(ANS - Rome) – Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in initial formation met to study the message given by Benedict XVI for the 47th World Day of Social Communications which will be celebrated on 12 May. Pope Benedict’s message is entitled “Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization.” The meeting took place at the Salesian Pontifical University, Rome, from the afternoon of Friday 3 May to that of Saturday 4 May.

This is the second such initiative promoted by the Departments of Social Communications of the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in conjunction with the Faculty of Sciences of Social Communications of the UPS and the Faculty of Sciences of Education of Auxilium. About 150 young religious in initial formation took part, along with their formators. – the temporarily professed sisters of the Italian Provinces and Auxilium, the novices of Genzano and Pinerolo, the post-novices of the Community of San Tarcisio and the Students of Theology of Gerini.

In their introduction, the two general Councillors for Social Communications, Fr Filiberto Gonzalez and Sr Giuseppina Terrugi, said: ”We are not here to celebrate an event, however important it might be, nor just to update ourselves, and that also is important, but to live through a process. What we are doing is a plan in action, with clear ideas and specific steps, with a time of preparation and a time of action, as well as a look to the future.”

Fr Fabio Pasqualetti, teacher in the FCS, and Mons. Domenico Pompili, director of the National Office of Social Communications of the Bishops’ Conference of Italy developed the topic “Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization” from two different perspectives, the former from a socio-cultural aspect and the latter from a symbolic and ecclesial point of view. The questions that emerged from the group work (in which the young religious shared on the theme) were of two kinds: some were about religious life in the context of the new media, and others about pastoral action for a new and effective evangelization.

Saturday was devoted mainly to workshops which gave the young religious an opportunity to experience and become familiar with some of the ways in which the Christian faith is present in the social networks. The workshops were led by experts in this area: teachers, journalists, computer experts and various promoters of culture.

The two days were marked by a spirit of joyful participation. The young religious shared, not only times of work, but also times of prayer and fraternity. The two days were the occasion of meeting and sharing between young people with the same ideals and the same project of life.

At the end of the meeting Fr Gonzalez and Sr Terrugi presented each of the young Salesian religious with a copy of the book “Tra silenzio e Parola” (LAS, Roma), edited  by Fr Franco Lever and Fr Mauro Mantovani, which contains the various inputs at last year’s meeting. At the conclusion the two councillors said, “Right from the beginning we saw the importance of this topic which introduces us ever deeper, as believers and as educators, into this vast world of the social networks, which Pope Benedict calls “portals of faith and new spaces for evangelization”. It is our hope that these days will benefit us lead to similar initiatives in other provinces in different parts of the world, in order to increase our awareness of the importance in today’s world of the Communications culture for our mission as Consecrated persons, and educators of the young people who are natives of this digital world.”

The video and audio recordings of the two main speakers, Fr Pasqualetti and Mons. Pompili, as well as some other materials, are available in the section of the Department of Social Communications of the website sdb.org.

Published 06/05/2013