| Italy – Centenary of the "Cross of the Seas": bearers of the cross of Christ to the ends of the Earth |
| Spain – A monument to Don Bosco |
| Argentina – Monument to Ceferino Namuncurá |
The local authorities agreed to the request for a monument dedicated to the saint of youth providing a space reclaimed from the sea, between two coast roads in front of the historic church built by the Salesian missionaries and the “Don Bosco” Institute.
The monument, the work of Fr José Ellero, parish priest of “Nuestra Señora de la Merced” in Ushuaia, represents, as requested by the authorities, Don Bosco with two boys and a girl. The saint has “his feet well planted in the deep south” – as the sculptor explains – “while his gaze is directed towards the north.”
The sculpture, 2 metres high and as broad, was made in cement in a “semi-realistic style - Fr José Ellero says to avoid any limited identification of the faces, and, with the help of the imagination, to open up horizons of time and space.”
Bishop Juan Carlos Romanín SDB of Río Gallegos presided at the inauguration ceremony and the blessing of the monument. In the course of the ceremony a message was read from the Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr Pascual Chávez. “This statue of Don Bosco is a further sign of the Salesian presence in Patagonia and one way of reaffirming the validity of the Preventive System in the formation of saints like Ceferino Namuncurá.
From here (Rome) I join with the civil, military and religious authorities, who through their presence will give honour to this important event. On you – addressing Fr Ellero – and on all those present I impart the blessing of Mary Help of Christians, the Southern Star, who has been the guide of the Salesians in the southernmost part of the world.”
Published 19/11/2007
