(ANS - Rome) - For the last video of the "Dear Confreres" column of this six-year term, available online today, the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, starts again from young people and from the cry that has come from all the Salesian Circumscriptions through the Provincial Chapters' reports: young people need Salesians, educators and witnesses. But they must be educated to know how to face the challenges of the present time.
(ANS - Rome) - Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, Rector Major of the Salesians, is once again about to leave. This time he will not adding a new name to the very long list of countries he has visited as Rector Major, because he will return to India where he has already been several times since the beginning of his mandate - the last one last spring. This time, however, there will be different Salesian realities that he will animate: those of the Provinces of Chennai (INM) and Dimapur (IND).
(ANS - Rome) - Next September 29, in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin-Valdocco, a gesture will be repeated for the 150th time, a rite that is within the heart of the Salesian charism: the sending of missionaries ad gentes, ad extra, ad vitam - missionaries, that is, sent to other peoples, outside their country of origin, committed for life. In view of such a large step, last Sunday, 1 September, the Orientation Course for new Salesian missionaries began.
(ANS - Rome) - On 25 August 1969, in Sucúa (Ecuador), the airplane that was carrying Sister Maria Troncatti crashes shortly after take-off on the edge of that forest which for almost half a century was her "home of the heart", the location of her tireless donation among the Shuar people. Sister Maria thus lives her last flight: the one that takes her to Heaven! She was 86 years old at the time, years all spent on a gift of love. She wrote: "Of my religious missionary vocation, I am happier every day!"
(ANS - Hong Kong) - This year the Rector Major will spend Don Bosco's birthday in the Far East: starting next Sunday; in fact, from 11 to 17 August, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime will be on an Animation Visit in Macao, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
(ANS– Rome) – The Sector for Salesian Missions has recently printed, in the five languages most widely spoken in the Congregation, the renewed Manual of the Provincial Delegate for Missionary Animation (DIAM). It was presented by Father Martín Lasarte, who curated the publication.
PHOTO GALLERY
INTERVIEWS
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RMG - Preparation, objectives, challenges and perspectives of GC29: in dialogue with the Moderator, Fr Alphonse Owoudou(ANS - RMG) - Just a few days before the beginning of the 29th General Chapter (GC29) of the Salesian Congregation, Fr Alphonse Owoudou, Councillor for the Africa-Madagascar Region and Moderator of GC29, recounts in detail, through an articulate interview, the work preceding and underlying this responsibility, indicating the spirit that will animate it and the attitudes and conditions to make it truly a Cenacle in which the Holy Spirit can act, for the benefit of the Congregation, the Salesian mission and the youth of the world.
EDITORIAL
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RMG – Don Bosco: “The Fascinating Saint”(ANS - Rome) - Don Bosco is perhaps the most amazing and fascinating saint, history has ever produced. The humble work which he began for the welfare of his poor and abandoned boys in Italy has produced astonishing results, and today there are nearly 14000 Salesians working in 138 countries, and there are more than 200,000 members belonging to the 32 groups of the worldwide Salesian Family sharing the charism of Don Bosco and reaching out to the needy young people.
EVENTS
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Spain – 33rd Edition of the Edebé Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature: Here Are the Winners(ANS – Madrid) – The 33rd edition of the Edebé Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature has been awarded to Beatriz Giménez de Ory (Madrid, 1972) for her novel Tres niños tristes y medio unicornio (Three Sad Children and Half a Unicorn) and David Lozano (Zaragoza, 1974) for his novel La cacería (The Hunt).
SPECIAL REPORTS
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United States – CATHOLIC WORLD DAY OF THE SICK: Salesian Missions highlights medical programs for people in need around the globe(ANS – New Rochelle) – Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, joins Catholic organizations around the globe in honoring the Catholic World Day of the Sick. Every year on Feb. 11, the Pope marks the day with a special message calling for spiritual and physical closeness to all those who are ill. Saint John Paul II instituted the day “to encourage the people of God, Catholic health institutions and civil society to be increasingly attentive to the sick and to those who care for them.”
MESSAGES OF THE RECTOR MAJOR
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GOOD, FAITHFUL, AND COURAGEOUS SERVANTSTHE MESSAGE OF THE VICAR OF THE RECTOR MAJOR, Fr Stefano Martoglio, SDB
During this Jubilee year, in this difficult world, we are invited to rise up, set out again, and, in newness of life, make our journey as human beings and believers.