What does it mean for the 10th Successor of Don Bosco and for the Salesian Family to become a cardinal?
It was completely unexpected news for me and for all of us Salesians, but it confirms the Pope’s attention to our religious family. If he has considered it appropriate to count on me for a service to the Church as a Salesian, I offer my availability with great humility and serenity. Don Bosco recommended that we always respond enthusiastically to what the Pope asks us because he deeply loved the Church and her Pastor and for us this is a fundamental part of the charism. Surely others see honours in these appointments: with great honesty and sincerity I am experiencing this moment only from the perspective of service. So far I have served as a religious priest, I am serving as Rector Major of the Salesians and it is with this spirit that I face up to the next service to the Church that will be asked of me by the Pontiff. Certainly, I cannot fail to recognise his great trust, which makes me live this moment with even greater responsibility.
The more than 14,000 Sons of Don Bosco, including 130 bishops, spend their lives in 135 countries of the world to be at the side of young people who have had less. Surely, as a Salesian cardinal, you will continue to show special attention to young people...
We are in the world with the mission of accompanying young people, young adults and their families, because today there is little we can achieve without families. And we try to be close to them, especially to the poorest young people. I do not know what the Pope will ask of me in my service as a cardinal, but I will try to do it to the best of my ability: certainly I am a Salesian, and my religious choice that I made as a boy – thanks to the great faith of my parents, a family of fishermen from a small town in Asturias in Spain who told me, despite needing my “arms”, "Son, it is your life - if this will make you happy, go.” This is part of my personal baggage. I am a Son of Don Bosco, I love young people, especially those who struggle the most. I feel at ease among the poor and families. I have always wanted to live in the missions or among the most needy and I carry all this and I will always carry it in my heart whatever the service that awaits me. Since I began my first experience with the Salesians, I have always felt happy among young people and 45 years after my first profession, here I am, and I am happy.
What are young people looking for and what are the responses from the Salesians? How do we talk about Jesus today to the new generations?
It is difficult to answer because young people in the world live in very different circumstances. Thinking about our young people here in Europe, I recognise that it is a very difficult time. Being young today is no easier than it was 25 years ago. They have more ways to help and even ruin them;, there is so much lack of fatherhood and motherhood in the lives of so many boys and girls. We have one of the most educated generations in the history of our nations, but at the end of their studies they do not have the chance to find a job that allows them to plan for the future: I can imagine how many parents suffer because of this. In Italy and Spain, for example, the average age of young people who manage to become self-employed is over 30, an unsustainable situation that offers no hope. For these reasons too, it is not easy to talk about God to young people who experience these problems. The only way to comfort them is to walk with them: we often think that it is the young people who must come to Church. But as a Salesian I have learned, as Don Bosco did, that it is we who must go and look for them wherever they are. This is a great challenge for our Church: a path of closeness, proximity, crossing their paths. It is the best way to tell them about Jesus.
