Rome, Italy – May 2024 – The 39th Formators Course organised by the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS) in Rome ended last Friday, with over 50 participants from five continents, including male religious, sisters, priests and consecrated lay people. The course has been appreciated for years and represents an important element in the formative map of the Salesian Congregation and the Church. From 19 February to 31 May, at the UPS, under the guidance of professors from various sectors, the future formators acquired theoretical and practical knowledge. The exchange of the different experiences by members enriched everyone, offering an important opportunity to broaden horizons and open up to the diversity of the Church in the world. For many participants, the course represented a kind of spiritual renewal, as they themselves witnessed at the end of the course. In addition to on-site activities, participants had the opportunity to take formation trips, such as to Assisi or Genzano in Rome, and to visit various monasteries to encounter the multifaceted beauty of the Church. Among the participants there was also a representation of Salesians from Chile, Syria, Congo, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Italy and Poland. As all the Salesians stressed in unison, this course is to be recommended to everyone, especially to those who wish to take care of permanent formation, to become stronger in their vocation: "After all, we are all and at all times formators, and true formation begins first of all from themselves" they said.

Text: Paweł Figura, SDB, Andrea Lovisone, SDB
Photo: Carlos Eduardo Mendez, SDB