The occasion attracted many rectors of Salesian presences in Rome, Salesians from the various presences of the Central Italy Circumscription (ICC) Province - of which Fr Marcoccio was the Vice Provincial before taking up his new assignment - the missionaries departing in the 154th Salesian Missionary Expedition, as well as friends, employees and collaborators of the Sacred Heart mission and Salesian Headquarters.

The rite of installation took place during the community liturgy of Vespers, led by the Rector Major's Vicar, Fr Stefano Martoglio. In his message, Fr Martoglio emphasized the value and role of the work of the Sacred Heart in the eyes of Don Bosco himself, who spent so much of his life and health there for its edification; he also highlighted the community's renewed commitment to making the work a meeting and centre of growth for so many young people, from the neighborhood and beyond. Today, he remarked, the Sacred Heart is like a lung that gives oxygen to the entire Congregation. "And here, now, there will be you, Fr Francesco, to carry on Don Bosco's dreams," the Rector Major's Vicar concluded.

Then followed the ritual acts: Fr Marcoccio proclaimed the pledge and signed the installation document, while the Sacred Heart Parish Priest, Fr. Javier Ortiz, expressed his gratitude to the outgoing rector and his welcome and to the new rector, and symbolically handed him the key of the community.

Finally, the newly appointed Rector offered all present his "Salesian goodnight" thought. He confided that he had already applied to leave as a missionary and had received his destination, in Argentina, when the Rector Major entrusted him with this new assignment. "I did not hesitate to say yes, because I saw that, in this request of his, my desire for mission was called to take another form," he explained.

He highlighted the two souls of the community and its mission as a guide: the global one, concerning the Salesian Community - the house of the Rector Major - and the local one, inherent to the work of the Sacred Heart, with the Shrine, the Parish and youth activities. "We therefore have a beautiful mission," he noted, "to bring together and harmonize the global and local levels, the animation and governance of the Congregation led by the Rector Major, and the service to the youth and the poor of this territory.

Fr Marcoccio, who had already spent 11 years in the House of the Sacred Heart - three as Youth Pastoral Delegate of the Roman Province (IRO), six years as Youth Pastoral Delegate of ICC and two years as the Vice Provincial of ICC – was very much enthusiastic of Don Bosco's presence in Rome, a lover of the charismatic richness present at the Salesian Headquarters. And as Leo XIII prophesied to Don Bosco, he also hopes for himself that the work of the Sacred Heart will be his 'passport to Paradise'.

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