Messaggio della Consigliera per le Missioni_14 maggio 2017_English

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Lima (Perù), 14 May 2017.
Dearest Sisters,
I am happy to share with you the joy of having lived times of grace and much hope since our last
encounter until today.
Our last appointment in which we recalled the pioneer of the first missionary expedition, Sr.
Angela Vallese, was prepared in Jesus Adolescent Province in the Middle East, where our sisters
made us feel and live a great desire for peace: peace in Syria, peace for the whole world. Returning
to Rome, we celebrated the feast of Easter and, in the spirit of the Risen One, from 17 to 22 April, I
had various meetings with the Brazilian Interprovincial Conference and with the Salesian Brazilian
Network: an experience of family, of fraternity, and of sharing life and mission. On 23 to 30 April,
at Cachoeira do Campo in Mother Mazzarello Province, we accomplished in synergy with the SDB
Missions Sector, the Seminar of Missionary Animation and Formation: the Initial
Proclamation and Salesian Mission. The Seminar itself was a wonderful time of the initial
proclamation and we desire that what we lived, be transformed into the initial proclamation for all
our realities on the American Continent and the Caribbean.
Today, as I write this message, I am on a missionary animation visit to St. Rose Province in Lima,
Peru where they recently celebrated the 125th
anniversary of FMA presence in this land: young,
promising, and holy.
It was here that a great missionary of the first hour lived: Sr. Giovanna Borgna. Her remains are
found under the altar of Mother Mazzarello in the Chapel of the House of Breña - Lima. We can
recount many things regarding Sr. Giovanna Borgna. She is the missionary among the six of the
first expedition who lived the longest. She died at 85 years of age after 68 years of missionary life
ad gentes. When she left from Genoa for Uruguay, she was 17 years old and had 2 months of
profession. She worked in close collaboration with Sr. Angela Vallese and with her entered into
Patagonia in 1880. I invite you to know more of the life of Sr. Giovanna Borgna by reading the
volume Facciamo Memoria of 1945. There are pages and pages of missionary enthusiasm, of
resilience, of obedience in faith, of joy in being able to serve without ever tiring. It is also
interesting to see the video of Sr. Giovanna Borgna prepared by the sisters of Peru that can be found
on this link https://youtu.be/FTR1VmzA_kA.
Sr. Giovanna Borgna began her missionary life in Uruguay and then went to Argentina, Patagonia.
After this, she was sent to Ecuador and then Peru. On this May 14, we desire to dedicate our prayer
to the Provinces where Sr. Giovanna Borgna lived, in a special way Ecuador and Peru. I ask you to
be close in fraternity and prayer to the sisters who today, in Ecuador and Peru, generously work
with the heart of the charism of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello, and who, like Sr. Giovanna
Borgna, live missionary ardor 24 hours a day.
Dearest Sisters,
I too assure you of my closeness and I give you the gift of my prayer before the tomb of Sr.
Giovanna Borgna, as you can see in the photo attached to this message. I remembered you all and I
asked the Lord, through the intercession of Sr. Giovanna Borgna, for the gift of health of body and
spirit; I implored the gift of many missionary vocations for the Institute and the entire Church.

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Now I give you the gift of a brief testimony coming from Sacred Heart Province regarding Sr.
Giovanna Borgna. Let us make this the motive for personal and community prayer. Like Sr.
Giovanna, may we be guided by the Lord in the small and great occasions of our life, and offer to
Him our whole being so that He may be known and loved by the young people, the children, the
families, the people we meet each day, those who have not yet heard of Him …
«On February 22, 1908, Sr. Giovanna Borgna arrives in Ecuador, Delegate of the Superior General,
entrusted with the two pre-provinces of Peru and Ecuador. The first activity she accomplishes is her
visit to the sisters in the mission of Gualaquiza where she spends almost a month with them,
consoling them and animating them in the solitude and in the powerlessness of the forest. Ecuador
is living a very difficult historical time and only heroes and saints succeed in overcoming the battle
without turning back. As a Visiting Superior, she already knew this nation with its problems and
the foundations opened up to that time through the impulse of Fr. Rua and Mother Catherine
Daghero (Gualaquiza 1902 and Cuenca 1904).
The mission of Gualaquiza is situated in the heart of the jungle where not even the beasts and the
snakes want to live. The rains are strong; the winds took away the roofs of the huts; the sisters lived
under the protection of God the Father without bread, without shelter, without electricity, and with
uncertainty; in the company of the moon, the stars, of a suffocating and draining sun; far, very far
from all the villages.
The loving and Samaritan heart of Sr. Giovanna was not able to support this harsh reality. She
prays; she prays a lot. She speaks with the Superiors in Italy, offers sacrifices to discern and see
God’s will for this foundation, and with courage, decides to leave and bring the sisters with her until
there are at least the minimum conditions to open it again. Sr. Elisa Cortez who lived this difficult
experience writes: “The extreme poverty did not frighten her. She prayed without stopping and
cried together with us. But she overcame the dangers of every kind and the debts we had contracted
to survive. Then there was no other choice but to leave the forest and go to beg in the city of
Cuenca. On her return after a month, without considering the discomforts of the trip by horse and
by foot, she paid all the debts before taking us away”.
Sr. Giovanna was a woman anchored in God. She did not close the house out of laziness. The crisis
was truly without hope and she decided on the departure of the sisters. The jungle was again in
solitude until the Lord would show the opportune time for the FMA to return to Gualaquiza. Sr.
Giovanna shares with the communities the experience lived in Mornese: the love of God made
prayer; the giving of their life at the service of their brothers and sisters. Moved by missionary ardor
and by the needs of the Church in Ecuador, she founds the Nursery of San José in the village of
Sígsig, province of Azuay (1908), the Nursery of Sotomayor y Luna, now Mary Help of Christians
School at Guayaquil (1911), and the houses of Mary Help of Christians at Chunchi, Province of
Chimborazo (1912), all works dedicated to evangelization and the education of children and of
adolescents of the villages, all for the poorest. Works that were born of the will of the Good God, by
the effort and sacrifice of the sisters, by the unconditional support of the fathers of families, and by
the Councils of Beneficence that wanted better days for their children and for future generations. In
every foundation, Sr. Giovanna was dynamically present to know the places, the people, and to find
the resources, to sign agreements and contracts. Everywhere, she was received with joy, trust, and
gratitude».
Z. P. T. fma

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Dearest Sisters,
I close this message, thanking you for the your commitment to participate in the GREAT
MISSIONARY EXPEDITION. I remind you that in the month of April every Province was invited
to discern together with the sisters a prophetic gesture assumed by the Provincial Community on
November 14, 2017. I repeat what I already said last month: I would like in the coming months
to receive from every Province, the prophetic gesture chosen and the meaningful effect in
every community and in the heart of all the FMA so that the missionary ardor of the origins
may be revived in the Institute and will arouse new missionary vocations ad gentes.
I greet you with affection, wishing you a month of May in company with Mary, the Help of
Christians. On May 24th
, I will remember you with joy and gratitude in the Basilica at Turin before
the Virgin of Don Bosco.
Councilor for the Missions
alaide@cgfma.org
Sr. Alaíde Deretti and some sisters of Perú before
the tomb of Sr. Giovanna Borgna,
missionary of the first hour.