The event was held with the aim of enhancing the spaces for training, interaction, debate, sharing and collaborative construction of proposals that contribute to the innovation of the (edu)communication processes of the Network.
On the morning of the first day, the Inspectors in charge of communication, Sister Maria Carmelita de Lima Conceição, for the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and Father Francisco Inácio Vieira Júnior, for the Salesians, held a detailed reflection on Don Bosco’s 9-year-old Dream, and the National Communication Coordinator of the RSB, Sister Maike Loes, prepared the framework for the meeting, recalling the dynamics and theme of the 1st ENAC (May 2023).
The first speech of the day was on “Don Bosco’s 9-year dream: between charisma, communication and mission”, given by the Dean of the Faculty of Social Communication Sciences at the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS) in Rome, Fr. Fabio Pasqualetti.
In his speech, he focused on the reasons that led Don Bosco to write the 9-year-old Dream in the form of a will, and on the subsequent studies carried out precisely to understand the teachings that lie behind the great narrative of the dream. With the 9-year-old Dream, Don Bosco’s field of action, the purpose of his apostolic activity and his educational method become clear: the Preventive System. Through a historical journey, Don Pasqualetti showed that “everything has changed” in society, but Don Bosco’s dream and the oratory continue to be current and to respond to the educational needs of the new generations.
After a moment of virtual debate and interaction, the national coordinators of the RSB’s programmatic areas of School, Social Assistance and Communication – respectively Sister Lucia Jacinta Finassi, Carolina Neves de Oliveira and Sister Loes – gave their contribution on the theme “The realization of the 9-year dream in the presences of the Salesian Network Brazil” from the point of view of the dimensions of their competence.
The first day ended with a sharing of the “Manifesto to the youth”, a document drafted on the occasion of the RSB National Meeting (Aparecida 2023), in which the commitment to “inhabit and recover the experience of the courtyard in its various manifestations, where young people meet, such as social networks…” is recalled at the first point.
The speech entitled “The digital continent, a game where friends are won with kindness and charity”, by Sister Mercedes Méndez Siliuto, Head of Communications for the Congregation of the Sisters of the Assumption (Spain), opened the second day of work.
The nun highlighted the expressions of the 9-year-old Dream and the message of Pope Francis for the World Day of Social Communications 2024, associating them around the theme of the wisdom of the heart. She also indicated the triad beauty-goodness-truth as guiding criteria for a quality presence on social networks and for edu-communication to be effective. And she concluded her speech with an invitation: “Let us found homes in the digital continent: not isolated presences, but a ‘Salesian we’. Educators and students, together, this is truly being a Salesian presence in the digital continent”.
After the break, the second speech, given by the Secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, Monsignor Lucio Adrian Ruiz, had as its theme “Digital, from instrument to culture: a challenge for the Church. A vision starting from ‘A full presence’”.
Archbishop Ruiz presented a historical overview of the Church’s vision of the media, emphasizing that they are not simple tools, but a culture to be evangelized. He spoke on topics such as inculturation, the missionary dynamic of the Church and the presence of the Church in the digital continent.
The prelate, responsible for drafting the Holy See’s main document on the subject – “Towards Full Presence. Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media”, insisted on the need to “move from technology to kerygmaat the first announcement, because technology is the activity, while the kerygma is the essence”, since “digital culture is a space for evangelization and mission”.
Raimundo Marcelo Maciel, member of the Salesian National Commission for Youth Ministry, then provided some insights into the topics covered from a pastoral perspective, highlighting his experience with the Yanomami people and the arrival of the Internet in the indigenous mission of Maturacá, district of S. Gabriel da Cachoeira.
In the conclusions of the meeting, Sister Loes drew a brief parallel between the document “Towards a Full Presence” by the Vatican Dicastery for Communications and the “Manifesto to Young People” by the RSB. Both documents emphasize that “young people ask to be found where they are, including on social networks” and that it is necessary to “understand young people from where they are and want to be found”.
The participants of the II ENAC said goodbye leaving each other a task-mission to accomplish: “to inhabit the social networks in a Salesian way, moving from dream to reality, without stopping dreaming: dreaming and working for the present and the future of the children, adolescents and young people who every day cross the gates and doors […] of our presences,” concluded Sister Loes.
