Geographical Description
Chile 'belongs' to three continents: South America, Oceania and Antartica.
Its borders run to the southernmost part of the Southern Hemisphere and along a whole area of the South Pacific Ocean, with land and protectorates in the only meeting points between the Atlantic and Pacific: the Magellan Straights and Drake Sea.
The average width of the country is 177 Km. (the distance between Rome and Naples) but it is more than 4,300 km long. Its length is equal to the distance between Lisbon and Moscow, or Singapore and Tokyo.
In the extreme south you find the world's southernmost city, Puerto Williams, and 100 kilometres further on the southern continent of South America finishes at Cape Horn. Chile is the country closest to Antartica; just 900 km awaya.
Salesian presence runs from the far north in Iquique to the far south in Punta Arenas.
Presences in the country
The Congregation began its mission in Chile on 6 March 1887 inn Concepción with five Salesians Don Bosco was asked to send by the Chilean authorities of the time, to educate the sons of the people, especially those orphaned by the Pacific War. They came to Punta Arenas the same year where they took up the work of evangelisation and the mission to the indigenous people.
Works
Salesian work in Chile is made up of:
13 Colleges (academic)
10 Technical schools
2 Agricultural schools
7 CFT
1 University
4 Formation Houses
17 Parishes
5 Shrines
10 Retirment homes
2 Youth Centres
1 Sanitarium
3 Printing presses
1 Publishing House
1 Bookshop
Presences for the marginalised (Don Bosco-Laura Vicuña)
The colleges, industrial and agricultural schools together look after around 24,400 students; Technical schools, 850 students and the Silva Henríquez Catholic University 4,800 students, counting pre-grad and post-grad courses.
Province Youth Ministry
Youth ministry is at the core of the mission and concern of the Chile Province. It has departments and teams that look after all areas of youth activity in the pastoral and educative communities, take up the problems that arise and offer the necessary responses.
There are time leadership teams:
Province Youth Ministry Team
This is made up of those responsible for animation of the various sectors of the mission and of teams which animate the various dimensions of Province youth ministry. In charge is the Youth Ministry Delegate Father Juan Carlos Zura.
This team draws up an action plan, based on the Province objectives, and sets out the short, medium and long term objectives.
Vocation Ministry Team
This team specialises in following up, accompanying, supervising and evaluating all the EPC programmes to do with the vocational dimension for older youth and adults in the mission, and accompanies in a special way any who feel a call to priestly or religious life.
Family Ministry Team
This team follows, motivate, evaluates the development of plans, action and tasks of an educative and evangelising kind for families in the EPC, accompanying and forming the children, and those who voluntarily take up the Salesian pastoral and educative proposal.
Catechesis and evangelisation Team (EDEC)
Team responsible for the evangelisation-catechesis part of Salesian ministry, serving to help coordinate youth ministry in the Chilean Church as well.
Multidisciplinary Team
This team reflects, studies and gathers information in the pedagogy-ministry field, pand helps the YM Delegate and the Coordiantion Teamn for Province Youth Ministry.
Province Youth Ministry has a further five Departaments.
School and Higher education Department
This department, from the strategic and operational level, jelps Province YM to manage and carry out guidelines of the province through specific projects; at the same time it animates, guides, evaluates, supervises how the mission is set up in the various school communities in the country where education and evangelisation are concerned.
Oratories, Youth Centres, Enviornmental programmes Department
This department reflects, accomapnies, supervises and evaluates the Oratories, Youth Centres and Enviornment programmes, to give them a Salesian preventive style of acceptance in an educative and evangelising settingr.
Parishes Department
This department animates, guides, assesses and evaluates the mission as it operates in various parishes and shrines entrusted to the Salesians.
Salesian Youth Ministry Department
This department specialises in following up, accompanying, supervising and evaluating the various community and group expressions of Salesian Youth Spirituality in local ECPs, and SYM. It is for Salesians and competent lay peoples and represents the various expressions of the SYM in the province:
• Salesian Apostolic Communities (CAS);
• Dominic Savio Community (CDS)
• Salesian Mission to children (IMS);
• Salesian Mission Communities (CMS);
• Youth in the Spirit encounters (EJE);
• Adults in the Spirit encounters (ESCOGE);
• Children int he Spirit encounters ( ENE)
• Alter Servers
Volunteer Department
Department that animates the Volunteer experience in Chile, involving older youth and adults from Chile and overseas.
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