NEWS
(ANS – Suva) – “In the early afternoon of 20 February, the winds began to intensify. By sunset it was terrifying to see the winds and rain bend huge trees, snap branches, rip roofs from buildings, tear through vegetation and dwellings”, Fr. James K. Hoe, SDB, speaks about the horrific experience of the Tropical Cyclone Winston.
(ANS – Roma) – On February 27th, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, Rector Major, will leave to Cambodia, the first leg of a trip to East Asia which will take him to encounter the Salesian Family of three Provinces: Thailand, Philippines North and Philippines South.
(ANS – Majunga) – Florian Lucchini is a French young man, well known in the network of the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM-MGS) and among the volunteers of VIDES. In July 2014 he left as a voluntary worker for a project in favour of children and youth in a detention home in Madagascar, an experience that marked him so deeply that at the end of 2015 he decided to dedicate another six months to young Malagasies, at the Don Bosco Centre of Mahajanga. Here below are some excerpts of his testimony.
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.