The Consulta was coordinated by the Youth Ministry Department, which brought together about 30 participants, Salesians and lay people from all over the world, representatives of the different Regions, to give life to the protagonists of this mission for the poorest of young people, and to share experiences and good practices that are taking place in the various realities of the Congregation.
In recent decades, inspired by Don Bosco's Preventive System, the Salesians have increasingly focused on taking care of the poor and the marginalized, vulnerable and discarded, promoting presences directly interested in answering to their needs and aimed at dealing with educational and pastoral emergencies.
The Consulta followed the methodology of discernment, which includes the three phases of Recognizing, Interpreting, Choosing. Fr Daniel García Reynoso, World Coordinator of Works and Social Services for youth at risk and in situations of exclusion, explained: “The process of preparing for the Consulta identified and selected, in the different continents and regions, some Salesians and lay people who have faced in a significant manner, in their Provinces and in their respective contexts, the status of these works and services."
The participants answered the questions before the Consulta itself. With this data, the working tools were developed, which gave an overview of the current status of the works and social services of the Congregation. All this can be found completely in the published Acts.
Two interventions then contributed to deepening the social dimension of the Salesian charism: that of Fr Rossano Sala, who gave an account of the ecclesial vision in the light of the Synod of 2018; and that of the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, who underlined: "We were born in the peripheries and we are always called to return to them, to respond creatively and boldly to the challenges presented to the Salesian mission."
The Document and the final declaration are the main lines of Salesian work for young people. With Don Bosco, the Salesians today reiterate: "We reaffirm our preference for the young who are poor, abandoned and in danger, those who have greater need of love and evangelizaztion, and we work especially in areas of greatest poverty." (Constitutions, No. 26).
