Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica - March 2016 - On 5 and 6 March, 50 young people gathered at the Salesian House of San Isidro El General for a religious exercise to celebrate the start of the ESCOGE Programme. This programme is inserted in the Salesian Youth Movement to help young people in their vocational discernment.
Rome, Italy - March 2016 - On 16 March, the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, met with the Canção Nova mission in Rome for the first time. During the meeting the members of the Canção Nova community were introduced, and there was discussion on the collaboration that had taken place during the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco and on future projects.
Lima, Peru – 12 March 2016 - More than 750 thousand people took part in the march for life held in Lima. Its aim was to inform and educate the population about the value of human life from conception to natural death. The event was attended by the Salesians of Peru and by Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, Archbishop of Lima. He concluded the march with a speech in which he emphasized that today's youth are the ones who can really make a change.
Tainan, Taiwan - 5 March 2016 – Eleven new members of the Salesian Cooperators made their promise during the Eucharist presided over by Cardinal Joseph Zen, SDB, in the parish of Mary Help of Christians in Tainan.
Barra do Garças, Brazil - 15 March 2016 - The Salesians of the São Marcos community and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians took part in the first meeting on indigenous formation of the Indigenous Missionary Council. The meeting was coordinated by Fr Mario Bordignon, SDB, and Sister Maria de Lourdes Araújo Duarte, of the Little Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.
New Rochelle, United States – March 2016 - Over the March 11-13 weekend, six Salesian Lay Missioner candidates from as many U.S. states visited Salesian Missions and the provincial house in New Rochelle as part of the process of discerning whether they might become SLMs later this year. Their weekend included presentations on Don Bosco and the Salesians, how to discern, the Salesian oratory criteria, and the Salesian Lay Missioner program itself. A panel of returned SLMs discussed mission with them. They visited four Salesian works in New Rochelle and took part in prayer and meals at each site. A second discernment weekend for additional SLM candidates is planned in May. Those who are accepted into the SLM program will undertake three weeks of orientation in late July and August and be commissioned at the end of a retreat.