Salesians in Syria continue to assist earthquake victims

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The earthquake that occurred during the night of Feb. 5-6, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, left hundreds dead and thousands injured in Turkey and Syria.

“During the night the earthquake was felt very strongly and for a long duration, and other tremors were recorded throughout the following,” explains Fr. Alejandro Leon, provincial of the Salesians in the Middle East. The Salesian center in Aleppo suffered limited damage, with cracks and some broken windows, but both the Salesians and the people they serve are fine and safe. Similar situation in the other two centres run by the salesians in the country, Damascus and Kafroun.

As soon as the ground began to shake, some families left their houses and took refuge at the Salesian center in the heart of Aleppo, seeking help and shelter, and the number continued to grow during the following day and night. There they were welcomed and given warm clothes, food and comfort. To date, more than 300 people are housed in the center: their homes were heavily damaged during the war and they feel safer in the Salesian center.

In Kafroun, similarly, around 150 families who suffered from damage to their homes have asked to temporarily move to the home to receive assistance and feel safer.

The epicenter of the earthquake was Kahramanmaraş in southern Turkey, on the northwestern border with Syria. Hundreds of buildings collapsed in Aleppo and the death toll is now estimated at over 900, in addition to hundreds missing under the rubble and thousands injured. In other locations where Salesians are working, the numbers of casualties and injuries are more limited but significant material and infrastructural damage was recorded at the time of the quakes and afterwards.

The Salesians, who since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2012 have been actively involved in assisting people in more vulnerable and impoverished conditions, are providing shelter and emergency aid to those affected by the earthquake, who are already extremely tested by the aftermath of more than a decade of war, a deep economic and financial crisis, and a cold and snowy winter.

To support the work of the Salesians in Syria on behalf of the families most affected by the earthquake, you can donate through transfer and wire transfer to the following accounts:

Beneficiary: Direzione Generale Opere Don Bosco Via Marsala 42

00185 Rome

Bank: Banca Popolare di Sondrio

AGENCY NO. 2 – ROME

Via Gherardi Silvestro 45 00146 Rome

IBAN: IT54O0569603202000004655X77

BIC/SWIFT: POSOIT22

reason for payment: Syria Earthquake Emergency

or:

Fondazione don Bosco nel mondo “Ramo beneficenza ONLUS”

Banca Popolare di Sondrio

IBAN IT86 O056 9603 2020 0000 7100 X00

Branch 072 Rome – ag. 2

Swift: POSOIT2106I

reason for payment: Syria Earthquake Emergency

For questions, information and requests: please contact pdo@donboscomor.org

Portugal – Provincial Delegates of Mediterranean Region reflect on missionary animation

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Lisbon, Portugal – November 2022 – A meeting of the Provincial Delegates of Missionary Animation (DIAM) at the level of the Mediterranean Region was held in Lisbon, Portugal, from November 25 to 28. Various themes were addressed, including: young missionaries in Europe; the synergy between vocation animation and missionary vocation; reflections on “Laudato sì”. All themes were contextualized by the participants through the sharing that was done after each meeting. The presence of Fr. Alfred Maravilla, General Councilor for Missions, helped to address some of the challenges that are experienced within missionary animation in the various Provinces. The importance of taking into consideration the missionary animation of Salesian communities, which would risk being neglected by focusing only on the various youth missionary initiatives, was stressed. The moments of prayer and fraternity were an object of admiration; they gave the meeting a family and “missionary” feel, which are proper to the Salesian spirit. The participants felt at home thanks to the generous hospitality of the Portuguese Province and thanks to the organizational care of Portuguese DIAM Fr. Sílvio Faria. In the end, everyone returned to their Provinces with a renewed spirit, with evangelical zeal and with a desire to move forward with the good things that are already being done and also to think about how to implement the various prompts that emerged from the meeting.

