Tampa: CRT Students Attend DEC Retreat in Naples

By Fr. Eddie Chincha, SDB

(Tampa, FL – December 13) – On Saturday, December 9, ten students from Cristo Rey Tampa Salesian High School (CRT) traveled to Naples, FL, for the Day Everyone Connect (DEC) Retreat. This is a beautiful moment when St. John Neumann High School in Naples, FL, hosts a retreat experience for the three Salesian high schools in Florida. We came from Tampa and Immaculata-La Salle in Miami. Every year, the cooperation between our three schools, as well as the FMA and SDB communities, has become stronger. We are particularly grateful to the Salesian Sisters’ community in Naples, especially Sr. Nicole Daly, FMA, for organizing this great retreat for the last few years.

This year, the retreat theme was: “Let your steadfast love comfort me” (Psalm 119:76). This retreat offered our students a richer experience of the Salesian Family and a chance to encounter and share experiences with students from our other Salesian schools. Fr. Craig Spence and I drove our students to Naples for this occasion. We celebrated Mass and heard the confessions of the participants. Daniela, a senior from CRT, gave a wonderful witness talk about God’s providential care in her life, experienced especially through her family and friends. She encouraged her peers to trust the process, where God molds their lives and is present, especially in the toughest moments.

We are very blessed with the students God sent us at CRT. They are the type of young people whose background make them most dear to Don Bosco’s heart. Each year in our school youth ministry plan, we seek to develop a different pillar of the Salesian oratory to cement our identity as a Salesian school and make evangelization our raison d’etre. Our seniors this year, although they faced the worst part of the pandemic during their freshman year, have a greater knowledge of the Salesian identity than our previous graduating classes. They challenge each other and even the staff to avoid bad behavior by jokingly saying, “That’s not very Salesian of you.” They do so because they have caught the Preventive System and Salesian spirit. I hope I have been able to share with you one example of how God has blessed and guided our mission here in Tampa.