A large number of young people from Salesian schools and parishes also participated in the Eucharist, joyfully joining the celebrations for this important anniversary.
During his homily, Archbishop Alapati Lui Mata'eliga encouraged the adults and parents of Samoa to love and educate their children and young people, inviting them to always treat children as their peers.
At the end of the Eucharist, Fr Will Matthews, together with Sr. Edna Mary MacDonald, FMA Provincial, inaugurated and blessed a new statue of St. John Bosco, kept near the community chapel, precisely at the entrance of the Don Bosco Technical Institute of Alafua.
The celebration ended with a "fiafia", a traditional festival, which took place at the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Alafua and which was enriched with traditional songs, food, shows and dances.
Currently in Alafua, the Salesians take care of the Prenovitiate, a center for vocational and professional orientation, the oratory and a parish. The Salesian school of Alafua has 22 educators, two staff members, five Salesians and 198 students - of which 47 are freshmen - with an increase in enrollments compared to the previous year of 74%.
In all Samoa, in total, there are ten professed.
