(ANS – Turin) – From 29 August to 1 September 2024, Fatima will host the 9th International Congress of Mary Help of Christians promoted by the Association of Mary Help of Christians (ADMA) and aimed at all groups of the Salesian Family. It aims to make known, deepen and spread the devotion to the “Don Bosco’s Madonna”. In view of this significant appointment of the Salesian Family, the organising team of the congress has promoted a series of nine videos in which different personalities of the Salesian world invite everyone to participate; and the first invitation could only be that of Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco and Father and Centre of Unity of the Salesian Family.
In the short video, just over a minute long, the 10th Successor of Don Bosco, speaking in his native language from the Valdocco courtyard, reminds the entire Salesian Family of the appointment of the 9th International Congress of Mary Help of Christians. “I still remember how we experienced the Congress of Buenos Aires (the 8th International Congress, Ed.) with real emotion and deep meaning. Certainly it is an event of the Salesian Family with a deep Marian heart, to which we can and must respond”, expresses the Rector Major in the video.
He then concludes: “It is a real pleasure for me to invite you and I know that we will respond to this call with our Salesian and Marian heart that characterises the Don Bosco Family. Come on, Fatima is waiting for us!”
And just a few hours after the Rector Major’s invitation, the second invitation video was also shared on the network, in which Portuguese Salesian Fr Antonio Marcelino, member of the Congress organising team, spoke: “I am sure you have seen that the Pope was in Portugal and Fatima and invited us to be present at ‘everything, everything, everything’ and ’everyone, everyone, everyone’, because the events of the Church are for everyone. I am a simple coordinator, but I would like to invite and challenge everyone to come here to the Congress: an opportunity for us to be together as a Salesian Family, to get to know Portugal and Fatima, which is the altar of the world where Our Lady awaits us all.”
The theme chosen for the 9th International Congress of Mary Help of Christians, “I will give you a Teacher”, recalls Don Bosco’s “Dream at Nine Years of Age”, the 200th anniversary of which is being celebrated this year.
Starting from the dream, the goal is to make Mary more and more known as Mother and Teacher who accompanies and guides the entire Salesian Family on the path to Jesus and to the most needy young people.
Registration for the 9th International Congress of Mary Help of Christians is already underway. Registration can be made through the form available on the conference website, where all the details and costs for participation are also available.
Source: ANS – “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana”