2945 Formation meeting Cebu
austraLasia #2945
Warm welcome for Cebu formation participants
LAWA-AN: 19 November 2011 -- Participants in the two
formation sector events for the EAO Region have been warmly
welcomed at the Lawa-an Salesian Retreat House outside Cebu
City over the past week and for the coming days. The
two events are the Regional Formation Commission, a group
consisting mostly of Formation Delegates and other key
players in Salesian Formation in the Region, and from the
Department in Rome (Fr Chrys Saldanha in particular), and
the 'Formation of Formators' training session, involving
many formators for various stages of formation around the
region.
The Cebu-based Retreat House has recently
been renovated to better accommodate such groups; so
recently in fact that the sounds of hammers and drills were
still echoing as participants arrived. Between the two
groups the entire participation is around 40 members, though
each group is about half that number. Customary FIS
hospitality, and the care of the Novice Director, Fr Ronel
Vilbar and his team of 11 novices has been outstanding.
The Regional Formation Commission meeting
took place from 16-18 November. It was a full schedule
involving a very wide range of issues: statistics regarding
the Congregation and the Region, questions of vocational
fidelity, missionary formation, personal accompaniment,
quinquennium, aspirantate, specific formation of the
Salesian Brother, formation to affectivity and
chastity, intellectual formation and its evaluation. An
additional specific topic on this occasion was formation to
social communication. This has been requested by the
communications sector of the Congregation, and is
progressively being implemented throughout each region in
combined formation/communication sessions according to
particular circumstances around the regions. The chief
aim of this is to present the Salesian Social Communication
System 2.0, the recently revised frame of reference, and the
2006 joint document on specific approaches to formation to
communication for each stage of formation, an outline which
both formation and communication departments felt needed to
be given greater emphasis.
The second gathering, for ongoing
formation of formators, which begins on 19 November, is
focused on gaining deeper appreciation of intercultural
issues in formation around the region. Fr Edison Fernandes,
a Salesian from Mumbai Province, has been invited as a
special presenter for this topic.
