The first visit of Benedict XVI to a Salesian House occurred in July 2005, during the first year of his pontificate. Inheriting a tradition already started by John Paul II, the Holy Father spent about 20 days in the Aosta Valley, a guest at the Salesian House of Les Combes. It was in the small secluded spot, in the shadow of Mont Blanc and on the long walks through the woods, that the Pope began to develop his first Encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est".
The Pope returned to the Salesian House of Les Combes for the summer holidays of 2006 and 2009.
As Bishop of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI met the Salesians for the first time on 24th February 2008, the Third Sunday of Lent, when he went to visit the Salesian parish "Saint Mary Liberator", in the popular Roman neighborhood of Testaccio. The visit also served to celebrate the centenary of the consecration and opening to worship in the Church, on November 29, 1908; on that occasion, the Pope also recalled one of the parish priests of that community, the Venerable Fr Luigi Maria Olivares, SDB, and invited the whole parish community "to persevere in educational efforts which constitute the typical charism of each Salesian parish."
In the following year, during the apostolic journey that touched Cameroon and Angola, Benedict XVI celebrated Mass in the Salesian parish "St. Paul" in Luanda, on March 21st, 2009. Because the celebration was directed particularly to the clergy, the religious, the catechists, and representatives of Church movements of Angola and São Tomé, approximately 3000 people, the Pope, with deep humility said: "Finally, let me offer a particular greeting to the Salesian community and the faithful of this parish of Saint Paul; they have welcomed us to their church, without hesitating to yield the place which is usually theirs in the liturgical assembly. I know that they are gathered in the field next door, and I hope, at the end of this Eucharist, to see them and give them my blessing, but even now I say to them: ‘Many thanks! May God raise up in you, and through you, many apostles modeled on your Patron.’"
In his apostolic journey to Benin, instead, by the end of 2011, Pope Benedict XVI, despite not visiting any Salesian building, in a certain way could benefit from the same Salesian attention: the bed on which the Pope rested in those days was carried out by young men from the Salesian works in Porto Novo; while the kitchen of the Apostolic Nunciature, where the Pope resided, had involved the Salesian Sisters and their students.
To these occasions of particular closeness must also be added the many Masses celebrated by the Pope at the parish "St. Thomas of Villanova" in Castel Gandolfo on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. The Mass in the parish, run by the Sons of Don Bosco since the time of Pope Pius XI, was an appointment to which Benedict XVI proved very faithful in his years of pontificate, unless he was engaged in other parts of the world.