ANS – Agency of Salesian News

Portugal – Communication Sector holds World Consultation in Lisbon

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From Oct. 29 to Nov. 1, various members of the Sector for Social Communication and representatives of the same Sector active in the various Salesian regions gathered in Lisbon to participate in the World Communication Consultation.

About two dozen representatives from different Salesian Regions, exponents of the Communication Sector, the Salesian Bulletin, and Salesian publishing houses gathered for a working meeting and sharing of communication practices in the service of the Salesian mission.

In the meeting’s opening prayer, Fr. Gildasio Mendes, General Councilor for Social Communication, said, “I’m very happy to hold this meeting after two and a half years without seeing you in person.” Fr. Mendes also recalled the excellent work done by each of those present as well as the enormous dedication of each to the field of Communication.

It is a meeting marked by fraternity, rich in the exchange of experiences and significant in the search for new knowledge and practices of communication for the good of everyone’s mission, always at the service of young people. Moreover, participants are invited to contribute to a general working document for the sector, which aims to explore concepts and processes while creating a common vision.

This 25-part document analyzes and explores ideas such as “communication, creative, narrative and aesthetic processes,” “communication and Salesian charism,” “communication, Salesian identity and mission,” “communication and spirituality,” among many other concepts and ideas. Each participating region is invited to integrate its own ideas and perspectives into this working document, which is intended to be global.

During the World Consultation on Communication, the Department’s Plan for Communication is also analyzed and worked on.

The first day was also marked by a moment of tribute to some of the members present: a gesture with which the General Councilor for Social Communication wanted to highlight the work done, over several years, by each of the honorees, in the various Salesian Regions they represent.

The World Consultation on Communication 2022 was also the moment chosen for the launch, in Portuguese, of Fr. Gildasio Mendes’ 23rd book, entitled “Eu Confio em ti!” (I trust in you!), which is intended to be a “meaningful testimony” that contributes to the “meaningful experience and joy of trust.”

During the World Consultation, participants will also have the opportunity to take part in some educational, cultural, and religious visits to the cities of Lisbon, Estoril, the place that will host next year’s meeting of Salesian youth who will participate in WYD Lisbon 2023, and the Marian shrine of Fatima, a national and international center of Marian devotion.

The visit to Fatima will include moments of prayer and the Eucharist in the Chapel of Apparitions, which will be presided over by Fr. Gildasio Mendes. At the end of the visit, and before returning to Lisbon, participants in the Consultation on World Communication will also recite a prayer of Consecration to Our Lady of Fatima.

ANS – Agency of Salesian News

Palestine – Salesian School of Social Communication in Middle East begins

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 Last Monday, October 10, the Salesian School of Social Communication (SSCS) began in the “Adolescent Jesus” Province of the Middle East (MOR). This course opened with an initial meeting, conducted digitally, chaired by the General Counselor for Social Communication of the Salesian Congregation, Fr. Gildasio Mendes, and was also attended by the Superior of the MOR Province, Fr. Alejandro León, the Provincial Delegate for Social Communication, Fr. Pier Jabloyan, five young Salesian missionaries, and young communicators representing the different Salesian centers in the Province.

There were a total of twenty-five participants, with about two people connected from each of the Salesian works or schools in the Province: Cairo-Zeitun, Cairo-El Sahel and Alexandria (Egypt); Damascus, Aleppo and Kafroun (Syria); El Houssoun and Al Fidar (Lebanon); and Nazareth (Holy Land).

This first session focused on the presentation of the contents and objectives of the SSCS, which will be concretely carried out in the next meetings, and allowed for a first moment of acquaintance and interaction among all participants. In the next five meetings, following the scheme prepared by the Social Communication Department, the SSCS will address 5 topics led by different people, each according to their specialization:

–     The Biblical Dimension of Communication, with Fr. Gildasio Mendes, General Counselor for Social Communication.

–     The synodal dimension of Communication, with Fr. Harris Pakkam, Editorial Director of the Salesian iNfo Agency (ANS).

–     The Salesian dimension of Communication, with Fr. Ricardo Campoli, member of the Social Communication Dept.

