(ANS - Rome) - On the second day of the International Historical Congress for the Bicentenary, work was divided into two phases: lectures in the morning and meetings in small groups in the afternoon. Conference participants were also able to attend the screening of the video message from the Rector Major "Dear Confreres" and listen to the good night given by Mother Yvonne Reungoat, Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. Her message focused on "the Salesian charism building human history."

By Andrés Felipe Loaiza, SDB

Yesterday morning’s proceedings opened with a report on "The spread of Salesian presence, both SDB and FMA", by Fr Francesco Motto, Bro. Marco Bay and Sister Maria Teresa Spiga. This was followed by a talk by Professor Mario Belardinelli, on "the political, social, cultural, economic, and religious developments which had an impact on the situation of young people."

In the second part of the morning Fr Bruno Bordignon, SDB and Sr. Grace Loparco, FMA, focused attention on "The Salesian response to global social, cultural, economic and religious developments from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century."  Fr Giorgio Rossi then explained how the groups would work in the afternoon.

Mother Reungoat told the participants at the conference: "Take up the story, re-read the story as the people of God did, find the traces of God present in our history and read it again. See how the charism which started with Don Bosco and the first Salesians, and Mother Mazzarello and the first Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and the Salesian Cooperators has continued until our day. The charism becomes incarnate. It penetrates and transforms our history.”

Mother Reungoat also stressed the importance of knowing our history and loving it as the story of the Salesian Family: "The more we know our history, the more we love our Salesian Family (...) It is the story of our family, the history of our charism that is embodied all over the world. It is the result, the driving force and the passion of Don Bosco’s Da mihi animas, cetera tolle. What moves us, what motivates us to look for the right answers at the right time, to meet the needs of young people, if not this passion of Da mihi animas, cetera tolle, which is common to us all? It also helps us to  see future developments that we can contemplate, describe, communicate, and share with others."

Mother Reungoat’s good night can be heard  on the website sdb.org  in the section dedicated to the International Historical Congress of the Bicentenary.

Before the good night the Rector Mahor’s video message  "Dear Confreres" was shown. It was officially launched yesterday for the whole Salesian world. This first issue is  subtitled in seventeen  languages and is available on YouTube on the ANSChannel .

Published 21/11/2014