NASN Annual Meeting

By Fr. John Puntino, SDB, SDB Delegate, Salesian Cooperators (Canada)

(Etobicoke, ON – April 22) – From Monday, April 13, through Wednesday, April 15, the North American Salesian Network (NASN) annual meeting took place, once again at Oblates of St. Francis de Sales’ Camp DeSales in Brooklyn, Michigan. Eight people participated in person, while another two participated virtually. They represented 10 of the 16 NASN groups that share the spirituality and pastoral inspiration of St. Francis de Sales.

Participants spent Monday evening updating each other on activities and developments in their congregation, institute or association. Fr. John Puntino spoke of the upcoming ordination of Dcn. Tom Junis, the Futuring Project for the SUE Province, and the appointment of Fr. Joe Nguyen as provincial of the San Francisco Province. Fr. Ken McKenna, director of Camp DeSales, spoke of the work being done to combine the two Oblates of St. Francis de Sales (OSFS) USA provinces. He also spoke of a new form of youth ministry, Live Jesus Ministries, which is proving very successful in junior high schools, secondary schools, and parishes. Sr. Brenda Lisenby, VSM, explained why the Second Federation of Visitation Monasteries in the USA will come to an end and join the First Federation to form a new entity. Joe Conroy spoke about the Salesian Cooperators’ 150th Anniversary celebrations.

Since its inception in 2012, NASN has set as its goal to refresh North American society with knowledge of the life and spirituality of St. Francis de Sales. It developed a website and collaborated with OSFS’s Embraced By God publisher to produce an annual Fr. Graden Memorial Lecture.

This year, Fr. Steve DeMaio, SDB, gave the lecture. It is awaiting approval to be listed in the Official Catholic Directory.

During the elections this year, Joe Conroy was re-elected president.

Oblate Dcn. Jonathan Dick gave a detailed presentation of how social media can create and use evangelization content. What proves most attractive are presentations depicting priests and consecrated persons acting in ordinary ways, such as line dancing, and then moving on to speaking about their charism, vocation, or some faith topic. Dcn. Jon will be ordained a priest for the Oblates on Saturday, May 30.

NASN’s next steps are to expand its website’s page “Salesian Quotes and Themes” with popular quotes from Salesian sources other than St. Francis de Sales and to open the annual meeting to more people from each member group.