–     The institutional dimension of Communication, with Dr. Fabrizio Vignati, lay collaborator of the Special Circumscription of Piedmont and Aosta Valley (ICP).

–     The Communication and Youth Ministry dimension, with Fr. Miguel Angel García Morcuende, General Councilor for Youth Ministry.

An in-depth study on the theme of Justice and Peace shall complete the path of the SSCS in the MOR Province.

“We hope that this school will strengthen our mission of communication in the Salesian Middle East, between centers and schools, following in the footsteps of Don Bosco, thanks to the accompaniment offered to us by the whole Salesian Congregation and in this case by the Social Communication Department,” Fr. Jabloyan declared on the occasion.

ANS – Agency of Salesian News

Missionary Sending of 153rd Salesian Missionary Expedition.

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On Sunday, September 25, at the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, presided over the Mass with the missionary sending off ceremony of 19 Salesians of Don Bosco and 9 Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA). Six Salesian missionaries did not receive their visas in time. For the Salesians, it was the 153rd missionary expedition, while for the FMA it was the 145th missionary expedition.

Together with the Rector Major and 10th Successor of Don Bosco, his Vicar, Fr. Stefano Martoglio, the General Councilor for Missions, Fr. Alfred Maravilla, the General Councilor for Formation, Fr. Ivo Coelho, the General Councilor for Youth Ministry, Fr. Miguel Angel García Morcuende, 20 Provincials, and many other presbyters concelebrated.

In his homily, Fr. Á.F. Artime reiterated that it is thanks to the missionaries that today the Salesian charism is spread all over the world; without them, Salesians would be few and present only in Italy. “Our way of living together from all parts of the world is a prophetic word,” he explained, noting then how the circumstance of the missionary sending was a propitious occasion to say thanks to the Lord for the missionary call of these religious, a particular call within the common Salesian vocation and able to transmit enthusiasm to young people in the name of the Lord, with a Salesian heart.

The Successor of Don Bosco then resumed the dialogue he had the night before with the newly-missionaries of SDB and FMA: “Today the outlook, the approach, cannot be the same as in Don Bosco’s time; we do not go to teach those who do not know. Instead, we go to share life, offering what we are and surely receive much more than what we offer.”

Commenting on the Word of God, the Rector Major pointed out that the Gospel of the day was crystal clear: there is a very rich man, whose name is not known because his heart is so hard that he has lost himself, and a poor man named Lazarus. The problem is not wealth, but a dead heart, unable to see anything beyond the self, unable to feel compassion and mercy. “Let us not forget that we were born for the poorest kids, not to do who knows what, but to meet them there where the neediest are in every part of the world.” Sometimes it is not about material poverty but the great emptiness in the meaning of life and extreme loneliness, sometimes nothing is missing, but everything is missing. “Take care of yourselves, but give your best, give life every day. So many are waiting for us without knowing us!” urged the Rector Major.

Following the profession of faith, the solemn commissioning and handing over of the missionary crosses at the hands of the Rector Major took place. On behalf of Mother Chiara Cazzuola, Mother General of the FMA, who was unable to attend, it was Sister Ruth del Pilar Mora, General Councilor for Missions, who handed over the missionary cross to the missionaries.

“Dear brothers and sisters, may Mary, Mother and Teacher, accompany and protect you. In the name of Don Bosco and in the memory of the First Missionary Expedition, go and announce to the youth and the poor of the world the joy of the risen Christ,” were the sending words of Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, who recalled the First Missionary Expedition of 1875.

ANS – Agency of Salesian News

Syria – Extraordinary Visitation to Syria by Mediterranean Region Councilor

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(ANS – Damascus) – As part of his Extraordinary Visitation to the “Adolescent Jesus” Province of the Middle East, the Councilor for the Mediterranean Region, Fr Juan Carlos Pérez Godoy, visited all the Salesian Houses in Syria.

