Vocational Leaders: training seminar for Sports Club Managers

The first ever “Leaders by Vocation” seminar, organized and curated by FGE and devoted to managers working with the Jesuit Education Foundation’s Sports Centers, was launched on 3 and 4 September.

Alongside the FGE training team, General Coordinators, Sports Directors, Administrators and members of the Governing Boards of the Leone XIII Sports Center and Centro Schuster in Milan, Sociale Sport in Turin, and Polisportiva Gonzaga in Palermo have all taken the first educational steps of a journey that will include a number of events throughout the year, concluding with another weekend of workshops and training in May 2023.

This first stage, duly entitled “Prophets and Authors”, took place at Schuster and Leone XIII Sport Centers in Milan and saw the recounting of several stories, all very different from each other, yet all related to the theme of leadership and in particular the interpretation of the role of “leader” as being a person capable of carrying out his or her prophetic visions and dreams by empowering and involving co-workers, who in turn are thus transformed into conscious “authors” of the tasks that are accomplished.

Father Vitangelo Denora, who was called upon to share his own personal story and that of the Society of Jesus in the quest towards “co-responsibility” that exists between lay people and Jesuits, emphasized in his speech how “we are all called to undergo the transformation that Jesus likewise asked of ‘his own followers’ in the transition from humble Disciples to Apostles”.

A considerable amount of time was also dedicated to telling the story of Fr. Lodovico Morell and his visionary opus, namely Milan’s Schuster Center. The depiction of such a seminal figure who was so fundamental in the journey towards promoting the principle of Education through Sport was the source of a great deal of deeply felt emotion and resulted in much food for thought.

Guido Bigotto, the Director of the FGE, was clearly delighted to be able to confirm that “this first seminar on leadership in the world of educational sports is a fundamental step forward in building and concretely implementing a network between the different sports centers in the Euro-Mediterranean Province. By observing the teams and comparing notes, the leaders of the centers in Milan, Turin and Palermo have already understood the potency of pooling their experiences and conducting joint training sessions together on issues that shape our lives”.

The second stage of the training will take place in November 2022 and will be conducted remotely.