On the final day of his animation visit to AON, the Rector Major presided over a solemn Mass in the parish of Saint John Bosco in Dakar. The celebration was the culmination of the day’s events and saw the involvement of delegations of Salesians and members of the Salesian Family from the other Salesian presences in Senegal – Thiès and Tambacoundathe,  in addition to numerous parishioners.

In the homily, the Rector Major expressed his joy at having visited and got to know this part of the Salesian world, crossing two countries, Senegal and Gambia, and making a visit that, he said, he had strongly wanted to make. Then, he launched his appeal for communion, inviting the community to grow in the unity of hearts.

At the end of the Eucharistic celebration, a lay collaborator in the Salesian mission also took the floor, Mr. Jean-Gabriel Yameogo, as Secretary of the Parish Pastoral Council. He expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the Rector Major for his fatherly concern, convinced that his visit will help to increase the enthusiasm of the parish community.

For his part, the AON Provincial, Fr Jésus Bénoit Badji, in his address, expressed his joy and satisfaction at the smooth running of this visit and thanked God for this grace. He then added, "May this visit be for us the starting point of a new unity, as the Rector Major said in his homily: a Christian unity, a religious unity, a unity of hearts...". And, to conclude, he addressed the confreres present, coming from six countries, inviting them to witness with their lives to what they had seen and heard from the Rector Major.

After Mass, the day continued with a festive meeting of Cardinal Á.F. Artime with the Salesian Family, a moment of community agape, and in the early afternoon the in-depth visit to the work in Dakar and the meeting with the Salesians in Senegal. This was an opportunity for the Rector Major to listen to his confreres and to share with them his convictions and hopes for the Congregation and for AON Province.

A young Province, but one which, as the Rector Major observed in his concluding meeting of the visit, has a whole history and a solid heritage on which to build in order to move forward, with great strengths and potential, and which must take care of communion.

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