We, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, are a relatively young institute. We were born in 1872 in a small village in the province of Alessandria, in northern Italy. A few years later, the founder, Saint John Bosco, and the co-foundress, Saint Maria Domenica Mazzarello, pushed us towards the missions. Then the institute experienced a very wide range of inculturation and we touched many countries. Today, we are present in 97 countries, with more than 1,500 homes. We can say that our educational work has crossed the world. We have made a significant contribution, especially to the education of young girls, because we were founded for them, without forgetting the educational mission, which is aimed at young people and children on the five continents.
In these 150 years, we have committed ourselves to reading the reality in which we are inserted from an evangelical point of view, with a great capacity for adaptation, to respond precisely to the questions that came from the territory. Questions of education, but also of the advancement of women, of assistance, if we think of the truly difficult period of the world wars, or of emergency situations all over the world.
We always strive to respond first and foremost by being present: to be there to listen to questions and then respond to the one that constitutes the emergency, always from an educational angle, also through a variety of institutions — as a center can be promotion of women, the chaplaincy, schools of all kinds and levels, the university — which responds to a wide range of recipients and questions.
The future of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians will certainly aim to rekindle this commitment to education even if, as with all religious institutes, the number of nuns is decreasing, at least in certain parts of the world, although it is increasing in other. Young people are everywhere; and even, in certain contexts such as Africa or Asia, they are present in truly impressive numbers. We are therefore continuing our work of educating them, using the method of the preventive system. I consider that educating means leading the person to walk on two legs and to do this, Pope Francis asks us to trust the new generations, to make them protagonists. On the one hand, we must eliminate everything that hinders and prevents the serene growth of young people: indifference, resignation and mistrust. On the other hand, it is necessary to try educational paths aimed more at promotion, which lead young people to encounter themselves and with others, to live a culture of encounter and an ecological spirituality, which live today on a global level. We nourish the hope that young people instill in us, even when it seems to us that the challenges are a little difficult to face.
We also looked to the future, through an international congress held in Rome from September 25 to 30, entitled “Contribution of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians to education: paths, challenges and perspectives”. This was above all a challenge for the institute and for those who organized the congress, which was probably the only one in the history of the congregation. There were nearly 300 participants in attendance and between 600 and 1000 online. This symposium did not want to be simply a purely study meeting for academics or specialists, but a contribution for all those who have at heart the great theme of the educational challenge. The first session, which also offered statistical data, was based on historical data, in order to define profiles of educators who have creatively interpreted the preventive system in the various contexts. Then there was the moment of pedagogical reflection, which the institute launched, through the contribution that our faculty made to the systematization of this preventive thought for women.
We have also carried out an important exploratory research, carried out by an international team, on the perception of Salesian education today, by interviewing educational communities present in the world. Another evening, young boys and girls connected online and told us what they think of us and education. All this was like opening a window on the world of young people, with whom we were able to dialogue, especially through the language of music and dance.
Piera Ruffinatto
Rector of the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium
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