(ANS – New Rochelle) – Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, joins humanitarian organizations and the international community in honoring Human Rights Day, celebrated each year on Dec. 10. Human Rights Day commemorates the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

(ANS – Rome) – The Salesian tradition recalls 8th December 1841 as the day on which the Salesian Oratory or the Salesian mission was born. Don Bosco himself has shared this experience and affirmed convincingly, “All of our great initiatives began on the day of the Immaculate”.

(ANS – Turin) – Of the many treasures found in the new Casa Don Bosco Museum, at Valdocco in Turin, the painting of the Immaculate Conception remains a precious jewel. This painting of Mary Immaculate, was very much envisioned and commissioned by Don Bosco in 1882 for St. John the Evangelist Church at his second Oratory, dedicated to St. Aloysius. Mary is depicted with classical attributes of youthful feminine beauty: free-flowing, waist-length hair, and obvious, if understated, bodily contours. These details were added at Don Bosco’s insistence after he failed to approve Rollini’s sketch for the painting in which both details were lacking.