(ANS – Rome) – Two formation and sharing meetings for animators of the various Salesian Family Causes were held on Monday, June 9, and Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in the usual online format and under the direction of the Postulator General, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, and his collaborator, Fr. Gabriel Cruz. The program included three contributions, heard by some 40 participants.

First of all, Fr. Cameroni shared the beauty and great ecclesial richness of the days in Chambéry (France) for the Beatification, on May 17, 2025, of Camille Costa de Beauregard, a French priest (1841-1910) of noble origins who dedicated his life to orphans. The Beatification ceremony, the first under the pontificate of Leo XIV – presided over as the Pope’s Delegate by the Apostolic Nuncio in France, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, with 12 bishops – was attended by a large portion of God’s people who, with many young people, animated the events of Grace in those days.

In a Europe that today seems to be increasingly de-Christianized, the beatification of Camille Costa presented the beautiful face of a France crossed by great ferments of awakening and renewal in the faith, in which, on the night of the great Easter Vigil this year, as many as 18,000 adults received Baptism. The “saints” continue to be light and to gather the best energies around them!

Lodovica Maria Zanet, collaborator of the Salesian Postulation, presented a reflection on ‘Missions ad gentes, school of holiness’, noting – in 2025 which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the First Salesian Missionary Expedition – how an overwhelming number of the Causes currently being dealt with by the Postulation involve missionaries, men and women who due to a greater love left everything, becoming ‘Jesus passing by’ for others: Hence, the importance of rediscovering the inner roots at the origin of their missionary activity, together with the link between different figures of holiness, who became a sign of love and unity thanks to their friendship; the involvement of young people, coinvolved in their missionary activity; the ability to dwell within complexity, within a changing world that still sometimes seeks to silence the voice of the Gospel.

Lastly, Dr. Roberto Chiaramonte – animator for the Cause of the Servant of God Nino Baglieri and President of the Salesian Youth Sports Clubs of Sicily – presented the captivating experience, which he strongly desired, of the encounter between holiness and sport on the occasion of the “Pigiessiadi” (PGS event) held in May in the province of Agrigento, with over 600 participants representing the 213 clubs and almost 12,000 registered members in the region.

The figure of Nino Baglieri – thanks to the willingness of the contact person, Sister Giusy Davì, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, and the collaboration of the Postulator – was thus presented to the young people and their coaches, and by virtue of his human and Christian journe, from despair to hope, from anger and pain to joy, he put many back “on the road” and “on the search,” helping them to make the inner transitions to others that they need for their own growth. The meetings – for teams or groups of teams (with numbers that favoured welcoming, listening and dialogue) – were a driving force for formation and, for many young people, a unique opportunity to meet God and experience Don Bosco’s family style. A very successful initiative, to be valued and, as far as possible, re-proposed in other contexts and with new figures.

You can review the meeting of 11 June by connecting to Zoom and entering the following code: 6#d*dW8J