MESSAGES OF THE RECTOR MAJOR
It is a cross (as we well know, the symbol of Christianity), but it is not our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who hangs on this one; rather, it bears the image of a poor boy. The message is clear and very strong: our Lord Jesus is being crucified in those who are being crucified in today’s world.
I want to carve into my memory and yours the inestimable value of every human encounter, however brief or lengthy, deep or quick it might be. If it is a human encounter, it is always special and we have to make it special. We will have a much better life if we live it this way.
It was very moving for me to meet with Bororo and Xavante youth joined together in this land where the Bororos live, to meet the missionaries who share day-to-day life with them and to celebrate our Faith right on the spot where our martyrs met their deaths.
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER AND DON BOSCO. TWO GREAT MISSIONARIES YESTERDAY AND TODAY . Just a short while ago I was in Goa, India, where I saw how amid the palm trees and the fine sand of the sea there rise up cathedrals and churches built during the 16th and 17th centuries. One of these shrines is the Basilica of the Good Jesus, which has become a site for pilgrimages, especially for Christians but also for believers of other religions, because here lie the remains of St. Francis Xavier, the missionary from Navarre who evangelized the Far East and was a disciple of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Even though St. Francis Xavier died in China in 1552, his remains rest in this most beautiful basilica situated next to the cathedral and to the church of St. Francis of Assisi. This place in which his mortal remains rest was erected between 1594 and 1605. His body is conserved there. Its incorruptibility was the miracle for which St. Francis Xavier was canonized in 1622. Accompanied by other Salesians and some lay persons, I had the privilege of celebrating Holy Mass on the altar at the tomb of this great and holy Jesuit missionary.