Perugia, Italy – June 2023 – The procession commissioned by the Salesians a hundred years ago returned to the streets of the Borgo d’Oro in Perugia. On 4 June a large number of faithful paid homage to Mary Help of Christians, carrying her statue through the streets of the medieval village of Porta Sant'Angelo, exactly one hundred years after the first procession, held on 4 June 1923, and sought by the Salesians who arrived in that city on 2 October. A century later the Salesian community proposed this feast, which had not taken place for about sixty years, to the Perugians. The procession, led by Archbishop Ivan Maffeis, the city's archbishop, took place from the church of San Michele Arcangelo to the church of Sant'Agostino, along Corso Garibaldi and pausing for prayer in front of the three female cloistered monasteries in the village. The procession then paused at the place where the first three Salesians stayed in Perugia a hundred years ago before entering Sant’Agostino, where the Eucharist was celebrated. Archbishop Maffeis thanked the Salesian community and its Rector, Father Claudio Tuveri, for inviting everyone to renew this significant homage to Mary Help of Christians one hundred years after the first procession. “Just as in Don Bosco’s day, the profound social and cultural changes underway – Archbishop Maffeis highlighted – have an enormous impact on family structure, the social fabric, the conception of life; they are changes that undermine trust in God for many people (…). Today, as yesterday, the whole Church is called to make the proclamation of hope and life resound, to offer and bear witness to faith in Jesus and his Gospel, as Mary did.

Source: PerugiaToday