Looking back over this long journey, Fr Gorzegno recalls: “December 1968. I sent a Christmas letter to Mexico to wish a Salesian friend of mine a Merry Christmas and, as a post-scriptum, I added: ‘I am willing to offer my services as a philosophy teacher at your formation centre in Guadalajara’”. The positive reply was immediate and unexpected (“Yes, we’re waiting for you!”).

But Fr Gorzegno’s missionary desire did not spring up by chance: it was a dream cherished in his heart for many years. Osvaldo, a boy from Cuneo, attended the Salesian oratory and was part of the missionary group. A fine tradition of the time was to present, through magazines, the work undertaken by the missionaries – an essential tool in an era when social media and instant communication did not exist. Furthermore, missionaries from every continent would periodically visit the oratories, and the boys would be captivated by their adventurous and authentic tales.

During his years of Salesian formation in Rome at the Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum (now UPS), Osvaldo had been able to experience first-hand the international nature of the Salesian charism and a renewed understanding of the Salesian vocation. Don Bosco was tangibly present throughout the world, and in him Jesus’ call – “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news” – resounded with ever-greater force.

Thus, in the life of Osvaldo, a twenty-year-old full of hope, a new horizon opened up: although he had already decided in his heart to leave, he still lacked the approval of his superior. After a series of providential events and circumstances, in the courtyard of the Mother House in Valdocco, the provincial’s reply finally arrived. It was not a permanent commitment but a ‘yes’ for a fixed term: three years, coinciding with his practical training period.

Fr Gorzegno recalls that period with emotion: three years that would forever change his Salesian journey, during which he had taken his perpetual vows in Guadalajara on 6 August 1970. As the time for his return to Italy drew near, the insistent pleas from the young people he had met in Mexico and from his confreres grew louder: “Stay with us”. And so, his return home was very brief: a farewell to his family, a brief visit to his home province, and then the decision – which was approved – to return to his mission territory.

Fr Gorzegno could never have imagined that his mission would lead him to establish the wonderful Salesian communities along the long and troubled, yet promising, US-Mexico border.

He reiterates that this great project was made possible thanks to the new Salesian missionary communities present on the border and the many volunteers who believed in it wholeheartedly. Today, as Don Bosco used to say, he can affirm that: “…it was all possible thanks to Our Lady”.

Several decades later, he returned to Valdocco, to that courtyard where he received his first approval to set out as a missionary, for a historic occasion. “On 11 November 2025, in the very place where that first expedition was decided and from where it set out, I had an experience that I could only describe as a true Salesian Pentecost,” he recounts. Different languages, distant cultures and groups of Salesians from all over the world came together, united by the same missionary charism of Don Bosco. At that gathering, I keenly felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, who continues to rekindle the gift of missionary spirit within the Salesian Family, kindling in hearts the fire of zeal and missionary boldness”.

Thanks to the missionary atmosphere experienced at Valdocco, Fr Gorzegno set off once more for Mexico with a renewed conviction: the young people of the world, even if they do not always know how to express it, carry within them a profound cry: “We want to see Jesus!” And they expect to catch a glimpse of him reflected in the lives of the Salesians.

Fr Gorzegno concludes: “In this Pentecostal context, receiving the missionary cross stirred in me an intense, extraordinary emotion. After 56 years spent as a missionary, I felt once again the invitation that Jesus has addressed to me so many times: ‘Come and follow me… go out into the world to proclaim the good news’. This moment was like retracing my past and, at the same time, catching a glimpse of what the Lord still expects of me. One certainty, however, has never wavered: Jesus has never left me. He has been with me and within me in moments of fragility and in moments of boldness, in suffering and in joy, in discouragement and in hope. Always, enveloped in the certainty of his love”.

And he is keen to take his leave with the words of the ‘missionary’ Paul of Tarsus: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20).

Marco Fulgaro

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