(ANS – Rome) – The training day held last Saturday,  May 12, at the Pontifical Salesian University was a true and proper celebration of communication. The protagonists were young religious, Salesians and Daughters of Mary, Help of  Christians.

It was organized by the social communication departments of Salesians and FMA, the Pontifical Faculty of Sciences of Education of the Auxilium and by the Faculty of Sciences of Social Communication of the UPS (FSC).  The main theme for the day was that of the XLVI World Day of Social Communication: “Silence and Word,  a Path of Evengelization.”

About 120 young Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, accompanied by  their formators: novices, post-novices, juniors, and students of theology came together to reflect, discuss, pray and experience the contents of the message of Pope Benedict XVI .

Opened by the initial welcoming messages of Sister  Giuseppina Teruggi, Fr. Filiberto González  and Fr. Mauro Mantovani, the new Dean of the FSC, the meeting divided into several phases.

The first phase was academic and was led by Fr. Franco Lever and by Sister Maria Antonia Chinello, who presented and  examined the binomial Silence and Word. This presentation  brought out the  definitions, potentials  and problems involved in the terms as applied to human beings in the process of communication.  The following arguments and dialogue between the young religious and the two lecturers consisted  of questions arising from Salesian pastoral and charismatic action, personal formation and community life.

Silence and Word also centred in the prayer which concluded the morning, a celebration enriched with gesture and symbolism which offered an  experience of spirituality based on the languages of human communication.

In the afternoon the third and more experiential phase took place. The young religious entered more deeply into the second part of the Pope’s message: “a path of evangelization”. The workshops of drama, diction, music, cinema, video, writing and social networking  and organization of events showed useful ways and initiatives of making pastoral work more effective.

The two Councilors for Communication, Fr. González and Sister  Teruggi, concluded the day  hoping that this initiative might become a model for other experiences  at Provincial and local level, which will see Salesians and Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians  involved in the formation in communication of young religious and in the animation of educative pastoral communities. This of May 12th has been a significant event which opens out interesting prospect s for further collaboration.

On the website sdb.org materials in Italian used in the meeting are available; in the ANSchannel the videos of addresses of Fr. Franco Lever and Sister Maria Antonia Chinello.

Published 14/05/2012