"To meet, encourage, review and leave again with joyful hope": this is how Fr. Costa defines the itinerary accomplished by the 10th Successor of Don Bosco, who has the task of leading a worldwide Congregation operating in 136 countries around the world - not only remotely, staying at the central headquarters, but as much as possible in person. Because nothing, not even in the digital age, can replace the value of presence and relationships, first and foremost with young people, the privileged recipients of Salesian pedagogy. It is no coincidence that the "Salesian sacrament of presence among young people" is the expression coined by Fr. Á.F. Artime himself to encourage all Salesians around the world to never forget the centrality of that direct and immediate contact that fosters knowledge, produces sharing, creates exchange and educational passion.
A centrality that the Rector Major testifies to experiencing firsthand. Since 2014, he has been at the head of the Salesian Congregation, and has already visited some 118 nations scattered around the world.
After being interrupted in the 2020-2021 biennium, due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, he resumed his international journey in 2022, with a series of stops - punctually retraced and documented in the book, with a rich set of images until March 2023, that has taken him to Iberian soil, to Zimbabwe and Zambia, in the footsteps of the Salesian mission in Thailand, to Hungary, to France, to two provinces in Brazil and six provinces in India (in two different periods), to Croatia, to the United States and Canada, to Peru, and to several Italian regions and cities.
"Images of 'touch and go' or pure celebration of important events do not befit or describe the visits of the Rector Major. His presence is, instead, often requested by Salesian houses or Provinces to celebrate a significant milestone in their history, such as 100 or 50 years since foundation, the beginning of a new work, the profession of vows or priestly ordination of new confreres, the commemoration of Salesian figures who are exemplary for different lands and for the whole Church. However, the celebratory intent is always part of an encounter rich in content and debate on the state of health of the Salesian charism in the local reality," the sociologist. Franco Garelli, Professor Emeritus of the State University of Turin, sharply observes in the introduction to the reading.
The Rector Major's world tour then makes it abundantly clear how the physiognomy of the Congregation is changing, as a result of demographic developments that crowd emerging countries and burden more developed nations; and more generally, because of the tendency of populations to mix on this planet earth. At every latitude, Salesian houses host young people of different cultures, often even of different religions and ethnicities; because Don Bosco's charism, though born in a particular cultural and religious context, knows no 'denominational' boundaries, it also infects those who live and believe otherwise.
Through the book, the orientations given by the Rector Major to his Salesians and those who share the mission of carrying out Don Bosco's charism, whether lay or consecrated, emerge clearly: "Believing in the young," "being faithful to the young," and "giving life to the dreams of the young" are some of the oft-repeated keywords, phrases that are not just mottos, but guidelines for never losing sight of the fundamental pedagogical choice of the Sons of Don Bosco.
Without forgetting the new areas of youth education: attending to the Salesian proposal and presence in digital courtyards, appreciating the attention of the new generations to the safeguarding of Creation, as well as the interest in political commitment "understood in a broad sense," which "is seen here and there in Salesian environments (and in the young people who attend them)," Garelli notes again.
Fr. Costa, for his part, in his presentation of the book recalls the admiration of St. Paul VI - of whom a large and beautiful quotation is given on the back cover - regarding the Salesian outreach across the four corners of the globe, a phenomenon for which the Pontiff did not hesitate to speak of an "evangelical miracle like the multiplication of the loaves." And he also explains that Fr. Á.F. Artime in his travels "reached non-hyperbolically a mileage comparable to the 384,000+ kilometers that exist between the Earth and the Moon."
Finally, he ends by also indicating a further key to reading: "These journeys can be rethought and reread by also looking at our daily reality provoked by chronicles and facts that should not leave us indifferent. This is the intent of these pages, with thanks to the Successor of Don Bosco for his commitment."
On Tuesday, May 30, 2023, it will be presented at the Vatican, at the Teutonic College, in a special meeting with Vatican journalists, who will, in turn, be able to interview Fr. Á.F. Artime.
This is the program of the meeting, beginning at 11:15 a.m. (UTC+2):
Introduction
Fr. Giuseppe Costa, Secretary and spokesman for the Rector Major.
Moderator
Angela Ambrogetti, Director of Acistampa.
Speakers
Domenico Agasso, Vaticanist for La Stampa;
Gianni Cardinale, Vaticanist of Avvenire;
Eva Fernández, Cadena Cope Correspondent for Italy and the Vatican;
Javier Martínez-Brocal, ABC Correspondent for the Vatican.
