(ANS – Quito) – Beginning on Sunday 30 October and finishing today, 3 November, at the Mary Help of Christians Spirituality Centre in Quito, there has been the II Meeting for Missionary Promotion Delegates, organised by Fr Václav Klement, General Councillor for the Salesian Missions and attended by 26 Delegates from Salesian Provinces.

The main purpose of the meeting was the formation of the Delegates in the missionary culture of the Congregation, that which was born in the apostolic heart of Don Bosco, priest and missionary among the boys in Turin, and which he succeeded in passing on to his boys and  which in 1875 led to the sending of the first missionaries to Argentina.

Fr Klement expressed the hope that the meeting would strengthen the missionary culture in the various Provinces, through strategic planning and the good use of missionary groups, which can go from those for children to the experience of voluntary service. “As a Congregation a difficult challenge awaits us, that of the missionary animation of the whole world.”

Fr Fernando Mazones, Missions Delegate for the “Saint Rosa of Lima” Province of Perù, said that this time for reflection was an important opportunity for the Region, since it enabled them to work together and to combine their efforts  in the face of the challenges present in each Province, and also in a context in which religious vocations are in decline.

“We intend to work on missionary promotion projects in order to create a snowball effect in each Province and local community. Already in the formation houses it is necessary to work on the formation of an oratorian and a missionary heart, since that is how our Congregation came into being” Fr Mazones added.

Published 03/11/2011