Yesterday morning, Wednesday, Nov. 16, the 10th Successor of Don Bosco visited Salesian houses located in the East Los Angeles area, getting to know the pastoral-educational communities and the apostolic activities they conduct.
First, he visited Bishop Mora Salesian High School in Los Angeles. The students of the marching band welcomed Fr. Á.F Artime and led him to the school gymnasium filled with jubilant people who welcomed him with great enthusiasm. For his part, playing the guitar together with the mariachi student band, the Rector Major was able to return the emotions and enthusiasm he himself felt to those present.
Afterward, the Rector Major sat at a table with some representatives of the school community for a sincere and open dialogue, visited the various sections of the institute, and finally stopped for lunch with the animators, in a moment also of simple and friendly interaction between the Tenth Successor of Don Bosco and the boys and girls involved with the Salesian charism.
Yesterday, Fr. Á.F. Artime also got to know the apostolic realities of the Salesian presences of "Saint Isabel," "Saint Mary," and "Saint Bridget." On the second stop of the quick tour of these centers, he watched the performance of the parish choir with interest and participation and addressed a few words to the minors of the school and their companions gathered in the church: he briefly introduced himself, his role as Rector Major and the significance of his visit: "I am not here for a purely institutional visit, but because I believe deeply in what we are doing together," said the Rector Major in Spanish, translated into English by Fr. Timothy Ploch, now Rector of the Provincial House of United States East (SUE), formerly Counselor for the Inter-American Region (2014-2020).
He then went on to animate the children, adding, "Looking at you, I see an enthusiastic Christian community that feels at home in a Salesian work and in the Salesian Family." And he offered two reasons why "a presence such as this, for us Salesians of Don Bosco, is most important": first, the sense of unity and communion that makes the parish "a little oasis" for families and Christian communities in the face of the weariness and difficulties of daily life; and then the good that the presence of Salesians among young people and of young people around Salesians does.
The day's visit was completed at the Salesian Family Youth Center located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, a symbolic work of the Salesian apostolic activities of SUO: established in 1966, through its two locations it serves the communities of Boyle Heights and City Terrace (areas where some 13,000 minors study daily) and provides after-school educational activities and low-cost alternative programs for thousands of at-risk and economically disadvantaged youth between the ages of 6 and 18.
On this occasion, the Rector Major enjoyed watching various artistic and cultural performances by various youth groups and spent the evening in agape and fraternity with members of the local Salesian Family.
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