"Having deemed it opportune to enlist you in the College of Cardinals, beloved son, adorned with excellent qualities and well-deserving of the Church, in this Consistory, by virtue of our apostolic power, we name you Cardinal Deacon, with all the rights and duties that are proper to your order, assigning to you in this alma Urbe the distinguished church of St Mary Help of Christians in Via Tuscolana, whose Rector and Clergy, together with all those who are assigned to them, we paternally exhort, so that when you take possession of it, they may welcome you with joy, and honour you with devout reverence. Moreover, while we warmly rejoice with you, because elected to the Senate of the Catholic Church you will be able to assist us in matters of supreme interest and honour the Roman See, we pray to God most gracious that he may enrich you with his gifts and confirm you with his grace and with his help.” This was the message that the Holy Father Pope Francis had delivered on 30 September to the Rector Major of the Salesians, and which was read at the beginning of the celebration, immediately after the initial rites.

A celebration that was full of symbols and significant gestures from the beginning: previously, already at the entrance, the Rector Major had entered the central nave of the church blessing the crowd with holy water and then paused for a few moments on his knees before the tabernacle.

The basilica that welcomed him was full of faithful, parishioners, members of the various groups of the Salesian Family, and above all many children, young people and young adults who participated attentively in the celebration and animated the celebration in many ways – some serving at the altar, some in the choir, some in the various other necessary liturgical functions.

Celebrating the Laetare Mass in Advent with him were several dozen Salesians: members of the parish community, led by the parish priest, Fr Valerio Baresi; other Salesians from the communities in Rome, and the Superior of the Special Circumscription of Central Italy, Fr Stefano Aspettati.

Following the Mass, a smiling and serene Card. Fernández Artime, visibly at ease in a Salesian church and imbued with the charism of Don Bosco made his own by the entire educative and pastoral community, offered a thought by way of the homily, and began by thanking people for the welcome received and adding: "I never would have thought, when I visited this beautiful Basilica a few years ago, that today I would be here among you to offer this service. But we believe in our faith that God is unpredictable: and this is the experience of all of us believers. And I am really happy to be here.”

He then stressed how he “felt at home” among his Salesian confreres and members of the Salesian Family, paying tribute to the commitment of everyone “to serve the Church wherever we are, anywhere in the world.”

Addressing the theme of the day's liturgy, the 10th Successor of Don Bosco added: "Today we celebrate Laetare Sunday, and the Word says this: I rejoice fully in the Lord. We are on the threshold of the event of the incarnation of the Son of God” and “Christmas means God with us, God in our midst” and therefore “we must witness, with our lifestyle (...) that God is with us” and therefore realise that “we are happy because God fills our lives.”

And on the theme of witness, he specified that it is not a question of great projects, but rather of “bearing witness with simplicity that God is present in our hearts and in our lives”, recalling that “words are short-lived, but witness touches the heart.”

The morning of celebration ended with a moment of fraternal agape to which the entire parish community was invited.

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