Salesians 2013 %28en%29


Salesians 2013 %28en%29



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DON BOSCO
DREAMER
INSPIRER
PROMOTER
EDUCATOR
FOUNDER
COMMUNICATOR
SAINT

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SALESIANS 2013
Cover:
We open our hearts
Salesian missionaries to Austria,
- Praveen Antony (from India)
- Simplice Tchoungang (from Togo),
"Every country is a mission - there are no
boundaries for God and his Gospel".
contents
▶ Rector Major, Don Bosco writes…
▶ Don Bosco blesses Beijing
▶ A Sea of Hands
▶ Forming Lay People, Transforming Society
▶ Retelling Don Bosco
▶ “Freely you have received, freely give”
▶ “Bring me men to match my mountains”
▶ Dream of Don Bosco: Interview with Starsky
▶ Salesian Social Network: By the Young For the
Young
▶ Singing for Social Justice and the Defence of
Human Rights
▶ Bosco Magic
▶ At Home with Don Bosco
▶ Beating Heart on the Equator
▶ Romania – Being Don Bosco Today
▶ Sicelo: We have Been Expecting You!
▶ Don Bosco's Printing Press: 150 Years Later
▶ BIOSELVA: sustainable, respectful develop-
ment
▶ Papua New Guinea: Discovering the Salesian
Missions
▶ Creating a Missionary Culture for Our Young
People
▶ Nigeria, Africa's Young Giant
▶ Like Sheep Without a Shepherd
▶ A Recycled Missionary
▶ From Valtellina to the Solomon Islands
2
SALESIANS 2013
English edition, December 8, 2012. Rome

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▶ Between 'uncool' and 'awesome'
▶ Salesian Centre for Teenage Workers – CESAM
▶ Supermarket School
▶ Building Bricks of Hope
▶ Salesian Youth Movement Triveneto
▶ Don Bosco Today in the World of Work
▶ Learning the Art of Living
▶ SYM Valencia: Formation Programmes for
Youth
▶ A Hundred-year-old Dream
▶ Families Journeying with Don Bosco
▶ Tabernacles of Hope
▶ Two hearts, a Single Charism
▶ 140 Years of Service to the Young
▶ A Gift Received, a Commitment to Honour
▶ From Pupil to Teacher: William’s story
▶ Don Bosco the Writer
▶ Salesians and The Pope's Newspaper
▶ Science and Technology – at Whose Service?
▶ Gospel through Media
▶ Shake & Pray
▶ A Radio Run by Street Kids
▶ Pocket Faith: Practical Handbooks for Every
Christian
▶ Festiclip, Video For Youth By Youth
▶ Nino Baglieri, Tireless Apostle
▶ From 'Hell' to the Gates of Heaven
▶ A New Don Bosco
▶ Holiness in the Family
Fr Filiberto González Plasencia, sdb
Dear friends,
General Councillor for SC
With this edition “Salesians 2013” would like to share a Con-
gregational process and project with you, one that needs this kind of
preparation to be fruitful for us and especially for needy youth in so-
ciety: the Bicentenary of St John Bosco's birth.
Our magazine will accompany the journey towards this grand
event by presenting our work, our experience, and our testimony in a
way that is specific to each year in the three-year preparation. It will
culminate with celebrations on 16 August 2015 and again in August
2016. Our aim in showing you this common process, which has its
origins in the da mihi animas is, in the words of the Rector Major, Fr
Pascual Chávez, “to take up Don Bosco's spiritual and apostolic pro-
gramme and the reason for his tireless efforts 'for the glory of God and
the salvation of souls'. is way we can re-encounter the origins of our
charism, the purpose of our mission, the future of our Congregation”.
ere are three stages of preparation for the Bicentenary, each
one with its well-planned dates and themes. e first stage refers to
getting to know Don Bosco's story and it ran from 16 August 2011
until 15 August 2012; the second involves us in a deeper understand-
ing, updating and implementation of Don Bosco's pedagogy, from 16
August 2012 until 15 August 2013; it then culminates in understand-
ing and living Don Bosco's spirituality, the third stage which will run
from 16 August 2013 until 15 August 2014.
In this edition we are sharing what we have experienced in the
first stage, focused on understanding Don Bosco's story: who he was,
his life experience, the choices he made. Study of Don Bosco has been
the first condition for being able to communicate his charism and pur-
pose; how relevant he remains for us today. As the Rector Major puts
it: “Without this knowledge there can be no love, imitation, praying
to him; and only love can urge us to get to know him. So it is a case
of knowledge that springs from love and leads to love”. is is why
you will see that the common thread running through the articles leads
us clearly to Don Bosco's own story, but it does this, you will note, via
people, communities, works, projects showing us that Don Bosco is
alive still and continues to make history.
ank you for the acknowledging this 'Salesians 2013' magazine.
e editorial team and I invite you to get involved with Don Bosco
and the Salesian Family for the benefit of our most needy youth.
December 8, 2012
redazionerivistesdb@sdb.org, www.sdb.org, ©Direzione Generale Opere Don Bosco SALESIANS 2013
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Don Bosco Writes…
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SALESIANS 2013

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Don Bosco
WRITES… Iamwritingtoyou
as a father and friend,
through my Ninth Successor.
My beloved sons,
Dear young people
The meeting with you in Madrid, on 17 August
2011, in the huge courtyard at the Salesian
Institute, Atocha, remains firmly etched on my mind
and in my heart. That was an unforgettable
experience emotionally speaking, but especially
significant from a Salesian point of view.
I enjoyed seeing your sense of responsibility, your
pride at being young people committed to living
your faith. I admired your desire to make your life an
investment in God's plans for you and in the dream
you nurture in your hearts. I was moved when I saw
you pray, welcoming the Word with joy. It was
marvellous to see you there in silence adoring the
Eucharistic Lord. In the light of all this your
cheerfulness seemed even more beautiful and pure,
more contagious still. I enjoyed seeing so many
Salesians and Salesian Sisters in your midst also,
along with many young leaders. Some Provincials,
Youth Ministry Delegates were amongst them. This
is where they belong, there, attentive to your lives,
desires and at the same time accompanying your
growth and spiritual journey.
Now I am happy to know that you are preparing a
huge feast for me in 2015. From up here in heaven,
gazing on Jesus' face, we know whatever is going
on down below on earth. And it is a beautiful story
because it is a redeemed one, even if sometimes
you only see the more dramatic side of it. Different
from what you think, there is no distance between
you and us, since you know so well that from the
moment Jesus entered human history through his
Birth, there is no human birth which is not holy,
there are no children who do not have the
resplendent Light of the Redeemer in their eyes. This
closeness renders my presence amongst you more
authentic and real, like at the time of the Valdocco
Oratory in Turin, with one additional advantage - I
can be alive in every Salesian presence spread across
130 countries around the world.
“My dream … your dream …
God's dream”
The dream I had when I was nine, as I have said
many times, was an event that marked my life, one
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that gave me, over time, the guiding inspiration for
my chosen field of work, made me able to dream up
a clever system of education to win over your hearts,
and gave me striking patience to fight so I could
change the world, your world.
With the Lord's help I invite all of you, since you are
“hope made flesh”, to find the dream which will
make you creative individuals amidst the many
deceptive suggestions which bombard you.
To dream with your heart inclined to God and your
feet firmly planted on the ground is no evasion, but
an opening of your life to something new. You may
not yet know everything about it that is to be
known, but it will somehow seem significant. It
means projecting yourselves towards something
that you do not yet possess, but in which you
recognise yourself; it means intelligently discovering
the presence of “a God who accompanies us” as the
days go on. No project that fills life with meaning,
from the most modest to the most prestigious
project, can be realised without first being led and
nurtured by a dream. To make courageous choices
in a fluid society without a soul and impoverished in
terms of values, it is essential to rediscover the power
of a sweeping vision that uproots human beings
from their mediocrity and has them moving forward
to a new heaven and a new earth.
When I was 58 years of age, I wrote up the story of
the first 40 years of my life, to which I gave the title
"Memoirs of the Oratory of St Francis de Sales". I did
this at Pope Pius IX's express command. I certainly
did not do it out of a desire to immortalise myself or
from yearnings for greatness. We are eternal because
we are in God's heart, loved and saved by His Son,
Jesus. It is something I did out of love, a spiritual
testament to help you in the present and the future.
I invite you to read this “life”, not so much out of
historical curiosity about my past, but rather
because, between lines marked by blood and sweat,
you can discover that the purpose of everything is to
realise life in all its fullness. You will understand that
those who have responsibility for education must
necessarily conceive of their lives as a service of love,
they must see their era as an opportunity for
acceptance, must acquire knowledge not to
humiliate or manipulate but to “shape” the heart to
direct it to Christ. Education shows us up as people
loved by God and man, because it is a practical
exercise of charity.
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While I embrace you all with affection I would like to
reveal the biggest secret of my heart. I have always
believed that my mission should demonstrate a
particular characteristic: young people saving the
young. I always wanted my love for you to be a
mission shared by you and that you yourselves
would become apostles of the young. We can want
something or an ideal very much, but if we don't
find the right approach, our ability to persevere
wavers, because what does not convince does not
become a stable goal in life. As it was in Isaac's time
we have to dig new wells, give birth to a new
culture, new ways of living together. I am counting
on you, placing my life once more in the hands of
your ability to pick yourself up, rediscover trust in life
and in your insights for planning a future of solidarity
and peace for yourselves.
complement each other as the children of God
spread throughout the world, in the splendid
History of Salvation.
Be new prophets, men and women capable of
pointing out the way to go amidst confused spirits,
in the new, sometimes uncertain variable that God
lets sprout in hearts and history. The meaning of life,
like prophecy and like mission, becomes an
immense treasure for society.
There is no longer time nor room for mediocrity,
since lukewarmness and spiritual dullness are
forcing us to live off the cultural dregs of our times.
My dear young people, do not waste your youth by
living it superficially, without compass and without
energy! Dream big! Do great things in your life!
In forming my group of Salesians, I put all my efforts
into the young and it was a winning stroke of
genius. Only you young people have the potential
to transform your knowledge into wisdom, and
employ this wisdom in living. Don't retreat into
yourselves, like tired and resigned wayfarers, but
interpret your human situation as a “divine
adventure”. Get involved with each other,
With a father's love.
Rome, 31 January 2012
Yours,
Don Bosco
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DREAMER
▶ Don Bosco blesses Beijing
▶ A Sea of Hands
▶ Forming Lay People,Transforming
Society
▶ Retelling Don Bosco
▶ “Freely you have received, freely give”
▶ “Bring me men to match my
mountains”
▶ Dream of Don Bosco: Interview with
Starsky
8
SALESIANS 2013

