Below is the press release issued by Jambo Vijana, the magazine for young people from Salesian works in the east of the DRC:
The young people welcomed at the "Don Bosco Ngangi" in Goma learned with dismay, on Monday 22 February, the news of the death of Luca Attanasio. During his stay in the DRC, this man showed his affection for the many young people and children cared for by the Salesians of that house.
In the Salesian works of the East of the DRC in particular, we were able to discover that he believed in the power of love to overcome the heaviness of evil. His goodness, his generosity, his courage and his love accompanied him until his death on this path towards his poorest friends. He believed, like us, that with the Salesian charism a better world is possible, especially for the younger generations.
He greatly appreciated our educational, formative, medical, safety and psychosocial activities for the vulnerable children and young people of the Don Bosco Ngangi Youth Center. (...)
Let us not forget his support, help and advice for what he had already acknowledged as our many-sided and recurring vulnerabilities. The mourning was also joined by Fr Jean-Claude Ngoy and Fr Albert Kabuge, former Provincial and outgoing Provincial of Central Africa. Fr Kabuge, specifically, wrote: “May God welcome their souls into His Kingdom. My condolences to the families of our brothers who have just left us. May God help us all ”. (...)
Thanks to his social commitment, his passion for Africa and, especially for the DRC, his mission and his work, he felt himself a full member of the Family of humanitarian workers in these guerrilla zones.
On his part, the Salesian Fr Ghislain Nkiere, who works in Kinshasa, adds another testimony: “I met him just a month ago. I can say that he was a generous man, who always wanted to help others. He was a man who did not let himself be told about things, but wanted to see up close the difficulties in which that population held in check by armed groups lives. Ambassador Attanasio helped our home for street boys and girls. He came to visit us to bring food, but above all to meet the young. He was a person close to people. Precisely this desire to be close to people, living what they live, brought him close to danger.”
