Niterói, Brazil – July 2023 -On 14 July, in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Niterói, Fr Natale Vitali, Superior of the St John Bosco Salesian Province of Brazil-Belo Horizonte (BBH), presided at the Eucharistic celebration on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the arrival of the first Salesians on Brazilian soil, and also of the foundation of the Salesian Santa Rosa school, the Salesian Mother House in Brazil. At the end of the ceremony, members of the Salesian Family in Niterói were invited to offer roses to the statue of Mary Help of Christians, as a sign of gratitude to the Patroness of the Salesians and the Archdiocese of Niterói. After the Eucharistic celebration, the guests were accompanied to the Commemorative exhibition of the 140th anniversary of the Salesians in Niterói and the Santa Rosa school, in the school courtyard. The CSSR musical band, the oldest in Brazil, animated the event. The Salesian presence in Niterói consists of the Santa Rosa school, the Região Oceânica, the Monument to Mary Help of Christians, the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians and the Oratório Mamãe Margarida youth centre. In the words of Fr Márcio Marçal: "We are celebrating a dream come true, a dream of Don Bosco on 14 July 1883. And from the lands of Niterói a vast movement of education and evangelisation of young people began, in schools, works, parishes and universities."