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“It was at that age that I had a dream. All my life it remained deeply impressed on my
mind”.
(Memoirs of the Oratory, Chapter 2)
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Don Bosco Blesses
Beijing
Today Don Bosco's well-known 'missionary' dream in Barcelona has become a
proven reality through Salesian presence in 131 countries in all parts of the
world. With this reality we can be sure that the long line of Don Bosco's 'sons'
stretching back to his own time has constantly cultivated the virtues of Mary
following the example of their father…
However, one thing is still lacking. From Santi-
ago in Chile, the world is filled with the spirit
of Don Bosco reaching across to the other an-
tipode, the reference point, Beijing in China,
where there is no official Salesian presence at
present. Even though each of the other places
and cities mentioned in the dream, Hong Kong,
Calcutta, Africa, Madagascar, have their Salesian
presences firmly established, Beijing, at the com-
pletion point of the line traced by Our Lady, and
Don Bosco's love for young people begs for ful-
filment. How might Don Bosco, as we approach
the 200th anniversary of his birth, view all this
today?
Perhaps it was Don Bosco who really decided to
take his pilgrim route through the East Asia –
by Seo Jeongkwan Hilario
Oceania Region. At the beginning of the pil-
grimage in this second Region, which
includes Beijing city, a significant
reference point in the
dream, he
wanted to find the best
possible way to approach Beijing
where still many young poor people await his
fatherly love.
Don Bosco's Casket, after the long journey
through the America's, came back to Italy where
it remained before setting out again to South
Korea for it's pilgrimage in East Asia-Oceania. On
25 October 2010 at 15:50 many Salesian commu-
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nities, especially at the Pisana in Rome where Don
Bosco's ninth successor, Fr Pascual Chávez lives,
knew that the Casket would be passing above
Beijing at that very moment. In Rome it was time
for morning Mass and Flight KE927 conveying
the Casket to Seoul was precisely flying over the
city of Beijing in China. This I can vouch for as
author of this article – I was accompanying the
Casket from Italy to Seoul.
Above the city he had seen in his Barcelona
dream, the city he longed to reach and realise
his Oratory for poor and needy youth, Don Bosco
saw where he wanted to care for the sheep and
lead them to fresh pastures. He came in person
over Beijing's skies. It was a brief passing-over, but
seeing the city from 10km's altitude he could
hope that the word promised by Mary will be
realised; Don Bosco blessed the young people
eagerly awaiting the arrival of their father.
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A Sea of Hands
by Jean-Marc Marie Mutangala
“Is it him?”,
“Is it not him?”,
“Is he real, or just a statue?”.
Many of those present were lost in
silent thought and questioning
as they pondered such questions in
their hearts. But it was also a moment
like the one which prompted the
Roman centurion of biblical recall to
say: “This man was truly …”
The veneration of Don Bosco's relic
was an event which provoked deeper
questions. Anyone who simply stopped
at appearances, at what was visible,
would not have succeeded in touch-
ing the invisible, would not have
touched the divine, the wonderful and
extraordinary nature before him or her
in the guise of the Don Bosco whom
the missionaries had handed on. One
needed to close ones eyes in order to
better perceive with the heart.
Whoever could take the step enlight-
ened by faith discovered a world of
grace, an opportunity presented on a
silver plate, or should we say in a
golden casket, thanks to Fr Pascual
Chávez and his Council's decisions to
let Don Bosco meet up with his chil-
dren wherever, across the entire world,
the Magnificat was being sung with
poor and neglected youth.
A sea of hands, a matrix of crossed
arms was created: all the world wanted
to touch Don Bosco, the world wanted
to reach out and touch the visible
traces of the Salesian charism. He was
not just an invention of the missionar-
ies but someone real for us: Don Bosco
was there, right before our eyes.
The streets filled up, people pressed on
all sides; everyone wanted to touch
Don Bosco with their own hands.
Hands reached out searching, hands
intersected and arms intertwined! In
some parts of the world it is an old su-
perstition to cross arms rather than
offer a hand of peace – and not such a
peaceful gesture! In DRC all hands and
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Don Bosco visited the e Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the heart of
Africa, from 16 March to 15 April 2012. Coming from Congo Brazzaville,
Don Bosco touched Congolese soil at 9.30 in the morning, in Kinshasa. As
with any encounter with a Saint in the Pilgrim Church, it was a moment of
silence, curiosity and strong inner emotions.
arms, those who seek, those who love,
those who work together, those who
want only peace, were crossed.
Don Bosco was a Saint for the people,
and he remained so during his time
amongst us. All traffic was blocked
since young people had poured out
onto the streets to touch the vehicle
carrying their ‘father’. The procession
of vehicles was forced to stop when a
young girl leaped enthusiastically
from her bus to touch St John Bosco's
hand.
He brought people who did not be-
lieve to tears, when they too received
the gift of inner sight. He silenced cer-
tain non-believers, but they too could
see that all went well as if guided by an
invisible hand. He opened the hearts
of people to receive the grace of for-
giveness and be freed. He called to-
gether people from all ranks of society
to encounter Christ around the altar.
He remained the disciple of Christ, call-
ing and gathering people around the
table of the Paschal banquet.
Don Bosco visited Salesian communities
and works in Kinshasa, Goma and down
to Lubumbashi. For us his presence was
a time of conversion and for rediscover-
ing the Salesian charism. The various
Salesian Family groups found opportu-
nity to renew their commitment.
Don Bosco's pilgrimage amongst us
will certainly put us on a firm footing
as we begin our second century of
Salesian presence in DRC. What our
eyes have seen, what our hands have
touched will stay with us as we re-
launch the Salesian charism wherever
we are now, and in other parts of the
DRC where we have not arrived.
When our hands comes into contact
with that of a saint, we are motivated
to stand up and get moving for the
mission.
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Forming Lay People
TransForming Society
In response to the GC24
challenge, DB-CLAY was born
in October 2002 in the South
Philippine Province. Its aim is
be a Salesian institute of
formation for lay adults and
youth to become Christ-
centred, empowered
servant-leaders, living
witnesses and agents of
transformation in the family,
society and the Church. It
intends to provide a holistic
Christian formation inspired
by the spirit and example of
St. John Bosco, hence a
Centre for laity and by laity
who own and share the
Salesian mission deeply.
Through it, lay mission
partners have a space for
quality involvement and
shared responsibility for the
Congregation’s pastoral
work.
by Randy Figuracion
Inside the carpentry shop at Don
Bosco Technology Centre, Alex del
Mar breathes a sigh of relief. The
“Dream at Nine” bass-relief sculpture
project is taking shape slowly. The artis-
tic hands of artists – both Salesians and
lay - have done wonders to the 8 x 10
foot wood and body fillers as the
image of the Rector Major’s Strenna
2012 comes to life. Alex doubles as a
manager-cum-artist as he oversees
this creation with the notable contri-
bution of Frs Nioret and Joel. The work,
a copy of the Strenna poster produced
by DOSA Comunicaciones and based
on the Spaniard Manuel Montes’paint-
ing, will be made out of fibre-glass.
Once complete, it will be placed at the
entrance lobby of Don Bosco Forma-
tion Centre as its identifying signage.
Alex is managing the completion of
the project details.
Conceptualised by Fr.
Fidel Orendain, the Salesian formerly
in charge of DB-CLAY or Don Bosco-
Centre for Lay Adult and Youth, this
bass-relief sculpture project is an icon
of what DB-CLAY is all about. Its funda-
mental vision is to turn “wolves into
lambs.”To make this dream come true,
a collaborative effort is needed by the
Salesians and their lay mission part-
ners. It is a partnership in the task of ed-
ucating in the faith, involving a vast
movement of people.
In assisting youth to grow into em-
powered servant-leaders and lay
people to respond to the call to holi-
ness, DB-CLAY offers programs such as
Youth Encounter, Youth Encounter for
Yuppies (Young Professionals), Youth
Encounter-Facilitators Seminar Work-
shops, Leadership Training, Human Sex-
uality Seminars, Team-building activities,
Retreats and Recollection. More recently,
it has ventured into formation projects
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An important element for the quality
involvement of the laity is adequate
formation
for catechists and lay pastoral workers
offering its programs at the service of
the local Church.
A feature now identified with DB-
CLAY is the annual Blessed John Paul
II Ongoing Formation in Communica-
tion for Youth Animators and Cate-
chists Conference every October. The
activity takes its pattern from the
John Paul II Catechetics and Youth Min-
istry Conference begun in 2005 in Don
Bosco Parañaque, spearheaded by
the Salesian Catechetics Office. This
gathers youth ministers seeking new
ways to educate and form the youth
of today through traditional and
modern means.
The Southern Philippines version
tends to put more emphasis on im-
proving both the content and skills of
Youth Leaders and Catechists in com-
municating God’s Word, while at the
same time providing opportunities for
fellowship as participants enrich each
other through the witness of their lives
and the sharing of their experiences in
ministry. Now in its 3rd year, this 3-day
activity gathers an increasing number
of pastoral workers who wish to grow
in excellence of service and renewed
commitment by reflecting on the Holy
Father’s message every World Com-
munications Day. It addresses the
need for initial and on-going forma-
tion in order to be integrated, skilled,
and thus effective ministers. It has also
developed an annual Summer Semi-
nar-workshop for teachers of Christian
Living, for the same purpose every
May.
An important element for the quality
involvement of the laity is adequate
formation. In response to such a need,
the Southern Philippines version of the
Evangelium Program has been intro-
duced under DB-CLAY. The Program is
a 2-year certificate course in Catechet-
ics and Youth Ministry offered every Sat-
urday in a modular approach. It seeks
to professionalise catechists and those
who are involve in the ministry of the
Church through systematic study and
training. At the same time, it deepens
their knowledge of Catholic doctrines
and they acquire pedagogical meth-
ods and strategies to become better
educators of the faith. Hopefully, this
program can ensure qualified person-
nel for the Church’s mission of trans-
forming human society.
The bass-relief is still far from comple-
tion; Alex looks after the project day by
day. It is much the same for the mission
of DB-CLAY in cultivating the basic stan-
dards of formation and updating for lay
people. With a clear vision ahead the
work continues, daily, they being co-
workers in the vineyard of the Lord.
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Retelling Don Bosco
Theatre, music and games were, for Don Bosco, basic pedagogical
possibilities for entertainment, filling in free time and encouraging
certain qualities in his boys. These same things today, in our 21st
century, now become a way for us to come to a better understanding
of Don Bosco's story.
Past pupils, young people generally, artists, poets and writers who
have come into contact with Don Bosco's story have sought to retell it
and come to a better understanding, bringing it into our own times yet
again through theatre, music, dance, poetry or folklore. Amongst
more recent examples of this are the Carnivals in Uruguay and
Brazil, or musical productions that have been written and performed
across the continents.
Don Bosco's story will always be
current and we can always
understand it better using all the
resources that he himself proposed as
part of his pedagogy.
by Jaime González
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In Uruguay the Texas theatrical group, made up of Salesian
past pupils, took part in the Montevideo Carnival compet-
ing with another 47 groups, and presented the story of Don
Bosco under the category of parody. As the performers de-
scribed it, through music they are able to describe essential
aspects of Don Bosco, his struggle against anything running
contrary to the good of young people, his profound confi-
dence in God and the mission to the young.
One member of the group said, at the end of his presen-
tation: “it is very important for us for people to get to
know Don Bosco's story, the story of a man who has
guided us, taught us, changed us and given us the
strength we need to know we can achieve our dreams as
difficult as it may seem”.
Moving on to Italy, singer and composer Marco Anzovino
and the Turinese comic, Giampiero Perone, accepted the
challenge of speaking of Don Bosco in a contemporary
and attractive fashion using the language of today's
teenagers. The show with the title “Don Bosco and the
power of a smile”presented a specific side of Don Bosco's
personality, his smile. His positive and optimistic outlook
allowed him, in difficult times, to carry out a plan directed
to youth and, especially, the most needy: those excluded,
the least.
In Brazil, on 20 February, the Reino Unido de la Libertad
(United Kingdom of Freedom) samba school gained first
place at the Manaus Carnival with a production in honour
of Don Bosco. The production, called “A boy, a dream, a
work: Don Bosco's love made real”, retold five occasions
in the saint's life: his dream when he was nine years old,
the Salesian Missions, the Salesians in Latin America, the
Salesians in Amazonia and the 90 years of the school in
Manaus.
The School set about making a huge presentation di-
vided into five parts represented by five floats, a band
made up of 300 drummers and some 4000 festive partic-
ipants. Two of the floats that stood out in particular were
the Oratory and the Missions. The one dealing with the
dream and the Oratory was played by two clowns out
front showing how life could be tackled with fun, and
demonstrating the dedication that Don Bosco showed
for his boys. Then a circus magician, clothed in bright
splendour and beauty and wielding a magic wand, high-
lighted the creativity that Don Bosco used to attract
youth.
On the float dealing with the missions, the scene made
allusion to symbols of places where Salesians are now, de-
scribing Don Bosco's evangelising work. Up front an ele-
phant represented Africa, followed by the imposing
grandeur of the Taj Mahal and two Chinese pagodas with
flags flying gloriously. In the background a light from a
large lighthouse at the ends of the earth, in Patagonia,
appeared, the bright white light providing a sensation of
peace.
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“Freely you have received,
freely give”
Don Bosco has not ceased to draw people from all backgrounds
and religions, the same way he did when he was alive. It is as
though his charisma and charm have remained untouched after
all these years, kept alive through the hard work, dedication and
faithfulness of his sons to the spirit he left them.
This same spirit has inspired many young
people, the same spirit which drew Mo-
hamed Abubakar (Peter), a young artist
from Sunyani, a small district in Ghana,
to Don Bosco.
This is Abubakar’s testimony:
I was born and brought up in Sunyani
but my parents are from the north of
Ghana. I thought I was one of the most
unfortunate because I come from a
broken family of six, and since my
childhood, I had no one to run to for
help. I could not further my education
for I was abandoned by my parents
and relatives and had no one to care
for me. I was practically left to cater for
myself. Although I struggled to provide
for myself for ten years, there was no
way I could go back to school. How-
ever God sent me someone who
helped me and gave me hope. A
friend of mine who studied at Don
Bosco Technical Institute led me there.
The first time I entered Don Bosco
compound, I saw many people play-
ing and others learning and I felt
touched and wanted to be with them,
to be like them. When I went back
home I worked very hard and thanks
by Chiemeka Utazi (interviewer)
18
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I went to Don Bosco and prayed. I asked him to give me
the same spirit he has so I can help many young people
who have nobody to care for them
be to God, I found myself in Don
Bosco. It was like a dream because I
never believed it to be a possibility.
Everyone seemed better than I was.
When I discovered Don Bosco, I saw
the richness of his generous heart. I
met so many young people who were
in a similar situation as I but were
happy. I really felt reluctant to leave
and from that moment I decided I
would not to go back to my family
one very important. Therefore, I started
painting Don Bosco.
I spent two years studying in Don
Bosco and during this period, I saw and
entered into a different rhythm of life.
When I completed my studies I owed
school fees and so avoided going back
to the school because I had no hope
of paying. I do believe in miracles and
I always pray. One-day a girl came to
me and told me the principal wanted
sometimes a thought came to me. I
was a Muslim but I never saw people
like this while I was growing up. They
took good care of people they did not
even know, so long as they were
young and poor. They did not even
know me. Just look, I am now edu-
cated, working and am very happy as
a person.
I wanted to know why the Salesians
were so good. That set me thinking
hard about who I was, my motivations
and behaviour. Somehow, I realised I
had a soul, and suddenly it became
very important to me that I had to save
it. That prompted me to start search-
ing inside myself to know what God
wanted of me and for me. I reflected
on how God provided the help I
needed through Don Bosco. I prayed
to God to show me the way. I decided
to be baptised and started to learn
about Jesus and the Catholic Church. I
started attending catechism classes,
was baptised with the name Peter and
am now a Christian, a Catholic. I feel
safe.
again. I had found a new home. I want
to remain with Don Bosco.
At the technical school I chose com-
mercial arts, partly because I felt I had
the talent and because I might not
make it to higher scholastic standards
because of poverty, but most of all be-
cause the pictures I saw of Don Bosco
inspired me. They were radiant and
with very many beautiful colours. They
were everywhere in the compound
and I wondered who this man was. I
wanted to know something about
him because I felt he would be some-
to see me. I was so afraid because of
the money I still owed the school. To
my great surprise, the principal asked
me to begin the industrial attachment.
I did the industrial attachment for a
year and teaching assistance for an-
other year, after which the Salesians
sent me to the capital city, Accra, to
further my studies so I could be quali-
fied to teach. Don Bosco was solely re-
sponsible for my schooling.
During my stay at Don Bosco I felt a
powerful force pulling me to do some-
thing but I did not know what; and
When I saw the relic of Don Bosco, I
knew he was the one. I was happy and
I wish he had stayed here with me. I
went to Don Bosco and prayed. I asked
him to give me the same spirit he has
so I can help many young people who
have nobody to care for them. I wrote
a letter to the Salesians and told them
I want to go to Don Bosco Boys Home,
for street children. I want to help them.
I really want to help because I myself
have experienced help from others. I
also want to go to some villages to
teach them how to tie and die cloths
and make little handicrafts so they can
survive. I received freely and I want to
give freely.
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The Hubert D’Rosario
Missionary Aspirantate
at Sirajuli in Assam,
North East India, is one
of two unique
institutions of the
Congregation, the other
being in Chennai:
modern-day Cardinal
Cagliero Institutes, like
the one at Ivrea!
‘Btormiantcgh mmy meoumntaeinns!’
From time immemorial, the east-
ernmost ridges of the mighty
Himalayas, known to the world as
North East India, have harboured an
array of dreams, tribes and promises as
distinct as the rugged earth itself. One
such dream took its birth in the early
decades of the twentieth century,
when eleven men, armed with un-
shakeable faith in God and seized by
an unstoppable zeal, stepped into
these hills and into the lives of their
people. The first team of Salesians from
Italy led by Fr. Louis Mathias had just
begun a compelling chapter in the
annals of the Salesian congregation.
by Joseph Pulinthanath
Not without a price, because Europe
was grappling with the consequences
of World War I and the Congregation
itself was facing severe scarcity of men
and means. Yet Fr. Paul Albera, the
Rector Major, felt the Assam missions
had to be accepted not only because
of the insistence of the Holy See but
also because he knew missionary spirit
was integral to the society of Don
Bosco.
They arrived in Shillong on 13 January
1922, a date that in the course of time,
proved to be a red-letter day for the
entire North East. From then on the
destiny of its nearly 200 ethnic groups
became gradually and inextricably
enmeshed in what they and sub-
sequent groups of Salesians
wrought in these hills and
plains with untold sacri-
fice and love.
Before long, India’s
North East became
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In his dream of April 1886, Don Bosco was
shown continents and nations in which the
Salesians would one day work.
what is probably one of the most re-
sponsive missions of the Salesian
world.
For the success of the overseas mission-
ary engagements of the Congregation,
personnel and finances proved crucial,
and it was never easy to find either.
However, it was the Cardinal Cagliero In-
stitute at Ivrea that came to the aid of
the Congregation with well-trained and
motivated missionaries. Fr Philip Rinaldi
established the unique missionary aspi-
rantate and named it after Cagliero, the
first Salesian bishop and missionary. Its
mandate was to train young Salesians
for mission ‘ad gentes’.
It is noteworthy that the Cardinal
Cagliero Institute at Ivrea was estab-
lished in 1922, the very year the
Salesians set foot in Assam. The prom-
ised land of the Assam missions would
be fortunate to experience the mettle
and magic of a host of admirable men -
Vendrame, Piasescki, Ravalico, Marengo
and many others like them that traced
their indomitable missionary fervour to
the Ivrea institute.
Bishop Michael Akasius Toppo of
Tezpur Diocese blessed the Aspiran-
tate, named after the revered mis-
sionary and Salesian Archbishop of
Shillong, Hubert D’Rosario, in No-
vember 2011. Fr Václav Klement, the
General Councillor for the Missions, in-
augurated the Aspirantate.
Sirajuli promises to be a definitive mile-
stone in the nearly century-long ‘im-
mersion’ of the sons of Don Bosco into
the destiny of these enchanting hills
and valleys. It is a regional ‘Te Deum’
arising from grateful hearts that feel
their turn has now come to send mis-
sionaries to other lands.
It was the Rector Major Fr. Pascual
Chávez that challenged and urged the
still vocation-rich provinces of India to
replicate Ivrea and keep alive the mis-
sionary spirit of the Congregation. Fr.
Joseph Almeida, the provincial of the
Guwahati province, along with his
council made the momentous deci-
sion to start the unique venture at
Sirajuli, a village on the 52nd National
Highway, 82 miles north east of Guwa-
hati, the capital city of Assam.
The story of the seven northern
Provinces of India – Guwahati, Dima-
pur, Silchar, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai,
and Konkan, has never been the same
ever since. Sirajuli is their one immedi-
ate link to mission lands overseas.
In his dream of April 1886, Don Bosco
was shown continents and nations in
which the Salesians would one day
work. The role of the Ivrea Institute in
the formation of Salesians who went
forth to those continents and nations
has been remarkable. There is much to
rejoice and be thankful about that in
these changed times too, the spirit of
Ivrea refuses to die. Instead, it gets re-
juvenated and reborn in hitherto un-
known parts of the Congregation –
Sirajuli, for instance, where 60 young
men are currently nurturing their
dream of becoming missionaries ‘ad
gentes’.
Today, ninety vibrant years later, as we
are witnessing a resurgence of the
North East from the back burner of his-
tory, it is gratifying to see the Salesian
mission too coming a full circle. The
starting of the Hubert D’Rosario Mis-
sionary Aspirantate at Sirajuli in Assam
signals the second birth of the Cagliero
Institute at Ivrea, which, during its
heyday, provided over 1000 missionar-
ies to all parts of the world, including
Assam.
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Dream of Don Bosco
Interview with Starsky
by Andrew Ebrahim
First of all watch 'e Dream'. Here you see
an extraordinary 'mashup' by a young dig-
ital native. Starsky Torchia directed this
short movie with the help of his Year 7
classmates at Salesian College, Chertsey. It
was his 'Don Bosco Project'. As one com-
mentator put it:
“It's about 12 minutes long and includes
'live action', video and still images, back-
ground music and graphic effects, and a very
clearly delivered narrative - a lot of hard work
and initiative. e Salesian message is very
much alive in Chertsey!"
He's not wrong. is is one of the better
YouTube efforts on the 'Don Bosco' theme.
is Dream of Don Bosco is actually an invitation
to listen. We all know that nowadays people are im-
patient listeners. Unless you have flashy presentations
(ppt) and smashing movie clips to accompany what you
are saying, people's span of attention is more limited
now than before.
But this one is different. It is "dynamic storytelling"
with effective visuals to accompany the audio.
e director of this video clip was all of
11 years old at the time! at's
why it is so wonderful!
We'll let Starsky
tell us about
himself:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRDV7XxsqaE
Tell us a little about yourself - who are you?
I am 11 years old. My grandparents on both sides are
Italian except for my grandmother who is French. I am
a Roman Catholic. The first few years of my life I lived in
Germany and Italy as well as England.
Who is in your family?
I live with my mum, Maria who is a professional dancer,
my dad, Sebastien, who is a professional actor, my little
sister called Livia and my brother called Tyler.
What are your likes/dislikes?
I really enjoy thinking up future inventions and making
models. I also enjoy making family movies and
experimenting with applications such as Word and
Power point.
What is it like being in a Salesian School?
I really like being in a Salesian school as everyone is
very supportive and cares very much about our
behaviour and supports us for our future. Don Bosco
also is a brilliant person to look up to.
I have very quickly made lots of friends and all the
teachers at 'Salesian' make learning interesting and
fun; they are always very kind and generous with us.
The school gives us lots of great opportunities which
could help us in our future.
What was your initial reaction when you were given the Don
Bosco Project to do for homework?
Straight away I was excited and was thinking about the
possibilities of making the project and how it was to
be presented.
I quickly decided that I should make a movie and then
thought about how I would set up the main structure of it.
How did you go about devising your video?
I first planned the time-line of my movie and where
everything was going to be and then recorded my
classmates fighting. I then put this onto Imovie and
started adding pictures, sound effects and effective
title screens around the clip.
I asked my parents to read a few sentences in the
dream and asked my RE teacher, Father Andrew, if I
could borrow the clip of the sixth formers going to
Kolkata to use in part of my movie.
What did you find most interesting about the whole process?
I found a lot about Don Bosco that was really
interesting and how Don Bosco set about his work,
starting with a very poor background and becoming
more well known after looking after children and
starting up a society that is still strong and relevant
today.
What really struck you about the character of Don Bosco?
I really like how he agreed to arm wrestle in the film
‘Mission to Love’ to show the children that he is the
boss and they should listen to him instead of just
totally ignoring his words and trying to get rid of him.
I also like how when he does not achieve something
first time he does not give up and tries every legal
thing he can do to achieve his goal.
What are your plans for the future… what would you like
to do with your life?
In the immediate future I would like to concentrate on
achieving good results at school and after that I hope
to get involved in something to do with film.
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INSPIRER
▶ Salesian Social Network: By the Young For the Young
▶ Singing for Social Justice and the Defence of Human Rights
▶ Bosco Magic
▶ At Home with Don Bosco
▶ Beating Heart on the Equator
▶ Romania – Being Don Bosco Today
▶ Sicelo: We have Been Expecting You!
▶ Don Bosco's Printing Press: 150 Years Later
24
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“Now what purpose can this chronicle serve? It will be a record to help people overcome
problems that may come in the future by learning from the past. It will serve to make known
how God himself has always been our guide. It will give my sons some entertainment to be
able to read about their father's adventures”. (Memoirs of the Oratory, Preface)
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SSoacialleNsetiwaornk
by Heriberto Herrera
At eight o'clock each evening,
once a month, computer
screens begin filling up with
messages from young people
identified by strange 'nicks',
names they have adopted on-
line. is is the moment for
'chat salesiano'. ese happy
messages help identify who is
involved. From Panama, El
Salvador, Costa Rica,
Argentina… all in SMS-style
language. e conversation
soon turns to a previously
assigned topic. It can be a
somewhat chaotic conversation
but in the end one has a feeling
of satisfaction at having shared
a common identity – a
Salesian identity.
The chat session is one of the various
services offered by the on-line
Salesian Bulletin, Central America. The
print version can also be found there. Ear-
lier editions are available on the website.
More than seven thousand individuals
have indicated their 'Like' in Facebook
and Twitter regarding our site. The
number is increasing. We send all of
these followers a weekly e-letter.
Users discover fresh news daily on the
site. The news comes from our works in
Central America. Some also come from
information channels run by the Con-
gregation and the Church. Each local
news item is accompanied by one or
more photographs.
A network of thirty volunteers feeds this
flow of information. They have received
basic training in journalistic style, basic
photography and intelligent use of
social networks through seven work-
shops three days duration each. Other
workshops are planned.
The site has three blogs updated at least
fortnightly. A Salesian writes about his
daily life, a journalist comments on the
world of the Internet, and a mother of a
family writes about how the Preventive
System works wonders for the upbring-
ing of her small children. Another blog
is open for whoever wishes to write an
intelligent and sensible message.
Visitors to the site write in daily. They
may ask information about how to
enroll their son or daughter in school or
how to get in contact with a Salesian
who had been their teacher earlier.
Others write about topics important at
the time. Very few write offensive mes-
sages and we always reply kindly and
respectfully to them. Often they write
back saying they are sorry.
The 'wall' is another part of the site: this
touts news of activities around the
Salesian Houses. There are also photog-
raphy competitions or stories about
proposed topics. Leaders find a good
supply of resources for Youth Ministry. A
video each day, almost always on
YouTube, is an invitation to reflect on
important issues. Radio Don Bosco, run
by the nearby Don Bosco University, is
tied in with our site.
Don Bosco in Central America is
linked with Facebook and Twitter.
These links give wide coverage to our
messages. Every day we send out a
thought from Don Bosco which
thousands of our followers look for-
ward to. This is our modern form of
the "word in the ear", Don Bosco's
famous educational ploy.
Our visitors are mostly young people. A
team of young adults has responsibility
for keeping this fascinating and power-
ful resource alive.
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By the Young For the Young
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Juan
Francisco
Lastra
28
SALESIANS 2013
Singing for
Juan Francisco Lastra is a Past Pupil of Camilo
Ortúzar Montt Sixth Form College in Santiago and of
the Silva Henríquez Catholic University. Today he is
making his name as a songwriter singer and has been
appointed a Peace Ambassador and Defender of
Human Rights in Chile. Juan Francisco explains how
in the Salesian school he learned music and the values
he sings about.
by ANS
At 28 years of age Juan Francisco now devotes himself entirely to music. His
passion and commitment have slowly developed until he sees it as a
vocation.
In the short biographical notes published on his site one reads: “In 1989 he
entered the Salesian ‘Camilo Ortúzar Montt’ Sixth Form College, where he
experimented with various forms of musical and artistic expression, trying
to find answers to the questions that had been going round in his head
since he was a child”. While at the Salesian College, in addition to receiving
an academic and human formation, he decided in his final year to learn to
play the guitar and became more and more interested in the work of some
serious singer song writers such as Violeta Parra, Silvio Rodriguez, Joan
Manuel Serrat, Víctor Heredia, Atahualpa Yupanqui. In this way he began to
write his own songs.
After College Juan Francisco enrolled in the Physical Education Course at
the Silva Henríquez Catholic University and graduated. During the second
year he was invited to take part with three songs at the “Víctor Jara”Festival,
organised by the Salesian Institute for Higher Studies, but his performance
lasted about an hour. He realised that through his music he could reach
people. “I think this is the first sign of the quality of a musician, when the
people recognise that he has something to say. Not all those who get on
the stage communicate something”.
As time passed and with performances following on from one another Juan
Francisco became more seriously committed. He got to know new
musicians. “Soon people began to contact me by post, the internet, began
listening seriously to my work. So I had the courage to take part in a concert
with some other musicians. My public began to grow. In this way I became
more committed to being a singer.”
In June last year he issued his first disc “Desde mi Calle a la Imaginación”

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Social Justice
and the Defence
of Human Rights
(From my street to imagination) containing 13 songs dedicated to children and
dealing with solidarity and social mobility…
His singing has taken him to many national and international stages and he
deserves the title of “Peace Ambassador and Defender of Human Rights in Chile”
given him by the Committee of Observers and Defenders of Human Rights. Juan
Francisco does not see this title as an honour but as a responsibility.
“I think every day we can be a
little better. I also believe that
things are not going well.
Every day society is becoming
more selfish, more
individualistic, more divided,
with more discrimination. It
is not right that there is more
selfishness, that there is more
consumerism… that is why I
sing, because I believe I speak
for many people.”
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Bosco
Magic
30
SALESIANS 2013
Wherever one goes in the Salesian world, one is likely to
come across a Salesian magician, and not just the occasional
performer. There are Salesian Family members of Magicians
Unions and Clubs across the world.
by Brian Barnes
At age nine, John Bosco, already a
keen story-teller and fluent reader,
had one of his most famous dreams,
one involving wild boys in which a tall
impressive man told him “I will give
you a teacher; under her guidance you
can become wise”’. What greater gift
could John have been given than the
gift of wisdom! Bear in mind that John
was only nine, turning ten and, in the
two years that followed that gift of
wisdom was to trigger an amazing ac-
tivity.
Mamma Margaret regularly took John
to the weekly markets in the main
square at nearby Castelnuovo. John
noticed that the jugglers and acrobats
attracted crowds to their perform-
ances. He wisely realised that, if he
could copy their activities, he could
attract bigger crowds to his story-
telling. Using the gifts of observation,
memory and regular practice, he em-
ulated their performances and added
juggling and acrobatic stunts, includ-
ing tight-rope walking, to his story-
telling. He now became a performer
himself!
The next stage in his performing de-
velopment was to be crucial. John
became fascinated by the travelling
magicians, too. He recognised that his
own fascination would also apply to
those attracted to his performances.
He deliberately set out to watch each
magician’s performance many times
until he knew how their tricks were
done. He then went away and prac-
tised assiduously until he felt suffi-
ciently confident to perform those
tricks.
As he grew more confident he ex-
tended his repertoire and his perform-
ances continued. These performances
included a spiritual content with
prayers and homilies, a condition for
watching the performances. He must
have hit on a delicate balance to at-
tract the crowds but he was astute and
recorded that ‘conjuring was a source
of wonder’.
John was determined to become a
priest. He lacked the funds that others
had. His determination was what car-
ried him through. His public perform-
ances were mostly replaced by hard
study and working to earn enough to
live on. During these teenage years, in-
cluded in the things he worked on
were speech training and dramatics.
How important these were to be in
future years. The wisdom that young
John had been promised was begin-
ning to shape many of his decisions.
During John’s final year of studying,
before he entered the seminary,
arrangements were made for him to
lodge with a certain Thomas Comino’s
family. Thomas was a tailor and ac-
cepted John into his home. But John
could not resist the opportunity to
perform and in his own words ‘These
were everyday occurrences’. What
Thomas and his family thought about
this is not recorded, but other ‘began
to whisper that I was a sorcerer, that I
had to be in league with the devil’.
Thomas Comino felt it was then his
duty to report John to the religious au-
thorities. John was now suspected of
being a black magic practitioner. In the
world of conjuring, white magic is gen-
erally understood to be illusions that
could be explained. If the performance
could only be explained by external or

