PARAÑAQUE: 20 May 2012--
25 Salesians and 50 lay mission partners forming the pastoral
teams of
the schools and training centers of the Philippines-North
(FIN)
Province gathered on 14-16 May 2012 in the theologate for the
annual
summer Salesian leadership seminar.
Fr. Fabio Attard, SDB, General Councilor for Youth Pastoral
Ministry,
was invited to speak on the integration of education and
evangelization
in Salesian youth ministry. Fr. Fabio emphasized on the
formation of a
community of significant adults who journey together with
young people
with clear proposals and challenging processes to make the
reign of
Christ central to the life stories of youth today. He also
challenged
the educators of the FIN to continue its ongoing reflections
to
recapture Don Bosco and adapt his Preventive System for the
new
educative and pastoral challenges of the new times so as to
have
something significant to consign to the next generation.
Fr. Eli Cruz, the provincial, spent an afternoon of
reflections with
the group on the practical issues of stewardship of time,
talent, and
treasure in the educative-pastoral community. The group of
Salesians
and lay mission partners went on the last day to the Tuloy sa
Don Bosco
Street Children Village, some fifteen minutes drive from the
theologate, to listen to Fr. Rocky Evangelista, the founder of
the
work.
Fr. Rocky spoke about the advocacy for the stewardship of
creation and
its positive impact on the healing of youth with delinquency
problems.
The group of Salesian educators were then brought to the
‘aquaphonics’
garden of the street children village to see first-hand not
only the
scientific-educative side of this advocacy but more so to
interact with
the street children and see the spiritual-evangelizing effect
of this
project on them.
This advocacy of exposing delinquent youth to active
involvement in the
care of creation had already caught fire. After the visit of
the Armed
Forces of the Philippines to the ‘aquaphonics’ garden of Tuloy
sa Don
Bosco, the group of battle-tested soldiers were convinced to
use the
method to counteract the insurgency problems with Muslims in
southern
Philippines. By teaching battle-scarred youth to care for
‘fish ponds’,
the soldiers hope to duplicate Don Bosco’s magic of creating
‘peace
ponds’. Indeed, a new way of integrating education and
evangelization
in the preventive system.
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