Brazil – Pastoral visit of the General Councillor for Youth Ministry in Campo Grande has concluded

04 September 2023

(ANS– Campo Grande) – After the three intense days of accompaniment offered at the national meeting of the Salesian Network Brazil (RSB), in Aparecida, Brazil, from 31 August 31 to 4 September, the General Councillor for Youth Ministry, Fr Miguel Angel García Morcuende, visited the Province of Brazil-Campo Grande (BCG).

Among other presences, the General Councillor visited the Don Bosco Catholic University (UCDB) and the Post-Novitiate. He then visited some Salesian presences in the State of Mato Grosso, such as Primavera do Leste and the Salesian missionary presence in Meruri, where the village of the indigenous Boe-Bororo is located. Particularly moving was the visit to the tombs of the Servants of God Fr Rodolfo Lunkenbein and Simão Bororo. The visit also included a stop at the first cemetery of the martyrs and a plaque in honour of the Salesian pioneers of the Mission at Meruri. "In the martyrdom of Rodolfo and Simão" said Fr García Morcuende an "alliance was created between the mission and the indigenous peoples. Their lives are like a handful of light thrown on the face of the world, not to dazzle, but to awaken the shapes, colours and beauty of apostolic dedication, to broaden the horizon of the Salesian charism: to testify that the cornerstone on which history rests is not violence, but grace."

The visit then ended at Cuiabá, learning about the communities and works of the Salesian presences in the capital of the State of Mato Grosso.

Even in this short period of the visit, the General Councillor for Youth Ministry had the opportunity to appreciate some valuable aspects of the BCG Province: the significant number of social works; the significant presence in the field of higher and basic education; the organisational structure of the Province; a solid Salesian identity thanks to the care given to ongoing formation of Salesians and lay people; the strong youth presence in the various works and sectors of the Province; the generous investment of personnel in social works and missions; the consistent teams of Salesian formators in the early stages of formation; youth ministry, which was able to reinvent itself during the pandemic to maintain its work with young people; the growing awareness of shared management with the laity.

During the Sunday Eucharist in São Gonçalo parish in Cuiabá, Fr García Morcuende reminded the young people of the meaning of the parish "two conditions expressed by Jesus in the Gospel of the day. “To deny oneself is to stop thinking only about oneself. Our secret is not in us, it lies beyond us. Jesus does not want frustrated people to follow him, but people who have made full use of their talents. It means: you are not the centre of the universe, you are not the measure of everything. The second condition is to take up one's cross and bear it to the end. One of the most famous, most quoted and most misunderstood phrases in the Gospel. The cross, this simple sign that is in the eyes of everyone, that is around the necks of many, that marks mountain peaks, crossroads, bell towers and ambulances. But its deeper meaning lies elsewhere. Jesus speaks of a cross, of a love to the end which patiently suffers, accepts, endures."

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