(ANS – Medellin) - From 24th to 27th February at the Provincial House of the Salesians of Medellin, the meeting of the Commissions of Formation of the two Provinces of Colombia, Bogotá (COB) and Medellin (COM) took place. The works have focused attention on the review and assessment of responsibility for shared training stages, in order to further strengthen the credibility of initial training offered in the region, which currently also includes the Provinces of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Central America.

In 4 working days they worked on the review and assessment of the Commission's responsibility for training as indicated by Fr Cereda, General Councillor for Formation, in the Acts of the General Council n° 383 (ACG 383); there was a report on the early stages of training shared between the two provinces (novitiate, post-novitiate and theologate); the current situation of each stage of education was analyzed, the objectives achieved and those still to be achieved; and at the same time the prospects, challenges and priority tasks for 2013 were designated.

The document "Assessment and Guidance for intellectual training in the initial training" has been the subject of careful study, allowing the adaptation of the curricula of each training phase to unify them in the aspirantate and the pre-novitiate, thus overcoming some difficulties that previously were  presented for the stages of shared training.

On the second day of the meeting, the Delegate for the missions, catechesis and parishes, Fr Francisco Javier Castano, guided the thoughts, presenting two training projects for initial training stages, one for catechetical training and the other for the mission. Both projects were accepted by the two Provinces and will be part of the curriculum of the Degree in Philosophy that is realized at the Pontificia Universidad Bolivariana in Medellin, with specific aspects of Salesian training.

At the end of the meeting, Fr John Jairo Gómez, Provincial of Medellín, presented his concluding remarks to the Commissions of Formation, he thanked them for their work in the training of young people and highlighted the level of credibility that provides initial training in the region: to finish, he also stressed the importance of the work in a team and an Interprovincial mentality and open to the whole Congregation, in which it continues to operate.

Both the Provinces of Colombia, starting from their division which took place 56 years ago, have always continued to carry out a joint training in stages of the novitiate, post-novitiate and theologate; currently in the stages of the novitiate and theologate they add also the Salesians in formation of other Provinces of the region: Bolivia (BOL), Peru (PER), Central America (CAM) and Ecuador (ECU).

Published 01/03/2013