From Lebanon, the first stopover on his journey, he left for Kafroun, the city geographically closest to the Land of the Cedars and visited the local Salesian house. There was a joyful welcome from the fifty boys and girls singing in Italian in homage to him in the presence of animators, educators and lay staff of the house, besides Fr Danny Hayek sdb, who resides there, as well as Fr Mario Murru and Fr Dany Kaurieh, from Aleppo.

Fr Pérez Godoy met the Educational Council and the community with the children and young people and listened with interest to their experiences they narrated. He, thus got to know the circumstances and the environment in which the Salesians work in Kafroun, as well as the difficulties they encountered.

After Kafroun, he reached Aleppo, where the Salesian House “Georges and Mathilde Salem” is located. Here as well, he met the young people and the Educational Council and was also accompanied on a visit to the city, which was one of the most affected places during the war. He also observed the various churches which were already restored thanks to the commitment of the faithful.

At Damascus, more than 350 boys and girls who attend high school and the oratory of “Don Bosco” center celebrated the arrival of Fr Pérez Godoy, in an atmosphere of extraordinary joy and happiness, among the characteristic Damascus folklore rites.

In Damascus, the General Councilor walked in the footsteps of St. Paul, living intimately the story of his conversion at the gates of Damascus and visited the holy areas which are located within about 50 kilometers from Damascus. They are: Saydnaya and Maaloula, with its two churches, dedicated to Saint Thekla and to Saints Sarkis and Pacho.

Accompanied by Fr Dany Kerio, Fr Najib Shennekji and Fr Felice Cantele, the Visitor also got to know the Salesian center in Maarat Sednaya, as well as the new presence  of “Don Bosco” in Jaramana, near Damascus, which was nevertheless opened last year to teach children and young people after school and serves as a hospice for university students.

As part of the visit to Damascus, the Regional Councilor met with the educational council & community and had several spontaneous meetings with the young people. He also took part in the opening ceremony of the football championship between the churches of Damascus and its surroundings and also met with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, who work both in the Italian hospital and in the kindergarten of the school.

“Father Juan Carlos’ visit to Syria was full of encounters and full of spirituality and joy, precisely because there was a Visitor who traveled long distances to get to know a country that has suffered for a long time from war and which suffers still many problems resulting from the war, which are reflected in the first place on young people,” commented the Salesians in Syria.

ANS – Agency of Salesian News

Syria – Lay people co-responsible in Salesian mission: Johnny and Georgette

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(ANS – Kafroun) – A history of suffering, certainly, like all those concerning refugees during wars; but also a love story, of a family steadfast in difficulties; a story of fidelity to one’s own values ​​on the part of a Christian and Salesian family; a story of gratitude, that of many people towards them and their work: all this is the story of Johnny and Georgette, a married couple of Salesian Cooperators who, after fleeing Aleppo in the hardest months of the war in Syria, led, for eight years, the first lay-run work in the whole Middle East Province (MOR), that is, the retreat house the Salesians own in the mountainous region of Kafroun. Now Johnny and Georgette, together with their children, have been able to return to their Aleppo; but not before having received heartfelt thanks from the Sons of Don Bosco in Syria.

It has been over 8 years since this family left Aleppo, due to the harshness of the war and its consequences, both material and psychological. It was 2012 when they abandoned their home and their belongings, taking with them what was their only daughter at the time. At that moment they could not have known that Providence had a special assignment for them.

On arriving in Kafroun, in fact, the two Salesian Cooperators Johnny Ghazi and Georgette Deek were invited to take on the responsibility of managing the Salesian house there. And they, in a spirit of service to the Lord and always maintaining the typically Salesian family atmosphere, welcomed the proposal and accompanied all the initiatives: catechism, summer activities, formation meetings, welcoming groups of visitors who constantly coming to the center – born, indeed, as a monastery for camps…

About two weeks ago, during a visit to the work, the Provincial of MOR, Fr Alejandro León, celebrated a Eucharist in which he wanted to publicly thank them for their ministry and their good administration in this time during which they gave the example of Christian and Salesian laity, committed in the Church and in society, with young people.

