The joy of living and working together
I was born in Spain, at Barakaldo, an industrial city. When I was 13 years old,
Fr Jesus Molero, a Salesian missionary in Korea, not only talked about his
activities, but also campaigned in several parishes to find funds for the
Salesian works in that country. I accompanied him to almost every one of his
presentations. It was a missionary experience and an awakening.
After completing high school, I went to the Novitiate, where I wrote my first
letter requesting to go to the missions. I was ordained in 1978 and the Africa
project was launched. My then Provincial, Fr Salvador Bastarrica, came on a
visit and, to my surprise told me, "Since you asked to go to the missions while
in the novitiate, I suppose I can count on you to go now to Benin." And so my mission-
ary experience started again.
I left for Benin with Don Jesus Ferrero, and we started the Salesian presence in that country on
August 9, 1980, the day we arrived. On 20 August 2016, I took the plane to Europe because I needed a break. I
thank God and my confreres for my thirty-six years of missionary life. And now, after completing a workshop, I
wrote my second missionary request. To my surprise, the Rector Major welcomed it and blessed me. Now I am on
my way to Mato Grosso, Brazil. The initial challenges in Benin were obvious. We had to study the language of the
people. French was the official language, but not on the street nor at the liturgy. We needed to learn the culture
and traditions, as well as the ways of social and family behaviour, to adapt to the climate and to confront new
diseases. To be true Salesians in Benin, we had to respond to what they asked us for and to propose possible
answers to the situation of the material, cultural and spiritual poverty faced by teenagers and young people.
We started our accompaniment, I think, with several constants. We listened, and so we were able to accept the
orientations and opinions of everyone, whether religious or civil authorities, the people from the villages, the cate-
chists, and the young people themselves, especially the animators. There never was a personal project of any one
individual; everything was worked out in the community, and this was one of the constants right from the start of
all our presence in Benin. We tried to maintain a climate of closeness and friendship with the other missionaries in
the region and with the local diocesan clergy. All this was of the greatest importance to understand a reality that
was so different from what we had experienced until then. The closeness of the people, especially children and
adolescents, helped us make progress every day.
Difficulties? All the consequences of the political evolution in Benin and in all the countries around us. There were
times when the level of poverty was such that it was hard to bear. Blessings? Undoubtedly, that God was with us
while we were at his work. We started from scratch, and now we can see that the Salesian work in that country is
well rooted. We comb our gray hair, but we see dozens of young Salesians, already well formed, doing a great job
among young people, faithful to the charism of Don Bosco, seeing each work as their own.
My best moments in Benin were those lived in the Salesian family with my confreres. In the first few years we were
without electricity, phone, or running water. I always supported what is so traditional in Africa ... gather around
the fire and talk, listen and laugh together ... and then, those unforgettable moments with the young confreres –
times of joy, sharing, planning, living for and with young people.
It is important to have time for the confreres in the community, to welcome them and welcome them and welcome
them, to love them. Each of us has our own riches and limits that we ought to be willing to share. Plan and act
with a sense of community. What I do is because the community entrusted it to me. And, above all, to be able to
present together to God and to his Mother, Our Mother, all what we are, what we live and what we want to be.
Witness of Salesian Missionary Sanctity
Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni SDB, Postulator General for the Causes of Saints
Blessed Magdalene Morano (1847-1908) Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, the 15th anniversary
of whose Beatification falls on November 5. Posted in Sicily in 1881, she launched a fruitful educa-
tional work among the girls and young women of the poorer classes. Constantly casting "a glance at
the earth and ten at Heaven", she opened schools, oratories, boarding houses and workshops in every
part of the island. Appointed Provincial Superior, she also took on the responsibility for the formation
of numerous new vocations. One of her reflections was: "Holiness is not bought in a few days; just
want it, just ask God for it all the time, just start seeking it immediately ... In the world, women
work hard to please their earthly groom; we religious, brides of the Lord, we must enter the race to
love him far more, not in words but in deeds ... Jesus let me die when I am a saint."
For the
Salesian presence in the MIDDLE
Salesian Missionary Intention
That the Lord may bless the new missionary
frontiers in the Middle East
The Salesian presence in the Middle East is very varied and rich. The Province
lives in the midst of different cultural, religious, social and political chal-
lenges, as nowhere else in the Salesian world. Today, this calls for new mis-
sionary initiatives. We pray that the Lord may shed light on our way forward,
and grant the personnel, the means, and the enthusiasm for the mission.
