(ANS - Rome) - On Friday 19 January, the program of the Days of Spirituality of the Salesian Family 2024 was dedicated to a pressing discussion on the relevance of the Dream of Don Bosco at the age of Nine. After the generic framework offered by the Rector Major on the first day, the almost four hundred participants present at Valdocco (together with the 4,000 more participants connected online), listened to select testimonies to understand how best to translate the contents of the Strenna into actuality. This experience was made more tangible through the guided visits to places of the origins of Don Bosco’s work took place in the afternoon.

(ANS – Messina) – “Disturbing the conscience of everyone, not only of Heads of State, but of every person of good will”: this is clearly the intention of Pope Francis, who with his new Apostolic Exhortation “Laudate Deum” - published eight years after the Encyclical “Laudato si’” - returns to talking about integral ecology, taking stock of what has been accomplished by international politics and what still remains to be accomplished. There are many critical points contained in the text, which is more concise than the previous one, but particularly incisive. The San Tommaso Theological Institute academic community dwelt on this on 12 January 2024, offering citizens an afternoon of reflection with several voices.

(ANS – Rome) – "When I was about nine years l had a dream" - two hundred years have passed since the founding of all Salesian spirituality: St John Bosco's dream at nine years of age. It was 1824 and since then hundreds of thousands of young people have gotten to know Don Bosco and his Salesians. For this reason, on 28 January 2024, special lighting for the bas-relief dedicated to the event will be inaugurated at the Don Bosco Basilica in Rome.

(ANS – Rome) – The councils of the six Provinces that make up Salesian Italy met on Sunday, 14 January 2024 at the National Centre in Rome, to begin a path traced by the Rector Major, Card. Ángel Fernández Artime, who, on the occasion of the Team Visit with the Salesians of the Mediterranean Region, in October 2023, said: "I would like to thank you for the reflection we have made on the animation and governance of the Region and the various Provinces. At the same time that I appreciate all that has been shared, I believe it is legitimate to propose, in a particular way to  CISI, that it continue discussion on the various models of animation and governance possible in this Conference that reaches all of Salesian Italy and the Middle East. Asking this in particular of CISI, I invite you not to lose the overall vision of the entire Mediterranean region in this reflection. Let some begin, others will follow.”

Italy – January 2024 - On January 15, the "Comic Book Biographies" of the new Venerable Fr Carlo Crespi, SDB, were distributed in six sections  of Middle School classes in Vanzaghello and Magnago, (Milan). The initiative came about through the interest of the Religion teacher, Simone Magistrelli, in the multifaceted figure of this Salesian missionary in Ecuador for sixty years, and involved the "Associazione Padre Carlo Crespi – ONLUS", established in Legnano, Fr Crespi's birthplace. The initiative was attended by Dr. Juan Carlos Castrillon, Ambassador Consul General of Ecuador in Milan and an Officer at the Consulate; the Mayor of Vanzaghello with the Councilor for Culture; the Mayor of Magnago, the President of the Ecuadorian Folklore Group "Para Todos" and two Ecuadorian dancers of the "New Generation" Group. The meeting involved six second year classes, all in all 120 students. After the Ambassador's greeting to the students the Mayors and the Headteacher, the President of the Father Carlo Crespi Association spoke, explaining who Fr Crespi was, also using the projection of a segment of the feature film shot in 1926 by Fr Crespi in the Amazon forest in Ecuador. After the performance of the dancers in traditional Ecuadorian costume, each student and the authorities present were given the comic book biography of Father Crespi.

(ANS – Turin) – Involvement returning to pre-Covid times is already a good way to celebrate the 42nd edition of the Salesian Family Spirituality Days 2024, which opened on 18 January in Turin. 345 members from 45 countries, 22 groups of the Salesian Family represented in the Don Bosco theatre at the afternoon opening of Days. “We are in the house that we all belong to” said Card. Ángel Fernández Artime, Rector Major of the Salesians and Centre of Unity of the Salesian Family, in his opening greeting. Our Lady welcomes us, God blesses us. We are here to demonstrate a charism that is alive.”