2ND QUARTER 1
2ND QUARTER2
2ND QUARTER 3
CO
NT
EN
T Chief Editor:Fr. Sebastian KoladiyilEditorial Team:Fr. LUIS Neville
Fr. FELICE Molino
Sr. VIRGINIA Bickford
Sr. JACqUELINE Wanjira
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2 Editorial
4 Tenth Successor of Don Bosco
6 Our New Superiors
19 Letter of Rev. Fr. Pascual Chavez
20 A Boy with a Dream
22 27th General Chapter’s Message to
Salesians
25 Interview with Isabel Artime - The mother
of Rector Major
28 The Don Bosco Touch
31 John Paul II, John XXIII Canonized
32 Teachers’ Seminar in Makuyu
33 Signis World Congress Rome 2014
34 South Sudan’s Frontline Nuns
35 Nuns Help Displaced people in South
Sudan
37 Pope to Seminarians
38 “Do Theology on Your Kneels”
39 Groaning Beyond Words
The Salesian Bulletin was founded by St. John Bosco
in 1877. ‘Don Bosco Eastern Africa’ is the Salesian
Bulletin published by the Salesians of Don Bosco,
Eastern Africa Province Nairobi, Kenya.
We welcome letters to the Editor. Send
your comments and suggestions.
CONTENT
2ND QUARTER4
From the
EDITOR
The poor young people will save us
We have reached the final stage of the preparations for the celebration of the bi-centenary of the birth of Don Bosco. Three years of preparations, three themes for
study and reflection to renew every member of the Salesian Congregation. The huge
operation of the pilgrimage of the relic of Don Bosco which increased the awareness
of this great saint and made him more popular and increased the devotion to him is
complete. And the celebration itself will take us through many beautifully well prepared
Eucharistic celebrations, novenas, processions, talks and in addition, videos and other
publicity materials will be made available to the faithful and the devotees of Don Bosco.
Pilgrimages to the Holy places of Don Bosco will be organized. A reflection of these took
my mind far away to venture outside the traditional doings, to celebrate the centenary.
Can we in all the provinces of the Congregation, or at least can we here in East Africa
open at least one bi-centenary presence among the poor needy youth in Eastern Africa?
I think then it will be the best way to celebrate and we will leave a true legacy touching
the lives of many on the occasion of this great event which will make Don Bosco happy.
Now we have a new team of superiors who are inspired by Pope Francis inviting us to look
in the direction of the poor. In the 27th General Chapter’s Message to the Salesians, the
members quoted what the Pope told them during their audience with him, “He (the Pope)
asked us insistently to go out to the peripheries where the young dwell and where we see
their various forms of poverty more acutely. He begged us to spare no effort in assigning
our best individuals to the poorest, those who have no prospects and no future…The Holy
Father’s message will remain in our hearts and will be a programme for all of us to follow.”
In March I was in the Kakuma Refugee Camp. My visit was not one of a touristic nature
or a visit to the Salesian community but it was to make a documentary about the Salesian
presence. This gave me a chance to visit many people especially the young; to listen to
their stories, their pain and struggles and to their dreams and hopes. Everyone had a
different and difficult story. Each one told me about their life back in their countries,
why they had to run away, how difficult it was to reach the “promised land” and the
reality they found when they reached there. They also told me about their vision for the
future and how they want to live their life. No one wanted to die in the refugee camp.
Kakuma Refugee Camp in the northern part of Kneya is one of the largest refugee
camps in Africa. It is was established in 1992 to accommodate refugees from Sudan but
was later expanded to host refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Uganda, Rwanda and other countries. It is administered
by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) assisted by a wide
range of organizations among them are the Salesians of Don Bosco. According to the
latest statistics (March, 2014) released by UNHCR there are 147,773 officially registered
refugees in the camp where the majority are Southern Sudanese. The population has
risen due to the current political conflicts in South Sudan
2ND QUARTER 5
In this camp there are hundreds and hundreds of children and youth, most of them
having nothing to do. A few lucky ones are able to get a place in the few schools-
primary and secondary-run by UNHCR and in the technical school run by Don Bosco.
The rest live on the ration handed out by the UNHCR which is hardly enough. The
best that can be given to these unfortunate people is education so that one day, if
they are able to go back to their countries or to migrate to any other place, looking
for a better living they go with something which will help them to earn a living. In
Kakuma, there are thousands of youngsters just sitting around idling away having
nothing to do. This is the ideal place for the Salesians to start something more for
these young people. Another educational institution. It could even be a project under
the Generalate. This would be an ideal work that can be started as we celebrate the
bi-centenary of Don Bosco, this will truly be a work close to Don Bosco’s heart. Can
we not venture into it? If we dare we will fulfil the wish of the chapter members, “Our
cloister is the world of the young who are in difficulty and our prayer is our hands
raised up and our action in giving dignity back to those who are most excluded….
We are faced with an exodus which will help us reach another land, one promised a
thousand times over: the land of the most abandoned and poorest. As Salesians we
will find our Tabor there.”
This will demand our communities to make sacrifices, giving up some of our
comforts to contribute to this new presence, leaving our communities to be part of
this new daring venture. “For our communities we want a simple lifestyle, one marked
by the joy of the Gospel and passion for the Kingdom.” Then we will live the words of
Pope Francis to our Chapter members, reflected in the first letter of the Rector Major
to the Salesians, “May the poverty of Don Bosco and Mama Margaret inspire every
Salesian and each of your communities to an essential and austere life which is close
to the poor, transparent and responsible in its management of goods.”
“Going out to marginalised youngsters requires courage, maturity and much
prayer. And you need to send the best people for this kind of work! The best.” (Pope
Francis to the Salesians). This step will bring the new “Francis effect” to our Salesian
presences in AFE Province. We the Salesians will become the “shepherds that smell
like the sheep.”
Only then we will have as our Rector Major wrote, “our priority is the young who
are poorest, the least, the most excluded. Fr Vecchi wrote in one of his letters: “Poor
young people have been and still are a gift for the Salesians. Returning to them will
allow us to recover the central characteristic of our spirituality and our pedagogical
practice: the relationship of friendship that creates correspondence and the desire to
grow” (AGC, 359, p.24). I am encouraged to say that it is poor young people who will
save us.”
If we take this challenging tasks we will be on the right path and we will save
ourselves. Let me end with another quote from our new Rector Major, a passionate
plea, “This is why I dare to ask that with the “courage, maturity and much prayer”
with which we are sent to the most excluded young people, we choose in each of our
provinces to take another look at where we are, where we must remain, where we
should go and where we can leave … needy young people challenge us with their
groans and their cries of pain. In their own way they are calling out to us.
Sebastian Koladiyil
2ND QUARTER6
Fr Ángel Fernández Artime is the Tenth Successor of Don Bosco!
“I abandon myself to the Lord...”
2ND QUARTER 7
The 27th General Chapter elected Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, Provincial of
Southern Argentina, as tenth Successor of Don Bosco.
The election took place at 10.20 AM at the first ballot.
The official announcement was welcomed with long and warm applause.
Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, 53 years of age was born 21 August 1960 at
Gozón-Luanco, Spain; he made his first profession on 3 September 1978, his
perpetual profession on 17 June 1984 and was ordained priest on 4 July 1987.
Originally from León Province, he has been Youth Ministry Delegate, Rector
of the school at Ourense, member of the Council and Vice Provincial and,
from 2000 to 2006, Provincial of León.
He was a member of the technical commission in preparation for General
Chapter 26. In 2009 he was appointed Provincial in Argentine South, a task he
has carried out until now. In this capacity he got to know the then Archbishop
of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, and to
work with him.
He has a Doctorate in Pastoral Theology and a Licence in Philosophy and
Pedgagy.
On 23 December last he was appointed Provincial of the new province of
Mary Help of Christians in Spain, an office which Fr Angel will obviously not
now be able to take on, since he will exercise his ministry as Father of the
whole Salesian Family.
Fr Pascual Chávez, President of the Assembly, invited Fr Angel to come
beside him, and said: “Dear Fr Ángel, through your confreres God has called
you today to be the successor of Don Bosco. You are not called to be like the
Rector Major, nor Don Vecchi nor Don Viganó. You are the successor of Don
Bosco, not of Don Chavez. So, on behalf of the Chapter, I ask you if you accept.”
