NEWS
Spain - The Rector Major: "We have a duty to offer opportunities to this generation of young people"
(ANS - Madrid) - The Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, has arrived in Spain. His visit was much awaited and desired. He is at home, among his own people. It is a way for him to get back to his roots, to give thanks and continue to affirm that the mission of the Salesians is to be with young people. "We have a duty to offer opportunities to this generation of young people."
(ANS - Plan de San Antonio) - It is true that talking about dreams is to look back at the past and see your reflection in Don Bosco. The dreams of this boy of the Becchi have come true. And why should ours not come true? "We must never give up dreaming, it is a gateway to happiness." Roger Nahum Martinez Gonzales, has never given up on his dreams.
(ANS - Goma) – For 35 years the Spanish Salesian Brother Honorato Alonso has been organizing the most popular Youth Soccer League in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Honorato always responds with a shy smile and a slight movement of the chin when he is greeted by the bus drivers, the women selling roasted peanuts and boys who struggle with life in the corners of the city. Schoolchildren in uniform returning home on foot and the men unloading sacks from a truck also recognize him. All the Congolese know Honorato because he is one of them!
(ANS - Kandi) - In many parts of the world school has become a place for the elite who have economic opportunities. Research done by UNESCO contains some distressing data: "In the world there are 124 million children and young people who are not in school: 52.9 million in sub-Saharan Africa, 50.9 million in Asia and the Pacific, 6.6 million in America, Latin America and the Caribbean, 8.7 million in the Arab States and 5 million scattered in other parts of the world." For the Salesians this situation constitutes a call to think and to work on what Don Bosco did for the needy and poor youth, which was to educate them.
(ANS - Hong Kong) - While Pope Francis in St Peter's Square was reminding the teenagers who had come to celebrate the Youth Jubilee that "happiness is not an app that is downloaded on the mobile phone", in Hong Kong other boys and girls were celebrating their "Jubilee of Mercy – Teens Carnival" in a party that, even though it was thousands of kilometres away, had the same ingredients: joy, excitement, spirituality and sharing.