PARISHES AND YOUTH CENTER GATHER FOR JANUARY LEADERSHIP RETREAT

(New Rochelle, N.Y. – January 22) – From January 9 to 13, the Salesian Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry led the Salesian Leadership Retreat at the Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y. This program is designed for the parishes and youth centers in the province as well as in the wider local Church. Victoria Weekley served as program coordinator for the SLR (her first time in this role). Guilherme Lopes served as young team coordinator, and Fr. Abraham Feliciano served as program director. The theme for this retreat was Don Bosco’s Oratory (the same theme as the SLR in March and October).

High school-aged youths gathered during this retreat for moments of prayer (including Mass, Eucharistic adoration, and sacramental Reconciliation), icebreakers and community building, witness talks, and small and large group sharing sessions in order to prepare them to be leaders and representatives of Don Bosco’s Oratory in their parishes, youth centers, high schools, and communities when they return home.

There were 83 retreatants, including youth participants, the young team leaders, adult chaperones, and core team. They came from the Salesian works of Don Bosco Youth Leadership Centre in Montreal; St. John Bosco Parish in Chicago; St. Philip Benizi Parish in Belle Glade, Fla.; Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Orange, N.J.; and St. John Bosco Parish in Port Chester, N.Y. Participants also attended from St. Augustine Parish in New City, N.Y; St. Dominic Parish in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn; St. John Neumann Parish in Reston, Va.; St. Michael Parish in Netcong, N.J.,; and St. Thomas More Parish in Hauppauge, N.Y.