Speaking in Spanish, Fr Angel said with an emotional heart: “I abandon
myself to the Lord. We ask Don Bosco and Mary Help of Christians to
accompany us and to accompany me, with my brother Salesians and with the
Congregation, and I accept with faith.”
Fr Ángel Fernández Artime is the Tenth Successor of Don Bosco!
2ND QUARTER8
Our New Superiors
Fr Francesco Cereda
Vicar of the Rector Major
The 27th General Chapter elected Fr
Francesco Cereda as the new Vicar
of the Rector Major. Fr Cereda has
been Councillor for Formation until
now and is currently Moderator of
GC27.
“I am happy to work as Vicar of the
Rector Major, Fr Ángel. With the
help of Mary Help of Christians, I
will try to be faithful in this ministry
and I accept.” This was Fr Cereda’s
response to the General Chapter,
indicating his willingness for the
office.
Don Francesco Cereda, born
in Veduggio con Colzano, in the
Province of Milan, on the 6th of
March 1951, made his first vows
on the 16th of August 1968 after his
novitiate in Missaglia. He made his
perpetual vows on 14th of September
1974, after his Tirocinium at Parma.
He was ordained deacon at Chiari on
the12th of May 1979 and priest on the
24th of May 1980.
Fr Cereda was animator in the post-novitiate community of Nave, in the Brescia
province, till 1987 when he became Rector of the community and Head at the school
in Parma. In 1986 he got a Mathematics degree at the State University of Parma.
After having been Provincial Councillor for three years 1990-1993, he was nominated
Provincial of the Italian Province of Lombardo Emiliana (ILE). At the end of his term
he was given the office of Superior of the Visitatoria “Mary, Seat of Wisdom” of the
Pontifical Salesian University till 2002 when, during the GC25, he was elected as
Councillor for Formation.
He was confirmed in this office at GC26, when he was Moderator for the first time.
2ND QUARTER 9
Fr Ivo Coelho
Councillor for Formation
Fr Ivo Coelho was elected by the 27th General Chapter as new Councillor General for
Formation. Fr Coelho is Rector of the Salesian Theological Centre at Ratisbonne in
Jerusalem. He was not a member of the present Chapter.
When the voting ended Fr Coelho had received a large majority. The Rector Major
immediately contacted him by telephone to ask if he accepted the result of the
election. Fr Coelho responded positively and the Chapter members, who had been
following the phone call, applauded. Fr Coelho said, “I accept the will of the Chapter
and see here the will of God for me and for the Congregation. I hope to do my best,
with God’s grace and your help, and that of Don Bosco and Mary Help of Christians.”
Nicholas Ivo Coelho was born on 15 October 1958 in Mumbai, India. He entered
the Salesian novitiate of Yercaud in 1976, made his first profession on 24 May 1977 in
the same town, and his perpetual profession exactly 7 years later in Mumbai. He was
ordained priest on 27 December 1987 at Panjim Goa.
He studied philosophy at the Pontifical University Jnana- Deepa Vidyapeeth of
Pune and Theology at the Kristu Jyoti College in Bangalore. In 1994 he obtained a
doctorate in philosophy at the Gregorian
University in Rome with a thesis on the
thought of the Canadian theologian,
Bernard Lonergan. His doctoral thesis
was entitled: “The development of the
notion of universal point of view in the
thought of Bernard Lonergan: from
Insight to Method in Theology.”
That same year he was appointed
Rector of the student community of
Nashik, a role he filled until 2001 and
then again from 2008 to 2011. He served
as Provincial of India - Mumbai in the
intervening years.
In 2007 and 2008 he was part of
the Pre-Chapter Commission for the
26th General Chapter in which he
participated and acted as moderator.
In 2011 he took up the appointment
as Rector of the Salesian Theological
Centre in Jerusalem.
Fr Coelho succeeds Fr. Francis Cereda,
who was elected as Vicar of the Rector
Major.
2ND QUARTER10
Bro. Jean Paul Muller
Economer General
The 27th General Chapter has confirmed Bro. Jean Paul Muller as Economer General
of the Salesian Congregation.
When the Rector Major asked him if he accepted the result of the election, Bro. Jean
Paul replied: “First of all, thank you for your trust and thank you to the team that has
been chosen. I will be asking for their help in the task. As Fr Guillermo said, I am glad
to be a part of this team with the Rector Major and the others that have been chosen.
Thank you. I accept.”
Jean Paul Muller was born on 13 October 1957 in Grevenmacher, Luxembourg. He
entered the novitiate of Jünkerath on 16 August 1978, made his first profession as a
Salesian on 15 August of the following year and his perpetual profession on 15 August
1984.
He was a member of the House Council in the communities of Helenenberg
(1995-2000) and Bonn (2005-2011), Provincial Councillor from 1990 to 2011 -
first in Northern Germany and then in
the Province of Germany - and he was
Delegate for the Missions from 2003 to
2012.
In 2004 he was elected a member of
the Equipo de Dirección del Consejo de
Misiones Católico Alemán. From 2005
to October 2012 he was Director of the
Salesian Mission Office in Bonn and he
is also President of the Confederation of
educational psychologists in Berlin.
On 27 January 2011, after consultation
with the members of the General Council,
the then Rector Major, Fr Pascual
Chávez, appointed him Economer
General of the Congregation.
He participated in the 23rd, 24th and
26th General Chapters and was a member
of the pre-chapter Commission of GC27.
2ND QUARTER 11
Fr Guillermo Basañes
Councillor for the Missions
The 27th General Chapter has entrusted to Fr Guillermo Basañes, former Regional
Councillor for Africa-Madagascar, the position of Councillor for the Missions . “With
this team and this manager, I could not say no. I accept,” was the formula employed
by Fr Basañes to communicate his willingness to accept the office.
Born on 19 October 1965 in Washington, USA, Fr Basañes made his novitiate in La
Plata, Argentina, his first profession on 31 January 1986 and his perpetual profession
on 24 November 1991 in Buenos Aires.
He went to Angola for practical training and did his theological studies in
Lubumbashi. He was ordained deacon in August 1994 and became a priest on 12
August 1995.
He was a member of the pre-chapter
commission for GC26 and at that
chapter he was elected as Councillor for
the Africa-Madagascar Region.
In 2009 he was appointed Member of
the Second Special Assembly for Africa
of the Synod of Bishops, on the theme
“The Church in Africa at the service of
reconciliation, justice and peace.”
As Councillor for the Missions,
Fr Basañes succeeds Fr Václav Klement.
2ND QUARTER12
Fr Fabio Attard
Councillor for Youth Ministry
The 27th General Chapter has
confirmed Fr Fabio Attard for a second
term as Councillor for Youth Ministry.
To the formal question put to him by the
Rector Major, Fr Attard said: “We are all
in the hands of Mary, so, I accept!”
Don Attard was born on the 23rd of
March 1959 in Gozo and was professed as
a Salesian on the 8th of September 1980
in Dublin where he made his novitiate.
He received the diaconate on the 11th of
July 1986 and priesthood on the 4th of
July the following year, in Rome.
Rector in Sliema, Malta, of
“St Alphonsus” first, and then of
“St Patrick”, he received his degree in
Moral Theology at the “Alphonsianum”
in Rome.
He was the Rector of the Institute of
Pastoral Formation, which he founded
in 2005 in the Archdiocese of Malta; he
participated in the 26th General Chapter
as delegate of the Province of Ireland-
Malta and was elected Councillor for
Youth Ministry.
“We are all in the hands of Mary, so, I accept!”
2ND QUARTER 13
Fr Filiberto González
Councillor for Social Communication
The 27th General Chapter has
confirmed Fr Filiberto González as
Councillor for Social Communication.
“In the name of God, I accept. My life is
for young people, for you and for your
service,” said Fr González in response to
the Rector Major, Fr Fernandez Artime.
Don Filiberto, a Mexican, was born
at Milpillas, an area belonging to the
commune of Tepatitlán, in the State of
Jalisco on the 22nd of August 1954. He
made his novitiate at Chulavista and
took his first vows at Guadalajara on
the 1st of October 1974 and his perpetual
vows on the 28th of September 1980. He
became deacon on the 13th of November
1981 and was ordained priest on the 11th
of December 1982.
He has taken on different
responsibilities, among which were
Novice Master in his Province from
1985 till 1987 and, from 1987 till 1992
did pastoral work at the Cristobal Colón
Institute in the city of Zamora. From
1990-1992 he attended the Institute for Social Communications (ISCOS) at the Salesian
Pontifical University, receiving his degree in Social Communications.
