In a letter to supporters, the General Councillor for Salesian Missions, Alfred Maravilla, SDB, writes about the international efforts of Salesians in meeting the challenges of COVID-19, and the lessons we are learning from the pandemic. Photo: Salesian Missions

Dear friends of the Salesian missions,

When the pandemic of the COVID-19 virus broke out, the Mission Department of the Salesian Headquarters in Rome, with the support of the Don Bosco Network, organised an online strategic planning meeting on 25 March. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Don George Menamparampil, coordinator of Don Bosco Worldwide Solidarity Against COVID 19, the Salesian missionary proxies in all continents, both in rich and poor countries, have set up a network and coordinated their initiatives to save lives.

Now the pandemic is gradually decreasing in many countries, while in others it is only reaching its peak. Experts warn of a second, more fatal wave. However, this emergency is already teaching us important missionary lessons. Above all, the pandemic has opened the veil on a harsh truth: we do not have all the answers or the means, sometimes we do not even ask ourselves the right questions to respond to an emergency. Therefore, we cannot be satisfied with the good we do. We need to coordinate with others to effectively help more people.

This could be intimidating, but it is also stimulating and refreshing.

Now we realise that nobody should even think that 'it has always been done this way'. By learning from our past mistakes, the pandemic is teaching us that to help you need love, commitment, dedication and concern for human life - even at the risk of contracting the virus ourselves - for the most abandoned , the forgotten, those who are not even able to ask for help.

This emergency reminds us that it takes humility to be able to collaborate with others as equal partners; that it takes imagination and creativity to invent solutions to emergency situations that we have never faced before; that it takes self-discipline to ensure adequate documentation, financial transparency and responsibility for the help received from our donors; that it takes the missionary spirit to realize that crisis situations are fruitful moments for the first announcement even among agnostics and atheists; that faith above all needs to remind us that all these initiatives are concrete expressions of our love for Jesus Christ, which assures us that in the end Life will triumph over death; God, not evil, will have the last word. This month of the Sacred Heart, in fact, is a strong call to live our life in such a way as to reveal to the whole world the Loving heart of a Merciful God!

Don Alfred Maravilla, SDB
Councillor for the Missions