Salesian Youth Movement Gathering in Timor-Laste
Lospalos, Timor-Leste -- On the 25th to 27th of August, the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) Timor-Leste held the national forum for 2017. The national forum of SYM is a yearly event where the youth animators from the SDBs and FMAs oratories, youth centers and schools come together for prayer, reflection and sharing. This year’s event was held in the Salesian community of Don Bosco Lospalos (the most eastern part of the country). The theme for this year’s event was: Young People, Faith and vocational discernment. For the first and second day there were around 370 participants.
On the last day for the closing Mass more than a thousand young people participated.
On the afternoon of the 25th, the participants for the forum arrived to the community of Lospalos. The members of Lospalos SYM received them with traditional welcoming ceremony. Then, the participants were lead to boarding house of the orphanage. Fr. Tomas Gusmão de Carvalho, SDB as the rector of the community gave few remarks introducing the apostolate of community and officially welcomed the youth animators, the Salesian priests, brothers and sisters (FMA). Then, Fr. João da Costa Boavida, SDB and Sr. Floriana Guterres as Youth Ministry delegate for SDB and FMA gave opening remarks for the kick-off of the event. Then, the opening Mass was celebrated in the parish church of Lospalos presided by Fr. Tomas.
The event for the second day of national forum of SYM was the reflection and sharing on the preparative document for the 2018 synod on young people. This reflection and sharing on the document: Young People, faith and vocational discernment was guided by sr. Jacinta Gusmão, FMA. In the afternoon, the youth animators were distributed to different groups for seminar-workshop on: Planning Activities, teaching catechism, Interest groups, games and oratory animation. The seminar-workshop was spearheaded by sr. Lita Gomes, FMA with the help of Fr. Amarianto, Fr. Silvano and Sr. Armenia. The second day was concluded with the cultural night were the provincial of the FMA sisters, sr. Alma herself was there giving good night talks to the participants.
The last day of the event was marked with the closing Mass presided by the newly ordained priests Fr. Julio Motta, Fr. Isaias Bonifacion and Fr. Venancio Fatima Freitas with some Salesians priests concelebrating the Mass. After the Mass, Fr. João da Costa Boavida thanked the Educative Pastoral Community of Lospalos and all the participants for their availability to work together for the success of the event. Then, Fr. Alarico Sarmento, SDB as the national in-charge of SYM and the head of the organizing committee, gave report on the event from preparation to execution including financial reporting and thanking the benefactors. The SYM national forum concluded with fraternal lunch and all the participants returned to their respective places.
