Youth and Basic Formation in Europa

Comboni postulants and novices
with their formators,
at Verona (Italy),
in 2012.

Fr. Karl Peinhopf, provincial of the DSP and continental coordinator of the sector of the formation, and Fr. Pedro Andrés, in their opening address welcomed all the participants. Then there was the intervention of an external facilitator, Fr. Oscar Román, CMF, who presented an analysis of the situation of young people in Europe today and proposed a plan on how to work out a good vocations accompaniment of the youth.

Meanwhile in his speech, Fr John Baptist Keraryo Opargiw, general secretary for Formation, thanked and encouraged the participants for their service in the youth and vocations sector and insisted on the fundamental importance of taking good care of the “place and time” of our encounter with young people in order to have credible witness of life and activities, both on a personal level and as a community.

Later we listened to the reports from the Circumscriptions. There is a strong desire to have a quality leap as concerns our culture of vocations that can truly involve all the confreres and all our communities. The participants also had a half-day on-going formation session on our Rule of Life, that is, its place and impact in our lives and activities on a daily basis.