Returning to his Province he was in charge of formation of the Post-novitiate at
Huipulco until 1993 when he became Delegate for Youth Pastoral till 2001. Subsequently,
until 2004 he was Novice Master then became Rector of the Postnovitiate of Mexico-
Guadalajara at Huipulco in Mexico. In 2006 he was appointed Provincial of the
Salesians of Mexico- Guadalajara. He participated in the 26th General Chapter when he
was elected as Councillor for Social Communication.
He was also a member of the Technical Commission for the 27th General Chapter.
2ND QUARTER14
Fr Américo Raúl Chaquisse
Regional Councillor for Africa-Madagascar
The 27th General Chapter has elected Fr Américo Raúl Chaquisse as the new Regional
Councillor for Africa-Madagascar. Until now Fr Chaquisse has been Superior of the
Vice-Province of Mozambique. He is the first African Councillor for the region and
succeeds Fr Guillermo Basañes who was elected as Councillor for the Missions.
“I thank God, the confreres who accompanied me, and especially Mary Help of
Christians, under whose protection I place myself, and I accept,” the newly elected
Councillor said.
Américo Raúl Chaquisse was born on 23 February 1966 in Maputo. He did his
novitiate in his hometown and made his first profession on 30 January 1986. He
did his theological studies in Lubumbashi and was ordained priest in Maputo on 11
August 1996.
He has held various positions in
the Vice-Province: he was Council
Member, Economer, Vice-Rector
and Rector of the Provincial House,
Casa Dom Bosco – Residencia. In
2006 he was appointed Economer and
Delegate for Missionary Animation in
Mozambique.
He participated in the 26th General
Chapter and in June 2012 he became
Superior of the Vice-Province of
Mozambique. Since February 2013
he combined this office with that of
Delegate for Evangelization.
2ND QUARTER 15
Fr Stefano Martoglio
Councillor for Mediterranean region
The 27th General Chapter elected Fr Stefano Martoglio as the Councillor for the new
Mediterranean region. He has been until now Superior of the Special Circumscription
of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta.
The Rector Major spoke in Spanish as he invited the newly elected councillor to
practise Spanish just as he himself is practising Italian. Fr Fernandez and Fr Martoglio
both thanked Fr José Miguel Nunez and
Fr Pier Fausto Frisoli for the service they
had given in the two regions that have
now become the new Mediterranean
region. Fr Stefano accepted the result of
the election, trusting in the mercy of God
and the prayers of the confreres.
Stefano Martoglio was born in Turin
on 30 November 1965. He entered the
novitiate at Monte Oliveto in Pinerolo
in 1984, made his first profession in
the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians
in Turin on 8 September 1985 and
his perpetual profession on 27 September
1992 in Castelnuovo Don Bosco. He was
ordained priest in Turin on 11 June 1994.
He served as a member of the House
Council in the community of Pinerolo
and that of St. Dominic Savio, Valdocco,
before becoming Rector of the Mother
House of the Congregation in Valdocco
in 2004.
In 2008 he was appointed Superior of
the Special Circumscription of Piedmont
and Valle d’Aosta.
He participated in the 25th General
Chapter, and recently was part of the pre-
chapter Commission for GC27.
Fr Martoglio is Councillor for the newly established Mediterranean region which was
set up as a result of the decision taken by GC27 as part of the reconfiguration of the
Salesian presence in Europe. The new region consists of the Circumscription of Central
Italy and that of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta, together with the Italian provinces of
Lombardy and Emilia, Southern Italy, North East Italy and Sicily, plus the Middle
East, Portugal and the current Spanish provinces of Barcelona, Bilbao, León, Madrid,
Seville and Valencia. These six provinces will be reduced to just two: Spain Central,
North and East and Spain Mediterranean.
2ND QUARTER16
Fr Václav Klement
Regional for East Asia-Oceania
The 27th General Chapter elected Fr Václav Klement as Regional Councillor for East
Asia-Oceania. For Fr Klement this is a return to the region where he was Councillor
from 2002 to 2008.
The Rector Major first thanked Fr Andrew Wong, outgoing Regional, for the
generosity and willingness with which he served the region in the past six years.
Fr Klement accepted saying, “Thank you for your confidence. With the help of Saints
Versiglia and Caravario who gave their lives in our region, I accept.”
Born on 7 October 1958 in Brno, in what was then Czechoslovakia, he lived for 26
years unable to profess his faith openly because of the communist regime. He entered
the Salesian Congregation secretly and made his religious profession on 4 September
1982. He studied officially at the diocesan seminary, concealing his Salesian vocation
even from his parents. In August 1984
he fled to Rome where he received his
baccalaureate in Theology and began
studying Social Communication at the
Salesian Pontifical University.
He was ordained priest in Rome on
25 May 1986 and was incardinated in
the Province of Korea, where he worked
with young people in a professional
training centre in Seoul. In 1995 he
became Rector of the formation house
at Dae Rim Dong in Seoul.
He became Provincial in Korea in
1996. In 2002 he participated in GC25
and was elected councillor for the new
region of East Asia and Oceania. At the
26th General Chapter he was elected as
Councillor for the Missions.
2ND QUARTER 17
Fr Maria Arokiam Kanaga
Regional Councillor for South Asia
The 27th General Chapter has confirmed Fr Maria Arokiam Kanaga as Regional
Councillor for South Asia.
Fr Arokiam accepted his election with
these words: “The Lord, Our Lady and
Don Bosco know my limits and what
I can do, and I know a little of what is
waiting for me because I’ve already done
this job. I put my trust in the Lord, the
Virgin Mary and in our father Don Bosco
who is living here, and I accept.”
Maria Arokiam Kanaga was born on 4
October 1956 at Varadarajanpet, Trichy,
India. He entered the novitiate of
Yercaud, made his first profession on 24
May 1976 and his perpetual profession
in Madras on the same date in 1982. He
was ordained priest in Rome in 1986.
Since 1992 he was Rector of the Don
Bosco community in Tirupattur, the
Theological Institute of Poonamallee,
Madras, and at Yercaud. He studied
theology and earned his Doctorate in
Philosophy at the Salesian Pontifical
University in Rome.
He was Vice-Provincial in the Province
of Madras from 1996 to 2002 and
Delegate for Youth Ministry from 2006 to 2007.
He participated in the 24th, 25th and 26th General Chapters. At GC26 he was elected as
Regional Councillor for South Asia. He was a member of the pre-chapter Commission
for GC27.
2ND QUARTER18
Fr Timothy Ploch
Councillor for Inter-America
The 27th General Chapter elected Fr Timothy Ploch as the new Councillor for the
Inter-American Region. Fr Ploch has been Provincial of the Western Province, USA
until now. He succeeds Fr Esteban Ortiz who has completed a dual mandate and was
not eligible for re-election to the same position.
The Rector Major thanked Fr Esteban Ortiz for his kindness and generosity. The
Chapter members showed their approval with loud applause.
Fr Ploch accepted his election and expressed the hope that he could continue the
service given in this region by Fr Chavez and Fr Ortiz in the name of Don Bosco.
Timothy Ploch was born on 8 June 1946 in Paterson in the United States. He
entered the novitiate in Newton in 1964 and made his first profession as a Salesian
on 16 August 1965. He made his perpetual profession in Columbus on 15 August 1971
and was ordained priest in Westerville
on 24 April 1976.
He has held various positions in the
community including those of Director
in Columbus and Port Chester, and
parish priest, also in Port Chester.
He was Provincial in the Eastern
Province of the United States (1991-
1997), then Councillor and Delegate
for the Salesian Family and for Social
Communication (2003-2006).
In 2009, the then Rector Major
Fr Pascual Chávez appointed Fr
Ploch as Provincial of the Western
Province USA.
He participated in the 22nd and 24th
General Chapters and, most recently,
he was part of the pre-chapter
Commission for GC27.
2ND QUARTER 19
Fr Natale Vitali
Councillor for America Southern Cone
The 27th General Chapter has confirmed Fr Natale Vitali as Regional Councillor for
America Southern Cone.”I was hoping
someone else would get more votes,
so that I could have a rest. However, I
accept,” Fr Vitali said jokingly.
