The 8th Successor of Don Bosco, having completed his initial formation between his native land and Italy, had already served for 24 years (from 1972 to 1996) in the General Council before assuming the role of Rector Major: first as Regional Councillor for Latin America, then General Councillor for Youth Ministry, then as Vicar of the Rector Major. The choice of the 24th General Chapter of 1996 to elect him to the leadership of the Salesian Society was therefore a choice of a guarantee of competence, vision and continuity.
A man of great horizons, apostolic courage and ecclesial sensitivity, he faced the illness that consumed him and marked the last years of his life first with courage and then with serene abandonment to the will of God. He was a great innovator in the field of Youth Ministry, and, coming from a missionary land himself, he continued his predecessor's "Project Africa", founded new missions and organised new projects for missionary areas, then animated the Extraordinary Missionary Expedition 2000.
At the same time, he paid great attention to Social Communication, in which he believed with real conviction: the tangible sign was the relaunching and renewal of the Salesian Bulletin in 52 editions. As well as another emblem of his term of office, the shortest in Salesian history so far, was the impulse given to lay collaborators in the mission and to the recognition and acceptance of their role.
He died in Rome on 23 January 2002, lovingly and filially assisted by the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary – the religious congregation founded by Blessed Luigi Variara, SDB – a few weeks after the completion of his six-year mandate.
As for the strenna, at the structural level all six Strennas that Fr Vecchi was able to produce and deliver are simple and short and are characterised by the organic and stable presence of a biblical reference, in most cases, or at least an ecclesial one.
He did not leave any written commentary on the Strenna; but every year, at the Salesian Family Spirituality Days, which at the time were celebrated in Rome in January, he always made a presentation and explanation of the Strenna.
In the small body of his Strennas it is not difficult to identify ecclesiality, a sense of Church, as the dominant characteristic, the Congregation's journey in harmony with the life of the Church. So much so that his Strennas are all in line with the great Jubilee of 2000 called by Pope John Paul II: the first three are part of the path of preparation requested by the Pope himself; the one for the Holy Year takes up the central theme of the Jubilee, reconciliation; and the last two subsequent ones aim to have the seeds of grace come to fruition from that great universal event.
No mere symbolic sense of Church, then, but desired, sustained and decisive, which did not replace but rather supported and strengthened the "Salesianity" of the Strenna.
Here, then, are the six Strennas left by Rector Major Fr Vecchi:
1997: "With our gaze fixed on Jesus, the firstborn of many brothers, let us help young people to welcome him in the faith";
1998: “‘Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Let us turn to him with childlike love, to be builders of fraternal solidarity with the young";
1999: "In hope we have been saved: let us rediscover with young people the presence of the Spirit in the Church and in the world, to live and work with confidence from the perspective of the kingdom";
2000: "In the name of Christ, our peace, let yourselves be reconciled";
2001: "Christ a gift for all. As a result of the jubilee let us revive our missionary spirit and solidarity";
2002: "‘Duc in altum’: lets us launch out into the deep and the open sea".
