The meeting took place Thursday, May 16, and opened with words of praise and thanksgiving to God and to the Salesians by some young animators for the service that the Sons of Don Bosco lend to needy boys and girls. Then, with the passing of time, the gathering became more and more a celebration of art, dance, music and entertainment, which saw the performance of many young people in different disciplines.
Friday 17, after Mass and the meeting with the local Salesian Family, the Rector Major, accompanied by his secretary, Fr Horacio López, the Councilor for the Africa-Madagascar Region, Fr Américo Chaquisse, and the ACC Provincial, Fr Manolo Jiménez, he boarded a ferry on the Congo River, which took him from Kinshasa to Brazzaville.
Here, too, in the Republic of the Congo, the Rector Major's journey continued in a climate of great youthful celebration: children gave him gifts, boys and girls crowded the streets to huddle around him, young people waited for hours just to be able to greet him as he traveled by car in his various transfers ...
All this constituted a reason for hope and comfort for the Rector Major, who received the news of the assassination of Fr Fernando Hernández, and the wounding of Fr Germain Plakoo-Mlapa, in Burkina Faso, in Bobo-Dioulasso, just three months after the killing of Fr Antonio Cesar Fernández.
In successive meetings, however, the Rector Major continued to animate the Salesians, young people and the Salesian Family of Brazzaville, and then of Pointe-Noire, where he arrived on the evening of Saturday 18.
There, on Sunday 19, the Sunday Eucharist was concelebrated in the parish dedicated to St. John Bosco, together with Msgr. Miguel Angel Olaverri, SDB; taking inspiration from the Gospel of the day, on the commandment of love, in the homily Fr Á.F. Artime recalled: "Each of us has the right to be loved."
Furthermore, on the sidelines of the Mass, he blessed the structures of the new “Domenico Savio” school, and offered words of encouragement to the young women of the Vocational Training Center of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians “Maddalena Morano”.
Photos of the Rector Major's visit are available on ANSFlickr.
