Rome, Italy - June 2019 - On 28 June the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, presided at the Eucharistic celebration for the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Eucharistic concelebration presided by Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi was followed by a procession in the neighborhood, dinner in the courtyard and a musical evening.
(ANS - Rome) - As part of the work of the General Council, and with the consensus of the other members of the Council, the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, has appointed Fr Medhi Hailemariam as Superior of the Africa-Ethiopia Vice Province (AET) for the six-year period between 2019-2025.
(ANS - Rome) - It was on 24 June 1870, in fact, when a well-known story happened: Carlo Gastini and a group of the first past pupils of Valdocco went to visit Don Bosco to congratulate him on the day he celebrated his name day. They gave him coffee cups to thank him for the education and love received. It was on that occasion that Don Bosco first spoke to his boys as "Past Pupils". And from that first group arose and spread a movement today that is vast and present all over the world.
(ANS - Rome) - The future saint of the young was just one day old, on that 17th of August 1815, when his parents Francesco Bosco and Margherita Occhiena brought him to be baptized, with the name of Giovanni Melchiorre. "At Valdocco various festivals were organized with solemn liturgical functions, rich poetic-musical academies and illustrious guests ... In Turin the feast of St. John the Baptist (June 24) was the patronal feast of the city and of the diocese, celebrated even with a cannon shot and the blank shots of the troops' rifles," writes the Salesian historian, Fr Francesco Motto. "The young people of the very first Valdocco oratory began that day to celebrate Don Bosco and offer him flowers, believing it to be the name day. Don Bosco let him do it and did it all his life." So now this feast has become a heritage of the history of Don Bosco's Successors.
Rome, Italy - June 2019 - On 22 June, with the Eucharistic celebration presided by the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, the training course for the new Provincials came to its conclusion. For two weeks the 11 participating Provincials received guidelines and indications from the Rector Major and members of the General Council on their role in animation and government.
(ANS - Rome) - For years he was the discreet and kind custodian of the memory of the Salesian Congregation, of its most precious historical finds as well as of ordinary practices and acts, which however testified to its life and development over the decades: after a life spent entirely in service, courteous and helpful, yesterday, June 20, Fr Luigi Cei, SDB, who since 1993 lent his work in the Salesian Central Archive (ASC), passed away after a long illness.
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.