DR Congo – First Feast of Don Bosco at the Salesian University in Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi, DR Congo – February 2024 – The first Salesian University in Africa, the Don Bosco University of Lubumbashi, in its first academic year, celebrated the feast in honour of St John Bosco, its patron saint, on Saturday, 3 February. The students of the four faculties (Computer Science; Financial Management and Engineering; Human and Social Sciences; and Theology) and their professors from the Theologicum Saint François de Sales all gathered together, and participated communally in the Mass celebrated by Fr Guillermo Basañes, Superior of the Province of Central Africa (AFC). In his homily he spoke of the pillars of the University – solidarity, innovation and work – and invited the entire assembly to work on themselves in silence, because he said, "silence is the best laboratory to work on oneself." The celebration was also enriched by the presence of Fr Jean Luc Vande Kerkhove, Rector of the University, Fr Dieudonné Besa, representative of the Salesian Institutions of Higher Education (IUS), Faculty Presidents and several Salesian brothers and priests who work in this environment, as well as other Rectors who came for the occasion. In the second part of the day the entire academic community took part in various sports and recreational activities.