Natale Vitali was born on 14 May 1955
in Montappone, in the province of Ascoli
Piceno in Italy. After initial training in
Italy he went to Chile where he did his
theological studies. He was ordained
deacon on 23 August 1981 and priest on
31 July 1982.
He was a teacher of religion and school
counsellor and has had experience as
parish priest and economer as well
as Rector of the community. He was
Provincial Councillor and then Provincial
of Chile for two terms, from 1995 to
2000 and from 2006 to 2008. At GC26
he was elected Regional Councillor for
America Southern Cone.
He previously attended two General
Chapters and was also Vicar for Religious
Life of the Archdiocese of Puerto Mortt.
2ND QUARTER20
Fr Tadeusz Rozmus
Councillor for the new region of Central and Northern Europe
The 27th General Chapter elected Fr Tadeusz Rozmus as Councillor for the new
region of Central and Northern Europe. Fr Rozmus is at present Rector of the Salesian
community of Perugia and was previously Provincial of Krakow in Poland.
Fr Rozmus was not present as a member of the Chapter, so when the result of
the voting was known, he had to be called by phone. He was on Retreat and when
the Rector Major asked him if he accepted, his answer was: “If this is the will of the
Chapter, I accept.”
Tadeusz Rozmus was born on 29 April 1957 in Bielsko-Biala in Poland. He entered
the novitiate of Kopiec in 1975, made his first profession there on 22 August 1976
and his perpetual profession at the Salesian house of San Tarcisio in Rome on 16
September 1984. He was ordained
priest in Krakow on 18 June 1986.
He was Rector of the Salesian houses
in Swietochlowice, San Callisto in Rome
and Perugia, Provincial Councillor
in the Province of Krakow from 1997
to 2000 and then Provincial from
2000 to 2006. Last year he made the
Extraordinary Visitation of Austria on
behalf of Fr Marek Chrzan.
Fr Rozmus will be Councillor for the
new Region of Central and Northern
Europe. As a result of the deliberations
of GC27 on 22 March, the region
includes: Austria, Belgium North,
Croatia, Czech Republic, France-
Southern Belgium, Germany, Great
Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Poland-
Krakow, Poland-Pila, Poland-Warsaw,
Poland-Wroclaw, Slovakia, Slovenia,
and the special circumscription of
Ukraine.
2ND QUARTER 21
Letter of Rev. Fr Pascual Chávez
To each and every Salesian in the Congregation
Dear confreres,
You cannot imagine the deep joy I felt when, on the
evening of 30 January last, I was able to walk beside
Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia, archbishop of Turin and many
Salesians, young people from the SYM, as we accompanied
Don Bosco’s Casket through the streets of Turin on his
return to Valdocco. Young people who had come to the
Basilica were waiting for him there and singing “Don Bosco
ritorna”. Don Bosco has come back home, having visited
his sons wherever they were, anywhere in the world, and
it had me thinking of you and now I am writing you this
personal letter. Back in Valdocco, Don Bosco wants to
reach out to every young person, by preference the most
needy of them, through each one of us, called as we are to represent him today.
I am about to leave the ministry as Rector Major that was entrusted to me for the
first time on that distant 2 April 2002. On that day the Lord called me to represent
Don Bosco for you and the Salesian Family. It was an undeserved grace, I believe,
and I confess that it encouraged me to identify myself with our Father more each day,
identify with his concern for the Congregation, his passion for the young. I know that
however much I thank him in the remaining days of my life I could never repay this
debt of God’s love. May he be forever blessed!
My gratitude extends to each and every one of you, my dear confreres. I have felt
accepted and very much loved, though I know that all the signs of respect and love
I received were the expression of your affection and filial devotion to Don Bosco.
Everyone’s understanding and endorsement, the availability and the obedience
I encountered in so many of you have been a real support in the exercising of my
ministry. May God bless you as I, with all my heart, do!
I do not hide the fact that during these twelve years as Rector Major there has been no
lack of pains and sorrows, some more sorrowful because inexplicable or unexpected.
However, like Don Bosco in his dream of the pergola of roses, I have walked amidst
thorns… However the pain felt and the loneliness experienced helped me to see with
greater clarity the good that God, through each one of you, is achieving. I can tell you
that today I feel very proud to be a Salesian, not only to have our holy Founder as a
Father but also to have you as my confreres.
I am sure that whoever will be elected after me will take care “of you and your
salvation”. As Don Bosco did one day, I now urge you: “listen to him, love him, obey
him, pray for him as you did for me”. And may Mary Help of Christians, Mother and
teacher of Don Bosco and each one of us, guide and accompany you in living out your
consecration. Thank you, with all my heart.
Rome, 24 March 2014
Fr Pascual Chávez S., sdb
Rector Major
2ND QUARTER22
A BOY WITH
2ND QUARTER 23
A BOY WITH A DREAM
2ND QUARTER24
27TH GENERAL CHAPTER’S
MESSAGE TO SALESIANS
Dear confreres,
All of us who have taken part in the
27th General Chapter wish to share with
you the extraordinary experience we
have had over these months, called to
Rome in the Lord’s name and sustained
by the power of His Spirit. For each one
of us the Chapter has been an event of
grace to which we want to witness when
we return home. When we take up our
tasks and concerns once more we would
like to tell you that “What marvels
indeed he did for us and how overjoyed
we were!” (Ps 125/126:3).
In the beginning there
was Valdocco
We began our journey in the Salesian
Holy Land, at Valdocco, a place of
the Gospel and daily miracles. We
went there as people who are tracing
a river back to its source. Our thirst
was quenched and the fresh water of
our origins gave us refreshment. Our
father’s story is an ever new invitation.
We sought inspiration from his life and
what he offers so we could revive his
charism today. Rediscovering
Don Bosco has helped our
evangelical vocation to take root
more deeply and has revived
the reasons for giving ourselves
for the Kingdom as he gave
himself, on behalf of the poorest
of the young. In the light of
his experience, we set out
under the gaze of Mary Help of
Christians, sure of her maternal
intercession.
God gifted us with
a father
When we came back to Rome we began
our work of demanding reflections
and decisions. Fraternal spirit and
common seeking made it possible
for us to weave warm and sincere
relationships amongst us immediately.
These gave us a first-hand experience
of multicultural abundance and the
prophecy of fraternity during the days
of the Chapter.
We have felt in communion with
those communities which, in countries
experiencing conflict, are living
through tragic times in their history:
Syria, Venezuela, the Central African
Republic, Sudan have been very much
in our prayers. In remembering them,
we have been brought face to face with
the suffering of so many peoples and the
stark reality of the witness of the many
confreres who are living the radical
approach of the Gospel in very complex
situations and who encourage us in our
commitment.
God then gifted us with a father.
While we express our gratitude for the
outstanding and fruitful ministry of
2ND QUARTER 25
Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva, we feel
that the election of Fr Ángel Fernández
Artime as Rector Major and tenth
Successor of Don Bosco was a gift of
Providence for us all, for the entire
Salesian Family and for the young. His
open and sincere smile, his simplicity,
his great humanity and spontaneous
rapport with each of the confreres
immediately let us see the face of the
promised father in him: “A new Rector
Major will be chosen who will take
care of you and your eternal salvation.
Listen to him, love him, obey him, pray
for him…” (Don Bosco). Thank you,
Fr Ángel, for your heart of the good
shepherd and for your generosity.
Francis fascinated us
A very special and intense occasion
was our meeting with Pope Francis. He
made us welcome and in blessing us he
blessed each one of you and the young
people the Lord has entrusted to us. His
word, which was precise and trenchant,
touched our hearts. He reminded us that
we must be, like Don Bosco, men of the
Gospel who live our daily lives simply
and generously, austerely and freely. He
reminded us that our father taught us to
love the young with the loving kindness
that is proper to the Preventive System
and that makes God’s tenderness for
the weakest of his children present.
He asked us insistently to go out to
the peripheries where the young dwell
and where we see their various forms
of poverty more acutely. He begged us
to spare no effort in assigning our best
individuals to the poorest, those who
have no prospects and no future. Really,
Pope Francis set fire to our Salesian
hearts. His embrace was an expression
of sincere affection for Don Bosco’s
sons and as he took our hands in his
it renewed the filial devotion to Peter’s
Successor that Don Bosco always
wanted his Salesians to have. The Holy
Father’s message will remain in our
hearts and will be a programme for all
of us to follow.
Going against the flow,
in hope
The theme of our General Chapter,
the Gospel’s radical approach, has given
rise to deep reflection, stimulating
us to conversion. What we have
experienced over these weeks is already
in anticipation of the journey we wish to
undertake with all of you and with our
educative and pastoral communities.
