1. LETTER OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

YOU WHO SEEK THE LORD;

LOOK TO THE ROCK FROM WHICH YOU WERE HEWN,

(Is 51,1)

Presentation of the Interamerica Region

INTRODUCTION. 1. STRUCTURE AND HISTORY OF THE REGION. Andean Zone. Ecuador – Colombia: Provinces of Bogotá and Medellín – Peru – Bolivia. Zone of Central America. Provinces of Mexico-Mexico and Guadalajara (MEM – MEG) – Venezuela – Central America – Antilles – Haiti. North American Zone. United States: Provinces of San Francisco and New Rochelle (SUO – SUE) – Canada . 2. THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL SITUATION. 3. SALESIAN WORK 3.1 Community life – 3.2 Formation – 3.3 Youth Ministry. Salesian foundations. Schools – Parishes – Oratories and Youth Centres – Starting up work – Care for young people at risk – Works for social advancement – Care of migrants – Universities. Pastoral activities. Youth group activity. The Salesian Youth Movement – Pastoral work for Vocations. The Volunteer Movement – Formation of lay people – 3.4 The Salesian Family– 3.5 Social Communication – 3.6 The Missions and missionary promotion. 4. CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS. 4.1 Witnessing to the primacy of God among young people in today’s world – 4.2 Giving new life to Don Bosco and his zeal for “Da mihi animas” – 4.3 Giving new meaning to our work in the Region, prompted by the option for those we work for by preference – 4.4 Creating synergy by uniting efforts, means and commitments for the realisation of experiences through collaboration. CONCLUSION.

Rome, 1 March 2006

My Dear Confreres,

I am writing at the end of an intense month of visits and meetings with confreres. First I was in Sri Lanka for the celebration of the golden jubilee of Salesian work in that country. From there I went on to India, to Thanjavur, where I presided at the conclusion of the celebrations for the centenary of the arrival of the first Salesians. Subsequently I made rapid visits to the Provinces of Chennai, Tiruchy, Bangalore and Hyderabad before moving on to China to celebrate, once again, the hundred years of Salesian work: Don Bosco’s missionary dream that still awaits its full realisation. And finally I went to Johannesburg in South Africa for the Team Visit to the Africa-Madagascar Region.

I recall so many impressions, all of them wonderful and exciting and at the same time so diversified. Perhaps I shall be able to tell you about them at greater length on some future occasion. For the present it is sufficient to say that we must be grateful to God who has loved us so much and blessed us so copiously. No one will be unaware that the future of the Congregation as regards vocations lies in Asia and in Africa. It is our responsibility to inculturate faithfully Don Bosco’s charism, which consists in the expansion of the work, vocational fruitfulness, the growth of the Salesian Family, the quality of our educative and pastoral mission and, above all, in our personal holiness.

Taking up again my presentation of the different Regions, I want to speak to you this time about the Interamerica Region, to which I feel myself linked in a particular way because it includes the country of the origin of my vocation, and also because I was its Regional Councillor in the previous six-year period. It is a Region I know better than any other. I remember all its houses and confreres. To them I send my cordial affectionate greetings accompanied by my greatest desire to see them totally committed to the living out of their Salesian vocation with joy, generosity and fidelity. In this context I recall the words of the prophet Isaiah who, writing to the exiled people of Israel, reminded them of their election by God and to seek him always by remembering the firm nature of their origins: “seek the Lord…” (Is 51,1). With two eloquent images, the prophet makes a pressing appeal to them to renew their trust in God and imitate faithfully those who had given them birth in the Faith and in the Spirit: “…look to the rock from which you were hewn, to the pit from which you were quarried” (Is 51,1). It is a fine text, both constructive and encouraging. And it is with these words that I sum up what Don Bosco would want from the Salesians of this Region at the present day.