Towards more global visibility of Salesian Missions

By Fr. Vaclav Klement, SDB

Generalate, 14 January -- Seven EAO Salesian Mission Office Director participants have concluded their 3 days experience of the Mission Office Meeting in Rome attended personally also by the Rector Major and 5 general councilors. The most senior among the participants was Br. Cesare Bullo (former missionary in VIE, now MO Director in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) who participated in the Mission Office meetings for past 30 years. Among the 62 participants were also Br. Michael Lynch (AUL - Melbourne, ASMOAF, 21 years of experience), Fr. Isidor Hong (KOR - Seoul, DB Nanum - since 2013), Br. Francis Sudo (GIA - Tokyo, DBK Foundation - since 2008) and Fr. Joseph Ng and Fr. Savio Yeung (CIN, Hong Kong - starting) and Fr. Ditto Gueco (FIN, Manila Mission Office).

At the end of the three intense days the EAO participants were surprised by the rich variety of different experiences of large and established G5 Mission Offices (New Rochelle, Bonn, Madrid, Torino and New Delhi) and some 30 provincial Mission Offices (G30). Most of the three days were spent in Assembly sharing, with presentation and open forum.  Among the most appreciated item was the New Rochelle and ANS news agency sharing about social communication dynamics involved in the MO activities: social media impact, online donation, benefactors follow up through the new media. Also the well equipped Mission Project Database (http://donbosconetwork.org) of the Don Bosco Network (6000 projects of the Salesian NGO) was well appreciated. Close collaboration between numerous Mission Office, PDO (Planning and Development Office) and Salesian NGOs working for the mission was discussed in depth.

Although there was no formal conclusion, at the end of the meeting Fr. Guillermo Basanes, Br. Jean Paul Muller and Fr. Angel F. Artime - the Rector Major shared few pointers to the future of Salesian Mission Offices: growth in mutual information and synergy between the Center and each of the 35 Mission Offices, need of networking, transparency, growth in generosity and global visibility of our Mission Offices (suggestion of Global Logo of Salesian MO).

Each of the participants delivered some kind of 'Action Plan': What do I plan in my Mission Office (MO)? What can I offer to the other MO? What would i like to receive from other MO? What do I expect to happen in the international level? We hope that for the not-yet-well established EAO Mission Offices this event will bring a lot of inspiration for their growth!

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