4288(I)_2017, Focus on Indigenous People

4288(I)_2017, Focus on Indigenous People

Salesian Missionary Animation 2017

February 11, 2017

By Salesian Mission Sector

RMG, 11 February 2017 -- Renewing the attention of the urgency to announce the Lord and to care for our poorest brethren: this is the aim of World Mission Day for past 90 years (1926-2016). Since 1988 also the Salesian Congregation proposes every year a specific missionary theme, which aims at promoting missionary animation: it is Salesian Mission Day, which for 2017 deals with the theme of First Announcement in the American continent.

As of today, some videos on the Salesian Missionary experiences among the Indigenous peoples of Latin America are available online. Throughout the entire six-year period 2015-2020 the specific theme of Salesian Mission Day is the First Announcement. However, every year it is examined and proposed under a specific focus: in 2016 it was Oceania, for 2017 it is the American continent. Through the various materials prepared by the Salesian Missions Sector, and among these videos as well, it is possible to get acquainted with the commitment of the Sons of Don Bosco:

  • among indigenous Yanomami, in two important missions of the Province of Manaus;

  • either among the Mixes of the State of Oaxaca, descendants of the Ancient Incas from Peru,

  • or the Chinantecos, another indigenous group who live in the same State;

  • or among the Mapuche, an indigenous population that resides in the most southern areas of Argentinian Patagonia.

Thanks to Salesian Mission Day, that is “the expression and engine of the missionary spirit of Salesian pastoral-educative communities all over the world”, as the Sector for the Salesian Missions explains, the diverse realities of the Congregation can be known and can concretely help one another, and at the same time they can also walk a common path to arouse new missionary vocations.

The SMD 2017 videos are available on the ANSChannel of YouTube (http://tinyurl.com/hznpqdt).

The SMD 2017 animation materials (48 page booklet in pdf or jpg) is available on the Boscolink: