Not grandiose events, but a joyful and familiar meeting: with this spirit, the Salesian community is preparing the reception for the Rector Major. Fr Á.F. Artime arrives in Podgorica on Saturday morning, 2 June; in the afternoon, he will meet with the children and young and bless a new statue of Don Bosco, while in the evening he will live a convivial moment with his confreres and the animators and youths of the local youth center.
Sunday, June 3, the X Successor of Don Bosco will participate in the Salesian parish feast, meet the bishops and the country's Apostolic Nuncio and concelebrate the solemn Eucharist that will follow.
The first Salesians arrived in the smallest country of the former Yugoslavia in 1966 from Slovenia; in mind, the ancient council of Blessed Fr Michael Rua, I Successor of Don Bosco: "Your missions are in the Balkans."
Today in Podgorica there are three spiritual Sons of Don Bosco, also of the Slovenian Province, who animate the parish "Sacred Heart of Jesus" - the city's only Catholic parish - a youth center and a small school offering language and computer science courses proposed by the community. The visit of the Rector Major will be for them, and especially for the young animators, an encouragement to continue living the charism of Don Bosco in the small Balkan country; small, but rich in the meeting and coming together of ethnic groups, cultures and religions.
