Venice, Italy - April 2016 - On 10 April more than 12,000 people took part in the traditional Solidarity Walk "Up and Down the Bridges", through the streets and squares of Venice, on behalf of the Salesian mission in Damascus, Syria, which is at the centre of the humanitarian project for the year 2016. This great day of celebration and solidarity was started by the Salesian Fr Dino Berti and organized by the Salesian TGS Eurogroup in collaboration with the Municipality of Venice and is promoted by the Salesian Province of San Marco in North Eastern Italy.

(ANS - Vatican City) - Pope Francis has added his voice to the many calls from around the world asking for the release of Fr Tom Uzhunnalil.  On 4 March last the Indian Salesian missionary was kidnapped in Aden in Yemen during a terrorist attack on the community of the Missionaries of Charity. The Pope raised his prayer for Fr Tom and all victims of kidnapping in war zones immediately after the recitation of the "Regina Coeli" yesterday, Sunday 10 April 2016.

(ANS - Rome) - The first ever seminar to promote the causes of beatification and canonization of the Salesian Family concluded on Sunday 10 April. Symbolically, the final act, was the chanting of the litany of the saints and blessed of the Salesian Family.