(ANS – Quito) – Yesterday, 10 February was the first anniversary of the ‘return to the Father’s House’ of Fr Fernando Peraza, sdb, a scholar of Don Bosco. The Salesian community at Quito, celebrated a mass to honour his memory in the chapel at the regional Ongoing Formation Centre. Fr Marcelo Farfán, Provincial, Ecuador, was the main celebrant.

Fr Peraza dedicated his life to the study of Don Boscoìs life. He was also the founder of the Regional Ongoing Formation Centre, based in Quito, and was a formator there for 38 years. Over this period of time he consolidated the approach to study at the Centre, which then took on a stable format as a School for teachers of Salesianity  where he sowed a “passion for returning to Don Bosco, and returning to the young”.

His approach integrated the entire ongoing formation process in its human, professional and vocational sense for the teacher. One of his lay students said that “Don Bosco, at the Regional Centre in Quito, was studied via his mind and heart”.

Amongst the works Fr Peraza wrote we can recall: “Sueños y distracciones de Don Bosco” (1959), “El Director Salesiano y la Dirección Espiritual” (1994), “Don Bosco y la Escuela” (1996), “Memorias del Oratorio San Francisco de Sales, escrita por San Juan Bosco”, translation and critical edition 1998 (1^st edition) - 2010 (4^th edition); “Conociendo a Don Bosco”, 1999 (1^st edition) - 2001 (3^rd edition), “El Sistema Preventivo de Don Bosco” 2001 (1^st edition) - 2010 (5^th edition), “Los Ejercicios Espirituales - de Ignacio de Loyola a Don Bosco" (2006).

By Fr Peraza's express will, since he was from Colombia, his ashes lie at Agua de Dios, Colombia, next to the remains of Blessed Fr Luigi Variara and Fr José Marmol. Some of his ashes, however, have been kept at the Regional Ongoing Formation Centre, because of his enormous contribution to that work.

Published 11/02/2014