austraLasia

ALA_5383

Italy, Spain, Germany, Albania and Slovakia

Europe, 22 May 2020 -- Watching all five Oratory videos of the 2020 Salesian Mission Day 'Rejoice! - Initial Proclamation in Europe through Oratories and Youth Centers - offers a wonderful and deep insight into the Salesian heart of Europe. From Atocha (Madrid-Spain), Lecce (Puglia - Italy), Mamateyova - Petrzalka (Bratislava - Slovakia), Shkoder - Scutari (Albania) to Chemnitz (Germany) you can listen to many young people, animators, group leaders, apostolate coordinators, directors of youth centres, volunteers, coaches, teachers, Don Bosco Past Pupils, Salesian Cooperators or Salesians SDB - community rectors, oratory directors - all who give their life to the Oratory of Don Bosco in Europe now.

Aside from the variety of sports, faith, group activities of all kinds - these five videos offer a deeper insight through the many interviews on Oratory education with pastoral team members. A surprising large number of them are indeed former Oratorians, former leaders and also Salesian Cooperators. Many of them speak in their interview about 'finding their vocation in the Oratory'. You can enjoy no fewer than 29 different life stories around the Oratory. You can enter the rich dynamics of the Oratory with its intertwining of games and catechesis, school and parish, group experience with summer camps.

Through the video interviews that are also shared in the animation booklet in print form, you encounter many SDBs: Fr Inaki Lete (Spain), Fr Bledar Huba and Cl. Dritan Bushi (Albania), Fr Francesco Redavid (Italy), Fr Tomas Hajek (Germany), Fr Albert Krottenhaler (Germany), Fr Stanislav Hurbani (Slovakia) and Fr Martin Josko (Slovakia).

Many Salesian Cooperators share their vocation story or Oratory apostolic experience and dreams: Sergio Petrarca (Italy), Cristiana Calogiuri (Italy), Elena del Coco (Italy) or Barbara Klose (Germany).

We give thanks to the Mission Sector team and IME communication (Italy-Southern Italy province, Naples) and all those who have contributed to these five videos. At the same time our hope is that the European Oratory and Youth Centre experience will reach the Salesians in other continents - to know the Project Europe reality and also to be inspired for a more Don Bosco-like Oratory in their own countries.

A variety of personal testimonies in these videos may inspire many: like the formal professional football player and now coach in the Oratory in Bratislava, Pavol Kostic: "I love football, and I believe that it was God who brought me to this Salesian football club.... Here I try to bring these kids close to a correct, upstanding life, which, in the final analysis, means bringing them closer to God - that is the most important thing. With a cheerful style, I watch football differently than when I played it as a professional...".

SMD 2020 Videos on Facebook pages (70 minutes video from 5 EU contries)