After their service in Kafroun, now Johnny and Georgette are back with their two daughters in Aleppo.

Today, therefore, this message arrives from the Salesian community in Syria:

“Despite the many difficulties, they lived this service with honesty, joy and sacrifice. Furthermore, theirs was the first experience in the Middle East Province, in which lay people of the Salesian Family were given the opportunity to live Salesian spirituality with high responsibility, hand in hand with consecrated Salesians, as Don Bosco wanted, a single family for a single objective: the salvation of souls. On behalf of the Salesians, young people, Salesian Families and Cooperators in the Middle East, we say to you: ‘Thank you, Johnny and Georgette!'”

ANS – Agency of Salesian News

Lebanon – Salesian oratory is an oasis of peace in context of crisis

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(ANS – El-Houssoun) – Organized by the Salesians in Lebanon, the Youth South Camp in the mountain house of El-Houssoun (Byblos district) is increasingly revealing itself to be an oasis of peace, serenity and conviviality in what is a dramatic social, political and economic context, one that is unprecedented in the centennial history of modern Lebanon.

About 800 boys and girls are involved: Lebanese, Syrian and Iraqi, with dozens of volunteer animators, adequately trained. Syrians and Iraqis are all refugees, residing in Lebanon for several years: Syrians are waiting to be able to return to their country, while Iraqis are waiting to be welcomed in a third country. While the Syrians are all Muslims and the Iraqis Christians, the Lebanese are mixed, but the vast majority are Christians, in accordance with the area’s demographics and live within a radius of 10-15 km from the Salesian center. Syrian children also reside in the area; Iraqis, on the other hand, reside in the suburbs of Beirut, more than 40 km away. For all of them, transportation is guaranteed, as well as the daily distribution of a sandwich and refreshments.

Never had the Salesian house in El-Houssoun known such a crowded Summer Camp, even if the daily attendance is divided into the days of the week according to the nationality and age of the participants (from 6 to 15 years).

A collective or group educational and recreational program forms the core, flanked by moments of free playful activities, especially sports.

“It’s impressive to see the joy that shines on the faces of children and adolescents and the enthusiasm they put into participating in the various activities offered,” they write from the Oratory. “Even Muslim girls who wear the veil put aside their traditional reserve to leave involve the atmosphere that surrounds them,” they add. All this strongly contrasts with the climate currently dominant in the country: mistrust, poverty and, not infrequently, misery, unemployment, galloping devaluation of the Lebanese pound, instability and sometimes insecurity, lack of basic products, medicines and the most basic social services. From day to day, in a crisis that has lasted for two years, aggravated by the terrible explosion in the port of Beirut (4 August 2020), there is no glimmer of light.

Sowing joy, trust and giving hope, as well as providing concrete help, remains the primary objective of and for the children of Don Bosco in the current situation in Lebanon. The day is expected when the light shall eventually triumph and then Lebanon will once again become the “message country” described by Pope Saint John Paul II.

ANS – Agency of Salesian News

Fr Caputa introduces Simone Srugi

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(ANS – Beitgemal) – The Salesian Fr Giovanni Caputa, former professor of Theology in Cremisan and Jerusalem (1980-2017), has since 2014 been a collaborator in the cause of beatification of Venerable Simone Srugi, a Salesian brother who was a central figure for the Salesians of the Middle East. Fr Caputa recently wrote a new book in Italian on Simone Srugi (Simone Srugi nella storia di Betgamāl), and today he illustrates the history of the Venerable and the value of this publication.

It is not your first book on Srugi. What’s new in this one?

In 2018 I published Vita e scritti di Simone Srugi (Life and Writings), which contains all the documentation. In this last book, I better frame one and the others in their historical context, that is, the hundred years between the reconstitution of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (1847) and the partition of Palestine (1947). It was part of a region that during that century completely changed aspect, from a political, socio-economic, cultural and religious point of view … The maps and the “photo gallery”, which complete the volume, help to offer a better picture.

