Cagliero 11 agosto 2017 eng


Cagliero 11 agosto 2017 eng



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N. 104 - August 2017
Newsletter for Salesian Missionary Animation
A Publication of the Missions Sector for the Salesian Communities and Friends of the Salesian Mission
W e continue to accompany with affectionate prayer the confreres of the next Missionary Expedition,
the 148th. At Valdocco, everything is being prepared to welcome them and to send them forth.
A very interesting fact about this Expedition is that two Provinces, one in Europe and one in Africa,
do two things at the same time – offer and receive ad gentes missionaries. The Spanish Province of Mary Help
of Christians SMX sends a priest from Catalonia, and the same Province receives two non-Europeans who are
in their regency. In Africa, a new Visitatoria is born: Africa Congo-Congo ACC (Kinshasa-Brazzaville). This new
Visitatoria is born while giving birth to two missionaries, both doing their regency - one goes to Spain and the
other to the Antilles; and receives two Vietnamese trainees - a cleric and a Salesian Brother.
"Mission is no longer just a one-way movement towards 'mission
lands'," says the updated Salesian Missionary Manual. "This is, in-
stead, a multidirectional movement. Each local church, there-
fore, sends and receives at the same time. Likewise, every Sale-
sian Province, rich or poor in staff or resources, is co-responsible
in the missionary initiatives of the entire Salesian Society. All
Provinces therefore send and receive!"
D. Guillermo Basanes SDB
Consigliere per le missioni
MISSIONARY ANIMATION IN THE
CHURCH. "Faith is strengthened by
passing it on!" Thus, missionary anima-
tion aims to educate and inform the
people of God to keep alive in every Christian
the passion to make Jesus known and to
preach the Gospel, promoting missionary voca-
tions and eliciting cooperation in evangeliza-
tion. Effective missionary animation promotes
a gradual deepening of one’s own love for Je-
sus and his people. This is the "sweet and com-
forting joy of evangelizing" that "fills the life of
the community of disciples" which releases the
energy “to serve Christ in oppressive situations
of human suffering, to
place oneself at
the service of
humanity,
without with-
drawing into one’s
own welfare."
SALESIAN MISSIONARY
ANIMATION. In the light
of Don Bosco’s charismatic
experience, we can now de-
fine our objective for Salesian
missionary animation. It is not
limited to celebrations, or oc-
casional initiatives. It is rather
a continuous process of "raising awareness
and animating the provincial and local commu-
nities, with a view to a deeper missionary
awareness, a service renewed in content and
methodology, and a renewed commitment
that, to be credible, must be exercised simul-
taneously both inside and outside the commu-
nity." This process is made concrete in the pro-
vincial project of missionary animation.
FIRST OBJECTIVE: Missionary animation has a
dual purpose, interdependent and mutually
complementary. It aims above all to keep mis-
sionary zeal alive in every Salesian and in the
educative and pastoral community and to pro-
mote missionary culture. This implies an organ-
ic missionary ministry, so that missionary ani-
mation is an option within the totality of
youth ministry making all the dimensions of
the Salesian Educative Pastoral Plan fruitful,
and the various pastoral areas or sectors of the
mission. It also interacts with the initial and
ongoing formation of Salesians and involves
members of the Salesian Family according to
their par-
ticular
char-
ism.
THE SECOND
OBJECTIVE: Mis-
sionary zeal is the
spark that triggers in
every Salesian an
"openness to a
permanent
conversion”
and to dis-
cerning the call of the Lord to be a mission-
ary. Therefore, the second objective of Sale-
sian missionary animation stems from the pri-
mary objective: to help Salesians to discern
the missionary vocation ad exteros, ad gentes,
ad vitam.

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“You must prophesy again concerning many peoples
and nations and tongues and kings”.
I remember being struck by a Bible verse (Rev 10:11) long before I realized I
had a religious vocation. This verse, which in its literal sense sounds mission-
ary, kept coming back to me repeatedly as I opened the Bible several times to
read from it at random. I never understood it but it took root in my heart and
I never forgot it.
As a youngster I loved watching movies. When I joined the Salesians, to my bad
luck, the video library in my aspirantate was full of videos from ANS, mostly on
the missions. I watched them, not because I was eager to, but because it was
the only option. To my surprise, they began to interest me so much that I made
it a point to watch at least two every week. A more explicit invitation came
from our then regional, Fr, Basañes, when he visited the prenovitiate. That
day, for the first time, I felt strongly that I might be called to be a mission-
ary.
Ours being a young province, many asked me, “Why become a missionary while
you still need missionaries in Tanzania?” My conviction is that I didn’t call myself to
be a religious nor a missionary. He who called me knows why He did it and what plans He
has for me and for the mission ahead of me. This is not my mission and, therefore, He will
provide as per His plans. If He sent me to
Mexico it is because He wants me to be in Mex-
ico and, certainly, He will find whoever He needs
for Tanzania.
My greatest joy as a missionary in Mexico is the atmosphere of
warm welcome I experience in the province and from the people
at large. As a practical trainee, I work in a place where children
and young people form the majority of the population. Hence, I
feel completely immersed in the Salesian mission.
My greatest challenge is the culture, which I find to be very dif-
ferent from that of my home country. The values that I live by
and held dear are being confronted, and the readjustment is not
that easy. We are in a zone afflicted by violence born of drugs in
the streets, broken families, early marriage and young people
who are addicted and without a vision. Many of the youth I deal with are influenced by these, which is normal
because they are products of this ambience.
To young Salesians who may be thinking of being missionaries I would say, discernment is very important. If you
have an opportunity to visit mission areas, please do so before you take your final decision. Take very seriously
the human formation given in the formation houses. We need that to interact easily with new cultures. Above
all, personal prayer is indispensable for a robust soul.
Cl David Komba
Tanzanian, missionary in Mexico
Witness of Salesian Missionary Sanctity
Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni SDB, Postulator General for the Causes of Saints
The Blessed young martyrs of the Salesian Oratory of Poznan (Poland). They wrote as follows to their
family members about their martyrdom on August 24, 1942: "My Beloved Parents, Brothers and Sis-
ters!” begins the letter of Franciszek Kęsy. “It is time to leave you; and it is on August 24, the day of
Mary Help of Christians. (...) Good God takes me to Himself. Do not weep though I leave this world
at such a young age. I am in the state of grace right now, and I do not know whether later I would be
faithful to my promises. (...) I go to heaven; goodbye. There in heaven I will pray to God for you ...
Pray sometimes for me, too. (…) I go now."
"Beloved Parents! Mamma, Babbo, Mary, Henryk!” Edward Klinik addresses his relatives. “Wonderful
are the plans of God, and we accept them, because everything is for the good of our soul. (...) Maria
has been a mother to me right to the last moment. Now, when you, Mamma, you will not have me
any more, take Jesus. (...) My dear ones, do not despair for me and do not weep because I am al-
ready with Jesus and Mary ... "
For Salesians in Oceania
Salesian Missionary Intention
That they may share with the young
the beauty of their vocation.
May the Salesians in Oceania know how to express and share their faith
through art, music, theatre and storytelling with an oratorian spirit. We
find a very varied mosaic of cultures in each of the countries in Oceania
where the sons of Don Bosco are present. Young people in each of these
contexts must grow in their ability to know, love and develop all that is
good and beautiful which is in the bosom of their communities.