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Rome (Italy) On 16 August 1815, Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco, son of Margherita Occhiena and Francesco Bosco, was born in the Becchi hamlet of the zone of Morialdo, in the municipality of Castelnuovo (Asti).  He was defined by Saint John Paul II as the “Father and Teacher of the young”.

At the place of his birth – the ‘Biglione farmhouse’ where his father worked as a sharecropper – where the Temple now stands, the 10th successor of Don Bosco, the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, on 16 August 2020, presided over the solemn Eucharistic celebration which commemorated the 205th anniversary of the birth of St. John Bosco.

“In this 2020, marked by a pandemic that still grips a large part of the global population, we, heirs of his charism, look again to Don Bosco to find in him those elements that are always valid in every time, place, and circumstance to accompany the young people, especially those in need”. These are the opening words of the homily, in which the Rector Major underlined how the annual anniversary consists above all in renewing the awareness that “his spirit, and above all his message, are even more alive than ever among the young people of the 5 continents”.

Fr Angel Artime addressed those present – young people and representatives of the Salesian Family, following the health norms – and those who were connected through the live streaming broadcast by ANS, renewing the wish to be educators with the heart of Don Bosco: “We were born to be educators, friends, sisters, brothers, fathers, and mothers of children, adolescents, and young people in the world. Our life finds its meaning in living for them, like Don Bosco, to our last breath”.

He then ended with the prayer that comes from the words pronounced by Fr. Pascual Chávez, Rector Major from 2002 to 2014, on the occasion of the recognition of the body of Don Bosco for the worldwide pilgrimage of his relics:

“In the presence of your body, Don Bosco, I ask that all of us Salesians, your children, and all the members of the Salesian Family may succeed in having:

your eyes, to contemplate only the young people of the world;

your heart, to love them as  you knew how to love them, so that they may feel loved;

your mind, full of apostolic imagination to respond to their needs and expectations;

your  industrious hands, to make your dreams and their dreams come true;

Lastly, your feet, to meet them wherever they are”.

On the significant date of 16 August 2020, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime also officially released the document, drawn up by the Rector Major with his Council, entitled: “Post-chapter reflections”, containing the program guidelines of the Salesian Congregation for the six-year period from the 28th General Chapter, recently concluded, to the 2026 Chapter.

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