Against that background, the life and action of Srugi stand out; after his childhood in Nazareth and the years of apprenticeship in Bethlehem (nurse, tailor and baker), he made his religious profession as a Salesian brother (1896) and carried out his mission for 50 years in Betgamāl. In this out-of-the-way and malarial locality, the Salesians welcomed Palestinian orphans, Armenian, Lebanese, Syrian refugees, and finally also Poles. They ran an agricultural school with an attached mill, olive oil press, canteen and medical-pharmaceutical dispensary. Simone was teacher and catechist of the little ones, master of ceremonies in the shrine of St Stephen and above all a nurse: the sick came to him by the dozen every day, from about fifty villages. It is estimated that he treated tens of thousands of poor sick people.

What did Srugi leave written?

He was not a writer; he was a practical, simple man, who loved to read Don Bosco’s books, manuals of piety… From them he transcribed short sentences, which he distributed in strips of paper to brothers and boys. They resemble today’s tweets.

Here are a few:

–      A “thank you to God” is worth more, a “God be blessed” in adversity, than a thousand thanks in prosperity.

–      God does things slowly, but He does them well.

–      Carry the cross of each day every day with the grace of each day.

–      The cross, if it is loved, is only half a cross, because the love of Jesus softens everything, and one does not suffer much, except when one loves little.

–      It is more worth raising a straw out of obedience than fasting a Lent by one’s own election.

–      You do not have to look for enemies in the town square, while the most bitter is hidden inside you, indeed, it is you. So look at your soul for yourself.

–      The happiness of pleasing God with doing all things well is a sage of heaven.

The book in Italian Simone Srugi nella storia di Betgamāl – Simone Srugi in the history of Betgamāl – will soon be included in the Salesian Digital Library (SDL).

   Agency of Salesian News

The bakery of the Salesians in Bethlehem helps the poor and needy

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The ingredients of Salesian bread in Bethlehem are not only flour, water and yeast, but infinite quantities of mercy and generosity are also added to its dough, so the Salesian bakery in the city has become a point of reference in helping the poor and needy. P. LORENZO SAGGIOTTO Salesians of Bethlehem “In particularly difficult times such as the first and second intifada, this oven played an important role and provided an excellent service to the people. Also during the first and second Iraq war we helped many families poor. ” A relentless help even in this difficult time of the Coronavirus pandemic. P. LORENZO SAGGIOTTO Salesians of Bethlehem “Also in this period, from the outbreak of the pandemic until today, the bakery has not only given bread to the poorest families but also to institutions that need help to continue serving the people. “Among these institutions is the” Together for Life “Association of Bethlehem, which to help people with disabilities and who, due to the pandemic, no longer have any income, either from handicraft production or from donations. MAHERA GHARIB Director of “Together for Life” “We too depended on tourists visiting Bethlehem and we were affected as much as the entire tourism sector. The bread we receive is enough for about 55 people. For us it was a cost and the Salesians thus relieve us of this expense, above all because bread is fundamental in our Palestinian culture. We eat bread or rice; bread accompanies every meal. “Even the Bethlehem Association Beit Al Rajaa – “Casa Della Speranza” – for the blind and people with special needs was hit by the consequences of the Coronavirus: even for them, income depended on external support and tourists. The director of the Association, Salim Zeidan, thanks the Salesians for their help and for the quality of the bread. SALIM ZEIDAN Director Beit Al Rajaa – Bethlehem “Salesian bread lasts two or three days, but we can heat it and it comes back as if it had just come out of the oven. The Salesian oven is one of the oldest in the city and has always maintained the same quality as production.” BASMA GIACAMAN Supervisor of the Basma Center – Beit Sahour “Even if making bread seems a simple thing, for families who do not work and have no income, especially in periods of curfew,

Christian Media Center in Holly Land