The Year of Gratitude began with a Eucharistic celebration broadcast live on the national Catholic television channel TV LUX in the Church of the Virgin Mary of Seven Sorrows in Vajnory, the birthplace of Fr Zeman. The Mass, presided by the Provincial, Fr Peter Timko, was concelebrated by many Salesian priests, and was attended by Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General of the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family, as the preacher of the homily. (The homily in Italian can be found here, from minute 17:30 to minute 28:30).
The Salesians want the celebration of their arrival to present and revive Don Bosco's charism in Slovakia. They constitute the largest male congregation in the country and, following the example of their founder Don Bosco, give priority to work with children and young people. They also help the most socially vulnerable and are active in assisting Ukrainian refugees. "In these difficult times, we are even more aware of the need for education in order to train young people. We want to be close to them, to offer a programme of formation that is relevant, to also answer their questions that worry them," said Slovakia's Provincial Fr Timko, adding that "on the occasion of the celebration, we want to pass on with humble gratitude what we have received".
The visitor from Rome, Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, was in charge of the beatification process of Slovakian Tito Zeman. "I know several testimonies of the faithfulness of the Salesians during the communist regime in your country. This memory of heroic love for Christ is a seed of hope so that Don Bosco's prophetic dream can continue, involving more and more the young people themselves and the whole Salesian Family in this new adventure of grace and Salesian charism," said Fr Cameroni.
There are currently 23 Salesian centres throughout Slovakia. The Salesians also work in the slums of the Roma communities (The Roma, who migrated to Europe from India in the 10th century, have long faced persecution around the world, living on the fringes of society and struggling for work) of "Lunik IX" in Košice, and in the Poštárka district in Bardejov. They also work in missions in Azerbaijan and the Republic of Yakutia in Siberian Russia. In their centres they mainly offer peer to peer educational meetings, interest groups, sports, camps, trips, as well as spiritual, social and cultural events. They are the founders of three school facilities. Lately they have opened spiritual and psychological care centres in four centres in Bratislava and Košice, to accompany vulnerable young people in the most difficult periods of their lives. The Sons of Don Bosco educate in the spirit of Christian values, but the doors of their centres are open to everyone. And all the activities of the Salesians are carried out mainly with the help of hundreds of volunteers.
During this centenary year, numerous activities will take place to celebrate this important anniversary, and not only restricted to the members of the Salesian Family. Among other things, the commemorative book The Dream Continues, a work tracing the centenary journey of the Salesians in Slovakia, will be published. A guide to Salesian places in Slovakia and a special children’s booklet on the life of Don Bosco have also been published. Finally, Teresio Bosco's work, the popular biography of Don Bosco, was reprinted in Slovak.
In addition, a large public forum on “the Education of Young People Today” will be held in Košice in May. For those who like to travel and explore the country, an electronic map of Slovakia will be created with places related to Salesian activity today and in the past. On the first weekend in June, young people from Salesian - and other - environments will meet at the now traditional music festival "Lumen" in the city of Trnava. And this year's Summer Youth Festival will also be dedicated to the centenary theme.
The celebrations will officially culminate during the weekend of 6-8 September 2024. On that occasion, on the occasion of the centenary of the arrival of the first Salesians in Slovakia, in Šaštín, the city where the first institute of the Sons of Don Bosco was opened, a pilgrimage of thanksgiving will be held with the final destination at the Basilica of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, followed by a solemn Eucharistic Concelebration.
Materials and activities related to the preparation and celebration of the Year of Gratitude are available in Slovak on 100.saleziani.sk and on the social networks of the Salesians of Slovakia.
As for the path of the Salesians in this first century of presence, after a promising start in the 1930s and 1940s, the events of the Second World War had their influence on the activities of the Salesians in the then Czechoslovakia. At the end of which, like other religious orders, the Salesians were forcibly disbanded by the communist regime and were persecuted. Dozens of the Salesians condemned by the communist government spent a total of almost 400 years in prisons. Among the political prisoners was also the blessed Titus Zeman. Both Salesians and numerous members of the Salesian Family, however, carried out their educational and pastoral activities clandestinely. The Congregation officially started to operate again in Slovakia at the beginning of the 1990s. There are currently 181 Salesians in the "Mary Help of Christians" Province of Slovakia, of which only five are foreigners (from India, Burundi, Russia and South Korea). Over 100 Slovakian Salesians have worked and are working as missionaries in 50 countries around the world.
https://www.infoans.org/en/sections/news/item/19958-slovakia-centenary-of-salesian-presence-in-the-country-the-year-of-gratitude-inaugurated#sigProIdd8d92b4532
