(ANS - Madrid) - The great efforts of the Salesian Family in Spain in welcoming the Salesian Youth Movement to World Youth Day in Madrid has won unanimous approval. From the Rector Major, the Mother General of the Salesian Sisters, the Salesians who accompanied the delegations, and especially from the young people there is nothing but appreciation for the organisation, the ideas acted upon, the courage to 'back' the SYM.

“The Salesian Family is alive and sensitive to the concerns of today's youth”: Fr Rosendo Soler, National Salesian Youth Ministry Delegate for Spain, is convinced that this is what Don Bosco would have needed to say had he entered the headquarters of Spain's SYM at Atocha. Fr Soler led and coordinated the large staff who made the Salesian Youth Movement so welcome in Madrid.

It took two years of preparation to get to this point, where in addition to organisational issues - and more importantly than those – they took the necessary steps to develop the right mindset. “We made the choice to take up World Youth Day in Spain fully, as a positive challenge, and immediately decided that this was the priority to be undertaken” said Fr Soler. All Provinces of Spain and Portugal were unanimous in the effort, and the Madrid SDB and FMA Provinces were really the driving force.

“We were convinced then, and more so now”, he added, “that this event would bring many benefits. First, the opening up of our own horizons, then for the visibility of the SYM”. The Salesians in Spain knew from the beginning that taking on the welcoming and providing leadership as the Days grew closer would  involve much energy, but they found so much good will and readiness to help, expressed especially by the many volunteers, who discovered the power that comes from doing things freely”; said Fr Soler.

The process has brought the SYM to an awareness of its place in the Church. Until now involvement in WYD had not involved Salesian youth to this extent, particularly young Spanish Catholics. The experience of Santiago de Compostela had not been so engaging.

And the implications in concrete terms are many: “We have been able to develop a stronger spirituality, develop the necessary humility for these situations, work together with other Church groups” he noted.

The visibility of the SYM came from two gatherings - the vigil on the 17th and the coming together on the 20th before leaving for Cuatros Vientos – then external signs, such as T-shirts given to all participants, and the fact that we had asked the WYD organising committee for our own area in C2 and at the airfield.

“Looking forward, what comes from this experience is the willingness to work at our Salesian Youth Ministry project with greater intensity and awareness of how good it is” Rosendo Soler explained, “in our characteristically cheerful way”.

The efficiency and overall calm were undoubtedly the aspects noted by more than 7,000 Salesian youth who gathered at Atocha on August 17. Even people not part of the SYM found themselves at ease: World Youth Day, as they return to their countries, will mean closer ties with the Salesian world.

Published 23/08/2011