NEWS
(ANS - Addis Ababa) - Don Bosco TVET, the Salesian Centre for Technical and Professional Training at Mekanissa, near Addis Ababa, runs a training project in graphic and typographic arts. The project is called “Print your future” and is already showing two important results: an increase in the professionalism of the students and the spread of the name of Don Bosco and the Salesians as synonyms for education and development opportunities.
(ANS - Rome) – On 27 February 2017, Pope Francis authorized the decree of Venerable of the Servant of God Octavio Ortiz Arrieta Coya, (Lima, 19 April 1878 - Chachapoyas, 1 March 1958) bishop of Chachapoyas and first Peruvian Salesian. To mark the occasion the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, wrote a letter to all Salesians and Salesian Family members, to emphasize the pastoral and spiritual value of this recognition and enhancing this rich testimony on the great tree of Salesian holiness.
(ANS – Kimbe) – After the first missionary work in PNG (Araimiri Don Bosco, Kerema diocese in 1986) the Caritas Sisters opened the Caritas Secondary Technical Girls School in East Boroko, Port Moresby in 1996. Twenty years later the courageous missionary sisters have now opened another missionary frontier in the diocese of Kimbe, Eastern New Britain, PNG. After a few years of negotiations and busy preparations, the two founders, Sr. Sara Park and Sr. Florentina Cho, settled in Kimbe in early December 2016.
PHOTO GALLERY
INTERVIEWS
-
Great Britain – ABBA star in exclusive interview with “Faith Matters”(ANS – London) – It is not every day that a world-famous rock star dedicates an interview to a school newspaper, moreover talking about rather unusual topics such as the relationship between music and politics. Yet that is what happened with Swedish singer songwriter Björn Ulvaeus - from the supergroup ABBA, who features in the Christmas edition of “Faith Matters”, just published by student reporters at St John Bosco College in Battersea, south London, under the guidance of editor-in-chief Fr Andrew.
EDITORIAL
-
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
-
Democratic Republic of Congo – At Don Bosco Ngangi, students move from words to deeds in environmental protection(ANS - Goma) - On the occasion of the National Tree Day, celebrated on 5 December in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Don Bosco Ngangi school organised an awareness-raising conference on environmental protection for 120 first and second year students of technical humanities. Under the theme ‘Young people, ecology and the future: from awareness to action’, this educational meeting was led by Raphaël Bukoko, an educator and social communicator who has been involved in forming young people for several years.
SPECIAL REPORTS
-
RMG – The feast that gave Birth to the Oratory and the Salesian Mission(ANS – Rome) – The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is like a “birthday” in Salesian history: it marks the beginning of Don Bosco’s Oratory, the foundation of the Congregation, and a permanent Marian key for Salesian spirituality and mission. All the successors of Don Bosco have repeatedly returned to 8 December to rediscover in it the style, hope, and maternal presence of our Immaculate mother that continues renewing the Salesian Family today.
MESSAGES OF THE RECTOR MAJOR
-
The Christmas Grotto, where Heaven Meets EarthTHE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR, Fr Fabio Attard, SDB
The mystery of Christmas begins with a “scandal of love”: the Great One who makes Himself little. It's not a poetic image, but the most shocking reality in human history.
God, the Infinite, chooses to become finite; the Almighty chooses the fragility of a newborn baby who cannot yet speak, walk, or defend Himself. It is pure gratuitousness made manifest, a gift that seeks nothing in return, that imposes no conditions in order to gain access.