The FMA Institute is living a time of grace as it journeys towards GCXXIV, urged by Mary to “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5) and in harmony with Pope Francis who calls us to newness in the spirit of the Gospel “new wine, new wineskins.” It is precisely the contemporary context with the Educommunication challenges, youth cultures, new educational frontiers that challenges us to inhabit the Digital Communication Ecosystem with awareness and prophetic strength, to give visibility to the mission.
Pope Francis gives us the theme for the 54th World Social Communications Day 2020 “That you may recount... (Ex 10:2) Life becomes history”, which highlights how the heritage of Memory is especially precious in communication. “There is no future without being rooted in lived history. Memory should not be considered as a ‘static body’, but rather a ‘dynamic reality’. It is the memory that gives us stories, hopes, dreams, and experiences from one generation to the next.”
The intent of the IFMA Web Site as a new ‘InFormative’ space is to broaden our gaze on a world in constant change, interacting with the various audiences, so that all may be Interlocutors capable of giving sense and meaning to experience and Co-creators of Good News.
The heart of the Website is the Infosphere environment, a network of information interconnected with each other, which challenges the FMA Institute to be there in the heart of Contemporaneity, enriching the universe of its educational, communication, evangelizing, socio-political, ecological mission, offering ‘InFormative’ opportunities for sharing life and culture, meaning and opinion, dialogue and participation.
IFMA, by generating news and telling it, gives visibility to the Salesian Charism in the fabric of multicultural relationships and expressions, promoting Formation for Interculturality, the development of a Vocational Culture, the search for new ways for Education, Communication, and Evangelization.
“Amid the cacophony of voices and messages that surround us, we need a human story that can speak of ourselves and of the beauty all around us. A narrative that can regard our world and its happenings with a tender gaze. A narrative that can tell us that we are part of a living and interconnected tapestry. A narrative that can reveal the interweaving of the threads which connect us to one another,” wrote Pope Francis in his Message for the 54th World Social Communications Day.
Stories mark us, shape our convictions and behaviors, can help us understand and say who we are. Through the IFMA website, FMA, Salesians, Laity, and young people of the Salesian Family can tell the Good News about the life and mission of the Provinces in the different contexts of the FMA Institute.
