"Thanks to the missionary spirit in our Congregation, there are still confreres who leave to give their lives to God as missionaries," Fr. Á.F. Artime writes in his message. The Rector Major sees all this as a fulfillment of what Don Bosco himself said in his homily during the first Missionary Sending, Nov. 11, 1875: "... Who knows, that this departure and this little as a seed from which a great plant will arise? ... Who knows, that this departure has not awakened in the hearts of many the desire to consecrate themselves to God in the Missions, making body with us and strengthening our ranks? I hope so. ..." (MB XI, 385)
In his letter, the Rector Major emphasizes that today "the missions" cannot be understood only as a movement to "mission lands," as it once was. Today Salesian missionaries come from and are sent to the five continents, not only to respond to the need for personnel but, above all, to bear witness that for the Sons of Don Bosco there are no frontiers, to contribute to intercultural dialogue, to the inculturation of faith and charism, and to trigger processes that can generate new local vocations.
With this letter, the 10th Successor of Don Bosco invites Salesians to pray and to make a careful discernment to discover whether the Lord is calling them, within the common Salesian vocation, to be missionaries for life (ad vitam). It also invites the Provincials, with their Delegates for Missionary Animation (DIAM), to be the first to help their confreres cultivate the missionary desire and facilitate their discernment.
The full text of the Rector Major's Missionary Appeal 2022 is available in Italian, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Polish at the bottom of the page.
