(Red IUS – Roma) – During the days from 18 to 22 June 2024, the Continental Coordinators and the General Coordinator of the Salesian Higher Education Institutions (IUS) network met in Rome to hold their evaluation, review and design meeting for the period 2022-2026.
Fr Oscar Lozano, General Coordinator, convened the Continental Coordinators at the headquarters of the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS). Of the six continental coordinators, three managed to participate: Mr. Alessio Rocchi, Continental Coordinator of IUS-Europe, Br. Mario Olmos, SDB, Continental Coordinator of IUS-America; and Fr Joby Joseph SDB, Continental Coordinator of IUS-South Asia. The Continental Coordinators of Lusophone America, East Asia and Africa could not participate – two of them for health reasons.
The meeting took place in two large blocks: evaluation of the activities carried out in the network and design of future ones. At the same time, complementary conferences were planned that addressed topics of interest to the network. Thus, those present were able to reason together and share their impressions on topics and tools such as: “AI Powered Library” with Fr Michal Vojtas, SDB, Vice-Rector of the UPS; the “Laudato Si Platform and the university”, with Fr Joshtrom Kureethadam, SDB, Coordinator of the Ecology and Creation Sector of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development; the “UPS-IUS research project on the university youth world”, with Fr Mario Oscar Llanos, SDB, and UPS professor Isabella Cordisco; and “UNISERVITATE” and its “learning service” proposal, with Prof. Maria Cinque, of the LUMSA University of Rome.
On the last day of the meeting, the participants listened with pleasure to the conference that Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education, offered them on the theme “Challenges for the Catholic Church in the field of Higher Education”.
Among the conclusions of the meeting of the IUS Continental Coordinators, it is important to emphasise the need to insist on the formation of Salesians – at all levels – and on the theoretical framework of this educational and pastoral reality, which can be summarised in the title that appears in the Frame of Reference: “The Salesian Presence in Higher Education”: an expression that goes beyond just university institutions and that also includes various initiatives and mediations of evangelisation.
The meeting ended with the evaluation of what was seen, heard and lived, together with the General Councillor for Salesian Youth Ministry, Fr Miguel Angel García Morcuende; and then with the community celebration of the Eucharist and a time of fraternal sharing
Source: ANS – “Agencia iNfo Salesiana”