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Schools and oratories also have their own groups of budding young performers. Students at
Salesian School Chertsey in the UK, for example, have the opportunity of expert tuition in
magic from a Salesian Cooperator who is a member of the Magic Circle. What might lie
behind this interest in conjuring and magic?
occult powers then it was frequently
labelled ‘black magic’.
These reports to the religious authori-
ties eventually reached Canon Burzio,
the most senior cleric in the district.
John was summoned and held to ac-
count. The Canon had obviously made
some enquiries, because he started by
complimenting John on good reports
of his studies. He then referred to the
whispers about black magic and asked
John to explain himself. In order to do
so, John asked the Canon if he could
borrow the Canon’s watch. When the
Canon could not find it, John asked if
he could borrow a coin. As the Canon
could not find his purse he suspected
trickery and, turning furiously on John
exclaimed ‘you rascal, either you
are the devil’s servant or
he is yours’.
John then
lifted an
adja-
cent lampshade and revealed the
Canon’s watch and his purse. With the
furious Canon absolutely demanding
an explanation, John capitulated. As far
as we know, John had never before ex-
plained to anyone how his tricks were
done. He told the Canon how he had
found the watch and the purse and
how, while the Canon was distracted,
he had hidden them under the lamp-
shade. Much to John’s relief, the Canon
burst out laughing and insisted on
John teaching him some conjuring
tricks.
On 25 October 1835 he donned the
soutane, identifying him as a candi-
date for the priesthood. On that day he
made a number of private promises to
cement his intention to further his spir-
itual progress. Ironically, among them
we find his resolution ‘I will no longer
play games of dice or do conjuring
tricks’. There was every possibility that
the incident with Canon Burzio had
played heavily on his mind. Where
conjuring, as entertainment, had
drawn crowds to the young John, it
may not have fitted in well with his
future ministry. John’s instinct probably
told him that he could not always ex-
plain to spectators how tricks were
done. We can never be sure what was
in John’s mind but it is highly likely that
the gifts of wisdom and understand-
ing had played a major part in his de-
cision. If John had not discarded
conjuring on that day, then the
John Bosco that emerged
might have been a
very different
character.
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At Home with Don Bosco
by Erwin Joey E. Cabilan
Because my passion is catechesis, I tried to look for Congregations where I would
best be suited as an educator of faith. One night, while doing paper works, I
emailed the Salesians of Don Bosco aer visiting the website. I prayed, “Lord, if I
get no reply aer two weeks, this means that I will remain a lay professional
catechist. Otherwise, this is a sign that I have to make a change in life.” A day
before the deadline, I got an email from Fr. Randy Figuracion, SDB. In my search
for the right vocation, God found me!
Since childhood, I have dreamt of
becoming successful. I strove to
reach my goals and was blessed with
a Bachelor’s degree in Education, two
Master’s degrees, the opportunity to
study abroad, a teaching career and
enriching experiences in my life as a
catechist. I savoured my life as a young
bachelor.
There came a point, however, when I
started to ask myself: “Am I called to
have more and to do more or to be
more?” I pondered seriously on this
question. As I searched within myself
for answers, my childhood dream of
becoming a priest resurfaced.
Educator of faith
My work as a catechist kept me in con-
tact with people from all walks of life
most especially the volunteer cate-
chists and the young. I came to know
and understand their situations. Being
with them and living like them---
simple, poor and wanting only God---
has led me to understand, to love and
to follow Don Bosco.
Article 34 of our Constitutions states
that “evangelization and catechising
are the fundamental characteristics of
our mission.” St. John Bosco was called
to work in vast field as a boy of nine
years old when he encountered Jesus
in his famous dream. As for me, being
a young Salesian is my way of taking
part in the work of making Jesus
known and loved, especially among
the poor and the abandoned youth.
Accompanying the young
I share the gift of faith with the young
in the public schools of Lawaan and
Tabunoc, Cebu and even with the
seminary aspirants at Don Bosco For-
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mation Center, Lawaan.
On Sundays, I spend time with the
young people who come to the Don
Bosco Oratory, Pasil to deepen their
faith and be their brother, friend and
playmate. The youth in Pasil are simple
and talented, warm and expressive. In
spite of their struggles, they can still
afford to smile and laugh. I believe
they are fertile ground for sowing the
seeds of God’s Word. They already have
the faith but need someone to accom-
pany them so their faith can grow and
mature.
Last May, I witnessed how the volun-
teer catechists facilitated the activities
for the oratorians. Although they were
noisy and restless at first, the kids co-
operated as Fr. Andy Mendoza tried to
make the Mass participative and
meaningful. I realised that the fruit of
this apostolate is not necessarily seen
in great things. One time, after the
Mass, a child came to me and held my
hand and did mano (a Filipino gesture
that expresses respect for one’s
elders). It was just a gesture of respect
and gratitude for my presence with
them. And through it, I came to expe-
rience one of the sweet fruits of my
work with the young. Even in their
poverty, they’re able to give one of
life’s greatest treasures: friendship.
Thus they have Jesus.
I get weary and tired as I go from one
apostolate to another. But I realise
that being an earthen vessel of God’s
hope and love is indeed the noblest
thing that one can be. I left my family
and friends but together with my
Salesian community and the young,
I have a home: the heart of Don
Bosco. With him, I only have this
dream, “Give me souls, take away the
rest.”
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Beating Heart on the
At
the Equator there is
a Centre. At the
midmost point of the world
Becchi and Valdocco are
giving heart to a
continent.
by Javier Altamirano
On the Equator there lies an oasis. Just 25 km south of the
0° parallel, along a broad valley which makes up the city
of Quito, lies a house. And it is there that a small group of
Salesians and lay people take in consecrated Salesians (SDB
and FMA) and others in the Salesian Family, for three weeks.
They come there so that their hearts can beat in harmony with
the heart of a simple small-farmer and dreamer, founder of
one of the most wonderful experiences for the education of
the young: the Oratory at Valdocco. It is not the Alps they see
but the Andes. And it is not Piedmontese they speak but va-
rieties of Latin American Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.
But one thing is certain: the same heart beats there which
beat at Colle, and on the outskirts of Turin in the 19th century.
We call this house“the Centre”although its full name is Centro
Salesiano Regional de Formación Permanente or Salesian Re-
gional Ongoing Formation Centre. It came into existence in
1974 as part of a wave of postconciliar renewal by the
Salesians, and was set up to serve the region. Today it has
grown to be a 'prime meridian' for Salesianity for the entire
American continent, especially since 2000 when the Salesian-
ity School was introduced. More than 400 teachers and lead-
ers have passed through since then (sdb, fma and lay) coming
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Equator
It is a fine establishment with twenty four comfortable
rooms, a main lecture hall, 6 smaller rooms for group
work, a library which specialises in Salesianity, dining
room, games room and a very nice rooop terrazzo. But
the chapel is the most beautiful room of all from every
aspect
from as far south as Tierra del Fuego and as far north as
the Rio Grande and Colorado, where Spanish already
begins to flow into English.
The Centre is located within the Campus of the Universi-
dad Politécnica Salesiana, Quito. It is a fine establishment
with twenty four comfortable rooms, a main lecture hall,
6 smaller rooms for group work, a library which specialises
in Salesianity, dining room, games room and a very nice
rooftop terrazzo. But the chapel is the most beautiful room
of all from every aspect. It is both 'equator' and 'prime
meridian' for the Centre. It aims to be an expression of Don
Bosco's soul. Comfortable and well-lit, it invites recollection
and devotion. One's attention is immediately drawn to
Christ the Good Shepherd who is first of all Victim on the
altar. These lead clearly to the energy and beauty of the
Resurrection, the Risen Christ, like a runner who has
reached his goal, arms raised, hands out-stretched, and
chest breaking the tape which declares the winner… It all
points to the Easter day when Don Bosco came to the
Pinardi House to set up his Oratory permanently.
In the twelve years that hundreds have attended the Sale-
sianity School, each has brought his or her own particular
gifts of personality, Salesian style, culture and profession-
alism. The house seems filled with many colours, various
tones and tastes, and song from around the continent.
People come not only to receive and be strengthened in
their charism, but they come to give and to nurture, to
share and to help others grow.
The academic programme has two basic components:
history and theology. The first helps to get to know Don
Bosco, beginning from the facts and getting into his mind-
set through the events and historical and cultural trans-
formations of his time; the second provides a basis for
studying the profound intuitions of his life and the values
that define his mission and spirituality in the context of
church and society. One has to have experience to under-
stand and knowledge in order to communicate it. The
Centre thus becomes the core of an outwardly flowing
enthusiasm, passion, experiential knowledge, conversion.
Something is clear: nobody returns home as they came.
Nobody remains indifferent.
Three levels, life, many lives in fact. Over three years (three
weeks a year) men and women live together in the Centre.
They are passionate about a way of living and passing on
life. A fourth level takes them to Don Bosco's own places
beginning with Colle and Turin. Behind all this there was
one who dreamed, an historian and researcher with a
pastor's heart, a genuine teacher, a mystagogue, and truly,
the 'granddad' of everything there: Fr Fernando Peraza.
Already many of the teachers who have graduated have
begun to show abundant results, firing people up like
sparks in dry fields around the continent. Don Bosco is
much more alive today than a dozen years back in lands
that have many dreams and not a few nightmares still.
Many youngsters, as in Don Bosco 's time, await passion-
ate Salesians, lay people, religious, men and women, to
ensure that the Oratory continues as it always did.
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Romania Being
Don Bosco
Today
by Andrei Laslău
It all began with my being an altar
server in my parish, then attending
the minor seminary. I was seeking
something a bit different and came
across a book on the life of Don Bosco;
it was the 'something different' I was
looking for: Don Bosco was the kind of
priest that I would like to be. Reading
his life and the events of the first
Oratory in Valdocco, I could picture
myself amongst his boys.
But the biggest moment of happi-
ness came when I found there were
Salesians in Bacău, and I met priests
who, it seemed to me, were straight
out of the pages of the Memoirs of the
Oratory: not only were they in
our midst,
the bunch of kids that we were, but
they were the heart and soul of all our
activities. I began to consider that their
life could be my life.
I became a Salesian in 2009 and after
studying philosophy at Nave, in Italy,
the Superiors sent me for practical
training to Bacău, my home city, to run
the oratory there. Who could ever have
imagined that I would be sent for prac-
tical training to the place where I had
grown up as a leader!.
Back home
Bacău is nice but it is a complex place.
The city has around 200,000 inhabi-
tants and the Salesians are in a work-
ing-class suburb. Don
Bosco's name is spreading through the
district and creating a culture around
it which earns respect. This is a sign of
the work we are doing. The “yellow
house”, meaning ours, has become a
focus of interest and a meeting point
for young people from the suburb and
the city.
If it was just an oratory to begin with,
offering a safe haven for young people
to play and learn something good for
their lives, we soon saw the need to
offer something more, and so activities
increased
There are four confreres in the com-
munity. We have the oratory, a day
centre with after-school activities, a
centre for developing approaches to
independent living and a small trade

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I am Andrei Laslău, 23 years old and from Bacău, a
city in eastern Romania. I grew up much the same
way as many of my peers, but the Lord, with his
plans, led me along paths that I could never have
imagined…
school for electricians and plumbers.
We have a good working relationship
with the local town council and nearby
parishes. The leaders make an impor-
tant contribution; most of them are
young people for whom I was a leader
before I left for Italy. Their average age
would be 16-17 and they really are
bursting with creativity. It often hap-
pens that I have an idea which I share
with them and then together we
come up with something very impres-
sive, activities which the kids just love.
Like in Don Bosco's times: young
people for young people.
After all the book-work in Nave, I now
find myself immersed in this situation
which was something I already had
acquaintance with, but it has also
changed over time. The first weeks
were really an adventure as I tried to
understand how I could carry on ex-
isting activities and what might still
be other possibilities for the future.
But things had to happen just the
same, so bit by bit I learned what the
need was.
The oratory and day centre are activi-
ties that keep me busy all day: plan-
ning, organising, meeting with the kids
and leaders, volunteers, more plan-
ning, preparing meetings and just
being there in the playground. We
offer after-school activities at the
“yellow house”, along with manual ac-
tivities, music courses and foreign lan-
guages, sports groups and other
groups of an educational kind like the
'Friends of Dominic Savio', a clown
group, the oratory band. And these are
just weekday activities. Then according
to the calendar we have other things
like the Summer Camps that bring
around 350 youngsters and 100 lead-
ers together.
Giving young people hope
I often ask myself if I'm really able to do all
this. But there is always God's grace which
follows me and fills in for what I lack.
Young people from Bacău love dream-
ing big. Despite life's difficulties and
uncertainties they know how to be
optimistic and hope for a better coun-
try. There are problems in Romania, like
everywhere else, but I so much admire
the new generation which has under-
stood that things won't change if they
just leave their country and 'go west';
they stay, despite a low income, but
continue to hope for and strengthen
Romania's future.
As a young person myself, a Salesian
and a Romanian, sent to be one of
Don Bosco's sons in Bacău, I fell very
much part of this new wave. The coun-
try's future demands good Christians
and upright citizens and I feel I need to
help young people to have hope, but
also to give a solid and objective foun-
dation to their hope. This is what we
do as Salesians through technical train-
ing and by educating them to life.

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The Bosco Oratory has been
developing and evolving since the
first Salesians arrived in 1949.The
Oratory catered mainly for the local
people in Bosco Village, children of
the workers and staff at St. John
Bosco College.
38
SALESIANS 2013
Sicelo:
by Clarence Watts
Brother Maurice Bondioni was the
first Salesian to arrive in Daleside,
Johannesburg to take up residence in
the first house in what was known as
Transvaal (today Gauteng Province) on
2 March 1949. On 14 November 1949
the first pupils started day school in a
small building named Don Rua School,
which has since grown today to about
900 learners.
As the area around Bosco Centre de-
veloped, the number of young people
coming to the Oratory also increased.
Bosco Centre is surrounded by mainly
farmland; so areas such as Drumblade,
daleside, Walkerville and De Deur
began to grow.
Michael Rua School, which started out
as a farm school in 1949, gradually
began to develop which resulted in it
being moved about 500m down the
road from Bosco Centre and it catered
for the youth from the above men-
tioned farm areas under the guidance
of Fr. Dino Miotto.
My first introduction to the Oratory
was in 1994 when I was a Pre-Novice
under the guidance of Fr. Paul Borok
Kim from South Korea. Oratory was
held every Sunday from 13h30-16h30
and consisted of an opening prayer,
message and fun and games. We
closed the day with a prayer. The
young people were collected from
neighbouring farm areas such as Dale-
side, while the majority of the young-
sters came from Bosco Village. The

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We have been Expecting You!
Bosco Oratory, Daleside
average number of young people was
about 40.
New Challenge
When I returned from studies in Kenya
in 2008, I was appointed as Director of
Programs at Bosco Youth Centre. At
the time Cleric Lingoane was Director
of Oratory until July 2009 as he was
preparing for his departure for Italy to
continue his theological studies. Under
Lingoane’s guidance the oratory had
grown tremendously. The areas from
which the young people to Oratory
had expanded to places such as Sicelo
(Meyerton). At several of our Oratory
Leaders meetings we discussed at
length how to resolve the transport
problem considering that we only had
two mini-busses that can accommo-
date 8 people each. I remember on
one particular Sunday Fr. Roy and I
made about 6 trips to and from Sicelo.
At one of our meetings, Zanele, one of
the young leaders, mentioned that
there was a recreational place available
in Sicelo; it had a soccer field, netball
court, a hall and a playing area for the
little children. I investigated the option
of moving the Oratory to Sicelo where
many of the young people come from.
Enquiries were made to the Midvaal
Local Municipality. They had no objec-
tions in the salesians utilizing the
facilities at the Sicelo Sports and Recre-
ation Centre on Sundays.
The Bosco Community approved the
plan to move the Oratory and on 22
May 2011 the Bosco Youth Ministry
Team launched the Oratory at Sicelo
with about 50 young people. The
Oratory runs every Sunday from 14h00
until 16h00. The Bosco team animates
the programs which deals with various
topics on a monthly basis; In August
we dealt with women’s issues, In Sep-
tember the focus was on culture and
heritage.
The average number of young people
frequenting the oratory varies be-
tween 80 and 100 kids. These young
people look forward to the Sunday
Oratory and we are also grateful to Fer-
rero who donates chocolates to Bosco
Youth Centre and we distribute these
to the youth from time to time.
We always strive to make the Oratory
a place to learn, to pray, to play and to
be a home. By going out to these
young people every Sunday at Sicelo,
we become missionaries among the
youth and who knows one day we will
see the fruit of our labours as we sow
the gospel seed among the youth of
this area. The word Sicelo, is a Sotho
word that means “to ask” The young
people have been asking for us, and
we have responded to that call!
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The printing press which
Don Bosco set up is
celebrating its 150th
anniversary. Set up almost
as a family affair, it soon
achieved excellence in
the printing and binding
industry, becoming a
trade school which gave
rise to generations of
competent, much sought-
after masters and workers
in the trade
Don Bosco's
Printing Press
150 years Later
by ANS
Halfway through the 19th century,
Don Bosco had understood that
the future lay in the ability to commu-
nicate. One day he laid out on the
table all the printed pages of a book
with the title Guardian Angels, and
called over a young lad, telling him:
“Now, you're the book-binder!”“Me, a
book-binder? But I know nothing
about it. How can I do that?” the boy
shot back.“Just come here”Don Bosco
insisted, “See these pages? You can sit
down at the table and then just start
folding them”. He then sat down with
the boy and they began folding the
pages together. Then with some help
from Mamma Margaret they sewed
them together. The kids standing
around began to laugh. “Well might
you laugh”, Don Bosco exclaimed, “but
I know that we need a binding work-
shop in the house, and I want to begin
right now”.
Towards the end of 1861 Don Bosco
had two machines set up in an appro-
priate room. The bench and job box
with letters and ligatures were made
in-house by the carpenters. Seeing this
rather rough and ready-made equip-
ment, the boys who had to start out
with the job were not all that enthusi-
astic but Don Bosco encouraged
them: “You will see! We will have a
printing house, maybe even ten of
them. You will see!”.
The first of many
The Oratory Printing Press, as the first
Salesian Graphics School was known,
went into production in 1862. Like
anything that has a chance of growing
up well, the Oratory Printing Press un-
derwent many changes and grew as a
result each time. As things got bigger
and the area that housed them like-
wise, more powerful and more
modern machines were acquired. The
Press grew in efficiency and stature,
and competed well with the best in
the city: four presses, twelve steam-
driven machines, afterwards con-
verted to gas and finally to electricity,
a typeset foundry, plate-maker, cop-
perplate or intaglio printer.
In October 1872, some of the privately-
run printing shops, jealous of the
Salesian work and worried about its
very promising future, formed an asso-
ciation, asking the Government to
close down other printing presses “run
by charity”. But Don Bosco averted the
threat with his usual vigour.
In 1884, at the National Exposition,
the Salesian Printing House was
given a huge shed bearing the sign
“Salesian Factory: paper, print, mov-
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able-type foundry, book-binding and
bookshop”. The following year Don
Bosco encouraged his Salesian con-
freres with a circular about “spreading
good literature” aiming to motivate
them to pay more attention to the
possibilities of the apostolate offered
by the printing industry: “A good
book”, he wrote:
… can even enter homes
where the priest cannot.
The dubious will
take it as a gift
or keepsake.
There is no blush in the offering of it.
Neglected, it does not feel troubled.
Read, it calmly teaches truth.
Scorned, it does not lament the fact,
but leaves a lingering regret,
sparks desire to know the truth
which it is disposed, always, to teach
Whoever gives a good book
has offered a thought from God
and gained incomparable merit
in God's eyes”.
In a digital age
The reputation won by Don Bosco's
Printing Press spread throughout
Europe winning many prizes and
much recognition. As years went by
new areas were opened and equipped
to respond to contemporary needs
and to remain in the vanguard of
progress, as its founder wanted. The
initials, too, changed, becoming SGS or
the Scuola Grafica Salesiana.
Communication itself has been trans-
formed. Ever faster, electronic, digital it
is now a global network. The book, so
loved by Don Bosco, might seem the
victim of all this; but the Salesian Press
reminds us that a book is more than a
kind of 'fast food'. It is an art, a trade, in-
volving skills and professionalism. The
Valdocco Press came into existence as
a school and continues so today.
Amidst all the changes it remains just
what Don Bosco wanted and formed;
it is rooted, even geographically-
speaking, in its very origins: this is
where its place is, beside the Basilica of
Mary Help of Christians.
Its essential elements have not changed:
after 150 years of experience it contin-
ues to function on a daily basis. It
enjoys the growing esteem of workers
in the field, is recognised internation-
ally and still has the satisfaction of
being able to teach the trade to so
many young people.
Its two defining features have been
handed down: family atmosphere and
professionalism.
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PROMOTER
▶ BIOSELVA: sustainable, respectful development
▶ Papua New Guinea: Discovering the Salesian Missions
▶ Creating a Missionary Culture for Our Young People
▶ Nigeria, Africa's Young Giant
▶ Like Sheep Without a Shepherd
▶ A Recycled Missionary
▶ From Valtellina to the Solomon Islands
42
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“Many a time he informed me how much he esteemed this kind of the priestly ministry,
comparing it to work in the foreign missions. He expressed a sincere wish that every city
and province in his kingdom should establish similar institutions”.
(Memoirs of the Oratory, Chapter 41)
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BIOSELVA:
sustainable, respectful
development
by Vicente Santilli
Bioselva is an association which
came into existence to support
the indigenous tribes of the Peruvian
Amazon. The project came about as a
response to the circumstances of pop-
ulations who have never been taken
into account by the State. These people
want answers and respect which is in
keeping with their world-view. Unfortu-
nately, many have passed through
these places offering unfulfilled prom-
ises, resulting in suspicion and mis-
trust.
Now with Bioselva, the perspective of
the indigenous people is changing.
The project involves training local
members of the community in agro-
forestry, building and implementing
two factories for collecting and pro-
cessing products which will eventually
go on the market. “We are increasing
cultivation of groundnuts and sacha
inchi (vegetable oil from nuts), and
sustainable use of ungurahui and
aguaje (both palm tree fruits native to
the Peruvian jungle)”, says Enrico. Be-
sides we are teaching new techniques
for collecting the fruit without de-
stroying the plants.
The developers
Ms. Rosario had made acquaintance
with Fr Yankuam (Luis Bolla), and
became enthused about his mission.
“His work”, she says,“filled me with emo-
tion and I accepted the challenge of
getting involved in the project. Despite
some apprehensions I saw that the
Achuar were welcoming, keen to im-
prove the situation and open to evan-
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A venture to defend the forgotten peoples of the Peruvian Amazon. Enrico Marinucci and
Ms. Rosario Miñano with the help of Voluntariato internazionale per lo Sviluppo or the
International Volunteer Movement for Development (VIS), are setting up a business that
will raise the standards of living and preserve the culture of Amazonian tribes, beginning
with the Achuar.
gelisation; this filled me with enthusi-
asm”.
Enrico had earlier worked with the
Chankuap Foundation, an organisation
from Ecuador that was doing some-
thing similar. Invited by Fr Ferdinando
Colombo to do something similar in
Peru, he had his doubts, initially, but
aware that problems might be solved as
things went along, he accepted the
challenge. “Jesus makes a good com-
panion, and most of my doubts were
about training people and the business
aspect, but I see that the Achuar re-
spond well and are looking for the kind
of development that respects their cul-
ture”. Besides, “The Achuar are happy
with the project, and this makes us
happy as it is a guarantee that things will
proceed well”, says Rosario.
Difficulties and problems
There is no lack of difficulties created by
financial interests. Many of the Sierra and
Selva communities do not want the ex-
ploitation that certain companies bring
through oil-drilling and mines if they
were to come into their territory, since
these show little respect for the environ-
ment. More than half of the social con-
flicts that arise in Peru have their roots in
people defending their land. Some com-
panies have infiltrated the Achuar and
divided communities, offering gifts,
money, alcohol, and promising a false
paradise; they have manipulated and
corrupted some of the chiefs. The major-
ity however have not accepted propos-
als of a destructive nature.
Due to contamination of the Rio Corri-
entes and other areas, the people do
not want these companies in the Selva,
because they will damage biodiversity,
the environment and their culture. The
local people are seeking human and not
just socio-economic development. So it
is urgent that the Bioselva project is sup-
ported by them so that ideologies
coming from outside do not destroy
their lives, world-view and nature.
Unscrupulous individuals did try to sink
the project from the outset, offering
money to collect information on the
progress being made. However the in-
digenous people are not so easily
tricked these days and were even ready
to defend their culture and their people
with their lives. This solidarity fills them
with pride, since it is proof that the work
has not been in vain.
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Discovering the
Salesian Missions
by John Dickson
Young Shaun Larcom came to
know Papua New Guinea thanks
to a work experience in Port Moresby.
After staying there for some months,
he returned home and resumed his
studies, but he retained his ambition
to return to the South Pacific to carry
out research on the relation between
criminality and juridical pluralism in
Papua New Guinea.
In the University Chaplaincy in London
he came in contact with Fr. John Dick-
son, SDB, and through him with Fr.
John Cabrido, a Filipine missionary in
Vunabosco, who was great help to
him: He says: “Not only did Fr. John
Cabrido give me a warm invitation to
visit, within a couple of weeks he had
organised a two month itinerary for my
fieldwork, including hosts, guides,
translators and transport.”
From his research in the field, Larcom
derived two significant results, one of
which confirmed his hypothesis, while
the other came to him as a complete
surprise. What he expected to find, and
what his econometric analysis showed,
was that education seems to play a
much greater role in reducing the
propensity to engage in payback
killings than harsh criminal penalties.
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A research doctorate in the University College of London
allowed Shaun Larcom, a young English student, to get to
know the situation in the Salesian Missions in Papua New
Guinea and their positive influence on the local
communities.
What the young student had not ex-
pected was the solid daily Gospel ex-
perience which he met in the Salesian
communities. He modestly writes: “I
am often struck by the radical message
of the Gospel and how non-radical my
own response can be. The same
cannot be said of the Salesian mission-
ary priests and brothers that I met and
lived with. They really have embraced
Christ’s radical challenge to give up all
and come and follow him. Leaving the
comforts of home, including their fam-
ilies and friends, they live a life of serv-
ice and prayer that reminds me of
descriptions of the early Church in the
Acts.”
The Salesian schools and technical in-
stitutes in Papua New Guinea offer
many young people the chance of
gaining an education which otherwise
they would not have had. At Vuna-
bosco the Salesian community runs a
non-selective institute which admits as
many students as possible, regardless
of their academic ability. In a country
where secondary and technical edu-
cation is the reserve of very few, the
Salesian schools offer a vital service to
the citizens.
The students gain an excellent educa-
tion, despite very limited resources,
that helps them flourish and serve
their communities when they go
home. Larcom relates: “One of the
former students of Bougainville, who
I met, returned to his village and built
a hydroelectric generator out of scrap,
which provides regular electricity to
the whole village.”
Shaun Larcom concludes: “I will always
remember the feeling of peace and
happiness that I experienced while
living with the Salesian community at
Vunabosco. It is through the lives of
these men, and of others like them,
that the Church derives its beauty and
really shines a light on the world”.
SALESIANS 2013
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Creating
a Missionary Culture for
There
are many ways to
create a missionary
culture in a province. One of
them is through brief
experiences in a mission
setting. Let's talk about the
history, problems and
successes of Gospel
Roads: Tijuana.
by Juan Carlos Montenegro
This brief experience of mission began 8 years ago when
the Youth Ministry Coordinator realised that young
people at St. Dominic Savio's did not have any service op-
portunities. He went down to Tijuana to see how they might
start some pastoral involvement with the Salesians in Mexico.
When he arrived, he learned that a group from Oregon called
“Ambassadors” used to bring young people to work in the
oratories. The Salesians provided them with food, work, and
a place to stay.
This idea was adopted by the Youth Ministry Coordinator at
St. Dominic Savio's and this is how brief experiences of mis-
sion in Tijuana began. In the beginning, these experiences
took place only on weekends, at least twice a year. The
young people from St. Dominic Savio's ar-
rived on Thursday night and left on
Sunday morning after helping with
whatever was needed in the orato-
ries. This arrangement continued for
many years.
48
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6 Pages 51-60