We have dreamed of the future and
now we commit ourselves to making it
a reality.
United with the vine like new branches
(cf. Jn 10:1-10), we Salesians dream
of consecrated life which is able to
question the culture and social reality
in which we live when we live
it with profoundly evangelical
attitudes,. For our communities
we want a simple lifestyle, one
marked by the joy of the Gospel
and passion for the Kingdom.
We want to live as men who are
marked by a strong experience
of God, with their feet on the
ground, able to give reason for
the hope we bear in our hearts,
our life completely given over,
2ND QUARTER26
authentic, whole. We are committed to
seeking out the peripheries and deserts
where the most abandoned young people
are to be found.
We will be significant today if we
go against the flow. When we are
surrounded by individualism, then
fellowship, fraternity becomes a credible
alternative. We take up the challenge
of building communities in which we
learn to move from “I” to “we”, always
putting our brother’s good before our
own. We must be able to open up room
for acceptance and dialogue which can
help heal wounds through mature and
regenerating relationships. We need to
be decisively committed to humanising
our common life so that we overcome
loneliness and multiply mercy. Taking
the risk of pardon and peace makes
our way of living credible in our world;
makes our proclamation more clearly
evangelical. For Francis, this is the
pastoral conversion of mercy and
tenderness.
Refocused
Aware of the new ecclesial moment
we are living through, we are convinced
that our consecrated life is a cry against
selfishness and self-reference: it is
about meeting the needs of others and
beginning from our poor and supportive
lifestyle. Our cloister is the world of the
young who are in difficulty and our
prayer is our hands raised up and our
action in giving dignity back to those
who are most excluded. This is why
we cannot spare our energy, nor do we
have any more time for “our things”, or
to close ourselves within our personal
interests. We are faced with an exodus
which will help us reach another land,
one promised a thousand times over:
the land of the most abandoned and
poorest. As Salesians we will find our
Tabor there.
Francis invited us to place ourselves
at the frontiers, on the margins, on
the peripheries of the world, in the
existential deserts where there are
many like sheep without a shepherd and
who have nothing to eat (cf. Mt 9:36).
This is the key to interpretation which
the Pope offers us to refocus ourselves:
to seek other vistas offering us different
points of view and which help us
interpret reality beyond ourselves.
This is the challenge for religious life
today: thinking and living in a way that
refocuses our way of looking at reality
where we are too certain of ourselves,
too settled in guaranteed works, too
occupied with structured and satisfying
work. When we think of the renewal of
our Congregation, do we not have here a
criterion of significance that can help us
offer new horizons to our structures? It
is not so easy to refocus, but it is urgent
to do so if we want to continue to be
faithful to God’s call.
Dear confreres,
Over these days we have felt the breath
of the Spirit “making all things new” (Ap
21:5). This is the moment to go to work
on the guidelines for the way ahead which
our General Chapter is proposing to us.
Moved by the power of the Holy Spirit and
enlightened by Him, we want to “put out
into the deep” (Lk 5:4), navigate towards
deeper waters in our consecrated life
and mission to the young and ordinary
people. We sense the urgency of boldly
proclaiming the liberating Gospel of Jesus
Christ, good news for the little ones and
the poor. And if, seeing the dedication of
our life and our joy, someone should ask:
“Why are you doing this?” we will answer
in all freedom that God fills our life and
his great love is challenging us so that the
young “may have life and have it to the
full” (Jn 10:10).
2ND QUARTER 27
Interview with Isabel Artime
Rector Major’s (Ángel Fernández Artime) mother
“The Salesian Congregation is a ship which needs a good helm at sea”.
Father Ángel Fernández Artime has been elected new Rector Major of the Salesian
Congregation at GC27. He was born in Luanco (Asturias-Spain). He was an aspirant
at Astudillo (Palencia), Cambados (Pontevedra) and León; he spent his years of
novitiate at Mohernando (Guadalajara); he studied Philosophy at the University of
Valladolid and the two-year practicum period in León. He studied theology and made
his perpetual profession in Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña). He was ordained
priest in León. His first years of youth ministry were developed in Avilés (Asturias)
and he then went to Madrid to study Pastoral Theology and Philosophy. Back in León
he was appointed as Youth Ministry Delegate, Vice Provincial and then Provincial.
Afterwards he became Rector of the school at Ourense and in the past four years he
has been Provincial in Argentine South (Buenos Aires).
Q.- Isabel, who gave you the news of your son’s being elected as the new
Rector Major of the Salesian Congregation?
A.- The first person who talked to me was the provincial of León, Fr. José
Rodríguez Pacheco. It was a huge surprise, I couldn’t believe it! Later I got a call
from Fr. Pascual Chávez, the former Rector Major. I couldn’t talk to him, I was
2ND QUARTER28
crying out of emotion. I also received phone calls from Fr. Juan José Bartolomé,
Rector Major’s secretary, from Fr. Filiberto Rodriguez, and from Fr. Adriano
Bregolin.
Q.- Which feelings did the news of the election arouse in you?
A.- I said: “Help him My Lord, he needs Thee”. But I didn’t know what to think or
do. I worried because the role is charged with responsibility, thus he will have to face
lots of difficulties. But there was also... hope. I have always told him that God has
given him talents not to be buried, but to be given to others. As his mother, I know
that he is worth a lot.
Q.- When Ángel called you, what did you tell him?
A.- He didn’t phone me right away. I talked to him more than two hours after the
first call. I told him that I already knew about the election and that God would help
him whenever he were in need. He told me not to worry because there would be a lot
of people to help him. It was a very brief conversation. At that moment he was very
busy and he said he would phone me later to talk at ease.
Q.- How did he meet the Salesians?
A.- God’s hand is in our lives. My husband was a fisherman and I sold the fish he
caught. One day, when Ángel was nine years old, Mrs. María Sánchez Miñambres,
a cooperator from the city of León who was a good friend of ours
asked him if he wanted to go to study with the Salesians to that
city (200 kms away from home). Ángel said he would think about
it. The following year, when he was ten, he took the decision of
going to study there. After four years he got the choice of coming
back to Luanco (his hometown) to study High School, but he
didn’t want to. He wanted to remain in León. From that moment,
the Salesians made an impression on him.
Q.- Tell us some of your son’s good points.
A.- He is very kind and sweet, and very affectionate too. He is
always concerned about his family and his duty. We transmitted
him our Faith from the beggining. Ours has always been a
Christian home.
Q.- You cook for him when he goes home, what’s his
favourite food?
A.- He loves homemade food, but he prefers vegetables, “pote
asturiano” (a stew which consists of cabbage, spicy sausage,
black pudding, bacon, and beans), and of course fish, any kind of
fish. We have got extraordinary fish here in Asturias.
Q.- Is there any special piece of advice you have given
him in his life?
A.- As I said before, I have always told him that he should not
bury his talents. They are for him to give to others.
2ND QUARTER 29
Q.- Which present did he give you that you like the most?
A.- He brought an image of Mary Help of Christians from León, when he was
appointed as provincial. Since then, there is always a candle burning in front of it,
here at home. I love her!
Q.- Did he get into mischief when he was a boy?
A.- He was so good that he never did. When he was born, he didn’t cry and we
were very worried. But then suddenly he burst out crying... and didn’t stop until he
was three!! We nearly got desperate, but he didn’t cry any more after we moved back
to my parents’ house and he found himself living with other family members. He
had a hard childhood, because he was alone for many hours at home, while we were
working at the fish market.
Q.- What have you asked for your son to God and Mary Help of Christians?
A.- I prayed for His help, so he can do things well. I asked Him to lend Ángel a hand.
Without His help, nobody can do anything. The Salesian Congregation is a ship which
needs a good helm at sea. God and Don Bosco, as his predecessor, will help him.
José Antonio San Martín
2ND QUARTER30 1ST
THE DON BOSCO TOUCH
2ND QUARTER 31
I am the first born in a family of five. I have a brother and three sisters. In my
tender age I was brought up by my parents, at that time my father was working and he
earned enough to sustain the family. Life was good. When I was in class two my father
lost his job as the company he was working for closed down. My father never gave
up at least he got another job but this time just enough for the family’s basic needs,
with the money from his first job he decided to build a house for us, it was a beautiful
mabati (tin sheet) house around the neighborhoods with a well cemented floor and
one would call this a good home.
