Rome, Italy – January 2024 - A meeting of the young Volunteers of Don Bosco (VDB) took place at the Istituto Maria SS. Bambina in Rome, at the Vatican From 29 December 2023 to 2 January 2024. The event was attended by 40 VDBs from different European countries: France, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Hungary and Italy. During the meeting, the participants shared their experiences of consecrated life in their groups and regions, and reflected on some topics of their life project, such as communion, secularity and spirituality. They experienced the transition to the new calendar year in an atmosphere of prayer and celebration. On January 1st, they participated in the solemn Eucharist celebrated in St Peter's Basilica with Pope Francis, and they very satisfactorily evaluated the opportunity to dialogue and learn together.

Rome, Italy – January 2024 – On January 4 and 5 at the headquarters of the Salesian Central Italy Circumscription (ICC), Rectors met to discuss "The Salesian mission in the coming years". The first day was led by Fr Emanuele De Maria, Delegate for Youth Ministry, with a particular focus on the reworking of the ICC Provincial Salesian Educative and Pastoral Project (SEPP) in the coming years. The work proposed to the Rectors is part of a broader process that has been designed as a concrete way to ensure the maximum involvement of each of the strengths of the Province: the individual Educative and Pastoral Communities (EPCs), the Commissions, the Mission Team, the Rectors and then it will be the turn of the Mission Consultative group and the Provincial Council. The meeting represented a fundamental junction in the process of developing the new SEPP. The fruit of the work of the past months has been delivered into the hands of the Rectors involved in the work, through personal study, group discussion, sharing. The second day of work was focused on the question: "What lay Salesian for today's young people?", a necessary in-depth study, starting from the Provincial Formation Project, of the formation processes in place in the individual EPCs. Divided by settings, they discussed the formation experiences in place at the local level, and started a more particular reflection on the gradualness of lay involvement starting from the laity in their own house.

(ANS – Turin) – The Edoardo Agnelli Institute in Turin, like many other Salesian educational institutions around the world, has a long tradition of solidarity initiatives carried out by the entire educational and scholastic community. For Christmas 2023, at Agnelli they decided to help the  Don Bosco house in Lahore, Pakistan, where Salesian Brother Piero Ramello, formerly Economer at the Agnelli, currently works as a missionary, and they have developed a multifaceted and comprehensive program of interventions.

(ANS – Rome) –  The 39 annual Ongoing Formation Course for Vocational Formators of Consecrated Life and Diocesan Clergy, and for Animators of Religious Communities will be held at the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS) in Rome from 19 February to 31 May 2024. It will be organised by the Institute of Vocational Pedagogy, Faculty of Educational Sciences and the Salesian Congregation's Formation Sector.

(ANS - Turin) - For readers of ANS, herewith the second part of the interview that the General Councillor for Social Communication, Fr Gildasio Mendes, gave to Fr Bruno Ferrero, Salesian Bulletin Editor, and which has been published in recent days in the Note di Pastorale Giovanile (NPG) magazine. In this second series of questions the General Councillor addresses some of the challenges that the web poses for young people and educators.

(ANS – Turin) – The bicentenary year of Don Bosco's Dream as a nine-year-old aims to be a year of return to the roots of the essence of the charism for Salesians around the world. That is why in the Salesian cradle of Valdocco, and more precisely from the world spiritual centre of Salesianity, the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, in the Salesian month of January there will be two different in-depth initiatives on the theme of the "dream that makes you dream": an exhibition and three evenings devoted to specific topics – the first of which will feature Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco.