Venezuela – Rector Major to educators: “Betting on education is the best answer we can offer to our young people”

11 February 2020
Venezuela – Rector Major to educators: “Betting on education is the best answer we can offer to our young people”

(ANS - Caracas) - Under the motto “Don Bosco in Venezuela”, the Salesian Family is currently welcoming the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, with large meetings and youth-focussed parties. Caracas, “the city of spring”, welcomes him with affection and love. His visit has revitalized the Salesians, the Salesian Family and, above all, has given young people respite by giving them a smile, a word and a strength that come from Jesus. On Monday 10 February, the Rector Major had a meeting with educators and young people, then visited the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and spoke with the “Damas Salesianas”, a group of the Salesian Family born in Venezuela.

The meeting with the Venezuelan youth took place in an atmosphere of lively oratorian celebrations, preceded by a vigil of prayer and fraternity at the Don Bosco Youth Center in the "Boleíta" area. Speaking with the youngsters on the issue of the migration of young people into the world, the Rector Major highlighted the suffering experienced by a Salesian heart before so many young people forced to leave their country by themselves, without identity and without history. "Human mobility in these conditions is an attack on life, it is not human," he said.

On countries that live in pain, the Rector Major invited to see the testimony of the Salesians and young Syrians who, in a city destroyed for 6 years by the bombings, decided to build a culture of life by opening the Salesian oratory every day. "Don Bosco was a saint in his reality and today he offers us a school of holiness that involves having God in the heart," he said.

Later, speaking to about 500 educators, he added: “Even though I live in Rome, I know what is going on in Venezuela and now I am among you to encourage you. What I ask of you is to open the doors of all the Salesian houses and to continue creating the culture of life ... Commit yourselves to the education of young people, to face the death systems that want to impose themselves and that cause the frightening migration of many valid professionals."

"A human social fabric that is weakening or losing itself needs people with a great experience of God and witnesses of Christian values," he continued. "Our Salesian education offers values ​​and is based on the Gospel and the Preventive System, and takes account of economic, social and political difficulties. As educators, we are intervening in the most delicate and precious point of our Venezuela: education."

Then, he concluded: "Faced with the situation that the Country is experiencing, betting on education is the best answer we can offer to our young people."

View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://www.infoans.org/en/sections/news/item/9747-venezuela-rector-major-to-educators-betting-on-education-is-the-best-answer-we-can-offer-to-our-young-people#sigProIdb14505b109

 More photos are available on ANSFlickr.

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