Colombia – 22nd National Meeting of Pastoral Coordinators: "A ministry that educates to love"
Bogotá, Colombia – July 2024 - The 22nd National Meeting of Salesian Youth Ministry Coordinators took place on 26 and 27 July at the structures of the Salesian University Foundation in Bogotá. The event was held with the aim of strengthening the formation itineraries around a pastoral care that educates to love, with a current interpretative key based on listening to and welcoming the needs of the boys, girls and young people of the works of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA) of Colombia. The meeting was attended by 82 people, including lay people, the FMA and the SDB, who met in different formative moments. The central terms of the guidelines were based on the anthropological components of affectivity in the Sacred Scriptures, the accompaniment of the Salesian educator, the loving-kindness of Mother Mazzarello and the applicability of the formative processes proposed in "A youth ministry that educates to love", by Fr Miguel Ángel García, General Councillor for Youth Ministry, and Antonella Sinagoga. The event was a culminating experience of the work carried out by the Salesian Youth Ministry Delegates in Colombia over the last three years regarding the affective and sexual component in the Colombian youth population. Likewise, it has served to provide innovative guidance to the Educative and Pastoral Projects in the Salesian Provinces of Colombia regarding the processes of accompaniment of children and young people, to provide them with support tools in the construction of their life projects and in the proper management of their human relationships.