TO OUR BELOVED DON EGIDIO VIGANO'

RECTOR MAJOR OF THE SALESIAN SOCIETY

ON THE FIRST CENTENARY OF THE DEATH OF SAINT JOHN BOSCO

JOHN PAUL II

SUPREME PONTIFF

Dear Son,

Health and the Apostolic Benediction.

1. The well beloved Salesian Society is preparing to commemorate by appropriate initiatives the first centenary of the death of St. John Bosco, the father and teacher of youth, and I am glad to avail myself of the opportunity offered by this circumstance to reflect once again on the problem of the young and meditate on the responsibilities of the Church in preparing them for tomorrow.

The Church has in fact an intense love for young people: always, but especially in this period so close to the year 2000, she feels invited by her Lord to look upon them with a special love and hope, and to consider their education as one of her primary pastoral responsibilities.

The Second Vatican Council declared with clear vision that “ours is a new age of history”; and it recognized that “efforts are being made everywhere to ensure an ever increasing development of education”. In a period of cultural change the Church notes with concern in the field of education the need to come to grips with the profound cleavage between the Gospel and culture, which undervalues the saving message of Christ and considers it of only marginal importance.

In my address to the members of UNESCO I had occasion to state: “There is no doubt that the first and fundamental cultural fact is the spiritually mature man, that is, a fully educated man, a man capable of educating himself and educating others”: and I noted a certain tendency to “a unilateral shift towards instruction” with consequent manipulations which can provoke “a real alienation of education”. I recalled therefore that “the primary and essential task of culture in general and also of all cultures is education. This consists in fact in enabling man to become more man, to 'be' more than just to 'have' more and consequently, through everything he 'has', everything he 'possesses', to 'be' man more fully.”

In the numerous meetings I have had with young people in the various continents, in the messages I have given them, and in particular in the Letter which in 1985 I addressed “To the youth of the world,” I expressed my intimate conviction that the Church is at their side and indeed must be so. I want to recall those same considerations on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the “dies natalis” of a great son of the Church, the holy priest John Bosco, whom my predecessor Pius XI did not hesitate to call “educator princeps.”

This auspicious event provides me with the welcome opportunity to offer some remarks not only to you, to your confreres and to all the members of the Salesian Family, but also to the young people who are the beneficiaries of your educational work, together with christian educators and parents, who are called to carry out so noble a human and ecclesial ministry.

I am also pleased that this commemoration of the Saint is taking place during the Marian Year, which directs our thoughts to “Her who believed”: in her generous assent in faith we discover the fruitful source of her educative work, first as Mother of Jesus and then as Mother of the Church and Help of all Christians.