(ANS – Rome) – After an entire year full of celebrations to Remember, Give Thanks and Relaunch the Salesian Missions, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the First Salesian Missionary Expedition, the Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr Fabio Attard, together with several close collaborators of the General Council, is about to live new days of commemoration and animation in Argentina, within the celebrations that will take place in Buenos Aires from 12 to 14 December 2025.
THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR, Fr Fabio Attard, SDB
The mystery of Christmas begins with a “scandal of love”: the Great One who makes Himself little. It's not a poetic image, but the most shocking reality in human history.
God, the Infinite, chooses to become finite; the Almighty chooses the fragility of a newborn baby who cannot yet speak, walk, or defend Himself. It is pure gratuitousness made manifest, a gift that seeks nothing in return, that imposes no conditions in order to gain access.
(ANS – Rome) – Friday, December 5 2025, after more than two years of dialogue, communion, and discernment, the revised Statute of the World Confederation of Past Pupils and Friends of Don Bosco was officially promulgated by the Rector Major, Fr Fabio Attard SDB, on the feast of Blessed Philip Rinaldi, founder of the international organisation and a great advocate of the lay Salesian vocation.
(ANS – Rome) - On the morning of 8 December, the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr. Fabio Attard, XI Successor of Don Bosco, presided over the solemn Eucharist for the feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome. Concelebrating with him were other General Councillors, Salesians from the Generalate and many other lay people and religious from the parish, gathered to celebrate an anniversary which, for the sons of Don Bosco, a true ‘day of origins’.
(ANS – Rome) – On the morning of Friday, 5 December 2025, the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr Fabio Attard, met with a group of journalists and media professionals responsible for communications for Catholic congregations and institutions active in Rome. The visit, organised in collaboration with the ISCOM association, the Salesians and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, allowed all those present to learn more about Salesian spirituality, the figure of Don Bosco and that of his 11th successor today.
(ANS - Turin) - An anniversary bearing the number 150 cannot go unnoticed. Even less so if it corresponds to an anniversary from which substantial changes in a large community and the world around it have come about. For this reason, the 150th anniversary of the first ‘missionary expedition’, which Don Bosco longed for following the ‘dream’ of a mysterious Patagonia, is an event in itself, due to the amount of reflections and appointments it brings.
PHOTO GALLERY
INTERVIEWS
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Italy – In conversation with a Salesian influencer: Fr Eustace Siame(ANS - Rome) - ‘“Go and mend the nets.” Jesus called his first apostles while they were mending their fishing nets (cf. Mt 4:21-22). He asks the same of us today. Indeed, he asks us to weave other nets: networks of relationships, of love, of gratuitous sharing where friendship is profound and authentic; networks where we can mend what has been broken, heal from loneliness, not focus on the number of followers, but experience the greatness of infinite Love in every encounter.’ This was the appeal Pope Leo XIV made to Catholic influencers and digital missionaries last July for the Jubilee dedicated to them. Salesian Fr Eustace Siame is certainly one of them, and today he presents his apostolate to us.
EDITORIAL
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RMG – Don Bosco: “The Fascinating Saint”(ANS - Rome) - Don Bosco is perhaps the most amazing and fascinating saint, history has ever produced. The humble work which he began for the welfare of his poor and abandoned boys in Italy has produced astonishing results, and today there are nearly 14000 Salesians working in 138 countries, and there are more than 200,000 members belonging to the 32 groups of the worldwide Salesian Family sharing the charism of Don Bosco and reaching out to the needy young people.
EVENTS
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South Korea – Catechist Formation, From Theory to Practice: Symposium Held on “The Wise Use of the Guidelines for Catechist Formation”(ANS – Seoul) – A symposium titled “The Wise Use of the Guidelines for Catechist Formation” was successfully held on Saturday, 8 November, at the Salesian Provincial House in Shingil-dong, Seoul, to diagnose the current state and seek the future of catechetical education in the Korean Catholic Church.
SPECIAL REPORTS
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RMG – The feast that gave Birth to the Oratory and the Salesian Mission(ANS – Rome) – The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is like a “birthday” in Salesian history: it marks the beginning of Don Bosco’s Oratory, the foundation of the Congregation, and a permanent Marian key for Salesian spirituality and mission. All the successors of Don Bosco have repeatedly returned to 8 December to rediscover in it the style, hope, and maternal presence of our Immaculate mother that continues renewing the Salesian Family today.
MESSAGES OF THE RECTOR MAJOR
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The Christmas Grotto, where Heaven Meets EarthTHE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR, Fr Fabio Attard, SDB
The mystery of Christmas begins with a “scandal of love”: the Great One who makes Himself little. It's not a poetic image, but the most shocking reality in human history.
God, the Infinite, chooses to become finite; the Almighty chooses the fragility of a newborn baby who cannot yet speak, walk, or defend Himself. It is pure gratuitousness made manifest, a gift that seeks nothing in return, that imposes no conditions in order to gain access.