The FSPs and SSPs of Italy held their annual Communications Festival this year from 10-17 May in Cosenza (Calabria). The event coincided with three significant milestones: the 10th anniversary of Communications Week, the Centenary of foundation of the Daughters of St. Paul, and the 90th anniversary of the diocesan weekly, Words of Life. All three anniversaries–which celebrate making room for the Good News in our lives, evangelization with the instruments of communication and the effort to observe WCD in a meaningful and life-oriented way–were enthusiastically commemorated throughout the week-long Festival, serving to reinforce its purpose.
The Week’s agenda featured initiatives programmed for families, children and teens, and included events ranging from Marian devotions to sports. One initiative that attracted notable attention was a talk held at the local university entitled, The Mafia’s Damaging Impact on Families. The conference, which drew a huge crowd of students, illustrated how family life is distorted when its dynamics are pervaded by the mafia’s perverse logic and governed by the interests of this group.
The speaker explained how the University of Cosenza could repudiate its nickname (“The Athens of Calabria”) by serving as an arena to combat the damage to families inflicted by the mafia, namely: by providing youth with an education that would give them the drive and enthusiasm to develop the economically-depressed region. The points emphasized in the talk had already been foreseen by Fr. Alberione, who visited Cosenza in 1970 while the university was still under construction and predicted the role it would play in the life of society.
The speaker explained how the University of Cosenza could repudiate its nickname (“The Athens of Calabria”) by serving as an arena to combat the damage to families inflicted by the mafia, namely: by providing youth with an education that would give them the drive and enthusiasm to develop the economically-depressed region. The points emphasized in the talk had already been foreseen by Fr. Alberione, who visited Cosenza in 1970 while the university was still under construction and predicted the role it would play in the life of society.
Other important events on the Festival’s calendar were a conference for seminarians and catechetists on how to use the Internet for evangelization; two days of accredited formation for Calabrian journalists; a Gala featuring dancing, music and testimonies; entertainment for children in the city’s main square, etc. The unique feature of the Cosenza Communications Festival was the fact that many of the region’s associations and clubs participated with great vivacity in the event.