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6.1 Page 51

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Our Young People
Up to that point, the experience was only one of collab-
orative service: the young people worked wherever they
were needed. Unfortunately, something was missing.
Community life – a very important factor in all mission
work – was not then a priority. With this in mind, the
Youth Ministry Coordinator and the Rector of the Salesian
community in Tijuana got together and started to talk
about the possibility of integrating the two experiences.
At the end of this meeting and after obtaining the ap-
proval of the Salesian community, it was decided to have
the missionaries take part in Mass, Morning Prayer, and
the Good Night. With these additions, the short mission-
ary experience in Tijuana began to have a religious com-
munity component.
At the same time that all this was happening, the Youth
Ministry Delegate from St. Philip the Apostle Province in
the Eastern United States was creating a
movement called “Gospel Roads.”This
movement consists of 3 retreats
based on community service.
The service component of
the first retreat consists in
helping in a shelter, vis-
iting the sick, and creating an oratory for the youngest
ones. The second retreat is a little bit more complicated
as the young people leave their local areas and go else-
where to help others. This can be done in the same city
or state or far away from where they live.
The third retreat is conducted outside of the USA. Young
people who have taken part in Gospel Roads I and II can
apply for this International Missionary experience.
Thanks to Divine Providence, the Provincial Delegate for
Mission Animation in the western United States and the
Youth Ministry Delegate from the eastern United States
were able to get together and talk about their individual
initiatives. When they saw the similarities, they commit-
ted themselves to a unified effort to collaborate in creat-
ing a missionary culture within the Salesians of the United
States.
Today, Gospel Roads Tijuana is the perfect opportunity for
young people to gain a different perspective on life. For
ten days, the young share community prayers with the
Salesian Religious each morning, engage in physical work
at the oratories such as: mixing cement, painting, cleaning,
or anything that is necessary to improve the quality
of the site, and last, but by no means least,
create community with the people from
the neighbourhood by: sharing meals
with them, playing sports with them,
and most especially, sharing joyful
oratory moments with the chil-
dren. Each day finishes with the
entire community getting to-
gether to have a well-deserved
Good Night.
This experience has helped us to
motivate our young people to
make the decision to give one year
of their lives to the most in need by be-
coming volunteers. This missionary expe-
rience in Tijuana has taught us that by
working together we can make a difference in so-
ciety: that truly, we can be love through service.
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Nigeria,
Africa's Young Giant
Nigeria is really an entire world in itself, more than just a
country. Unfortunately what we hear about it from outside is
oen limited and limiting. e tragic events are what make news,
and these seem even more dramatic because of the large numbers
of people involved.
by Silvio Roggia
Nigeria is huge and its problems are
proportionately complex and vast.
UN data for 2010 mention 158
million inhabitants 80 million of whom
are Christian, 20 million of these
being Catholic.
It is a kind of universe with its own
constellations of history, civilisation
and cultures rooted in the centuries, in
peoples forcibly brought together to
benefit external colonial interests.
They continue to live under the one
flag whose major factor of national
unification is the resources coming
from the export of oil, Nigeria being
currently the sixth largest exporter of
oil in the world in terms of daily output
and tenth in terms of its reserves
(around 25 million barrels of crude).
50
SALESIANS 2013
Africa was made for Don Bosco
What is less newsworthy is the daily life of this African giant,
especially the lives of the young, who make up the largest
proportion of the population. According to UN data 53.25% of
Nigerians (84, 210, 000) have not yet reached 20 years of age.
Salesians opened a double presence in Nigeria in 1982, at Akure
and Ondo, followed by Onitsha in the centenary year of Don
Bosco's death (1988).
We have become aware that if “Africa was made for Don Bosco

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and Don Bosco for Africa”, as Fr Viganò used to love saying,
this is 100% true for Nigeria.
The proof are the very many Catholic Associations named
after Don Bosco well beyond areas where we find Salesians;
and the proof is especially the consistent and growing
number of young men ready to dedicate their lives com-
pletely as a gift, like Don Bosco, for their peers.
And if in the past we continued to dream while existing
works were consolidated, to which in 2002 Ibadan was
added, in recent times the reality seems to exceed all our
hopes and desires: we opened a presence in Abuja, the ad-
ministrative capital; since October 2011 two confreres have
begun a community in Lagos; summer camps have been
offered in Kintagora, in the country's north: this is a first step
towards a permanent presence for Don Bosco there. Last
October the Rector Major made Nigeria a Delegation of the
West Africa Vice Province, including Ghana, Liberia and Sierra
Leone as part of it.
The field is huge and the prospects and possibilities no less
so, given the enormous challenges we face.
Amongst them, and first in order of priority is the quality of
how we hand on the Salesian spirit to the new generations:
it is almost like a relay race where we have reached the cru-
cial moment for passing on the baton.
If the mission in the past needed a container, walls, machin-
ery for workshops, today the strongest appeal is directly to
individuals, beginning with those who are not only prepar-
ing to continue along the path trodden by the first arrivals
but to give wings to a charism that has the potential to
transform millions of lives.
If the noise made by the falling tree is picked up by the an-
tennas of the major media whose seismographs only regis-
ter the sensational, often marked by destruction and death,
we are surrounded by an enormous and growing forest,
whose impact on the future will undoubtedly be a notable
one, not only for Nigeria, and not only for Africa.
“Humankind in Africa as a spiritual lung for the world”(Bene-
dict XVI) is one sixth of humankind as a whole and it is grow-
ing in Nigeria.
That it may grow with Don Bosco is something worth plac-
ing all our bets and resources on, just as he himself would
have done.
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Like Sheep
Without a Shepherd
The trek to Tuke may be arduous, but
the final two-hour leg is infinitely
more so! I finally gave up counting the
times I fell—frontwards, backwards,
sidewards—as I and my six youthful
helpers slithered down, the steep,
mountainous descent. On one in-
stance, for about 150 metres, I clung to
slippery mountain walls and held
tightly onto tree vines and roots for
dear life, avoiding a plunge into a deep
ravine.
Tuke’s remoteness and inaccessibility
may be a reason for the infrequent
visits of its diocesan pastor. When I first
arrived at the station in late February
2012 and celebrated the Eucharist, it
was the first mass the people had had
since May the year before. It was a diffi-
cult mass. The people knew neither
the responses nor the songs; they
were even mistaken in the postures
during the celebration, opting to sit
down during consecration! It quickly
by John A. Cabrido
dawned on me I was in the midst of a
nominally Catholic community who
held steadfastly to its faith, while not
growing in it.
Another root of Tuke’s troubles is its lack
of education. The elementary school
opened only in 2008 with most in the
community illiterate. Once, having mis-
taken a young adult as one of the
teachers, I was corrected amidst thun-
derous laughter that the over 30-year
old was actually a Grade 5 student!
Leaving the village for the first time
was peculiarly difficult as I was worried
when the Eucharist would be available
again for the people. The gospel de-
scription “sheep without a shepherd”
was never as real for me as applied to
the people there.
It was with immense relief, therefore,
when on 17 March 2012 I greeted the
archbishop, who had walked up to the
Pomio mountains, bringing with him
two diocesan priests, including the
parish pastor. This paved the way for
me for a two-week return to Tuke
during the Holy Week and Easter cele-
brations. Unfortunately, the weather
was totally uncooperative this time

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I must have walked over 100 kilometres through thick tropical rainforest
spread over four discontinuous days before I reached Tuke, a tiny Catholic
mission station established by German MSC Fathers nearly fiy years ago deep
in the Pomio mountains. e 11 hamlets which comprise the Catholic
community, belong to the archdiocese of Rabaul, led by Salesian Archbishop
Francesco Panfilo, SDB.
and continuous rains, a swollen river
and impassable streams closed the
school down. It was a blessing in dis-
guise as this allowed me to tap the
help of the school teachers and
Catholic students, even if we had to
pluck them out of their remote ham-
lets. The first batch of altar servers was
a disaster and I had to request the
headmaster for only the “trainable”
ones, settling on seven youths ranging
from adolescents to young fathers.
Without the benefit of electricity, we
celebrated our Holy Thursday “Last
Supper”Eucharist at 3:00 PM to ensure
we had enough daylight since dark-
ness comes early in the rainforest. I was
particularly insistent that my “apos-
tles”—who all go around barefoot—
would scrub their legs and feet
vigorously before the service!
The“Rot bilong Kruse”(Way of the Cross)
the next day was a truly memorable
one. For the first time in over a week, the
sun finally shone which allowed us to
commemorate the stations passing
through the various hamlets. This was
meant to rekindle faith in the places
where they lived and not just in the
mission station. The nearly three-hour
celebration saw the faithful trekking
through forests, climbing steep slopes
and rambling down stony mountain
paths reliving Jesus’final passion, aided
by a drama ensemble. Unspeakable
horror almost befell us in the 10th sta-
tion when a soldier-actor totally disre-
garded my explicit order “to remove
only (the actor) Jesus’ top shirt but not
his bottom laplap (waist-cloth). Speed-
ily—and unhesitatingly—the errant
youth tugged away at the waist-cloth!
Mercifully, the inner loincloth held and
scandal was averted. Not having a
proper Easter candle, we had to make
do with a gigantic tree trunk cut and
decorated as a paschal candle, topped
off with a small wax candle at its crest.
In the darkness of the forest, that one
little candle made such a difference
as the Exultet was being sung—in
Melanesian Pidgin, of course! The Easter
mid-morning mass was a joy as the
church was bathed in light with festive
decorations appropriately expressive of
the new life running through the com-
munity.
When my fortnight stay came to an
end in mid-April 2012, it was like a case
of déjà vu—with a difference. With
their local pastor just two days’ walk
away and another priest at equal dis-
tance, I hoped the two diocesan
priests would visit them more fre-
quently and enable the faithful to cel-
ebrate the sacraments more regularly.
I still left Tuke with a heavy heart but
more tranquilly. As I continued my
three-month sojourn through the var-
ious mountain villages, I incessantly
encouraged young people to take
heart and answer God’s call to be
shepherds of his flock.

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A Missionary! Who would have thought I
would be one? In some sense of the word I
was reminded that I was one, not because
of the fact that I was baptised, but by the
secular enforcements of the law in India.
When I le Kenya, the country of my birth,
at the age of 18, for India, soon aer
completing my G.C.E., I began my training
towards the priesthood in the Salesian
junior seminary of Don Bosco, Lonavla, in
1965. In my mind I was to live a normal
life of a pre-novice and discern my vocation
to be a priest. But being a foreigner,
holding a British passport, studying in a
religious institution, I was categorized as ‘a
missionary’ by the State Government. And
so began my ‘missionary vocation’.
54
SALESIANS 2013
Project Africa
When the Rector Major in 1979, at that time, Rev. Fr. Egidio
Vigano, invited volunteers for Project Africa, the invitation
offered me an opportunity to work as a priest in Kenya, my
home country. I was reminded by my confreres, that I was
not going to Africa as a missionary but as one who was
merely returning to his home country, Kenya. So the Provin-
cial put things right and assigned me to a mission Parish in
the Southern Highlands of Tanzania.
The start of my first missionary journey to Africa, like St. Paul,
was almost‘shipwrecked’by the local government author-
ities in India. I was not given the green signal to ‘sail’ with
the first missionary expedition for Africa, and my‘boat’was
firmly grounded, as my papers (being a foreign missionary)
were not in order. I was duly reminded of my predicament
by the Indian immigration official, who told me very casu-
ally but sarcastically, and I still remember his words: “Not
even your Jesus Christ can save you from this.” The Salesian
Brother who was assisting me get over this matter assured

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A Re-Cycled
Missionary
by Tony Fernandes
me that all would be well and I need only to whisper
a prayer. Mt. 10:22 – “You will be hated by all because
of my name, but it is the one who has endured to the
end who will be saved.” How true. That night I was able
to join the rest of the group with the help of friendly
contacts.
For the next few years in Tanzania, I enjoyed a most
wonderful missionary experience. Being missionary
meant touching the lives of young people by word
and example; standing up for what they dreamed;
gently but firmly guiding them along the paths they
wanted to thread; exploring with them the many op-
tions that lay before them in their search for God in
their lives. The new Provincial, in 1986, ‘de-missioned’
me – I was to go home – to Kenya, and worked there
for almost 20 years.
Project Europe
When the Regional for Asia visited Goa, India, he
talked to the local
confreres about Project Europe.
He actually provided bait and I snapped
at it immediately and applied to be part of
Project Europe. Strange enough, I was being re-
minded once again, that I was not going to Great
Britain as part of Project Europe but merely joining my
family there, which I had left 34 years ago. I took that
with a great spirit of resignation. But then, instead of
being assigned to a community in England, I was re-
quested to go to Scotland, a totally new place for me.
This was to be a missionary experience that I had so
much to learn from.
A re-cycled missionary! Yes, recycling actually gives
you a warm glow, it makes you satisfied in the knowl-
edge that you are making a positive contribution to
the world around you. So why don't you give it a go
and get the same glow? And that is what I have been
telling myself in this new area of my missionary land,
Great Britain.
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From Valtellina
to the Solomon
Islands
by ANS
56
SALESIANS 2013
What are the most important social issues in the Solomon Islands?
As you can understand isolation is one of the main obsta-
cles to be overcome, both for evangelisation and for pro-
viding basic health care and education. The tribal system
provides an oasis of security in an ocean of isolation, as the
tribe becomes the part of society providing an immediate
response to all the urgent problems of support and peace
with families and neighbouring tribes.
There is still the danger of hostilities among the different
tribes and frequent disputes about land rights. Central gov-
ernment is considered very abstract and remote since it
cannot intervene in time with regard to the tribes basic
needs.
What contribution can the Church make to Solomon Islands society
and what are the challenges presented by society?
For practical purposes central government is absent from
the more isolated places where, on the other hand the
Church, her institutions and personnel are present. Basic
health care and education both primary and secondary are
areas in which the Church and society collaborate for the
common good. The Catholic Church does a great deal to
preserve good relations between the various tribes and for
peaceful and fruitful co-existence. The challenges of cor-
ruption remain regarding the distribution of aid and civil
institutions which often does not reach the people for
whom it was donated in the first place.
In a society which calls itself Christian, in the various de-
nomination, there is still too much difference between
what they believe and what they practise. Sometimes reli-

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Bishop Luciano Capelli SDB of Gizo, in Rome
for the Visita “ad limina Apostolorum”, replies
to some questions from ANS. e Solomon
Islands are a Republic independent since
1978 and part of the Commonwealth; a
thousand islands, only 360 inhabited, with a
population of 600,000. e majority are
Christians: about 40% Anglicans, 20%
Catholic and then other Protestant
denominations. Two suffragan dioceses Auki
and Gizo depend on the archdiocese of
Honiara:
gion is seen as an‘insurance policy’against evil spirits in
which the people still firmly believe.
Starting next October in the Church there will be two very im-
portant events: the Synod on the New Evangelisation and the
Year of Faith. Does it make sense to talk about new evangelisa-
tion in the Solomon Islands, or are we still in the phase of the
first proclamation? How do you inculturate the Gospel in the
Solomon Islands?
If by new evangelisation you mean proclamation by
credible witnesses, there is certainly need for that! If
by new evangelisation you mean new ways of pro-
claiming the Gospel message, I would certainly agree:
there is a real need. The message has been proclaimed
by missionaries for over a century, but there is still the
need to bring the Gospel message into peoples’every-
day lives, giving meaning and direction to every deci-
sion. For this new evangelisation there really is an
urgent need!
In fact we are setting up basic communities which are
able to grow in faith and in solidarity: in this sense we
have moved beyond the “implantatio ecclesiae”.
In addition, to overcome distances and build bridges it
would seem that the episcopal light aircraft (in which
the Bishop travels between the islands of his diocese)
does a good job.
What do you still retain of your origins and then what have you
taken from the Solomon Islanders in all these years?
From my Valtellinesi mountains, – the land of Fr Carlo
Braga and of the Venerable Fr Giuseppe Quadrio – from
the culture of my origins and of my childhood the period
after second world war I still retain the great ability of not
giving up in the face of crises or of any kind of danger.
The mountains taught me that arriving at the top victo-
rious comes not from just aiming at the summit but from
the constant struggle of the climb, putting one step a
little further and higher than the last one without losing
sight of the peak.
From the Solomon Islanders I have learned, on the other
hand, lightheartedness, the joy of living just for today…
patience and being content with little, with what is nec-
essary, without stress.
We have heard that with Archbishop Panfilo, today the arch-
bishop of Rabaul, you played in a Salesian football team that
even the Philippine national squad could not beat. Do you still
play?
Two ligament operations on my right knee (in 1981 and
1991) did not stop me from kicking a football. But in ’99,
during a match, after having trapped the ball with my
right foot while I was getting ready to shoot with my left
I realised that … the ball was no longer there! Those
young scoundrels had taken it away from my feet! That
was too much for a former champion … so at 52 years
of age I stopped playing seriously. But I’m still happy to
kick a ball around occasionally, making sure the oppo-
nents are young enough! At 64 I can still join in with the
altar servers in the elementary schools. How enthusiastic
they all are! Naturally there’s ice cream after the match,
which also helps to win over their hearts.
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EDUCATOR
58
SALESIANS 2013
▶ Between 'uncool' and 'awesome'
▶ Salesian Centre for Teenage Workers –
CESAM
▶ Supermarket School
▶ Building Bricks of Hope
▶ Salesian Youth Movement Triveneto
▶ Don Bosco Today in the World of Work
▶ Learning the Art of Living
▶ SYM Valencia: Formation Programmes
for Youth
▶ A Hundred-year-old Dream

7 Pages 61-70

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“With a view to providing for this area in education what the times absolutely demanded,
I set about compiling a Bible History. I aimed for a simple and popular style, free of the
defects already mentioned. That was my reason for writing and publishing the text called
Bible History for Schools. I could not guarantee an elegant production, but I worked
entirely with the good intention of helping young people”.
(Memoirs of the Oratory, Chapter 42)
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For two years now, first and
second year students at
DBG (the 'G' stands for
'Gymansium' , or Grammar
School) have prefects at
their sides. Seventh and
Eighth years are mentors,
friends and confidants for
the younger ones. We visited
the school in
Unterwaltersdorf and
accompanied three prefects
throughout their day.
60
SALESIANS 2013
Between ‘uncool’
Austria and ‘awesome’
being a Prefect at Don Bosco School Unterwaltersdorf
Text/Photos: Markus Schauta
“Having great marks
doesn’t mean you have
great social skills,“ explains
Beatrix Dillman of Don Bosco. Thus,
marks are not the primary criteria by
which prefects are chosen. Accompa-
nied by her colleague Michael Hof-
mann, the teacher is leader for the
prefect project.
The bell rings during the
break. Three prefects of
Class 1C sit comfortably at
a nearby table and chat about their
duties as prefects. “Some boys consider
being a prefect pretty uncool” the
three girls, Sophie Berger, Lisa Budinsky
and Sophie Huszarek agree. Therefore,
there are many more girls than boys to
take care of first and second years.
All three are students of Class 7G and
have been prefects assigned to Class
1C since last September now. A total
of 23 Students at 7th and 8th grade
level currently participate in the proj-
ect.
The bell rings again. Actu-
ally, the girls would have
History now but they got
the lessons off to talk about their com-
mitment as prefects.
“Their” students have grown close to
them.“It is so cute when they instantly
want to know why we couldn’t visit
them during the break!” says Lisa.
The prefects broke up hierarchies.
When the girls were in first grade, only
older students were allowed to sit in
the last row of the bus: “These hierar-
chies have now eased.”
Occasionally, some arguments have to
be sorted out and sometimes people
even get put into the trash bin or
locked up in the lavatories.
The Bell rings for today’s fourth lesson;
it’s time for French now.
Fifth lesson, Mrs. Dill-
mann’s music class. The
students are happy as for
once they are allowed to watch a
movie today during Mrs. Dillmann’s in-
terview. It was decided to start the pre-
fect-project two years ago, also to
prevent bullying and similar problems
between students.
Beatrix Dillmann and her colleague
Michael Hofmann handle the coach-
ing of new prefects and the regular
feedback meetings. If urgent problems
arise they are taken care of immedi-
ately in small meetings.
Teacher-prefect cooperation works out
well. “Many heads-of-class are really
ambitious and interested in the needs
of their students and work together
closely with the prefects. Some others,
though, have still to get used to the
new projects. Teaching also means ed-
ucation. We must not let administra-
tive tasks steal too much time needed
to teach and to care about the stu-
dent’s needs. Not always an easy thing
to do!” explains Ms. Dillmann. “For that
reason, I think, it is very important for
our school to have this prefect project
and to be serious about it.”

