From 1 to 4 December, the Father General of the Pious Schools, Fr. Carles Gil, Sch. P., and his Assistant for Europe, Fr. Jacek Wolan, Sch. P., made a fraternal visit to the Piarist community of Bobigny, in the Diocese of Saint-Denis (France). The Piarist presence in this suburb of Paris is one of the missionary signs of the Province of West Africa in Europe, at the service of a Church marked by cultural diversity and new pastoral challenges.
The community is currently made up of five Piarists, who provide pastoral care for three parishes and one chapel in the city. During the visit, the Father General was able to share moments of prayer, dialogue and community life, listening first-hand to the hopes and challenges that the religious experience in their daily ministry.
The Piarist mission in Bobigny is carried out in close collaboration with other religious communities and with committed lay people. Among them, a Piarist association made up of around twenty volunteers stands out; they take an active part in various educational and social initiatives. This network of collaboration clearly expresses the style of shared mission proper to the Calasanctian charism.
The visit of the Father General has been for the community a time of accompaniment and hope. It has helped them to reread the path travelled, to strengthen communion with the whole Order and to renew the desire to continue serving, in the spirit of Saint Joseph Calasanz, the little ones and the least in the heart of a great European metropolis.
