(ANS – Attard) – On 26th and 27th January, Fr. Antoine Farrugia and Ángel Gudiña have taken part in the Conference “Lost in Migration”, organized by the Maltese President’s Foundation for the Well-being of Society together with Missing Children Europe. The Conference was focused on the terrifying phenomenon of the 10,000 minors being unaccounted for in Europe last year, as Director of Europol, Mr. Rob Wainwright reported upon.
(ANS - Catania) - "Unless you become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven" it says in the Gospel of St. Matthew (Mt 18.1 to 5). Today a child who bears the same name as the evangelist is proving this at the Salesian Institute of the Sacred Heart at San Gregorio, near Catania. At only 9 years of age, with a severe disability, Matthew is a real leader and motivator in the Salesian community and especially among the unaccompanied foreign children who are hosted there.
(ANS - Santo Domingo) - The Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, has arrived in "Quisqueyana", the name given by local indigenous people to the Dominican Republic. It means "Mother of the earth". Fr Á.F. Artime was welcomed at the international airport of Santo Domingo by young people from "Plaza Educativa Don Bosco." He left the airport shortly after 18.00 local time, accompanied by Archbishop Louis Kébreau SDB, of Cap-Haitien, Fr Francisco Batista, Provincial of the Antilles (ANT), and the Rector Major’s Secretary, Fr Horacio López.
(ANS – Nairobi) – On 28th January over 800 young people came to spend the night with the first class Relic of Don Bosco at Don Bosco Utume, where the relic was resting for the last 4 months. They prayed, made confession, sang and danced around their Father and friend whole night. It was truly a touching moment.
Recife, Brazil - January 2017 – In the month of January, more than 25 cities in the Salesian Province of Recife (BRE) ran a programme of education to the faith. With the theme "In the playground of life, we are born as a family," the camps gathered hundreds of children and adolescents for educational, recreational and pastoral activities.
Jorhat, India – 26 January 2017 – Fr K.A. Thomas, SDB, director of the Institute for Culture and Rural Development (I-CARD), received an award from the Honourable Mr Virendra Mittal, Member of the Commission of the District of Jorhat, State of Assam. Fr Thomas received the award and a mention for his efforts in promoting culture among the younger generation, and especially the ethnic culture of the youth of Mising tribes, many of them poor and out of formal education.