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Michaela Gross, head
teacher of 1C, offered her
lesson today to the pre-
fects. “This happens about once in
two months, when we are offered
the head teacher’s lesson and we
can freely use it”, explains Lisa.
The students welcome their prefects
happily. It’s time for parlour games.
The prefects conjure flexible tubes
out of a black bag. The class arranges
itself in a circle and everyone holds
their tube close to the neighbours'.
Sophie throws a marble in the first
one and it rolls through every single
tube until it finally drops back into
her hand.
Everyone goes into the
refectory for lunch. “I
could go home now, ac-
tually”, says Lisa,“but we play with the
young ones until 2:30 and afterwards
go to the cinema“.
Usually, prefects accompany their
class for two years. Some are afraid to
lose too much time for their Final Year
exam preparation. Lisa will do the
exam next year and is therefore not
sure whether she will be able to look
after her first years. Sophie definitely
wants to take care of her class next
year. “When I was in first year, I was
afraid to go to school. Now I want to
help others who might feel like I did.”
Sophie Huszarek says: Since her work
experience in kindergarten she knows
that she wants to work with children.
Therefore, she is sure she wants to
remain with her class next year.
After lunch, the students
meet in front of their
class. When you ask
them how they like their prefects
they all agree on “awesome!!”
Lisa and both Sophies decide on
taking their students to the so called
Freizeitzentrum which is aiming to be
a leisure centre. “Classroom cleaning!”
orders Lisa and everyone helps to
clean up the class and put the chairs
onto the tables.
The huge Freizeitzen-
trum is on the top floor.
Some students play
pool, others play with paddles or
tabletop soccer and some play par-
lour games.
Don Bosco’s auditorium
is equipped with a huge
screen. It is used regu-
larly for movie screening like today's
“Tim & Struppi”.
At about 3:00 p.m. Father Wiedemayr
unlocks the door and the students
quickly fill the room.“We are about to
start, kids!” Father says, while prepar-
ing the equipment. Lights off, the
movie is starting!
After the credits, the kids
and their prefects finally
go home. Julia, Sophie
and Sophie will spend time with their
protégés again next week.
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Salesian Centre
for Teenage Workers
History
by Guilherme Barbosa
It was then that Brother Mesquita, along with other
Walking
Salesians, decided to create a new model in a
Salesian style that combined young people's
across the courtyard at
skills with their subsequent referral to formal
CESAM in Belo Horizonte,
Minas Gerais, Brazil, Salesian Brother
Raymundo Rabelo de Mesquita sees
hundreds of young people who have but one
work. CESAM (Centro Salesiano do Adoles-
cente Trabalhador, or Salesian Teenage
Worker Centre) was set up in May 1973
in the capital, Minas Gerais, and at the
time bore the name Vigilantes Mirins.
aim: to qualify to enter the workforce. And
More than just an employment agency,
looking at the scene, Brother Mesquita remembers
how it all came about: “Forty years ago the
Salesians from St John Bosco Province, Belo
Horizonte, Brazil, saw a hiatus in the institutions
providing education for the young and in
this Salesian effort then went on to
offer technical and personal prepara-
tion to each youngster, preparing him
to face life's challenges with dignity
and responsibility.
employment agencies of that era. Many of
CESAM
them gave little importance to youth nor
did they treat them with dignity
and respect”.
Currently CESAM, administered by the St
John Bosco Province (ISJB), can be found in
five States of Brazil: Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro,
Espírito Santo, Tocantins, Goiás and the Federal
District. These social units serve hundreds of young
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CESAM 40 years transforming the lives of the young
people each semester. With a multidis-
ciplinary team made up of teachers,
social workers, psychologists, and
others, CESAM offers a framework to
guide and monitor socio-familial, social
and professional qualifications, holistic
development for teenagers and a pro-
gram of coordination and mobilisation
for human rights. Each social unit is
aimed at the education and evangeli-
sation of needy adolescents aged 16-
18 years. It legally employs teens, then
passes them on to the formal labour
market, accompanying them as they
carry out their activities, gathering
them on weekends for reflection and
sport and also seeking to involve their
families in the training process. Thus,
guided by the spirit of the Gospel, and
starting from a Salesian kind of spiritu-
ality, CESAM helps the young man, or
woman as the case may be, to be “a
good Christian and an upright citizen”.
CESAM + Family + Business:
a great partnership
CESAM forms a social and educational
partnership with business. These are
businesses that recognise the strengths
of the young, and recognise that they
can change.
The unit enters into a contract of em-
ployment with the young individuals
and a signed statement of commit-
ment is established between them
and CESAM. The young person prom-
ises to attend educational occasions,
wear the correct uniform of the unit
and behave appropriately. So that the
educational process can develop as
harmoniously as possible CESAM also
accompanies the families of these
young people, mainly by bringing
them together for formation occa-
sions.
Each young person, in order to be part
of CESAM, has to undertake some
study. The centre also accompanies
the individual's schooling. It does this
regularly by receiving a Declaration of
Schooling and whenever necessary,
the unit draws up contracts with
schools.
Units in each State have some numer-
ous partnerships and achievements.
Recently CESAM in Espírito Santo
signed an agreement with Petrobrás
so that 125 young people could be
part of the ‘Petrobrás Jovem Aprendiz’
(Petrobras Young Apprentice) Pro-
gram.
The dream which began in the 1970s
continues with the same enthusiasm
and with new prospects for today's cir-
cumstances.
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Supermarket School
by Angelika Luderschmidt
photos by Gregory P. Gugala
I“ haven't fully understood how it's all set up, but I'm
making progress”. Andreas Erhard gives a shrewd grin as
he straightens up some spread cheese packets in the re-
frigerator. Just a few minutes before 18 year old Andreas
had donned his uniform, a blue polo-neck with a red logo
on the left saying “Don Bosco”.
Andreas' work regimen begins out the back of the large
supermarket. He likes it there and likes his work. Only just
occasionally does his disability interfere with his work.
Since birth Andreas has been partly paralysed on the right
side. “But I can do everything. Sometimes my handicap
gets in the way but maybe only every three months or so”,
he remarks. Then he immediately changes topic. When he
speaks about his work, Andreas uses technical terms be-
longing to sales talk, as if he has been at this kind of thing
for a long time.“Items have to be organised on the shelves
in order of decreasing use-by date”, he explains, while he
shifts a container of yoghurt into its right spot. As well as
organising all the items, other tasks he lists include con-
trolling the range of goods or re-ordering.
Since September last year in the recently built “Don Bosco”
supermarket, 21 young people from Aschau have been
trained to become salespersons or wholesale merchants.
For the managers, the Salesian Province in Germany, the
Edeka sales point is a pilot project.
Earlier, Andreas and other apprentices were being trained
in a small grocer's just a 150 square metres big, located
near the pharmacy in the centre, but which has now
closed down. The new sales location is around 600 square
metres. “The work I can do here is much more interesting
compared to what I could do in the old shop. Here I can
speak with clients and advise them”, says Andreas, hitching
up his rather baggy, over-sized jeans.
In the Don Bosco-Edeka supermarket, Andreas is in charge of
fresh and frozen products like he was at the grocer's. “Clients
are very kind and positive towards us. Only rarely, when I can't
find something, they show some annoyance”. Andreas tosses
a friendly greeting to a shopper pushing a cart.
“Here in the supermarket these kids acquire useful skills for
their social life and have direct contact with clients. It is
constructive training”. (Hans Kiefl, in charge of the project)
Next to the kitchen, on the first floor of the supermarket,
is a small study area. Each Tuesday Andreas has to come
here with four of his classmates in Third Year. Accounting
and maths are part of their course. And all day thur4sday
they are at“Waldwinkel”Trade Centre for other courses. In
the hostel attached to the Centre, Andreas shares with 260
special needs apprentices. Since there are no classes on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Andreas can take the
first shift, 6 am till 3.30 like today.
64
SALESIANS 2013
At Aschau am Inn in Bavaria, Andreas
Erhard is pursuing his education by
working in the sales sector. e “Don
Bosco” Supermarket, Edeka, a well-
known food distributor chain managed
by the German Salesians of Don Bosco
Province is helping disadvantaged
youth. Andreas has been working there
since September last. e Don Bosco
Magazin followed him up at work.

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About half an hour after finishing his shift, Andreas goes
back to the hostel and has two hours of free time; then
there is an hour for study followed by supper. When he is
not studying or working, Andreas listens to music and fol-
lows his favourite hobby: going on the Internet looking
at motor vehicle sites. His eyes light up when he glances
at the calendar stuck on the wall of his room and looks at
the fast and powerful cars it displays.
At the end of next summer, the eighteen year-old will
finish his training as a retailer.
Those responsible for the training at the supermarket are
happy with him. The teachers at“Waldwinkel”too can see
a bright future for this lad with his spiked hair and pierced
ear. “Andreas will go his own way”, says Hans Kiefl, in
charge of the project. “The third Year is important for his
maturity”. The teacher standing nearby nods and adds:
“Before he finishes his training, Andreas still needs to learn
to curb his exuberance and get down to study”. He will
soon start his exam preparation. Then he will begin the
practical part aimed at preparing himself for job inter-
views.
When we ask him where he would like to work, Andreas
has a ready answer: “I would like to be in the technical
area. It would be just great if I could find a job selling com-
puters or mobile phones”.
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Hope! Building Bricks of
Working among the children in brick fields in Haryana, India
by Kollappalliyil Thankachan
Child labour is estimated to involve as
many as 60 million children in India;
“hidden workers” who do all types of
work in the underground economy.
Though the Indian Constitution
guarantees free and compulsory
education to children between the age
of 6 to 14 and prohibits child
employment, the problem is still
paramount in India.
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Numerous brick fields now bloom
on both sides of the long road
which stretches across vast agricultural
fields. There are thousands of people
who work in these brick fields, living in
shacks under horrible living conditions.
They are poor migrants from the
neighbouring states. There are about
500 brick fields in Pasahaur in Jhajjar
district of Haryana, just 60 km from the
heart of the capital of India, New Delhi.
They supply bricks to many northern
states but have no bricks to build a
home of their own.
They start their day early in the morn-
ing. All night long a pall of smoke bil-
lows out from the chimneys where the
bricks are baked in the morning. The
smoke looks like a dark passing cloud,
and leaves behind smarting eyes; at in-
tervals there are just sparks to be seen
when the dry grass is pushed down-
ward inside the burning ovens.
It is not unusual to see many people
young and old working among mud
dunes, making bricks. And when it is
children much less than 10 years of
age it numbs the mind, seeing chil-
dren with tender hands working like
expert brick makers under the scorch-
ing sun, from April till mid-June.
The brick field becomes a playground;
a young child values each brick as his
earnings. Other children, who are too
young to make bricks, play around in
the dust and mud and a few girls take
care of their younger siblings when
their mothers are at work. Sometimes
pausing and looking hesitant, these
malnourished children drag them-
selves off to work.
Don Bosco Pasahaur, situated in the
same brick field area, has endeavoured
to construct a children’s village for
these underprivileged children. Here
the Salesians are helping to them build
bricks of hope for a better future. Fr
Joseph Thankachan, the Director, is
mainly concerned with uplifting the
living standards of an area with poor
sanitation facilities, providing safe
drinking water and shelter for healthier
living. The Salesians have the uphill
task of giving a bright tomorrow to
these children reeling under an unjust
system and living in inhumane condi-
tions. They have drawn up many plans.
A few of them are:
» Awareness programmes for the
women and children in this brick
field
» Residential care for vulnerable chil-
dren
» Formal and non-formal education
and care for the vulnerable.
The Salesians are working hard to over-
come the problem of child labour in
this area. Education is their tool of lib-
eration. The children are ushered in to
the non-formal schools and rescued
from the hazardous conditions of
brick-making.
Childhood should lie well beyond an
expanse of dark smoke. A child’s dream
place should be allowed to flourish with
laughter and joy, learning and merry-
making. Instead, for many it is disturbed
by greed and inhuman attitudes. Child-
hood is lost in the brick fields.
Society should stand as sentinels
against these chimney owners and give
deprived childhood a dignified life.
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Leadership courses offered by the
Triveneto Salesian Youth Move-
ment are a human and spiritual
growth experience for someone
who wants to work with the least
in society and nurturing a pas-
sion for education. Something
Benedict XVI said sums up
nicely the meaning and the heart
of this experience: “Go out and
tell other young people how
happy you are to have found the
wonderful treasure who is Jesus
himself. Be enthusiastic mission-
aries of New Evangelisation!
Bring the joy that Jesus wants to
give to those who suffer, are seek-
ing” (from the 2012 WYD Mes-
sage).
by Igino Biffi
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SALESIANS 2013
Salesian Youth Movement
a Salesian experience at the Church's service in NE Italy
The Leadership project consists in pro-
viding an experience aimed at helping
young people to be neighbours to the
least amongst them, equipping them to
manage the various summer leadership
activities with head and heart. The aim is
to strengthen the formation that the lead-
ers are already receiving at local level.
Young people from 14 to 18 are invited,
who want to be able to educate with the
leadership style that is part of Don Bosco's
Preventive System. They are all young
people, then, on the way to full human
and Christian maturity, and they are ready
for service in their own local churches. A
leadership course of this kind lasts a week
and each one is held over three days in
June in Udine, Verona, Mestre (Salesian
Houses), as soon as school holidays begin.
There are high expectations because it
signals the beginning of summer and it is
an incomparable opportunity for en-
counter involving staff and youngsters,
around 2,000 of these latter. So that they
can undertake a graduated course, there
are four levels based on age and experi-
ence, each named after a biblical figure
whose life points out the way to become
a credible witness to other young people:
» I level: DAVID
» II level: THE TWELVE
» III level: ST PAUL
» IV level: MARY

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Triveneto
The purpose of these leadership
courses also consists in leading these
youth to discover or reinforce within
themselves a desire for God. They also
aim to help them realise that life is full
when it is given to others.
The leadership courses are the result of
close collaboration between the
Salesians in the North East Province,
the Salesian Sisters from the Triveneto
Mary Help of Christians Province, and
the Salesian Cooperators. The staff also
includes a number of university stu-
dents and young workers who put
their study or work on hold to give a
hand in many areas. A core group en-
sures coordination of staff and others
who help in various fields (formation,
logistics, assistance, prayer, animation,
workshops). Friends and guests also
come in from elsewhere: Rumania,
Moldavia, Hungary and Bosnia.
The ingredient that gives real sub-
stance to this lively experience, is that
they are all together, sharing quarters
with another 500 young people. The
leadership courses means that these
young people often come into con-
tract with consecrated individuals,
older leaders and their own peers.
Relationships take centre stage: festiv-
ity, tasks, sharing means that they
relate with each other and with adults
who love and believe in what they like
and believe in. This is an important
time, something which creates the
'alchemy' of the event; there is room to
open up to others, make comparisons,
allow themselves to be accompanied.
And for educators it is also an impor-
tant time because it is in these per-
sonal relationships that the young
people reveal themselves and their
own depth.
More than 60% of those taking part
come from diocesan parishes; the re-
mainder come from Salesian settings
(SDB and FMA).
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Don Bosco Today
in the World of Work
by Jesús Rodríguez Mejía
In imitation of St John Bosco, Salesians in Mexico
opened their first work in 1892 in Santa Julia, Mexico,
D.F. It was a school of arts and trades where the students
could take courses in boot making, carpentry and tai-
loring, amongst other things.
In 1983 the Rector at Santa Julia was Fr José Lázaro y
Reyes sdb, who along with some Cooperators followed
Don Bosco's example in founding the Salesian Technical
Training Centre, which had as its main aim the technical
training of young people who needed this service.
At the time, this technical training had workshops ded-
icated to engine-tuning, carpentry, electricity, welding,
plumbing and refrigeration. As the years went by, the
Centre was redesigned and updated, thanks to help
from: Comide (a Belgian aid group), Senosiain Workshops,
Mrs María Guadalupe Salgado Mendía, Kindermission-
swerk (Germany) and Mr Julio César Domínguez of
KABA.
Recently all workshops have been re-equipped and
programmes redesigned to suit the machinery and new
equipment. It is worth noting that the courses have
been set up so that 80% is practical and 20% theoretical.
It is estimated that over the 29 years of the Centre's ex-
istence some 9,900 students have been trained.
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The Centre offers its services to anyone who requests
it regardless of gender, race, religion or social circum-
stances, and is especially helpful for the most vulnera-
ble and needy youth.
Currently the Centre offers technical training in the fol-
lowing: General mechanics, Fuel Injection, Carpentry,
Lock smithing, Electricity, Electronics, Domestic electri-
cal repairs, Drainage inspection, English, Domestic and
commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning, Basic
and advanced computerisation, Computer support
and maintenance.
Weekly evening courses run from 6:00 to 9:00 pm and
on Saturdays from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm.
At the completion of each course, pupils receive a
diploma which recognises the training received.
The Salesian Technical Training Centre is currently di-
rected by Bro Austreberto Velasco Sandoval, sdb., and
Mr Jesús Rodríguez Mejía, Past Pupil, as Coordinator.
We take this opportunity to thank the many people
and institutions who, throughout these 29 years have
offered support, especially financial support to the
Centre.
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Learning the Art of
Living
In Slovenia, a country bounded by the Julian Alps,
the Adriatic Sea and the Pannonica Plain, the
Salesian mission carried out by the sons of Don
Bosco now in its second century (it began in 1901)
is slowly expanding. To parish ministry, almost the
only means of survival for the Salesians during the
communist regime, other areas of Salesian work
have now been added. A school, Gimnazija Že-
limlje, takes in around seventy new students each
year, offering them education at the highest level,
as well as an education which follows Don Bosco's
system. Youth centres are opening up beside the
parishes. They are a place for teenagers and older
youth to find somewhere where they are welcome,
can pass their time actively and be formed as good
Christians and upright citizens. The summer
oratory is by now well-known and widespread at
national level. In fact it was recognised by the
Slovenian Bishops Conference in 2011 for the sup-
port it has offered youth ministry nationally.
Many parishes benefit from the willing hands of
by Marjan Lamovšek
Salesian Family groups who see enormous poten-
tial in this area for educating the youthful genera-
tions. For the last two decades, in the social work
area, the Salesian presence and voice on behalf of
the young and needy, along with their many activ-
ities and those of their lay partners has been heard.
One could additionally indicate other initiatives for
the young, including the ones for young people
who wish to be active amongst their peer group,
that is, young leaders.
It would be too much to list them all. But just to
round off the picture it is worth mentioning the
DUO Centre at Veržej. It is an abbreviation in
Slovenian which points to it being a centre for Arts
and Trades. Some years ago a building was reno-
vated at Veržej, and many young workers find a
place there. The young, and the young at heart, can
unravel the mysteries of one or other handicraft
through courses at various levels and of different
duration. They learn and gain experience with
these handicrafts, and of life!
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With a fistful of clay in your hands you can feel like a creator. Straw too,
of itself merely a dry stalk with little seeming value, in able hands and
with a little imagination can become something valuable. It might be
fragile, and it might burn like the stubble in the fields but it can have
permanent value for someone who has fashioned it lovingly, carefully. In
the end, it is no minor matter to have experienced that in life, it is not
how much work you put in that counts, but the dedication and love with
which you did so. is is an art acquired not by looking at the written
word but by living.

