"I am writing from Rodeo del Medio, Mendoza, where I am visiting with Salesian Brother Fernando Saade. We are witnesses of the valuable contribution that this pastoral education community is giving in these lands, in the five levels of education, vocational training, the parish with its great poverty and immigration, the Shrine, the warehouse and the production sector. Our Lady Help of Christians, patroness of agriculture, protects and blesses every day these her beloved children who work here: young people, lay and consecrated.
We are already close to the beginning of the month of Don Bosco. August 4 next will be the 40th anniversary of martyrdom of Bishop Enrique Angelelli. We all know his popular slogan "with one ear to the people and the other to the Gospel".
I take this opportunity to give you good news that has to do with a concrete request made to us by the Bishop Marcelo Colombo of La Rioja to open a Salesian House in this province.
This request coincides with a growing desire for many years in the hearts of some Salesians to consider the possibility of bringing the Salesian charism to one of the three Argentine provinces where there is still no Salesian presence and which is one of the provinces with the worst level of poverty in the country.
In the first week of May more than 50 Salesians from the Northern Province met in an assembly and suggested to the Provincial the opening of a new house in a place where we are not yet present.
Therefore, after dialogue with the bishop and a visit to the place, we want to start a new Salesian House. We want to add a pastoral work for the poorest youth and to spread in these lands the charism of our Father Don Bosco. We are aware that the number of Salesians is always scarce, however Don Bosco’s ability to dream and move on is part of our DNA.
We count on your prayers in order to be faithful to what God inspires through Don Bosco and to the needs of the poorest young people of La Rioja.
Father Gabriel
