The Don Bosco Digital Forum initiative stems from the recognition of the reality of today's youth. "The girls and boys who live in this digital universe experience the challenges the world faces: family crises, difficulties in pursuing their studies and finding a job, physical and emotional health problems, violence and sometimes a lack of hope," explains Fr Gildasio Mendes, the General Councillor for Social Communication.
At the same time, young people today are “digital natives: they live inside a real global aquarium. They are immersed in colours, sounds, images and interactions,” continues Fr Gildasio Mendes. “In that aquarium they swim with friends and acquaintances, they form relationships, they celebrate events close to their hearts, they share feelings and a vision of life”.
Today's young people, above all, have their voices, have much to say and want to be heard; and they can find in the Salesians precisely those who are willing to hear them with kindness and true openness, of ears and of heart.
This, then, is the reason for the 'Don Bosco Digital Forum', designed to be a practical and agile tool that allows young communicators to share their life and experiences.
At the operational level, this will consist of several digital appointments, which started in the autumn of 2023 and will resume from the beginning of 2024: in the first phase, the Councillor for Social Communication, in contact with the Delegate for Communication of the Provinces, will define the day and time of the meeting for the Forum, and the Delegate will invite and motivate the young people to participate, then coordinate the actual online meeting and encourage dialogue in every way. In the second phase, the Delegate is invited to organize other Forums, based on the interests that emerge from the discussion with the young people involved.
With this new initiative, the Sector for Social Communication pursues its animation project in its own sector and among the world's young people, realizing the typically Salesian mission of being together with young people, getting to know them and loving the things they love, and then being able to propose to them the things that Salesians love.
The Don Bosco Digital Forum is a project in line with Pope Francis' proposal on communication that listens with the heart, involves people and generates communion and fraternity. Moreover, it is also in full harmony with proposal no. 3 of the Rector Major's programmatic lines for the Salesian Congregation after the 28th General Chapter ("To live the 'SALESIAN SACRAMENT OF PRESENCE'"), which concerns the vocation and mission of the Sons of Don Bosco in being among young people, listening to them, being friends to them and making a journey of faith together with them in the service of others.
"Pope Francis in his message to the General Chapter spoke of 'the Valdocco option and the charism of presence', that charism which I freely allow myself to qualify as the 'Salesian sacrament' of presence. The Pope writes that 'before the things to be done, the Salesian is the living memory of a presence where availability, listening, joy and dedication are the essential notes to awaken processes. The gratuitousness of presence saves the Congregation from all activist obsession and technical-functional reductionism. The first call is to be a joyful and free presence in the midst of the young'" (Acts of the General Council 433).