Just two weeks after the completion of this humble shelter, with a job which was
not secure and sustainable I had to drop out of school. It was hard for my dad to pay
school fees as usual and the family had to adapt to this new challenge. One month
out of school something terrible happened which left my family traumatized. A fire
had broken out from the neighboring house at night and it spread to other nearby
houses including our new house, we only managed to save our lives and only one box
which my father rescued from the burning house, it contained the family’s important
documents such as the birth certificates.
With no place to call a home and with nothing left we almost gave up on life, but my
mother was strong enough to encourage my dad to start all over again and move on.
They decided to distribute all the children to family members. I was taken to stay with
my grandmother who was at that time staying in Nairobi, my brother and sisters were
taken to my relatives, it was after five years that I met them again and they told me this.
I saw my parents and brothers and sisters after five good years since the tragic
incident happened. Staying at my grandmothers place I only spent one month and
was taken to join a program for children in need which was an intervention from
a women’s group that my grandmother was a member. The program was held in
Rowland camp in Nairobi, where I stayed for one year, all this time we were having
informal education and during these period different organizations would
come to take few children and accommodate them in their centers’.
On 23rd May 1995, I was lucky when one priest came
and picked ten small boys from the camp
and I was among them and this is
how I ended up in Don
Bosco Boys which
is a rehabilitation
centre for children
in need.
I was happy to be
back to school again.
The priest (Fr. John
Peter -sdb) took the
ten of us to Bosco Boys
Kariua which is one
among other centers that
Don Bosco is running
for the needy children. I
stayed there for one year;
the centre provided informal
2ND QUARTER32
education which was divided into three levels according to age and literacy level. After
one year in the center, those who were good, persevered and eager to get education
were enrolled into public government schools.
I joined class two at Parklands primary school and completed my primary education
in the same school under the sponsorship of Don Bosco. After the Kenya certificate of
primary education I managed to secure myself a chance to join secondary school in 2003.
I did my Kenya certificate of secondary education at Upper Hill High School in
Nairobi and also secured myself another chance to qualify for higher learning in 2006.
I volunteered to help my fellow brothers who were behind me in the centre for one
year and luckily in July 2007 I was given a job as a trainer in Don Bosco Life choices
program which conducted life skills education in schools and provided awareness on
HIV/AIDS. I worked for three years and in July 2010 I joined Catholic University of
Eastern Africa, Langata campus in Nairobi.
Jasani Trust which is one of the benefactors of Bosco Boys centre accepted to pay
my university fees until my completion of Bachelor of education, where I managed to
graduate with second class honors, upper division in October, 2013.
With the help of Bosco Boys centre I have been able to travel to many places such
as Uganda, Tanzania, Spain- Madrid and Rome-Italy, just to mention but a few. They
have molded me into a successful young Christian with a profession and I am looking
forward to be ready to give back to the society as I seek for an employment.
Kevin Otieno Juma
“I was about 10 years old when I got the sickness of epilepsy which was preventing
me to go on well with my studies. I could not be left alone and neither could I go alone
anywhere.
Since it was disturbing me even at night, up to 3 times per night, I was compelled
to sleep with my parents.
They would never leave me.
They started to give me tablets and injections, but there was no change.
My mother was going time by time to the Subukia shrine and once, while she was
praying, she heard a voice telling her: “Leah should not take medicine anymore”.
At home she shared the fact with my father who could not believe and therefore I
continued taking the medicine.
My mother did not lose faith and kept telling my father that I should stop taking
medicine and stop as well to go to hospital.
Finally my father agreed and I abandoned every treatment.
At my surprise the disease stopped too and since then, already 10 years now, I never
experienced a relapse of the disease: I am completely cured.
I Thank the Lord for his love and I thank my parents for their closeness to me,
giving me courage.
I ask our Mother Mary to continue to protect me and them and to help me now in
discerning my vocation in this wonderful Congregation of the Servants of the Visitation.”
Leah
Servants of the Visitation
Kindaruma Road, Nairobi
An Experience
2ND QUARTER 33
April 27, 2014 on Divine Mercy Sunday, the Church celebrated the canonization
John XXIII and John Paul II, two of the most influential figures of the 20th century.
Two tapestries, each bearing the image of the newly-declared saints, hung from the
façade of Saint Peter’s basilica, overlooking the hundreds of thousands of people who
had filled Saint Peter’s Square for the occasion. Thousands more poured into the streets
around the Vatican, took part in the Mass by watching it on giant screens. Most notable
was the vast number of pilgrims from Poland who have travelled to Rome – by bus,
plane, and even on foot – to witness the canonization of the first Polish pope.
One of the special guests attending the Mass was Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who
himself had beatified John Paul II, his predecessor and friend.
Opening his homily, Pope Francis noted that the canonizations coincide with Divine
Mercy Sunday, a feast instituted by John Paul II. To mark this feast, the Holy Father
reflected on “the glorious wounds of the risen Jesus”.
John XXIII and John Paul II, he said, were “priests, bishops and popes of the
twentieth century”: they “lived through the tragic events of that century, but they
were not overwhelmed by them. For them, God was more powerful; faith was more
powerful – faith in Jesus Christ the Redeemer of man and the Lord of history; the
mercy of God, shown by those five wounds, was more powerful; and more powerful
too was the closeness of Mary our Mother”.
Pope Francis also recalled how “John XXIII and John Paul II cooperated with
the Holy Spirit in renewing and updating the Church in keeping with her pristine
features, those features which the saints have given her throughout the centuries”.
“In convening the Council, John XXIII showed an exquisite openness to the Holy
Spirit. He let himself be led and he was for the Church a pastor, a servant-leader. This
was his great service to the Church”.
For his part, the Holy Father continued, “John Paul II was the pope of the family,”
recalling the upcoming Synod on the family. “From his place in heaven,” he said, “he
guides and sustains” in the journey toward the Synod.
Pope Francis called on the faithful to
look to these saints to learn how “not
to be scandalized by the wounds of
Christ and to enter ever more deeply
into the mystery of divine mercy,
which always hopes and always
forgives, because it always loves”.
In the hours leading up to
Sunday’s canonization, thousands
of pilgrims gathered along the
streets surrounding the Vatican for
a chance to make it into the Square.
Despite feeling “shoved” and
“squeezed,” the smiling pilgrims
said that “nothing could contain
their joy.”
Zenit
John Paul II, John XXIII Canonized
2ND QUARTER34
TEACHERS’ SEMINAR IN MAKUYU
11TH – 16TH APRIL 2014
The yearly Teachers’ Seminar
organized by the FMA of AFE Province
took place from the 11th to 16th April 2014
at Mother Mazzarello Village Makuyu.
It was attended by 61 teachers from the
educational institutions run by the FMA
communities in AFE Province. However
the SDB community and the FMA Laura
Vicuna community in Makuyu also were
of great support in offering additional
facilities for accommodation, games,
prayer and training.
On Saturday the 12th at the opening
mass Fr. Stephan, sdb invited the
teachers to open themselves to the
Lord and thus make of their life a
sanctuary – a dwelling place for the
Lord. The morning session of that day
dealt with the topic of Guidance and
Counseling facilitated by Sr. Mary
Ngina, fma. In her presentation she
led the teachers towards differentiating
between counseling and advising
stressing the importance of using
listening skills. In the afternoon Madam
Joyce (lecturer at Marist International
University College Nairobi) facilitated a
session on Class Management and
Control. She led the teachers towards
understanding that class management
and control involves various aspects in
the education as a profession. In the
evening Sr. Chantal Mukase, the
FMA Provincial in AFE gave the good
night to the teachers and challenged
them to live a life worthy of their call as
Christian teachers and to show kindness
to all those who need their help.
On the 13th Fr. Selvam Sahaya, sdb
facilitated two main topics for the day: Self
Awareness and Stress Management.
However before the sessions he started
by presiding over the Palm Sunday
Eucharistic celebration of Jesus’ solemn
entry to Jerusalem for his passion.
The morning of the 14th was facilitated
by Sr. Eleanor Gibson, fma who
dealt with the treasured Salesian
legacy left to us by Don Bosco – the
Preventive System which has been
christianed as a System of Expression.
In the introduction she stressed the
importance of experience as the
prerequisite for the effective living
and practice of the preventive system.
In the afternoon Madam Josephine
Waweru a lecturer at Tangaza
College facilitated a session on Child
Protection. She guided the teachers
in the understanding of the concepts
of child protection, child abuse and its
various forms, and the role of a teacher
in child protection.
