Indian Salesians meet to contextualize youth spirituality.

BANGALORE: 8th October '04 -- A five day workshop on ‘Salesian youth spirituality in the Indian context’ was held at Don Bosco Provincial House, Bangalore from 2nd to 6th October.  Forty Salesian delegates from all the Salesian provinces of India participated in the workshop.

The workshop was yet another attempt in the ongoing process of evolving a Salesian youth spirituality that is in tune with the traditional Indian ethos and with  the challenging realities of the Dalits, the Tribals, and the young at risk in the urban and rural settings.  ‘A youth spirituality should help the young in their search for meaning in life,’ said Fr. Thomas D’Sa, Director of NBCLC, Bangalore,  'while exposing the salient features of Traditional Indian Spirituality.’ 

In his opening address Fr. Mario Baclig SDB, member of the Department of Youth Ministry, Rome, challenged the participants to ‘love the young as they are, where they are…,  to believe that they can become saints’ and to accompany them to a better life as Don Bosco, the founder of the Salesian Congregation did.

Dr. (Fr.) Jose Maliekal SDB, in his talk on ‘Dalit Spirituality as a primordial quest for survival’ challenged the participants to help the young to discover the God who is at work in the silent protest and open struggles of the dalits against their dehumanizing experiences of casteism, oppression and exploitation.

Fr. George Kollashany, basing himself on his 27 years of experience of working with street children and the young at risk, pointed to their spiritual quest as manifested in the adventurous choice they make, the risks they undertake and the  resilience they reveal.  After analyzing  the prevalent  youth realities of India in group interactions, the participants crystallized their response to these realities in 12 statements that codified to some extent the salient features of Salesian Youth Spirituality in the Indian context.

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