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SYM Valencia:
Formation Programmes
for Youth
by Marta Peirat
e programmes organised by the Youth
Ministry Team for the Valencia Province
are aimed at young people from ages 9 to
20. ey come together in age groups, be
they just children or young adults, from
all the youth associations and centres
run by the Salesians in Valencia,
Alicante, Castellón, Zaragoza, Murcia
and Albacete.
The purpose of these SYM gatherings (Salesian Youth
Movement) is to accompany them in their growth
and formation, strengthen the groups involved and get
them to see the value of meeting other boys and girls
who believe in the same values, but to do this outside
their habitual surroundings. As the years pass the sense
of belonging to Province and family has very much de-
veloped amongst those who take part.
Basically these gatherings foster an understanding of
the Salesian world in each participant, its values and the
fundamental elements of Salesian Youth Spirituality.
Each event involves these objectives through different
activities and proposals. For example the youngest
ones, who belong to the ADS (Amigos de Domingo Savio
or Friends of Dominic Savio), work with examples of
youthful holiness: Dominic Savio, Laura Vicuña, Michael
Magone and Francis Besucco. Beginning with the differ-
ent activities, children from 9 to 14 share their ideas and
undertake to take a strong apostolic interest in other
youngsters of their age.
What is known as Marchabosco, for teenagers from 15
to 17, invites them to discover life as a way of sharing
with others. The central activity for this event is a long
hike in a natural setting involving stops along the way
where they break into various groups and share a
moment of formation. Night times are special, since
there is much festivity and good cheer stemming from
the various activities.
Campobosco, on the other hand, gives young men and
women an opportunity to make an option on behalf of
others as young leaders. This is a young adult event –
they are 18 to 20 years of age; the majority of these par-
ticipants are already undergoing leadership formation.
Campobosco teaches them how to relate in educational
terms; they learn something of Salesian family spirit and
youthful spirituality.
All three events cited above are organised in such a
way as to place emphasis on Jesus and his word
through prayer and celebrations adapted to those
taking part. Games, play, leadership opportunities,
musical evenings, dancing, sports, are all part of these
events.
Those taking part are organised into groups to take up
the activities prepared earlier by the leaders. The leaders,
who are volunteers and have chosen to be there, ac-
company these groups during the event. The organisa-
tional work and support of the Youth Ministry Team is
also very important, and each event has a group of
adult volunteers and Salesian Cooperators who carry
out this role. It is a lively expression of the kind of family
spirit with which Don Bosco attracted his boys.
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Although each is an annual event, it is a formation
process ranging from childhood to young adulthood.
Over twenty five or so years of these gatherings, many
young people have taken part in this process since they
were quite young and until they became adults; it has
helped them discover their calling and to be commit-
ted educators with an identity that is clearly that of the
SYM.
Some of the events are closely bound up with solidarity
projects. This is the case with the ADS camps which, for
the last ten years or so, are involved with solidarity proj-
ects run by Jóvenes y Desarrollo (the Salesian 'Youth and
Development' NGO). Mexico, Peru, Togo, Mali and other
countries have benefited from such help. Over the
coming three years efforts are being focused on the
Chicos de la Calle (Street Kids) Project in Guayaquil,
Ecuador.
When all this formation process began, many of the
different youth associations in the Valencia Province got
involved: scouts, junior groups, parish groups, who pre-
viously had little contact with each other. The idea behind
the formation events was to bring lots of young people
of similar age group together, knowing that although
they belonged to groups with quite distinct identities,
they could all meet under a common and broader shared
identity, their Salesian identity.
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Dream A hundred year-old
The hundred year-old history of the
Salesians in Hungary began in
Péliföldszentkereszt, producing its
many roses, but also its thorns. The lo-
cation was not ideal for the Salesians,
since there was no village in the vicin-
ity of the shrine, only woods; the near-
est village was 3kms away. Even so,
once the Salesians had settled they
gave rise to such a dynamic develop-
ment that the following year they
began expanding. They soon opened
a house in Nyergesújfalu, while the
original place was taken over as the
novitiate. Don Bosco House, where the
Salesian theological faculty operated,
was constructed in 1932.
Unfortunately, the communist
regime put an end to this
rapid growth in 1950. The op-
eration of religious orders in
Hungary was prohibited for the forty
years that followed. Their institutions
and houses were taken away; the
building complex of Péliföldszentk-
ereszt came under state ownership
and was returned only in 1992, but in
terrible condition. Fr József Havasi –
who was provincial at the time and led
the province for 18 years – really con-
sidered not asking for Péliföldszentk-
ereszt back. Now he is happy that he
finally did, because – despite the sig-
nificant financial and physical effort –
a flourishing paradise could be re-
stored.
Péliföldszentkereszt, the “cradle of the
Hungarian Salesians” is now enjoying
its renaissance. The shrine has been ad-
ministered over the last six years by Fr
Ábrahám Béla, appointed provincial by
the Rector Major, Fr Pascual Chávez, in
by Erzsébet Lengyel
2012. He has been striving to modern-
ize the buildings and to attract more
and more young people through ex-
citing activities and dynamic work on
the part of leaders.
That part of Don Bosco’s dream which
applies to Hungary began at Péliföld-
szentkereszt.
The first forty years gave birth to plen-
tiful vocations, allowing Hungarian
Salesian missionaries to go to faraway
countries: they reached China, Japan,
Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, India… Today, it is
the other way round: Indian and Viet-
namese missionaries help the dwin-
dling Hungarian Salesisan community.
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In the centenary year, 2013, the Salesians and other members of the
Salesian Family in Hungary are working hard to show as much as
they can from the past and the future to the whole country, and to
spread Salesian spirituality by reaching as many as possible.
During the years of exile, Hungarian
Salesians hoped for their misery to end
soon. There were some who retired to
serve in the dioceses, others managed
to depart for foreign countries and
some even gave their life for Hungar-
ian youth. István Sándor, Salesian
Brother, is respected as one who per-
sisted in his vocation and in the service
of the youth. He could also have trav-
elled to a foreign country with false
documents, but he decided to stay
and serve the young people until
death. He was sentenced in a show
trial and put to death, and so, as a
martyr, is watching over his confreres
and his beloved young people.
Now, the glorious past has to be fol-
lowed by an arduous present, full of
effort for continuation and growth.
Hungary is the smallest amongst the
Salesian provinces, but it still turns to-
wards the future with hope. In addition
to Péliföldszentkereszt, the ancestral
cradle, and the school of Nyergesúj-
falu, the three houses of Budapest and
also Szombathely and Balassagyarmat,
the house at Kazincbarcika is the most
important Salesian establishment.
Here, more than 1,300 students are
being educated and nurtured – many
of them Gypsies who find hope for a
better future with the help of Salesians
and learn a profession or gain their
General Certificate of Secondary Edu-
cation. The schools and oratories help
spread the reputation of Salesians, and
the young members and leaders in the
Salesian Youth Movement carry
Salesian spirituality to their friends.
The Salesians of Hungary, and their
missionary brothers from India, Viet-
nam and Poland continue the hun-
dred year-old dream in the heart of
Europe, in this little country with its
wonderful history, language without
compare, and a huge heart.
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FOUNDER
▶ Families Journeying with Don Bosco
▶ Tabernacles of Hope
▶ Two hearts, a Single Charism
▶ 140 Years of Service to the Young
▶ A Gift Received, a Commitment to
Honour
▶ From Pupil to Teacher: William’s story
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“Therefore I am now putting into writing those confidential details that may somehow
serve as a light or be of use to the work which Divine Providence has entrusted to the
Society of Saint Francis de Sales”
(Memoirs of the Oratory, Preface)
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We are families who have jour-
neyed together for some twenty or
so years, guided by Salesian priests,
in a way that has brought many re-
sults:
» love between spouses that is re-
newed daily,
» spiritual growth both as individ-
uals and as families,
» formation as parents in the de-
manding task of education,
» friendships amongst our children
that enable them to share the
faith and be witnesses to it for
others.
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SALESIANS 2013
Families Journeying
with Don Bosco
by ADMA
A Dream
Don Bosco was a Saint and a dreamer.
His heart was turned heavenwards but
his feet were firmly planted on earth;
he loved to express himself through
dreams. He would often narrate his
dreams to his boys, especially during
the 'Good Night', the brief thought that
he offered his boys each evening.
In the famous “Dream of the Two
Columns”, the Saint saw the Barque of
Peter being attacked by many smaller
boats which were trying to “batter it
with their prow and do as much
damage as possible”. The battle raged
ferociously until the Pope, overcoming
every obstacle, succeeded in attaching
the Barque of the Church to the two
columns entitled Jesus-Eucharist and
Mary Help of Christians. Then the
enemy fled and was lost and the sea
returned to great calm”.
safely on its way when anchored to the
two columns. This brief episode helps
us to relate the experience of families
who have spent years journeying with
Don Bosco in ADMA, the Association
of Mary Help of Christians founded by
the Piedmontese Saint in 1869. It is
one of the Salesian Family Groups.
Who are we?
We are families who have journeyed
together for some twenty or so years,
guided by Salesian priests.
Each family plays its part according to
its own circumstances: all we encour-
age is that they keep working at it in
order to gain the greatest benefit.
Families are also invited to nurture their
participation in the Church's life by
taking an active part in parish or
oratory activities.
Experience tells us that not only the Learning from Don Bosco means culti-
Church as a whole, but even the small vating various aspects of the Salesian
boat that is every family, proceeds charism in the family: the joy of living;

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attending to prayer life and union with
God in everyday circumstances;, serving
our neighbour, especially when our
neighbour is young and poor; placing
trust in God who is our Provident Father,
and entrusting ourselves to Mary who
is our Mother and Teacher.
What do we do?
Catechetics - The priests choose and
develop the topic for the year in line
with what the Church proposes as well
as accepting pastoral proposals from
the Salesian Family. There are three es-
sential reference points for this catech-
esis:
» The Word of God and the Sacra-
ments;
» The dynamics of our married life and
our role as educators;
» Our commitment to a more intense
life of prayer and greater fidelity to
duties that belong to us as family, in
our work, as members of the Church.
A week's retreat - is held in a family at-
mosphere, and one of commitment
but also rest, friendship and simplicity.
Key moments in the day include:
morning prayer, catechetics; personal
prayer and prayer as a couple; Rosary;
sharing. For whoever wishes, one
hour is given to Adoration before the
Blessed Sacrament.
The high point of the weeks is called
our personal 'desert', a place where we
remain silent and in prayer to discover
God and rediscover ourselves, in order
to grow in love and in our ability to
make mature decisions.
A monthly day of recollection - which
lasts the whole day and is an extension
of the annual retreat.
The 24th of each month, Mary's day -
our coming together for an hour on
the 24th is a small pearl which contains
what Don Bosco loved so much and
wanted his boys to love:
Mass, Mary, the Word, Confession and
family spirit. Before we get arrive at 7
pm, the younger family members also
come together for a moment of forma-
tion, sharing and a happy supper time.
Pilgrimages - These are special occa-
sions when the family sets out to en-
counter Mary who as a loving Mother
invites us to conversion. These are won-
derful occasions to be together,and
where the children learn to entrust
themselves naturally to God by follow-
ing their parents, sharing prayer mo-
ments, but also being with their friends.
How?
This is also a journey for our children - It
is part of our style for all the family to be
at meetings. This way the family is kept
together while at the same time each
one finds his or her own space and
friends. By observing their parents pray-
ing and sharing their faith, the children
learn what it is to live in the family in the
presence of Jesus and Mary. It becomes
natural for them to do the same.
Looking at our children, we are ever
more convinced that the witness of
our faith is the best gift we can possibly
offer, the best legacy we can leave
them.
In a spirit of service
Organising recollections and summer
retreats means many people need to
be involved. Couples make themselves
available for whatever is required: or-
ganisation, leadership, cooking, clean-
ing. The spirit of service is truly a vital
ingredient in our journey of formation!
“Freely you have received, freely you
shall give” - finance is not meant to
be an obstacle: this is also something
we learned from Don Bosco. When it
does happen that a family cannot
manage costs, the rest of the group
help, with discretion, but fraternally.
Money should not stop a family from
receiving God's gift if this is what they
want.
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Tabernacles of hope
Salesian Cooperators in Africa
A trip to Africa is always full of emotion and
wonderful surprises - surprises from the Holy
Spirit in the form of Don Bosco and his sons. In
Kenya, with the tireless Fr Simon Asira, vice
provincial, as our guide, we met the Rectors of the
Salesian community and its work at Embu, the
Salesian Family Commission in Makuyu and,
finally, Salesian Cooperators in Nairobi.
by Giuseppe Casti
They were stories of ordinary, simple
folk who love Don Bosco. They are
committed to giving shape to the
Salesian charism in the most authentic
way possible. Nairobi is a large city and
it embraces all the contradictions you
are likely to find in Africa: bold modern
buildings set beside ramshackle and
crowded hovels in slums. Salesian
Cooperators can be found in these
shabby settings: organising them-
selves into little communities they look
after street children, sending them to
Don Bosco Boys’ Town, a small Val-
docco in the heart of Africa.
The same involvement, the same
desire to give an African heart and face
to Don Bosco can be found in Tanza-
nia. Fr Augustine Sellam, Youth Min-
istry Delegate, took us to Moshi,
Morogoro, Dar Es Salaam. Wherever
we went we found them all enthusias-
tically working for the future of the
country.
These were the thoughts and images
running through my mind when I was
walking the streets of Juba. Juba? Yes,
Juba, or, if it helps you, we are in South
Sudan. In fact Juba is not even found
as yet on many maps. It is but a few
months since the State declared its
independence. South Sudan is war-
weary from the long struggle for in-
dependence which it paid for with
millions of dead and millions of
refugees. Everything in Juba is covered
in dust. It is red, insidious, gets into
everything: your nose, ears, eyes,
mouth, to the point where you begin
to believe that your brain is probably
covered with a thin film of red dust.
Emerging from this cloud of red dust
is a people already at the limits of sur-
vival. Their thin bodies and ravaged
faces tell silent stories of life in its bare
essentials, the tough daily battle for
survival, life and death not all that far
apart. And I ask myself: what does it
mean to be a Salesian and a Salesian
Cooperator in such extreme circum-
stances? The challenge immediately
seems an unequal one, beyond our ef-
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forts, when we see children dying of
malaria, malnutrition or dirty water. We
have nothing else to offer these
people other than our poor and vul-
nerable selves, a loving presence that
bends over their wounds and keeps
hope alive. This is the way Jesus re-
vealed God's love. Thus, just as the mis-
sionaries have done, so the Salesian
Cooperators are doing in Juba: they
other day, Juba is wrapped in a cloud
of red dust. I was expecting that like
every other day men and women
would emerge, and dirty children too,
covered in a few poor rags. But no. I
could not believe my eyes. They were
clean, smiling, well-dressed. It was
Sunday and they put on their Sunday
best, the only clothing worthy of the
name, they were all festive. I found
clothes? In their mud huts their must
be a place, indeed let's call it a taber-
nacle, where Juba's inhabitants keep
their Sunday best. Yes, it has to be a
tabernacle, because it is more than just
Sunday best. It is woven of dignity and
freedom. There might be suffering but
there is also a hope for a better future.
Many threads might be grey with the
daily grind, but there are also vivid
colours of a splendid eternity. Yes, this
clothing, the only one the inhabitants
of Juba truly wear, must be jealously
preserved as something unique and
precious, in the tabernacle that is each
of their huts in Juba. Fr Cyril Odia, a
young Salesian priest, knows this only
too well. He invites everyone to the
oratory as they finish the Mass with an
explosion of song and joy.
live with them, amidst their miserable
dwellings.
It is Sunday morning. It is nine in the
morning but the day has already
reached 40 degrees. And, like every
myself smiling and ecstatic, as if I was
seeing an apparition. Today in Juba
really was a feast. And while I contem-
plated their faces which now shone
with a new light I was asking myself:
where do they keep these new
There in Juba, on the edge of the
desert, on the banks of the White Nile,
the Cooperators, real Salesians in the
world, with Fr Cyril and the other mis-
sionaries bring about the miracle of
hope that is re-born through the
young.
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Maìn, House of happiness
Two hearts,
a single charism
“Don Bosco's far-sightedness and his passion for education seemed right, according to
Maìn and her friends”.This is what Sr Caterina Cangià said when talking of the script for
“Main. House of happiness”, while explaining how the film demonstrates the mutuality
and educational affinity of two saints: Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello. We could put
it this way: two apostolic hearts but a single charism as educators. And these are two
aspects of the film script which become the key to this apostolic mutuality:“That's just
like we do with the girls”, says Maria Mazzarello. And Fr Pestarino points out that they
also have Sunday oratory, while weekdays they teach the boys a trade.
Sister Caterina, underlying Don Bosco's
idea of education, and something which
Mother Mazzarello fully subscribed to as
well there is the primacy of the individual.
Which scene in the film demonstrates this
best?
There is a beautiful scene where Maìn,
recovering from the typhus which had
left her weaker than before, has a pow-
erful insight – something which we in
the Institute refer to as a “vision” –
which leads her to understand that
she can put her life at the service of ed-
ucation of girls. In fact she asks Our
Lady, who is represented as one of
those shrines you find along a country
road: “Are you entrusting them to me?”.
The idea of “entrustment” and “taking
care of” lie behind her choice, which
today we describe as an “anthropolog-
ical”one. For Maìn the growing individ-
ual must be looked after, cared for,
brought to fulfilment. The girls are
taught by word and deed: “What we
teach by example remains”. Maìn has a
strong sense of reciprocity, stated quite
clearly when she says: “Petronilla, I have
no daughters, but I have many sisters
by Maria Trigila
and I love them just the same”.
Don Bosco in the film is quite precisely sit-
uated. Why did you choose these details
and not others?
I first chose Don Bosco being urged on
by Fr Pestarino when he tells him he
wants to invite him and his boys to
Mornese. Maìn brightens up at this an-
nouncement for two reasons: she
knows that any of Fr Pestarino's sug-
gestions are aimed at growth and she
senses Don Bosco's greatness even
before she has met him. Then Don
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Bosco arrives. The whole village is in
a festive mood and this increases
when the boys and the band arrive.
Maìn tells the girls with her: “Look at
him. He is a saint”. Maìn is convinced
of this, so I asked myself how I could
convey this to the viewer. I decided
to do it through the way they looked
at each other. By means of two
close-ups the film says something
about Maìn's recognition of holiness
and Don Bosco's immediate insight
regarding her: “You will be the first”.
Then we meet Don Bosco, when all
the boys are asleep, in conversation
with Fr Pestarino about founding a
school for boys at Borgoalto. We see
him then in Turin telling a young
Salesian of his firm intention to
found an institute that “will do for
girls what the Salesians are doing for
boys” and then we finally see him
setting the seal on the General
Council's decision to begin the In-
stitute of the Daughters of Mary
Help of Christians. His part in the
film then concludes with a won-
derful homily given on the occa-
sion of religious profession, on the
5th August 1872, followed by the
recommendation to “always be
very cheerful”.
Don Bosco founds the Institute at the
height of his missionary zeal when he
has the courage to found houses in
Patagonia, in 1875. en in 1876
Mother Mazzarello writes to Fr John
Cagliero: “Call on us soon … in Amer-
ica! I would already like to be there!”.
is seems to tie the Salesian Congre-
gation and the FMA Institute together
from the outset. What was the little bit
extra that you wanted to add to the
film in this regard?
The 'little bit extra' is summed up in
a few words of Mother's, but partic-
ularly in the trusting, decisive, happy
tone with which she says them. The
first missionary expedition, in the
film, is immortalised by a photo and
sealed with these words: “Don Bosco
calls us to work amongst the girls of
the ordinary people, amongst those
most in need”.
e film clearly shows the impact that
Don Bosco had on Domenica Maz-
zarello's life. Not just because the Sisters
became citizens of the world, rather
than just citizens of Mornese, but be-
cause …
Because everything was done in
Don Bosco's name, following his rec-
ommendations and teaching as ex-
pressed through the early directors
of the Congregation. The last words
the film has us hear via a voice-off of
Mother's are: “I die as the spouse of
Jesus, as Daughter of Mary Help of
Christians and Don Bosco. I want all
of you to have this grace that I have
loved so much and that now I will
love even more”.
From other scenes I recall in particular
the Letter from Rome, 1884 where Don
Bosco wrote to the Salesian community
at Valdocco: “e biggest danger which
can undermine the basis of an educa-
tional relationship is the loss of famil-
iarity”. Would you say that this is one
of the messages of the film?
The film shows this clearly. You see it
when some of the important deci-
sions are being made like the divi-
sion between the New Ursulines
and the girls who decide to become
Daughters of Mary Help of Chris-
tians; in the profession trial scenes,
when a small girl “who can read
well” is asked to play the part of the
Bishop. Then when there is singing,
games, study, theatricals… there is a
whole texture of loving, caring pres-
ence.
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140 years of service to the young
by ANS
e Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians has reached the age of
140. On 5th August 1872 in Mornese, a small village in the province of Alessandria,
11 young women consecrated themselves to the Lord and gave birth to what would
become an international Institute present in 94 countries.
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On 5th August 1872 Don Bosco was in
Mornese. He had arrived the previous
evening to speak to the young women,
explaining the significance of the cere-
mony, teaching them to read the re-
sponses and the formula of the vows:
“Now you belong to a religious Family”,
he said, “which is totally the Madonna’s;
you are few in number, you are short of
resources and you are not supported by
human approval. Let nothing disturb
you… The Institute will have a great
future if you keep yourselves simple,
poor and mortified… Remember fre-
quently that your Institute must be a
living monument to Don Bosco’s grati-
tude to the great Mother of God, in-
voked under the title of Help of
Christians.” (cf Cronistoria I 305-306)
Don Bosco wanted a female Institute
which could complement the educa-
tional work which he was carrying out
for boys. In Maria Domenica Mazzarello,
who would be the co-foundress, and in
the first group of girls which met in Mor-
nese, there arose the possibility that his
dream would be realised.
Today the FMA Institute numbers 13,653
sisters (as of December 2011) distributed
in 1,436 communities in 94 countries of
the five continents. Over the years they
have kept alive a passion for the educa-
tion of the young from many different
cultures, the integral formation of the
person, social solidarity, together with
the planning and development of activ-
ities involving evangelisation, formation
and ‘prevention’ (helping to keep young
people out of trouble).
Schools, Vocational Training Centres,
family homes, works for street girls,
leisure clubs, volunteering, catechesis,
works for primary evangelisation, work
with indigenous people, works for
women’s rights, micro-credit organisa-
tions and micro-enterprises … these are
just some of the activities through which
the FMA seek to live out their mission of
educating and evangelising, together
with a great many lay collaborators, vol-
unteers and young leaders.
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SALESIANS 2013
A Gift Received,
A Commitment to Honour
by ANS
Article 1 of the Association's Statutes
says: “Past Pupils are those who,
having gone to the oratory, or school
or any other Salesian work, received a
preparation for life there which follows
the principles of Don Bosco's Preven-
tive System”.
The Past Pupils Association is quite a
special kind of organisation: while its
statutes are Christian-inspired, mem-
bers of other faiths are fully members.
The past pupil may be lay, a priest or a
religious. Those of other Christian con-
fessions or other religions are asked to
honour their commitment by being
consistent with their own beliefs and
the human and cultural values they
have learned.
The Association has two strands: the
first is made up of members who are
committed in various ways on their
local scene and to a formation process;
the second is that or a much broader,
less-structured movement. But more
than its structures, the Association sees
itself as being an environment for for-
mation in faith, a place for religious di-
alogue, a workshop for various kinds of
cooperation, an open field for evange-
lisation, a place for convergence, ac-
cording to the individual's wish, for
religious or secular motives.
System, in today's society, and especially
in the “new digital continent”.
Its origins are simple and feature the
typical family style of Don Bosco's
charism. On 24 June 1870, Don
Bosco's Name Day, a group of “past
pupils” brought him a set of coffee
cups as a gift, in grateful recognition.
Don Bosco wanted the tradition to
continue, putting a whole day aside
for it, and invited them to dinner for
his part. The first of these “fraternal
agapes” took place on 19 July 1874,
and was the origins of the annual past
pupils convention that can still be
found in Salesian houses today.
In 1884, the past pupils – now more
than 300 in number – took its first steps
at organising itself; they committed
The education received in the past
should not be just a memory, but a force
that urges the individual to have an
impact on the present, transform it. It is
an opportunity to relive the values
which belong to the education re-
ceived, those of Don Bosco's Preventive

