco.
Other activities attached to the course included: a week of initial sharing between longtime and departing missionaries; participation in the celebrations for Br. Artemide Zatti’s canonization; a visit to the community of Sant'Egidio in Rome and the Basilica of St. Paul; pilgrimages to Assisi, Subiaco and the FMA community of San Biagio; and participation in the Conference on St. Francis de Sales held at UPS from Nov. 18-20, 2022.
At the end of the course, the participants, their companions, and a few faculty members participated in a Mass of thanksgiving presided over by University Rector Fr. Andrea Bozzolo. Then, after the awarding of certificates and a solemn photo, the trainees said their goodbyes: some to continue their formation on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, others to return directly to their mission.
"What will remain of these three months of formation? Certainly, a better knowledge of the missionary vocation and its demands, a more conscious love for one's religious family, a commitment to continue formation that must become de facto permanent, a desire to share with others the riches of the formation received, a renewed fidelity to the believer’s reading of life... And perhaps the will to follow the Lord Jesus with the missionary ardor of St. Paul, the prayer and work of Benedict, the poverty of Francis and Clare, the gentleness of Francis de Sales, the love for the sick of Zatti, the presence among the young of John Bosco and Mary Domenica... And for one or the other, the commitment to integral ecology, social communication, spiritual accompaniment of young people, engaged couples and families, inculturation of the message, interreligious dialogue, care for vocations... It will be a matter of remembering these moments, passed together, in which God touched hearts, to continue a journey of love, which will be sustained by the prayer of one another," concluded Fr. Piero Gavioli, Salesian missionary in Congo for 48 years.
