N. 138 - June 2020
Newsletter for Salesian Missionary Animation
Publication of the Missions Sector for the Salesian Communities and Friends of the Salesian Mission
ADear friends of the Salesian missions,
fter the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus pandemic, the Missions
Sector of the Salesian Headquarters in Rome, with the support
of Don Bosco Network, organised last March 25, 2020, an on-
line meeting for some sharing and strategic planning. Thanks to
the untiring efforts of Fr. George Menamparampil, the Coordi-
nator of Don Bosco Worldwide Solidarity Against COVID 19, Salesian Mission
Offices in all continents and the members of DBN, PPDO’s and others are all
networking and coordinating our initiatives to save human lives.
This emergency is already teaching us important missionary lessons. Above
all, the pandemic pulled the curtain back on a hard truth: we have neither
all the answers nor all the means needed. Perhaps we are not even asking the right questions to respond to an
emergency. Hence, we cannot just be satisfied with the good we do. We need to coordinate with others to
effectively help more people. This could be intimidating, but it is also inspiring and refreshing.
Now we realise that no one may even think ‘this is how it’s always been done’. The pandemic has forced us to
change many of the ways it was always done. The pandemic is teaching us that one needs love, commitment,
dedication and concern for human life in order to extend a helping-hand – even at the risk of contracting the
virus ourselves - to the most abandoned, the forgotten, the ones that are not capable of asking for help.
This emergency reminds us that it takes humility to be able to collaborate with others as equal partners; It
takes imagination and creativity to innovate solutions to emergency situations we never faced before; It takes
self-discipline to ensure proper documentation, financial transparency and accountability of the help we
received from our donors; It takes the missionary spirit to realise that crisis situations are fertile moments for
initial proclamation even among agnostics and atheists; above all, it takes faith to remind ourselves that we
launch all these initiatives as concrete expressions of our love for Jesus Christ, who assures us that, in the end,
Life will triumph over death; God, not evil, will have the last word. Indeed, this month of the Sacred Heart, is a
powerful reminder to live our lives in such a way that we reveal the Loving Heart of a Merciful God to the
whole world!
Fr Alfred Maravilla SDB, Mission Councillor
Th e missionary ideal of Don Bosco, already alive in him by the end of his high school studies,
developed and matured over time. At the end of his period of pastoral formation at the
Boarding School of St. Francis of Assisi in Turin (1844), he thought of joining the Oblates of
the Virgin Mary, who had opened a flourishing mission in Indochina (Vietnam). Don Cafasso directed
him to his "missions" among the young people of Turin. His favourite readings were the missionary
reports published in the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith. From 1848, Don Rua
and others heard him exclaim several times: "Oh, if only I had many priests and
many clerics, I would send them to evangelize Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego...".
He was seen, in those same years, casting his eyes on some world map and
trembling at the thought that "many regions still lay in the shadow of death".
Then, after unspeakable sacrifices, he could finally launch his missions to
Argentina (1875). "From then on”, - writes Fr Albera, “the Missions were the
core of his heart and it seemed he lived on only for them... He spoke of them
with such enthusiasm, that one was amazed and greatly edified by his ardour
for souls".
The Expeditions: Don Bosco received from many countries several requests for
missionaries, but he decided to start with Argentina. Ten missionaries formed
this first expedition on the 11th of November 1875. Not neglecting the expansion in
Europe (France, Spain, Austria, Great Britain), there followed the arrival of the
Salesians in Uruguay (1876), Brazil (1883), Chile (1887) and, three days before
Don Bosco's death, in Ecuador (1888). Between 1875 and 2019 there have been 150
expeditions of 10,571 missionaries, sent forth from the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians at Valdocco,
Turin.