The final full day which was facilitated
by Fr. Benard Njeru of Embu
Diocese. It was a day of prayer with
the theme ‘I am the vine you are the
branches’. The afternoon was spent in
silent reflection and the opportunity
for the sacrament of reconciliation.
The day concluded with the Eucharistic
celebration in the evening. The seminar
concluded on the 16th with an evaluation
and words from Sr. Jane Wanjiru to go
and put into practice what they have
learned in becoming better educators.
Sr. Letizia Ngari, fma
2ND QUARTER 35
SIGNIS WORLD CONGRESS ROME 2014
The Video Journalists
(VJs) who made the
difference
SIGNIS is the World Catholic
Association for Communication,
comprising of Media and Social
Communication Professionals
from over 100 countries across
the globe.
Guided by their Vision, SIGNIS
aims to be a network that inspires,
educates and transforms our
societies, building a global
culture of peace.
The SIGNIS World Congress
was held in Rome from Feb 28th to
1st of March 2014, with the theme: Media
for a Culture of Peace, Creating Images
with the New Generation. It bought
together delegates from all over the world.
Different activities took place during
the congress, including different
workshops highlighting the importance
of preaching peace through the media.
Different media professionals shared
how to work towards attaining this
vision. Apart from the workshops,
delegates had a day set aside for the
Papal Audience where they joined other
Catholic faithfuls at St. Peter’s Square
to hear Pope Francis’ message, with the
SIGNIS leaders having a privilege to
meet and have a chat with Pope.
The congress also included the election
of the new leaders of SIGNIS, with
Gustavo Andújar (Cuba), appointed as
the President and Frank Frost (USA) and
Lawrence John Sinniah (Malaysia) as the
Vice Presidents. The Outgoing President
of SIGNIS Mr. Augustine Loorthusamy
was invested as a Knight of the Order of
Saint Sylvester by Pope Francis.
Two days before the SIGNIS congress
started seven Video Journalist from Asia
and Africa arrived in Rome to build the
team that was to cover the event from
the point of view of young people. All the
activities were covered by SIGNIS VJs.
The VJs were guided and trained by a
team of trainers: Fr. Sebastian Koladiyil
from DBYES Kenya, Karen Arukesamy
and Melissa Fernando from Malaysia. The
VJs were Clemens De Souza from Togo,
Joseph Ssewaali from Uganda, Kevin
Juma and Lawrence Njoroge from Kenya,
Fransiscus Borgia from Indonesia, Vi Cao
from Vietnam, San May Nwe from Myan
Mar and Vann Sambath from Cambodia.
The congress came to an end with a
future search which involved coming up
with a way forward for SIGNIS aiming at
making SIGNIS better. The search was
conducted with lot of fun filled activities
which everyone enjoyed.
The congress came to an end with the
delegates leaving Rome with the spirit
of togetherness to build a culture for
peace, with the next Congress already
set in 2018.
Lawrence Njoroge
2ND QUARTER36
Nuns in South Sudan know a thing or two about war. “We learned fast with the
bullets whistling past our ears,” said Sister Barbara Paleczny, chuckling at the memory
of her younger self when she moved here five years ago.
Paleczny, 70, a teacher with the Rome-based NGO Solidarity with South Sudan, has
lived in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. But it’s the city of Malakal -
where civil war has raged in recent months - that she calls home.
Each attack and counterattack has led to fresh atrocities, which the nuns have
done their best to prevent. The sisters have confronted military chiefs about rape,
negotiated for civilian protection amid rocket-propelled grenade fire, and held their
ground when international humanitarians and peacekeepers left.
Fifty-years ago, the Sudanese government expelled the missionaries. When
independence was granted to the predominantly Christian south in 2011, the
missionaries pinned their hopes on a lasting peace. But two-and-a-half years later,
their hopes are smashed. A split within South Sudan’s ruling party boiled over into
armed conflict shortly before Christmas 2013. The war pits rebels loyal to former Vice
President Riek Machar against President Salva Kiir. Experts agree that civilians have
borne the brunt of the crisis - at least 10,000 people are believed to be dead and the
killings still continue.
Paleczny had survived a number of attacks on Malakal before the recent outbreak
of violence. “We stayed through all the battles when the NGOs cleared out,” she said.
While the nuns carried on with their business - improving education, healthcare,
journalism, agriculture - the NGOs sometimes took months to return.
Recently, Sister Paleczny agreed to leave Malakal. “What can I do for people hiding
in this tiny room?” she asked herself. Soon after leaving Malakal, she began to have
nightmares for the first time in her life. Her mind was re-enacting atrocities in her dreams.
Paleczny spent the first two months of this year teaching in Rumbek, a town yet
to be touched by the fighting. Meanwhile, her fellow Sister Elena Balatti stayed on.
Balatti belongs to the Comboni Missionaries, a powerful, elite unit of church workers
whose history in South Sudan dates back nearly 200 years.
In her dispatch for the Comboni Mission, she wrote that roughly 100 of the town’s
most vulnerable people were taking shelter in her church compound - most of them
elderly, disabled or women with young children. Balatti reassured the displaced
people that she would not leave.
As the ceasefire signed between the warring parties failed on February 18, Balatti
reported the White Army militia - comprised of members of the Nuer ethnic group -
arrived in town. People trying to escape on a truck were caught in the gunfire, hurling
themselves from the vehicle and running to the church compound. Its walls provided
protection from bullets, but only until 10am when the rebels breached the compound
and started making demands of the sisters.
By evening, there were 30 gunmen in front of the cathedral searching for a pro-
government fighter. One of the men readied his rocket-propelled grenade launcher
and threatened to hit the church. The sisters stood their ground, doggedly negotiating
for the protection of civilians. Early the next morning, Balatti and the other sisters
gathered the civilians and left for the Presbyterian church, which was being used as a
UN base, where they coordinated a rescue mission for those left behind.
But Sister Paleczny is eager to get back to work, adamant that she will never retire and
showing no fear of her own mortality. “I’m too old to die young,” she said with a wry smile.
Courtesy of Al Jazeera
South Sudan’s Frontline Nuns
2ND QUARTER 37
A group of Indian
Catholic sisters in South
Sudan are helping people
displaced by the political
crisis in the country to
get back to their lives,
instilling a sense of hope
and reconciliation among
them.
Hundreds of thousands
of civilians have been
displaced and thousands
are believed to have
been killed since mid-
December by the fighting
between pro and anti-
government forces.
From the first moments
of the violence, camp residents have been accompanied by the group of Catholic
sisters.
“We’ve been working in the bush with war-affected people, but when we heard the
cry of the people here, we came on the first day to provide trauma counseling and to
work with the women and children,” said Sr. Amala Francis, project coordinator in
South Sudan for the Daughters of Mary Immaculate.
The sisters return daily, bringing food, counseling women and organizing activities
for the children. There are no formal schools in the camp, so were it not for the
opportunity to gather with the sisters in a few large tents donated by UNICEF, the
kids would have nothing to do.
“We want to give the children an opportunity to leave their trauma behind for a
few minutes, to give them some freedom. We teach them English and some of their
letters,” said Sr. Amala.
The nuns also work for reconciliation.
“We see that tribalism is very high,” she explained.
“The people focus on their tribe, not on the development of the whole country. So
we work with the children to quit thinking about just me, but rather about us, about
the larger community, which is the only way you can develop this country. As we make
headway with the children, they go home and teach their parents, who rather than
thinking about just me and you, need to think about the whole country,” she added.
The congregation has about 20 sisters in South Sudan. Half of them serve a remote
area near Wau, while the others are in Juba and have made the camp their parish,
despite sporadic outbreaks of violence.
Nuns help displaced people in
South Sudan
2ND QUARTER38
“At first the sounds of gunfire made us worry
a lot, but we reminded ourselves that it was God
who called us to this service,” Sr. Amala said.
“And then slowly, as we have lived with the
people amid their fear and needs, our own fears
and worries were lost. It is God’s plan, not ours,
so the more we focus on God’s work, the less space
there is for worry,” she said.
The sisters also provide the framework for a
larger Catholic presence in the camp. Several
priests and other religious regularly visit the
sick in the small camp hospital. Sunday Mass is
celebrated by priests from Juba.
Among recent celebrants was Maryknoll
Father Jim Noonan from the United States. He
said the singing and dancing during Mass left
him convinced that camp residents retain “a
deep sense of God’s presence” amid the many
challenges they face.
