The Salesians are present in various countries and regions, one of which is the Amazon region. The Pan-Amazonia region is composed of nine countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Surinam, Guyana and French Guyana, and it is a region that is an important source of oxygen for the whole earth, an area that houses more than a third of the world's primary forest reserves.
The Salesians are present in 6 countries and have 47 communities with 245 Salesians, serving the rural and urban areas of Amazonia and Mato Grosso.
The Vatican has recently published the names of the participants. Of the 185 appointed, there is a considerable Salesian presence, both of the Salesians of Don Bosco and of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
Brazil
1. Archbishop Edmilson Tadeu Canavarros Dos Santos, S.D.B., Titular Bishop of Feradi Minor, Auxiliary Bishop of Manaus
2. Archbishop Antônio De Assis Ribeiro, S.D.B., Titular Bishop of Babra, Auxiliary Bishop of Belém do Pará
3. Mons. Flavio Giovenale, S.D.B., Bishop of Cruzeiro do Sul
Ecuador
4. Mons. Néstor Vidal Montesdeoca Becerra, S.D.B., Apostolic Vicar of Méndez, titular bishop of Celle of Mauritania
Peru
5. Archbishop Augusto Martín Quijano Rodriguez, S.D.B., Apostolico Vicar de Pucallpa
Venezuela
6. Mons. Pablo Modesto Gonzalez Pérez, S.D.B., Bishop of Guasdualito
7. Mons. Jonny Eduardo Reyes Sequera, S.D.B., Apostolic Vicar of Puerto Ayacucho, titular bishop of Canapio
Papal appointments
8. Card. Óscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., Archbishop of Tegucigalpa (Honduras)
9. Gaetano Galbusera, S.D.B., former Apostolic Vicar of Pucallpa, Titular Bishop of Mascula (Peru)
10. Fr Martín Lasarte Topolanski, S.D.B., from the Missions Department of the Salesian Central Office in Rome, a missionary in Angola.
11. Fr Rossano Sala, S.D.B., Professor in Youth Ministry at the Salesian Pontifical University and director of the journal "Note di Pastorale Giovanile" (Italy)
Members of the Pre-Synodal Council
12. Mons. José Ángel Divassòn Cilveti, S.D.B., former Vicar Apostolic of Puerto Ayacucho, titular Bishop of Bamaccora (Venezuela)
13. Archbishop Edmundo Ponciano Valenzuela Mellid, S.D.B., Archbishop of Asunción, (Paraguay)
Collaborators of the Special Secretariat
14. Fr Giovanni Bottasso, S.D.B., former professor of the Salesian University of Quito. Researcher specializing in Amazonia and Indigenous peoples (Ecuador)
15. Fr Justino Sarmento Rezende, S.D.B., Expert in Indigenous and Inculturated Pastoral Spirituality (Brazil)
Publishers and auditors
16. Sister María Carmelita De Lima Conceição, F.M.A., of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Superior of the “Laura Vicuña” Province of Manaus (Brazil)
17. Sister Mariluce Dos Santos Mesquita, F.M.A., of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a religious of the Barassana ethnic group (Brazil).
"Our congregation is missionary. We are in 134 countries and we consider ourselves an eminently missionary congregation," Fr Lasarte said, "not because of the things we do in the middle of the Amazon, but because we announce Jesus Christ ... This Amazonian Synod is a time to rethink the missionary dimension of the Church and of the Congregation."
