Rome,  Italy – September 2023 - A Meeting of the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) in Italy’s Central Circumscription took place from 9-10 September at the Don Bosco work. There were 560 attendees, making it the largest in the history of the ICC. For the young people who took part it was an opportunity to embrace and remember true friendships, but also to talk and discuss with Salesians and young people belonging to the SYM and to be witnesses in the lives of other young people. After these days, the young people now trust that this event will be able to pass on to future members of the SYM and to all those who will be part of it the same emotions that it has passed on to them.

(ANS – Naples) –  The Archbishop of Naples, Domenico Battaglia, presided over the award ceremony of the 11th edition of the Cardinal Michele Giordano Award on Saturday 16 September 2023, The award is promoted by the Order of Journalists of Campania, and took place in the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Awardees included Fr Giuseppe Costa, Co-spokesperson for the Salesian Congregation, for his book "Girovagando tra cronache ed eventi. Quarant’anni di giornalismo" [Wandering among chronicles and events. Forty years of journalism], published by Nemapress.

(ANS– Piazza Armerina) – On 21 September, the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, will join in a historic joint private visit to Piazza Armerina, to explore the work carried out by the Don Bosco 2000 migrant reception community and to learn about the cooperation activities with the missions in Africa.

Turin, Italy – September 2023 – The new missionaries have begun the fourth core area of their Orientation Course: the charismatic area. The General Councillor for Missions, Fr Alfred Maravilla,  is guiding the participants during this stage with a Lectio Divina on relevant Scriptural texts. After prayer and personal reflection, the Councillor accompanies them in a commented rereading of passages from the Memoirs related to the places that will be visited in the afternoon. As Fr Maravilla points out: "visiting places of our Salesian heritage is not tourism. For every Salesian it is a Spiritual Journey in the historical places where the Salesian charism was born and originally developed. Fidelity to Don Bosco is not an imitation of what he did in his time, but an understanding of his motivations, intentions, reasons and apostolic choices, to make them our own so we can respond to the context of the young people we will meet in the different countries to which we will be sent." For Fr Juna Amang, a missionary in Papua New Guinea, "this experience is to live like Don Bosco", while for Fr George Kujur, destined for Nepal, "this experience helps us better understand the context and meaning of Don Bosco's narratives in the Memoirs of the Oratory." For this core charismatic area, the new missionaries were joined by Salesians taking part in the course on Missionary Pastoral Care that will begin in October at the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS) in Rome.

(ANS – Turin) – "We have prepared a palace for you in Turin", Blessed Don Philip Rinaldi, the third Successor of Don Bosco, told the young Salesian theology students in Foglizzo Canavese. It was on 8 September 1923, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when the Salesian theological studentate located in Via Caboto 27 in Turin, called "La Crocetta", was canonically erected, named for the neighbourhood in which it stood. Four days later, on 12 September, the first students arrived. That is why the work is proudly celebrating its first 100 years of life in these days.

Castelnuovo Don Bosco, Italy - September 2023 - On Saturday 9 September, the young people of the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) who took part in the camps for leaders and in the WYD 2023 this summer, gathered at Colle Don Bosco to share a day together before school activities started up again. Accompanied and guided by their leaders, the 650 or so young people present, divided into age groups, resumed the formation topics addressed during the camps, alternating moments of reflection and sharing, and following the theme of Don Bosco's Childhood dream, which celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2024. During the day there were activities, games, lunch together and, in the afternoon, the perpetual profession of Sister Sara Perini (FMA) inside the Basilica.