“They are not prisoners there, but neither
are they home where they want to be,” Father
Noonan said. “They told me that it is their faith
that allows them to endure hardship, and that
despite the difficulties, God is with them. So they
enthusiastically celebrated that they have not
been abandoned.”
catholicnews
2ND QUARTER 39
Pope Francis met in the Vatican
with seminarians from regions around
Rome, warning them that the Church
has “many half priests” who fail to reach
their potential because they are not
“pastors in the image of Jesus.”
The seminarians are members of the
Pontifical Leonine College of Anagni,
a regional seminary for several of the
dioceses around the city of Rome.
“We have so many, so many half way
priests,” the Pope told the young men.
“It is a sorrow, that they do not succeed
in reaching the fullness.
“They have something about them of
employees, a bureaucratic dimension
and this does no good to the Church. I
advise you, be careful that you do not
fall into this!”
He continued, “You are becoming
pastors in the image of Jesus, the Good
Shepherd, to be like Him and in His person
in the midst of his flock, to feed his sheep.”
Acknowledging the hesitation
common in men contemplating the
priesthood, Francis noted: “We can
answer as Mary did to the angel: ‘How
is this possible?’
“To become ‘good pastors’ in the
image of Jesus is something too great,
and we are so small …. It’s true! ... We
are among the smallest of men. It’s true,
it is too great, but it’s not our work! It
is the work of the Holy Spirit, with our
collaboration,” he said.
Encouraging them not to be
overwhelmed, Francis explained the
process involves sacrifice: “It is about
offering oneself humbly, as clay to be
molded, so that the potter, who is God,
can shape it with water and fire, with the
Word and the Spirit.”
Escape
Francis affirmed that the seminary is
not an escape. It’s “not a refuge for the
many limitations we might have,” he said,
“a refuge from psychological lacks or a
refuge because I don’t have the courage to
go forward in life and I seek there a place
that defends me. No, it’s not this.
“If your seminary was this, it would
become a mortgage for the Church! No,
the seminary is precisely to go forward.”
The Holy Father discussed that prayer,
study, fraternity, and apostolic life interact
and are the “four pillars, four dimensions
on which a seminary must live.”
The Pontiff focused on necessary
attributes of the role of the priest,
including not being frightened, going
to confession, and daily conversion.
Following this path of becoming a priest
“means to meditate every day on the
Gospel, to transmit it with your life and
your preaching.”
He closed by calling upon Mary. He
said, “Never forget her! The Russian
mystics said that in the moment of
spiritual turbulence it is necessary to
seek refuge under the mantle of the
Holy Mother of God.” (D.C.L.)
ZENIT
Pope to Seminarians: We Have Too Many
‘Half Priests’ Who Fail to Imitate Jesus
2ND QUARTER40
The study of theology is “fruitful only if it is done with an open mind and on
one’s knees,” Pope Francis said in an April 10 address to students at the Gregorian
University in Rome
In his talk the Pope reminded the students that the Gregorian University and its
affiliates—the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute—were
united by Pope Pius XI under the direction of the Jesuit order. Each student at these
institutions, he added, is expected “to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of
the Cross.”
The Holy Father encouraged the students to make use of their time studying in
Rome. “Here are the roots of the faith,” he remarked; “the memories of the apostles
and of the martyrs. And here is the ecclesial ‘today.’” Yet the students, drawn from all
over the world, also bring their own diversity to the educational experience, he said.
The purpose of studying philosophy and theology, the Pope said, is to develop a
capacity for “transmitting the knowledge and offering a key for vital comprehension,
not a heap of notions unconnected to one another.” In that context he said that this
study “will be all the more fertile and efficacious as it is more fully animated by the
love of Christ and of the Church.”
“The theologian who is satisfied with his complete and conclusive thought is
mediocre,” the Pope said. A theologian should always seek to learn more about God
and about the truths of faith. Therefore, the Pope said that “the theologian who
does not pray and who does not worship God ends up sunk in the most disgusting
narcissism”—which he described as “an ecclesiastical illness” that causes harm to the
faithful.
UCAN, India
‘Do theology on your knees,’ Pope
tells students in Rome
2ND QUARTER 41
Groaning beyond Words - Our
Deeper Way of Praying
When we no longer know how to pray,
the Spirit, groans within us too deep for
words, prays through us.
Saint Paul wrote those words and
they contain both a stunning revelation
and a wonderful consolation, namely,
there is deep prayer happening inside
us beyond our conscious awareness and
independent of our deliberate efforts.
What is this unconscious prayer? It
is our deep innate desire, relentlessly
on fire, forever somewhat frustrated,
making itself felt through the groaning
of our bodies and souls, silently begging
the very energies of the universe, not
least God Himself, to let it come to
consummation.
Allow me an analogy: Some years ago,
a friend of mine bought a house that had
sat empty and abandoned for a number
of years. The surface of the driveway
was cracked and a bamboo plant, now
several feet high, had grown up through
the pavement. My friend cut down the
bamboo tree, chopped down several
feet into its roots to try to destroy them,
poured a chemical poison into the root
system in hopes of killing whatever was
left, packed some gravel over the spot,
and paved over the top with a thick layer
of concrete. But the little tree was not
so easily thwarted. Two years later, the
pavement began to heave as the bamboo
plant again began to assert itself. Its
powerful life-force was still blindly
pushing outward and upward, cement
blockage notwithstanding.
Life, all life, has powerful inner
pressures and is not easily thwarted. It
pushes relentlessly and blindly towards
its own ends, irrespective of resistance.
Sometimes resistance does kill it. There
are, as the saying goes, storms we cannot
weather. But we do weather most of
what life throws at us and our deep life-
principle remains strong and robust,
even as on the surface the frustrations
we have experienced and the dreams
in us that have been shamed slowly
muzzle us into a mute despair so that
our prayer-lives begin to express less
and less of what we are actually feeling.
But it is through that very frustration
that the Spirit prays, darkly, silently,
in groans too deep for words. In our
striving, our yearning, our broken
dreams, our tears, in the daydreams
we escape into, and even in our sexual
desire, the Spirit of God prays through
us, as does our soul, our life-principle.
Like the life-forces innate in that
bamboo plant, powerful forces are
blindly working inside us too, pushing
2ND QUARTER42
us outward and upward to eventually
throw off whatever cement lies on top
of us. This is true, of course, also of
our joys. The Spirit also prays through
our gratitude, both when we express
it consciously and even when we only
sense it unconsciously.
Our deepest prayers are mostly not
those we express in our churches and
private oratories. Our deepest prayers
are spoken in our silent gratitude and
silent tears. The person praising God’s
name ecstatically and the person bitterly
cursing God’s name in anger are, in
different ways, in radically different
ways of groaning, both praying.
There are many lessons to be drawn
from this. First, from this we can
learn to forgive life a little more for its
frustrations and we can learn to give
ourselves permission to be more patient
with life and with ourselves. Who of us
does not lament that the pressures and
frustrations of life keep us from fully
enjoying life’s pleasures, from smelling
the flowers, from being more present to
family, from celebrating with friends,
from peaceful solitude, and from deeper
prayer? So we are forever making
resolutions to slow down, to find a
quiet space inside our pressured lives in
which to pray. But,
after failing over
and over again, we
eventually despair
of finding a quiet,
c o n t e m p l a t i v e
space for prayer
in our lives.
Although we need
to continue to
search for that,
we can already
live with the
consolation that,
deep down, our
very frustration in
not being able to find that quiet space
is already a prayer. In the groans of our
inadequacy the Spirit is already praying
through our bodies and souls in a way
deeper than words.
One of the oldest, classical definitions
of prayer defines it this way: Prayer is
lifting one’s mind and heart to God. Too
often in our efforts to pray formally,
both communally and privately, we fail
to do that, namely, to actually lift our
hearts and minds to God. Why? Because
what is really in our hearts and minds,
alongside our gratitude and more
gracious thoughts, is not something
we generally connect with prayer at all.
Our frustrations, bitterness, jealousies,
lusts, curses, sloth, and quiet despair
are usually understood to be the very
antithesis of prayer, something to be
overcome in order to pray.
But a deeper thing is happening under
the surface: Our frustration, longing,
lust, jealousy, and escapist daydreams,
things we are ashamed to take to prayer,
are in fact already lifting our hearts and
minds to God in more honest ways that
we ever do consciously.
Ronald Rolheiser
2ND QUARTER 43
2ND QUARTER44
