The announcement comes after confirmation by the Salesian Family Team of Portugal, which is in charge of coordinating the preparation of the event, having picked up the baton at the end of the previous Congress in Buenos Aires, 2019.
The congress in Fatima - a Marian and prophetic site par excellence, where on May 13, 1917, for the first time, three shepherd children (Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta), saw the Virgin Mary with a Rosary in her hand - will be the IX International Congress of Mary Help of Christians.
The International Congress of Mary Help of Christians is a powerful moment that involves and unites the whole Salesian Family, which wants to entrust its educational, missionary, and charitable commitment to Mary, to aim at Don Bosco's one goal: "My dearest children in Jesus Christ, near or far I always think of you. My sole desire, that of seeing you happy in time and in eternity."
From 1988 to the present, eight International Congresses have been celebrated:
- 1988 - Turin-Valdocco (Italy), on the centenary of Don Bosco's death;
- 1995 - Cochabamba (Bolivia);
- 1999 - Seville (Spain);
- 2003 - Turin-Valdocco (Italy) - the centenary of the coronation of Mary Help of Christians;
- 2007 - Mexico City (Mexico);
- 2011 - Czestochowa (Poland);
- 2015 - Turin-Valdocco/Colle Don Bosco (Italy) - the bicentennial of Don Bosco's birth;
- 2019 - Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Mary has accompanied and marked the journey of the Salesian Family also thanks to these appointments, which have had as a common thread that of discovering the depth of the Marian dimension of the Salesian charism and of renewing the entrustment to Mary Help of Christians in the commitment that the different generations have to receive and transmit the gift of faith.
The congress in Fatima will mark another step forward, starting precisely from the concluding message of the Buenos Aires congress, which Fr Ángel Fernández Artime had summarized as follows in his final address: "First of all, what counts is the authenticity of our life and our bearing witness of life... Our Salesian Family, with the gaze of Mary the believing woman, can give something to others if we offer a way of being, a healthy, credible, sensitive life... How to be Marian, each one personally and in the Salesian Family, we can summarize in these points:
- We must always be more and more Marian, more and more of Mary.
- Without Mary, we are not the sons and daughters Don Bosco dreamed of (we will be something else, but not Don Bosco's dream).
- We have a duty to proclaim and propose without fear and shame Jesus and his Mother Mary (Don Bosco always had Mary's name on his lips. The early Salesians were mad with love for Mary Help of Christians. Are we today?).
- In our journey, Mary cannot be a decorative element but is, indeed, essential.
- Without Her, our education and pastoral work will be empty, poor and without consistency.
- Let us make more explicit proclamation of Jesus and keep more of Mary on our lips."
Under the blessing of Mary Help of Christians, now begins, thus, the work of the team and all those who will be called to collaborate in the preparation and success of this great family event.
