NEWS
(ANS - Aleppo) - "Dear Fr Munir, Greetings from Aleppo, the dying city as it is called ... The situation in the city is very difficult and worrying". So writes Fr Pier Jabloyan, SDB, from Aleppo, to Fr Munir El Rai, the Middle East Provincial who is in Italy at present. He is reporting on the condition in the city after the latest bombing. Even the Salesians were forced to suspend activities in the Oratory to offer help to the needy on account of this "unnecessary war".
(ANS - Bangui) - The "Peace Spaces" campaign is an initiative of the Salesians to rise funds that will benefit thousands of children, adolescents and young people of the Damala and Galabadja neighbourhoods of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic. The situation in the country remains difficult, but the Salesians have decided to continue their educational service, even if the problems do not stem only from the lack of economic resources, but above all from the violence. The complaints of abuse suffered by hundreds of girls continue, but education cannot wait so they have started to raise funds to create "Peace Spaces”.
(ANS - Madrid) - In the course of a really festive occasion, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, Rector Major, presented himself as a father, offering the appropriate word to each group he met. Meeting the 400 Salesians he spoke to them from the heart: "We have a beautiful Congregation"; "We are people of faith, with our weaknesses", but with "a common project" and "we do a lot of good."
(ANS - Tarqui) - While the situation in the north of Ecuador is gradually improving, people continue to experience post-traumatic stress which often leaves serious consequences for people and generates feelings of fear, a desire to escape and a tendency to despair, not only because of the earthquake but also for the future. Many are homeless, with nowhere to go, and with children and family members dead. The Salesians have decided to remain with the people to accompany them with their presence and prayer.
(ANS - Miejsce Piastowej) - Thirty-three religious of the Congregation of Saint Michael the Archangel (Michaelites), both priests and brothers from the 15 countries where the Congregation has spread, gathered at their Mother House in Miejsce Piastowej, in Southern Poland, for their 21st General Chapter from 14 to 30 April 2016. On Monday 25 April they elected as their new Father General Fr Dariusz Wilk (born 21 June 1967) who previously held the post of educator.
(ANS - Aleppo) – Like a pendulum that swings between violence and desolation – that is the situation in Aleppo, the city that has become symbol of the war in Syria. There are periods of fragile truce, - that serve more than anything else to calculate the damage and the victims, and work out new survival strategies - alternating with explosive outbreaks of violence. "There was a stronger attack than usual in the last 72 hours ... so far there have been 1300 strikes on all parts of the city - missiles, bombs and rockets ... they came back to bomb again and again, worse than before. There are many dead and wounded, according to Fr Georges Fattal, the Salesian Rector in the city.