(ANS – Quito) – The 10th Youth Ministry Week organised by the Salesian National Education Council (CONESA) took place from 21 to 24 February at the St Patrick's Spirituality Centre. This event, said Fr Juan Cárdenas, Youth Ministry Delegate, showed how youth ministry guarantees “the evangelising idea of the Church and a spirituality which takes account of the processes and challenges in today's social, cultural and youth world”.

Youth Ministry Week is now a regular event in the Province, a yearly occasion which has now seen a good number of years. It has four specific aims: formation, strengthening the Salesian charism in pastoral agents, evaluation of pastoral processes developed and applied, and planning ministry which continues to look to the activities and challenges to follow up in the Church and in the mission of evangelisation proper to the Salesians.

These days are also part of the rethinking of Salesian Youth Ministry which is taking place in the Congregation. This is one reason why the Week has been planned as a workshop with three phases:

1. Reflection on how to make contact with the world and culture of the young;
2. Planning how to evangelise by educating and educate by evangelising;
3. Rethinking how to develop a systematic approach to Salesian Youth Ministry, based on the Gospel of Jesus and with young people, obviously, as the specific aim.

Questions like this were tackled through alternating assemblies, organised games, presentations, group work…

Fr Cardenas said that “Youth Ministry for us Salesians is part of everything we do. Therefore all kinds of people are part of this meeting, who are involved in ministry in all our work, schools, institutes, parishes, missions in the Andes and the Amazon, universities, oratories… so that we cover every sector where Salesians are offering their support. We had more than 80 people taking part in this 10th Week, and with whom we have worked hard from Thursday 21 to Sunday 24 February”.

Lizeth Fernandez, from San José de Manta institute, said that her expectations for this 10th Ministry Week was to “bring new ideas to the kids, educate them better, considering what Fr Cárdenas told us concerning evangelising through educating and vice versa”.

Franklin Álvarez, from Domingo Comín, maintains that this Week “sought to highlight certain limits that young people encounter in our educational structures and find a better way to reach them through lessons on ministry, by understanding the world of the young, their culture and ways of expressing themselves, so they can identify more directly with the Salesian world”.
 
Published 26/02/2013