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e Past Pupils of Don Bosco Association recently celebrated its centenary.
ere are countless numbers of young men and women who have had a
Salesian education, and earned the title of being a past pupil of Don Bosco.
Some might be famous names but there are many more who in all simplicity are
living example of Don Bosco's motto in daily life: “good Christian and upright
citizen”.
themselves to preserving the educa-
tion they had received, continuing the
work for needy youth, nurturing
friendships and solidarity amongst
members. The first statutes were drawn
up in Turin on 8 December 1911, at the
first International Congress, urged on
by Blessed Philip Rinaldi, who would
later become the third successor of
Don Bosco.
On 23 May 1920, when the statue of
Don Bosco erected by the past pupils
in the Square in front of the Basilica in
Turin was blessed, the organisational
structure of the Association was de-
fined more clearly: local Unions, a
Provincial Federation, an International
Federation (known as the World Con-
federation since 1954). At that meeting
it was decided to also accept non-
Christian membership, eliminating any
kind of distinction and separation, priv-
ileging rather the notions of unity and
fraternal bonds.
After the Vatican Council new and
more practical forms of cooperation
with the Salesians developed. The
Confederation is part of a wider group
of past pupils of other Congregations,
recognised by the Church as an Inter-
national Catholic Organisation (I.C.O.).
In recent years the Association has been
working at formation of future leaders
by running courses across the conti-
nents, and a number of international
congresses have taken place to share
new projects and local initiatives (Euro-
bosco, Asia Australia, Congrelat, Afro-
bosco). These take place every four
years, and the World Assembly, every six.
The Congress which took the Associa-
tion into its second century was held
in Turin and around the places of Don
Bosco's birth and childhood, from 26
to 29 April 2012. The Rector Major and
his Vicar took part. It was an important
moment in the Association's history.
The World Confederation of the Past
Pupils of Don Bosco has a strategic
plan (2011-2016) aimed at a growth in
the sense of belonging to the Associ-
ation and the Salesian Family, at a
deeper Salesian and Christian spiritu-
ality, stronger leadership, and organi-
sational structure. The Rector Major has
also frequently urged Past Pupils to
strengthen their commitment to soci-
ety and Church.
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From Pupil to Teacher
William's story
From an undertaking in favour of just one person
advantages can be derived for a whole community. is
happened in the case of William, a Tanzanian boy of Masai
origin who benefited from the help of many people and
from education by the Salesians in Turin. Now he intends
to repay his debt for the benefit of the less fortunate children
of his village.
by ANS
William is now a young adult, 22 years old, tall,
thin, alert and forever smiling; his most typ-
ical Masai features, other than this are the circular
marks on each cheek and the large hole in both
earlobes. He is the oldest of 6 brothers, and was
born in Elerai, a small village at the foot of Mount
Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. William, who also goes by
the surname Makau, has also taken on the name
of the family who adopted him in Italy: Cisero.
Despite a strong desire to do so, as a child he could
not study much: “I went to a Lutheran mission
school for two years. Nobody studied much be-
cause they didn't consider it important. A boy's job
was to hoe the ground, look after the animals or
sell necklaces. So I worked in the fields and cov-
ered many kilometres a day bringing meat to the
miners, because my parents raised cattle and were
unable to support all of us kids”.
Then came the encounter with an Italian couple
that changed his life: “We met on the beach at
Zanzibar, in 2005, when I was selling handicraft
and cloth to the tourists. They listened carefully to
my story. They were interested in it and my desire
to study. They encouraged me to do so”. The Cis-
eros offered to pay for his schooling there in Zanz-
ibar. “I accepted willingly, because I always loved
school to the point where I just couldn't leave off
reading books”.
When he had finished his first few years of Sec-
ondary in Zanzibar, in 2008 William was adopted
and came to Turin where he began attending the
Edoardo Agnelli Salesian High School. This was his
first contact with the Salesians although they had
been in his hom country since 1980. He spent two
years at the school, but came to understand that
this was not the kind of course he wanted to
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follow. So he changed schools – but still with the Salesians
– to go to the Agnelli Polytech, where he studied electronics
and nurtured his dream of becoming an engineer.
At Agnelli, as time passed, William became very popular
amongst the students thanks to his life experiences: he told
them about when he confronted a lion one night and the
time he saw gold-prospectors being killed with a machete.
For Fr Alberto Zanini, the Rector at the school, however, it
was his passion for learning that most surprised and en-
deared him to his school mates.
During his third year at the Polytech, William was elected as
President of the “student Republic”, since school leadership
was set up to emulate the Italian State. In terms of religious
confession he would not regard himself as practising: he had
been baptised as a Lutheran but did not really identify with
that Religion. Now he says that the values he learned at the
Salesian school are his values. He loves sport and like many
African athletes he is a stayer: “I like cycling and running
marathons; I can run 25 km on foot without any worries! In
a 10 km race with 6,000 other athletes taking part, I came
2nd. And in May 2012 I achieved the same over 6 km, against
200 other athletes of the Federation”.
In the summer of 2011 William returned home. He has taught
various subjects, such as Swahili, the Masai language, and
maths – all to children in his own village. He even made the
blackboard and school benches himself, outside under the
shade of the trees, to encourage children to study and their
families to let them study. But it hasn't been easy: “The igno-
rance and poverty of my people really made me feel bad! I
went from house to house to invite the children, but their
mothers couldn't see the use of schooling and didn't send
them. At the beginning, only a few came, but at the end there
were more than 30 of them. My real satisfaction came when
they enrolled in the state school after two years with me”.
In the future William wants to go to university for further
studies, but his dream is to come back to Elerai and fulfil his
dream for education on his home soil by setting up a school.
“I want the children of my village to be able to go to school
like I did”.
Before William can achieve his objective he has a good
number of challenges to face up to; but meanwhile his en-
thusiasm is contagious and he is a leader. The Agnelli council
is putting together a project to support him and some
Salesian mission volunteers are thinking of going with him
to Elerai on their next mission.
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COMMUNICATOR
▶ Don Bosco the Writer
▶ Salesians and The Pope's Newspaper
▶ Science and Technology – at Whose
Service?
▶ Gospel through Media
▶ Shake & Pray
▶ A Radio Run by Street Kids
▶ Pocket Faith: Practical Handbooks for Every
Christian
▶ Festiclip, Video For Youth By Youth
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“The Catholic Readings were warmly received, and the number of readers was extraordinary”
(Memoirs of the Oratory, Chapter 60)
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Don Bosco The Writer
by Fco. Javier Valiente
From 1844, the year he published his
first book, until 1888, Don Bosco
wrote 403 individual titles including
books and shorter works, to which we
would need to add a huge quantity of
letters and autobiographical writings.
Some of his works saw a number of
editions and enjoyed great popularity
and a wide readership. During Don
Bosco's life alone The Companion of
Youth went to 118 editions and was
translated into French, Spanish and
Portuguese; in his Spiritual Testament
he wrote: "In the sermons, conferences
and books I have published I have
done everything I possibly can to sup-
port, spread and propagate Catholic
principles".
When we take a good look at Don
Bosco's life, we become aware of the
many initiatives he put in place to ed-
ucate and evangelise the young. One
can imagine Don Bosco's daily exis-
tence filled with looking after his boys,
opening houses and schools, travelling
around looking for financial resources,
founding a religious congregation,
speaking, preaching and hearing the
confessions of his boys, writing letters,
making official visits, journeys… but
amidst the many things he had to do,
Don Bosco developed an intense ac-
tivity as a writer and publisher, a real
communications impresario, we might
say today.
His publishing programme was marked
by the major principles and concerns
that drove his activities in life generally.
At a time of attacks on the Church and
the Papacy, criticism of religion, he set
out to become a Catholic publisher, an
apologist who could defend the
Church and the Catholic Faith with his
books. No wonder then that in this
aspect too, he was like St Francis de
Sales.
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Educational books
Besides his role as an apologist, Don
Bosco wrote and published books
with an educational purpose. The first
book which Don Bosco wrote was
Historical Aspects of the Life of the Cleric
Luigi Comollo (1844), and he had
30,000 copies of this printed. Church
History (1845) and Sacred History
(1847) were also amongst the early
works published by the saint as a re-
sponse to the needs of his youngsters
who, once they had studied the Cat-
echism, had no other suitable books
as a follow-up.
Books like The Companion of Youth
(1847), aimed at religious practice of
youth in parishes and religious centres;
or The Metric, Decimal System (1849),
published as a simple explanation of
how to make use of this new approach
which came into law in 1845. History of
Italy, Sacred History, The Lives of the
Popes, including a Library of Italian
Youth, are a number of other example
of Don Bosco's interest in reaching out
to young people through books.
Political Press
But other than his interest in educa-
tion, we can also find in Don Bosco's
publishing activity a more modern
mindset, one concerned with finding
the most effective communication
tools for creating opinion and influenc-
ing public opinion. Turin was very
much alive in political terms during the
second half of the 19th century and
many kinds of newspapers and jour-
nals came into being (dailies, weeklies,
etc.) all competing in a much broader
market and on the lookout for a pop-
ular readership.
the past and lamenting the present".
A magazine for the Salesian
Family
Another product Don Bosco set in
motion, in 1877, was the Salesian Bul-
letin. Initially he was thinking of bene-
factors and Salesian Cooperators, and
it was part of Don Bosco's communi-
cation policy for creating something to
keep him in touch with all of the Co-
operators by now spread around the
world. This is a magazine which con-
tinues to be published today across
the Salesian world, fulfilling the aims
for which it was created by Don Bosco,
to be an instrument for bringing
people together, creating awareness of
the life of the Congregation and foster-
ing knowledge about the Salesian
spirit in order to help the young.
The Catholic Readings
At the beginning of 1853 an important
collection in Don Bosco's publishing
efforts began, The Catholic Readings,
which he addressed to a well-defined
audience: workers, farmers, young people
from the popular classes whether in
the city or in the countryside.
These were pocket-books, and their
content involved religious and other
topics aimed at the religious and moral
formation of their readers. The scheme
he followed, in many of them - espe-
cially the early ones - was usually pre-
sented as a dialogue between a father
and his children on the topics pre-
sented. Many of his readership were
young men who had left the country-
side to come to the city and there, far
from control by the family, they had
abandoned religious practice, the
sacraments and habits they had
learned at home.
The Catholic Readings were full of testi-
monies, stories and examples of young
people who behaved correctly. The
lives of his pupils, Dominic Savio.
Michael Magone or Francis Besucco,
follow this style.
To resolve the distribution problem,
Don Bosco used structures available
through the Church; he also had
people helping him who were in
charge of subscriptions. The Catholic
Readings were the core and most im-
portant effort in Don Bosco's publish-
ing activity.
Writing to another priest, he encourages
him to buy and invest in journals of a
Catholic tenor in order to defend the
Church's opinion, "instead of glorifying
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Today's commitment
to good press
2012 has seen 75 years of presence in the Vatican. By pure
coincidence this diamond jubilee comes at the same time as the
Salesians
and the Pope's 150th of L’Osservatore Romano, known throughout the world
as the Pope's newspaper. e Salesians have had a particular
bond with L’Osservatore Romano right back from Don Bosco's
time, given the support he showed for Pope Pius IX.
Newspaper
by Carlo Di Cicco
L'Osservatore Romano came out for
the first time on 1st July 1861 and
on 31st December that same year Don
Bosco was given all the necessary per-
missions to set up the first printing
press at Valdocco. In 1937, while ru-
mours of war were spreading and
Nazism and communism became a
dangerous threat to humanity, Pius XI
called the Salesians to the Vatican “to
look after the two printing presses, the
Poliglotta and L'Osservatore Romano”.
As a young priest Achille Ratti, without
ever imagining that in the distant
future he would become the Pope
who would see to the beatification
and canonisation of Don Bosco, had
sought him out at the Oratory. He was
left with an indelibly positive impres-
sion. He especially admired what was
being done at Valdocco in the printing
and publishing field. He recalled all this
fifty years later when, as Peter's Succes-
sor, he sought to encourage printing
and publishing in the young sovereign
State that emerged from the Later-
anTreaty signed in 1929 and which
was gradually organising itself in every
area.
Pius XI was convinced that his best
choice was to entrust the printing and
publishing of the Daily to the Salesians,
bearing in mind Don Bosco's prophetic
intuition in understanding the decisive
importance of the art of printing and
publishing in contemporary times as a
service to the apostolate and Catholic
education.
Over seventy five years of direction
from the Salesian community within
the Leonine Walls there have been ten
Salesian directors and seventy five
Salesians, many of them Brothers who
are and have been expert and compe-
tent professionals in the art of the
Press.
Following their founder's example,
Salesians have always considered
good press in education of the young
and love for the Pope to be of vital im-
portance. A seventy fifth jubilee of
active presence in his service coincid-
ing with a similar important jubilee for
L’Osservatore Romano, leads us to re-
visit the appropriateness and foresight
of these two loves which Don Bosco
handed down to his Salesians.
And given that Benedict XVI has
launched the educational emergency
as a new frontier for renewing society
and living the Christian Faith by free
choice, we might ask ourselves how
the Salesians understand and put into
practice their love for the Pontiff today
and carry out the aims of an apostolate
of good press.
L’Osservatore Romano, given what the
Salesians have done for it, is an in-
escapable fact for them, since it is what
they do, almost something that be-
longs to the family and which contin-
ues on today. If communications is one
of the crossroads of history for gaining
a new perception of the world, reading
L’Osservatore is one of the signs of
support for the Church, as defined
and presented by the Second Vatican
Council. In that great assembly fifty
years ago, the Church chose commun-
ion amongst its various components
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’the Pontiff as features of its journey
through time. So whatever helps com-
munion is important. In our commu-
nications era, amongst the most
numerous and best articulated of the
media market offerings compared
to the past, supporting the Pope's
newspaper is neither something indif-
ferent nor irrelevant. The spread and
updating of the Holy See's Daily draws
attention to the Salesians' special ded-
ication. Spreading L’Osservatore, for
the publication of which they remain
essential, can be considered one of the
new ways of understanding and ex-
pressing love for the Pope following
the signs of the times.
In the multimedia area, L’Osservatore
Romano is unique, notwithstanding
the vast quantity of newspapers, web-
sites, radio and TV dealing with reli-
gious topics. In Fr Filiberto González'
words, as General Councillor for Social
Communication for the Salesians, in
the immense ocean of information
brought on by the Web, L’Osservatore
Romano, by nature, is the most trust-
worthy source on the Church and the
Pope.
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We oen find ourselves saying “How time flies…”
which leads inevitably to asking “What meaning am I
finding in life?” Alexandre explains…
Science and
Technology:
At whose
service?
by Alexandre Garcia Aguado
Halfway through 2008, following
World Youth Day, those were the
questions which persistently bothered
me. I had an excellent job as a systems
analyst and prospects for the future
were looking good, but I was becom-
ing increasingly uncomfortable with
the idea that the various pieces of soft-
ware I was developing always seemed
to focus mainly on creating a positive
financial outcome for the firm I was
working for. Not that this was neces-
sarily a problem or even something
bad, but I really wanted the technol-
ogy and knowledge that I was devel-
oping to be at the direct service of
those most in need of such.
I had graduated in Free/Libre Software
Technology, one of a number of tech-
nology courses available, and its phi-
losophy was very much directed
towards social inclusion, collaboration
and respecting the fact that human
beings have a vocation to be some-
thing more. UNISAL (Salesian Univer-
sity) is one of the few universities that
offered this course and it was through
it that I came to know the Salesians,
began to get involved in pastoral ac-
tivities, then missionary-oriented ones
and finally got to work in the Salesian
mission in Angola as part of the
Salesian Mission Volunteer Movement.
I found this a way of giving meaning
to my life and my professional training.
After a year of preparation finally, in Feb-
ruary 2011, I left for Angola. Once I had
arrived in this mission territory, the first
step was to get to know something of
the circumstances of the country and
especially what was happening in the
area of Information Technology (IT).
I soon came to the conclusion that the
main priority in the IT area was in tech-
nical education since, after all, nothing
we achieved would last long term
unless there were people to continue
with it. We began by redesigning
the basic computer and technology
course that we were already offering
in our Trade Centres where some one
and a half thousand students are at-
tending annually. This redesigning re-
quired us to create new teaching
materials and we sought to innovate
by offering a multi-platform course in
computer technology, calling it Ubun-
tuBosco, where the student could work
with Ubuntu, Windows-XP and Win-
dows 7. This gave him or her a much
broader view of things. We set up var-
ious training workshops and educa-
tional opportunities with more than 40
computer teachers from the centres,
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and we prepared other young people
to be responsible for the maintenance
of the computers.
In addition to the basic training, we re-
designed the course for computer as-
sembly and maintenance, since this is
a huge need in the country and this
kind of course makes it quickly possi-
ble for young people to join the work-
force.
One of the requests of the Salesians in
Angola, once I had arrived, was to
create a website so that we could fi-
nally have an Internet presence. We set
up a group of young Angolans work-
ing with the Don Bosco Publishing
House in Angola. Then we kept in
touch through the Internet with Fr
Andrés Algorta, responsible at the
time for Social Communications and
the Brazilian volunteers. In November
2011, the domboscoangola.org site
went online as a formation opportu-
nity for young Angolans, a communi-
cation channel for Salesians in Angola
and a way of integrating the Salesian
Family.
In line with the development of the
website, we aimed at improving the
Internet connection in Salesian works.
The Internet in Angola is costly, espe-
cially in the interior of the country
where the only form of access is via
Satellite (VSAT). We reached a very sat-
isfactory contract with one Firm which
made a significant improvement in
our connections possible.
As well as these key projects, there
were various other smaller activities
and partnerships we were able to
arrive at, as for example the OLPC
(One Laptop Per Child) project, a
worldwide project aiming to provide
low-cost computers to help in educa-
tional settings for children. The pilot
project in Angola is based at the Don
Bosco School and has helped us to
educate children in the use of Free
Software and the physical structure of
servers, Internet and whatever else is
needed.
Salesians worldwide have opted for
Free Software and in Angola this is the
line we have followed, which in my
view is wonderful, since it is directly
connected with what I believe and
with the abilities that God has given
me professionally.
All this is not just about using Free Soft-
ware or developing it as we did with
UbuntuBosco, but also about incorpo-
rating features of the free software
community in daily activity, things like
collaboration, sharing, freedom, appre-
ciation of our being human, amongst
many other things that are intimately
connected to the Gospel and to what
we believe in as a Salesian Family.
During this year of Mission Volunteer
activity we achieved certain things,
while others are still left to be accom-
plished, but for me the most important
thing of all was to see the miracle of
communion happening before my
own eyes when we are able to put the
little we have together, and receive in-
calculable riches from those who
never previously thought they could
have anything to offer. This was the
way God showed me how to give
meaning to my life.
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Gospel through Media
by Roman Sikoń
T“ he point is that we Salesians should
preach the Gospel through media,
as Don Bosco did”, says Roman Sikoń,
Salesian, founder of the media evange-
lisation movement Art. 43. He has ex-
changed the typical soccer ball and
guitar for the microphone and video
camera that have gone wherever he
has gone now for years.
It was 2007. A group of philosophy stu-
dents at the Salesian Seminary in
Krakow were listening to the Rector
Major's conferences. “I wondered how
it could be possible for the Salesians to
be in something like 130 countries
around the world while the ordinary in-
dividual knows so little about us and
our work“, says Sikoń.“It was during the
retreat preached by the Rector Major
when I recalled article 43 of our Consti-
tutions and there I found the answer”.
Shortly afterwards, from that moment
of inspiration for Roman Sikoń, the first
media group Art. 43 came into being
at the Salesian Seminary in Krakow. This
particular article from the Constitutions
became their starting point and pro-
gramme. Roman made his first film at
the refugee camp in Kakuma, northern
Kenya, where he had worked as a vol-
unteer for the Salesian Missionary Vol-
unteer Service (SMVS), before he joined
the Congregation. It was here that he
found the enthusiasm and strongest
support for his idea. A year later SMVS
Youth for the World set up a profes-
sional film studio in Krakow adapted to
the production of documentaries. So
far, about thirty of these documen-
taries have been aired on regional and
national TV stations. Moreover, 250
short films have been distributed via
the Internet.
“It was at Smętowo, near Pelplin. I went
there with Fr. Witek for a mission. The
parish priest wrote to me a year, ex-
plaining that he had had three mis-
sions during his work there, but this
one of ours was the most successful.
Devotion and the number of the Holy
Communion increased, and the collec-
tion increased as well! And I simply
used a film to support to my words”re-
calls Fr. Bronisław Szymański. He is over
90 now, but still remembers almost
every place he visited with his mobile
cinema. The first religious films he got
through the US Embassy in the mid
1960’s. He used pack his suitcase with
the newly acquired projector, 16mm
tapes, tape recorder with his com-
ments on the cassettes and then
moved through Poland by train, from
place to place, from one parish to an-
other.
”I saw what life was like in the parishes.
I had so many experiences; and priests
used to come and ask for retreats, mis-
sions – all because of the films. I visited
all our Salesian places. In Lublin, in
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e Salesians in Poland have been using media for evangelisation
for years. Art. 43 is one of the many activities they undertake. e
movement spreads throughout the world. But today, especially, all
these media groups can work together via the Internet
Kalina we blacked out the windows in
the upper chapel and showed the
films all day long. And I have to admit
that during all my 78 years since I
joined the Congregation, those seem
to be the most fruitful to me” he recalls.
Communist censorship didn’t make Fr
Bronisław’s work any easier. The films
smuggled from Italy with help of Arch-
bishop Karol Wojtyła (John Paul II) were
often screened in secret. That is why
despite 20 years and 2520 projections
there is not one single photo! Others
continued his work - Frs Szymański,
Michał Szafarski, Jan Waszczut and Fr
Bernard Weideman all used media in
their pastoral work.
Over the past few years new groups
of Art. 43 have been set up in Ląd,
Świętochłowice, even in Ghana. “Fr
Piotr Wojnarowski turned to us for
help to set up a multimedia studio in
the provincial house at Ashaiman, just
like the one in Krakow. Together with
volunteer Michał Król we spent two
months constructing the Art. 43
studio in Ghana. Michał stayed there
for two more years to train local vol-
unteers and today the studio operates
and develops independently” says
Roman Sikoń. “My dream is for each
Salesian province to have a small, pro-
fessional studio like this with a group
of Salesians and volunteers who ex-
press their vocation this way: preach-
ing the Gospel through media, as Don
Bosco used do”.
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Shake & Pray
App for iPhone & Android
by Don Bosco Publications
For
many young people
today their Smartphone is
their link to the world. It is their
TV, their video player, their games
console, their diary – their best friend.
In fact, it is their playground. Salesians
must find ways of meeting them there,
where they are. One way is the
Smartphone application, known as
an app. The Shake & Pray app
offers young people a way of
making their Smartphone
their prayer book.
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Attention should be paid to the various types of websites, applications and social
networks which can help people today to find time for reflection and authentic
questioning, as well as making space for silence and occasions for prayer, meditation
or sharing of the word of God. In concise phrases, often no longer than a verse from
the Bible, profound thoughts can be communicated, as long as those taking part in
the conversation do not neglect to cultivate their own inner lives.
(Pope Benedict’s Message for the 2012 World Day of Communications).
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104
SALESIANS 2013
A Radio run by
street kids
Radio stations, for Salesians, are something that can be
set up and run in Salesian style: “we evangelise popular
and youth culture, educating, guiding, informing,
involving”, the Salesian Social Communication System
says about them.The text goes on to speak of consulting
young people about the production of programs of an
educational and pastoral nature, keeping an eye on
communications culture, making sure those who run
radio stations are professionally prepared and have a
Christian and for that matter Salesian outlook on life. And
part of the idea is to encourage the close involvement of
young people themselves, where young people can do
things for other young people.
by ANS
Radio Juventus Don Bosco, Dominican Republic, is a station that came
into existence in 2004, thanks to the courage and initiative of Fr Luis
Rosario and a group of street kids. It really seems to incarnate the
guidelines which the quoted document suggests. It is more
than just a radio station; it is a form of education and pastoral
ministry.
Fr Rosario tells us: “At first, all we wanted to do was set up
a radio station. But we had no money – none to build a
place with and none to buy equipment. But, as we got
things under way, resources came, little by little: Some
people contributed finance, others offered voluntary
work…”
But the most extraordinary thing about this radio station is
the people who give it life. Writing up its history, Germain
Marte, who works there, says: “Who would ever have thought of
putting a radio station of this quality in the hands of a group of young
people off the streets? Only Fr Rosario, convinced that youngsters de-
serve trust, respect and opportunity for them to develop their talents”.
The youngsters in question are part of the “Yo tambien” (Me too) project,
aimed at street kids with a view to integrating them back into their families
where possible, and into society, offering education as well. These are the ones
who are running the Radio.“They are all an example of serious, disciplined and
committed involvement. They make me really proud”, says Fr Rosario.“We have
been able to do with these young people just what Don Bosco wanted to do:
make them good Christians and upright citizens”.

