EAO SC and Missions delegate meet
By Fr. Keith Amodia, FIS Social Communications Delegate
and - Marco Fulgaro, Missions Sector
EAO, 16 November 2021, Zoom -- The East Asia-Oceania (EAO) delegates for Social Communication and Missions Offices came together in a Zoom meeting to discuss and reflect on Communicating Jesus Christ Today to the Millennial and Gen Z Mindsets. The meeting held on 16 and 17 November 2021, was organized jointly by the Social Communications and Missions Sectors in Rome-Generalate headed by councillors Fr. Gildàsio Mendes, SDB and Fr. Alfred Maravilla, SDB.
Around 34 participants joined the video conference all the way from the different circumscriptions in the culturally diverse region, together with team members from the Generalate.
The first part of the meeting featured an input and sharing by Fr. Gildàsio on Communicating Jesus Christ Today. He talked about the primacy of the Gospel and the Person of Jesus Christ as the message of our evangelization and took cues from the Synod on Youth in making the Salesian mission concretely touch the lives of the young. Fr. Gildàsio stressed the need to consider certain anthropological aspects to make the communication of the Gospel richer and more relevant.
Fr. Alfred took the second part of the meeting to share with the attendees the Mindset of Millennials and GenZ, the current recipients of the Salesian mission. Defining the characteristics of both generations, he laid out important principles of the "how" of evangelization. He stressed the need for initial proclamation but not in a doctrinal way. He proposed that the communication of Christ begin with an overwhelming experience that leads to attraction then to faith.
The attendees then broke into small groups where they shared existing practices of evangelization on the internet, deepened the meaning of culture in evangelization, brought traditional communicative arts to the web, and got a better understanding of the mindset of the new generation to spread the Gospel in social media. The first day of the meeting ended with beautiful realizations on the need for credible witnesses and creative Salesian presence to the young and in the space of social media where they are.
On the second day, each commission met as a sector. The Social Communication Commission shared on the Spiritual Formation and the Don Bosco Global Youth Film Festival (DBGYFF). Fr Gildàsio praised the work of this very diverse region and outlined plans for the School of Formation.
The missionary delegates shared about their Missionary Animation, how to better animate the communities in the missionary dimension, accompany the missionaries in the province and foster greater cooperation with Social Communication.
Later each province had time to plan and strengthen their cooperation and dreams for the future.
“The realization that communication today is not technology, but networking and collaboration,” said Fr Gildàsio. The delegates appreciated the contribution from the delegates at the meeting.
In 2022, the Salesian Mission Day will focus on: “Communicating Christ Today – Missionaries Online.”