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Some of them are so well prepared that they produce and
run a three hour program on Sundays. Many of them have
developed skills as sound technicians or as editors. Others
repair equipment.
According to Fr Rosario, “Radio Juventus Don Bosco” came
about providentially. From the outset it has been able to rely
on the generosity of many benefactors, like, for example,
the Japanese Ambassador who saw to the necessary tech-
nical equipment. The Radio goes ahead without debts:
none of the program producers pays for what is broadcast,
but nor does the Station have to give them anything. The
various teams – technical, engineering, production, news-
readers, disc jockeys, finance – do their work voluntarily. The
only request is that they respect the educational and pas-
toral policies of the station.
Internally things are well-structured, everyone with his or
her role and function; the various teams come together
once a month at least to plan their work. General meetings
are also held regularly, as well as opportunities for fellowship
and sharing.
There is a participative work approach, frequent interaction
with listeners, and some broadcasts are also done on loca-
tion. Relationships with other Catholic broadcasters are very
positive, and there is mutual cooperation, especially with
stations in Santo Domingo city. Radio Don Bosco often net-
works with these when it comes to special Church celebra-
tions, either national or international. Using the Vatican
Radio signal, they link into a number of Papal activities.
Programs are aimed particularly at the younger generation,
teenagers, but also young families. The Station is on air
throughout the day. Radio Don Bosco follows Don Bosco's
preventive system of education, based on three pillars:
reason, religion, loving kindness. Building a better world is
Radio Juventus Don Bosco's main objective, a world based
on love, as expressed in its motto: “a voice for the civilisation
of love”.
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Pocket Faith
Practical handbooks for
Inspired by our founder John
Bosco as well as by his great
model Saint Francis de Sales
Don Bosco Publishers Slovakia
prepared an edition of practical
books by means of which they
seek to introduce deeper
knowledge of basic truths of the
Christian faith and the attitude
of the Church to current topics to
a wide range of people.
by Jan Misko
Every day we are overloaded with lots of information from
more or less serious media. Today it is considered to be
a matter of course to be informed about what is happening
in the world. However, if it comes to questions of faith we
find ourselves searching, at times confused, and often our
opinion is shallow, unable to serve us well when we need
to respond to the more demanding questions of life today.
Edition for a wide range of people
Pocket Faith is an answer to the needs and requirements of
many believers, who often do not have time or even the
possibility of taking part in lectures or discussions on some
item of faith. It is also intended for those who want to look
for answers to various questions of life, or know something
of the kind of attitude a Christian might adopt regarding
various issues. In addition, these pamphlet-style booklets
can be a good resource for community meetings or for cat-
echetics.
EDÍCIA VIERA DO VRECKA 2013
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every Christian
Knowledge with understanding
While preparing the content for each topic we have sought the
help of priests, consecrated religious and lay specialists in order
to tackle the given issue as broadly and as accurately as possi-
ble. However, following Don Bosco's model we want to make
the language of the books for our readers as understandable
as it can be. For those who would like to look deeper into the
topics, of course, we offer references to other literature.
Contemporary topics
Beside topics which our readership might well expect as
normal for a series on faith, we want to deal with more sensitive
ones as well, at the same time following the teaching of the
Catholic Church. This led us to prepare 12 topics for 2012: how
to live the Holy Scriptures every day; Christians and elections;
Punishments in raising children; asking the question whether
the media manipulate us; God in the marital bedroom (about
birth control); I believe in God - I don´t need the church; Saints
Cyril and Methodius – as we never knew them before; private
revelations in our lives; Was life better under communism?;
Magic, superstition, calling down curses… what does God say
about this? Money in the hands of a Christian; forming our con-
science.
At a price you can afford
Individual titles of the Pocket Faith Edition are published regu-
larly each month. It is possible to subscribe to the edition or
buy individual booklets separately in bookshops or through
the Internet. Subscribers pay 1 euro for a title each month, that
means 12 euro all-up for a year. If someone decides to buy the
booklets separately, the price for one item is higher - 1.5 euro.
We very clearly have in mind as a Salesian Publisher that we
want to be devoted followers of St. John Bosco, who used pub-
lish the “Catholic Readings“. He used the same approach to ed-
ucate a wide range of ordinary people and defend values and
the Church's teaching. We started the Pocket Faith Edition proj-
ect in December 2010 and already in the first year we had
10,000 subscribers. Besides that, a further 2,000 individual items
were sold in bookshops.
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Festiclip, video
for youth by youth
Since 2005, the Atelier Multimédia Studio* has been organising a video clip festival
involving young people from fieen to twenty years of age. ey produce a short clip
of less than seven minutes on a topic they decide on. e only request is that the clip
contain a positive and educational message.
Sixteen-year-old Maxime attends a
Salesian secondary school. This morn-
ing, her pastoral leader shows the class
a video clip dealing with a seventeen
year-old girl who is pregnant. After
they watch it, they share their thoughts.
Some approve of the young girl and
her partner’s choice to keep the child
while others oppose it. The leader
moderates this exchange and invites
the students to reflect more deeply.
Maxime dares to join the conversation
and speaks of a similar case in her circle
of friends. Fiction becomes reality.
Maxime’s testimony is respected and
allows them to look at things differ-
ently…
A collection for sharing
The clip watched this morning in
Maxime’s class is part of the D’clic col-
lection which holds a number of other
clips. These touch on various issues :
drugs, video games, integrating hand-
icapped children, racism, social net-
works via Facebook, alcohol… These
clips all come from youth groups in the
Salesian network. During the school
year, a team is set up around a leader
to produce a clip which can be part of
Festiclip. This festival is open to schools
or activities belonging to other Con-
gregations. “For the final year students
this was the opportunity for them
to get moving”, says Gérard Cuinet,
a Marist Brother. “This production
brought out some talents, shared ex-
perience and created class spirit. It was
a very positive experience”.
The project leads to five, ten thirty or
more 'products'; it requires a degree of
adaptation and the kind of discipline
which allows each member of the
team to get involved according to his
or her abilities. The leader’s role is im-
portant.“A parent of a student came to
give basic knowledge to the students”,
said Veronique Le Pargneux, leading
by Vincent Grodsziski
another group. He then left them free.
He was at their disposal when needed.
The students quickly picked up the
camera operation and editing, so they
were able to complete the project
alone”. The leader does not necessarily
need to be an expert in video since
some of the group may have already
produced films.“I leave them free to do
what they wish”, says Serge Pagès,
leader at the St Vincent de Paul d’Avi-
gnon School. “I am there to help with
questions, not to control. Through di-
alogue, the youngsters soon learn
what is feasible or not”. The young
people are also the driving force of the
project. The notion of confidence is
important and they allow themselves
to be challenged by their leader’s
questions.
D-Day, or should we say
'C-Day'!
During festival evenings, all the clips
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are shown. Once introduced by those who
put it together and screened it, the clip is then
noted by other groups present and also by a
jury made up of people from the audiovisual
world and the Salesian Family. Votes out of 20
give more importance to the message (out of
12) than to the technique (out of 8). “The fact
of judging the films creates more interest”, says
Véronique Le Pargneux. “We were moved by
the seriousness of the invitation and the re-
ception we received. Everything was perfectly
set up and organised. It certainly motivates
one to come back next year. It is true that there
is so much to be done to arrive at something
of quality but you get ideas by seeing what
others are doing, and I am certain we will be
motivated to invite others to join our team”.
The public and the jury award a prize to those
clips which have gained the most votes. To
add something to the festival, there are inter-
ludes, songs, music and magic, offering par-
ticipants a chance to show off their talents and
discover talents of others their own age.
After the Festiclip, the Multimédia Studio se-
lects two or three clips. It then suggests to
those who produced it that it can be redone
with professional material so it can then be
added to the D’Clic collection.
* e Atelier Multimédia Studio is
a team made up of six Salesians of
Don Bosco. Its aim is to achieve a
variety of media products aimed at
promoting young people and to
help interpret the Gospel for today.
It has to its credit the production
of videos, CD-Roms, audio CDs,
books and communication items
(posters, leaflets, mini-expositions,
…). To know more :
www.donboscomedia.com
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SAINT
▶ Nino Baglieri,Tireless Apostle
▶ From 'Hell' to the Gates of Heaven
▶ A New Don Bosco
▶ Holiness in the Family
110
SALESIANS 2013
“We had put our own ministry, which called for great
calm and meekness, under the protection of this saint
(Francis de Sales) in the hope that he might obtain for
us from God the grace of being able to imitate him in
his extraordinary meekness and in winning souls”.
(Memoirs of the Oratory, Chapter 32)

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Nino Baglieri,
tireless apostle
by ANS
Nino Baglieri was born in Modica
(Ragusa) in 1951. After attending
primary school he became a bricklayer.
At seventeen years of age, on 6 May
1968, he fell from a scaffolding 17
metres high. Having been rushed to
hospital, Nino realised bitterly that he
was completely paralysed. In this way
his life of suffering began, passing from
one hospital to another, but without
any improvement. He returned to his
birthplace in 1970, but for Nino there
followed ten dark years in solitude, suf-
fering and desperation, not once ven-
turing beyond the house.
On 24 March 1978, Good Friday, at four
in the afternoon, some people from
the Renewal in the Spirit Movement
were praying for him; Nino felt himself
transformed. From that moment he
accepted the Cross and said “Yes” to
the Lord. He began to read the
Gospels, and the Bible and rediscov-
ered his faith. The same month, help-
ing some youngsters with their
homework he learned to write with his
mouth and to make telephone calls
using a special stick. In this way a great
number of relationships were estab-
lished which would gradually lead him
to bear witness in his condition to the
gospel of joy and hope.
He began composing his memoirs,
writing letters to all sorts of people in
various parts of the world, made per-
sonalised cards which he gave to
people who came to visit him. His writ-
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“in my last journey to God I’ll be able
to run to meet Him.”
ings also came to the attention of pub- eral of His Holiness for Vatican City, consecration. We offer below some
lishers and Setim published his “From who had occasion to meet and know recollections from the personal mem-
suffering to Joy.”
Nino Baglieri said:“When you met him ories of his CDB brother, Gaetano.
he gave the impression that he was
From 6 May 1982 onwards Nino cele- filled with the Holy Spirit… He used to “After having taken the promise as a
brated the Anniversary of the Cross celebrate the anniversary of his call to Salesian Cooperator, Nino Baglieri felt
and the same year became part of the the cross like others celebrate their that the call of the Lord to live the
Salesian Family as a Cooperator. On 31 wedding or ordination anniversary… Salesian charism needed a secular
August 2004 he made his perpetual Nino Baglieri became an untiring consecration. In this way in 1994, he
profession with the Volunteers with apostle, a magnet of goodness, who joined the CDB, living to the full all the
Don Bosco (CDB). On 19 January 2007 attracted many young people to the characteristic features of this Institute.
in Rome he took part in the Spirituality love of God.”
CDB Days of the Salesian Family, undertak-
ing a painfully long journey by car to
the Capital, in order to give his final
public testimony.
On 2 March 2007, at 8 am, Nino
Baglieri, after a period of long suffering
and trial gave up his soul to God. After
his death, they dressed him in a track-
suit and sports shoes so that, as he had
Memories of a friend and
brother
With the official request for the open-
ing of the cause of beatification, the
holiness of Nino Baglieri is on the way
towards being recognised by the Uni-
versal Church. But someone who had
the opportunity to know him and be
The secular nature of the CDB is ex-
pressed in making oneself a bridge be-
tween God and men, trying to bear
witness to the action and love of God in
the life of men and women. While
aware of his limitations, Nino knew how
to safeguard a precious message to be
passed on to the men and women of
today: in a society every more directed
towards the cult of the body, of pleas-
said, “in my last journey to God I’ll be close to him can testify already to the ure, of physical strength, Nino had to
able to run to meet Him.”
radical nature with which the Volun- communicate that suffering is not an
teer with Don Bosco (CDB) lived the instrument of sorrow and death, but of
Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Vicar Gen- evangelical virtues and Salesian secular purification and of salvation!”
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From ‘Hell’
Hungarian Salesians during
the two World Wars had
always supported the Young
Catholic Workers Movement
(Katolikus Munkásiú
Mozgalom), throughout the
country, especially by setting
up small apostolic groups for
young workers. But from 1945,
the Communist regime, which
was gaining more and more
power, saw the Salesian
Congregation as a special
threat and in the name of the
working class set about
attacking anyone involved
with the young and their
moral, cultural and
professional improvement.
by Erzsébet Lengyel
Who was István Sándor? The history
Salesians describe him as a quiet,
calm individual, very much dedicated
to his work and apostolate, never rais-
ing his voice in anger but someone
with a quiet educative presence: he
was a true model of Christian life. In
any set of circumstances he seemed
to be organised, ready and deter-
mined, something which he also de-
manded of the young people he was
with, especially those working in the
printing press. He wasn't fond of lots
of words but when he did have
something to say it was always ap-
propriate for the occasion.
He also knew how to listen. His
charismatic presence was such that
he felt he did not need to be hurrying
after anyone and the boys felt they
were always close to him. He pre-
pared himself well to be a Salesian, a
Brother, taking on the various roles of
responsibility for the boys entrusted
to him.
In the 1950s in Árpád Street, one of the
main streets in Újpest, a Budapest
suburb, a new hostelry was opened
called “Hell”. Nearby was the Clarisseum
Salesian House which had an oratory,
and a printing press already taken over
by the State. When the young men and
their 'boss' walked down the street they
could see this pub sign mocking their
faith, so they blackened it out with
pitch. The pub's owners called the
secret police (ÁVH Államvédelmi Hatósá-
got which means the State Defence Au-
thority), who found clues leading them
straight to the Clarisseum. This was the
beginning of István Sándor's and his
friends' Calvary: false accusations,
spying, torture, prison and death by
hanging on 8 June 1953.
Today 'Hell' is no longer there, the
Communist regime has fallen to
pieces, but the Church and the
Salesian Congregation have taken on
new life in Hungary and if the Lord so
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to the Gates of Heaven
In memory of István (Stephen) Sándor, Salesian Brother, Martyr
wishes it, we will soon see István
Sándor amongst the Church's Beati-
fied, one of the first Salesian martyrs of
the communist regime in Budapest.
István Sándor amongst us
When we celebrated the 10th an-
niversary of the “Nomad Camp”,
something which the Salesians have
been promoting with the Cooperators
and leaders, the youngsters spent a
number of days together living in a
most unusual fashion, meaning as
“nomads”, instead of in their usual
homes and comfort.
The main thread running through this
experience was the idea of István
Sándor's life, not just the story of his life
and martyrdom but also the real situa-
tion he had to live through. The games
too all evoked the 1950s. They all went
back in time in their way of dressing, the
things they used and other reminders of
the era; there was the infirmary and even
an interrogator's room. They also experi-
enced the night raids, the hiding places,
the various subterfuges and the Masses
celebrated before dawn; all the kinds of
things that István Sándor had to go
through. And the martyr, or at least as he
was interpreted by a pre-novice, then re-
counted the most important events of
his life. No longer a person from history
he had become a friend and neighbour,
a good example to follow. They prayed
for his beatification, so that in these diffi-
cult times the Church and Hungary as a
nation might find a protector and a mile-
stone marking their way.
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A New Don Bosco
On October 2011, this statue of Don Bosco
was ceremonially unveiled and blessed by
Fr Fabio Attard, General Councillor for
Youth Ministry, right in front of Vienna’s
Don Bosco House.
Standing there, Don Bosco seems to
beckon the guests over and invite them to
enter the house. The figure standing before
us is angular, and seems to be even larger
than it actually is due to the small head.
He stands there, solidly connected to earth
once more, but gazing upwards into the
distance, towards the future. His shoes,
over-sized as they are, remind us of a
clown. That matches pretty well the
colourful ball in his left hand. This hand
contains a message: Three fingers pointing
away as a symbol of the Trinity.
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His right hand reaches out expansively,
turned upwards. Not only does it beckon us,
but seems to invite everything from above.
That is how he stands before us: heart in
Heaven but solidly connected with earth.
One more tiny detail. There are three small
sparrows at his feet, as if he is telling us:
“Be good, be happy – and let the birds sing”
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The bicentenary of the
marriage between
Francis Bosco and
Margaret Occhiena,
Don Bosco's parents,
reminds us that the
grace of the
Sacrament of
Matrimony flows from
Easter as a sign of the
love of Christ for his
Spouse, the Church.
118
SALESIANS 2013
Holiness in the Family
“New Evangelisation depends in great measure on the domestic
church… and given that the eclipse of God and crisis in the family
are related, so new evangelisation is inseparable from the
Christian family. e family is in fact the way the Church follows
since it is a “human space” for encounter with Christ… Family,
based on the Sacrament of Matrimony is a particular
implementation of Church, a saved and saving community, and
an evangelised and evangelising one”
(Pope Benedict XVI).
by Pierluigi Cameroni
It is in the light of this that we record
here some Salesian Family testi-
monies where the grace of the
Sacrament of Matrimony has been
demonstrated par excellence or where
they have manifested the truth of the
Christian family.
The bicentenary of the marriage be-
tween Francis Bosco and Margaret Oc-
chiena, Don Bosco's parents, reminds
us that the grace of the Sacrament of
Matrimony flows from Easter as a sign
of the love of Christ for his Spouse, the
Church.
Margaret's married life with Francis
Bosco was faithful and fruitful. Their
vows were a sign of the fruitfulness
that would broaden out to include the
Family founded by one of their sons,
John.
on 8 April 1813 they rejoiced at the
broth of Joseph and on 16 August
1815, in the octave following the Feast
of the Assumption, they rejoiced at the
arrival of their second-born, John Mel-
chior, the future Saint of the young.
The 7th World Family Congress (Milan
30 May – 3 June 2012) recalled the tes-
timony of the “solid Gospel life” of Ser-
vant of God Attilio Giordani (Milan 3
February 1913 – Brazil 12 December
1972).
Attilio was a catechist, leader, teacher,
brilliant theatrical actor, a delegate for
Francis and Margaret celebrated their
wedding in the parish church at
Capriglio on 6 June 1812, where they
exchanged vows at the foot of the
altar. Margaret, when she entered her
new home at Morialdo, immediately
accepted little Anthony as her son and
took in Francis's elderly mother as well,
also called Margaret, showing her love
and respect. The Lord blessed this
union between Francis and Margaret:

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Catholic Action. He went as a mission-
ary to Brazil, but above all he was a
husband according to God's heart and
the exemplary father of three children.
Attilio lived a full life, a life very much
on the move, especially on his bicycle,
but always lived in the Lord Jesus' gaze,
which he encountered in the sacra-
ments. When at home he was always
there for his family and when away
from home, along with his family, he
was full of ideas and proposals for the
boys at the Salesian oratory. He had all
the characteristics of Don Bosco, to the
point where many of the boys, begin-
ning with his own brother, became
Salesians, thanks to his example. “Don
Bosco would have been like this”, many
of them said. The fun, the outings, but
also his charitable work in Milan after
the war, the catechism classes and the-
atre where he improvised and had
people in stitches, were Attilio's
'weapons' in his 'solid Gospel life' of-
fered to the young. Attilio's family
sowed Gospel hope and happiness,
right until he went to the missions in
Brazil, where his life's course came to
an end.
Salesian Sister. Born in Córteno Golgi
(Italy) on 16 February 1883 she died at
Sucúa (Ecuador) on 25 August 1969, in
the Ecuadorian Amazon forest. She
became a ‘doctor’ of both body and
soul: and while she looked after and
cured people, she evangelised, pro-
claiming and testifying to everyone
the Father's infinite love and the
tender motherliness of the Help of
Christians. She stood out for her de-
fence and care for so many children
working to form new Christian families
who were educated for the first time
how being a young bride was a matter
of their own free choice.
And now there is happiness in the
Salesian Family because of the beatifi-
cation, in Macas (Ecuador) on 24 No-
vember 2012, of Sr Maria Troncatti, a
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6. Past Pupils of the FMA
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4. e Mary Help of Christians Association
3. Salesian Co-operators
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1. Salesians of Don Bosco
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Don Bosco inspired the start of
a vast movement of persons
who in different ways work for
the benefit of the young
SALESIAN
FAMILY GROUPS
IN THE WORLD
anks to
Editorial team:
Fr Filiberto González Plasencia,
Councillor for Social Communications
Members of the SC Department
and Bro. Seo Hilario
Translators:
Fr Francesc Balauder sdb (Spanish)
Fr Nicolas Echave sdb (Spanish)
Ms. Deborah Contratto (Italian)
Fr Placide Carava sdb (French)
Fr Hilario Passero sdb (Portuguese)
Fr Julian Fox sdb (English)
Bro. Zdzisław Brzęk sdb (Polish)
Special thanks to:
Each of the authors of articles, photographers…
ANS, for re-writing some ANS news items as
articles
Artist Mario Bogani
Artist Austin Camilleri
Printing:
Escolas Profissionais Salesianas, São Paulo, Brazil
Poligrafia Salezjańska, Kracow, Pland
SIGA (Salesian Institute Of Graphic Arts),
Chennai, India
Sociedad Salesiana Editorial Don Bosco, La Paz,
Bolivia
GRAFISUR, S.L., Madrid, Spain
Publisher: Non-commercial edition
Direzione Generale Opere Don Bosco,
Via della Pisana 1111, Casella Postale 18333,
00163 Roma-Bravetta, Italy
For further information:
redazionerivistesdb@sdb.org
www.sdb.org

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