(ANS – Goma) – The pilgrimage of Don Bosco’s casket continues in the  Province of Central Africa, where stay until the middle of next month. From Kinshasa it was taken to Goma and then to Lubumbashi.

Almost the whole of Tuesday 20 March was spent taking the casket from Kinshasa to Goma, over 1,600 km. Nor were there lacking some unexpected and quite spontaneous episodes which demonstrated the profound devotion of the Congolese people to Don Bosco. For example, at the airport of  Ndolo, the midway stage of the long journey, the casket arrived covered with a layer of dust. Yet as soon as it was unloaded from the truck and before being carried into the airport it was completely cleaned by a woman with a damp cloth with the care and the love of a mother. Or again at Kananga, where the casket stayed for just an hour during a technical stop-over the pilots and the airport personnel seized the opportunity for their private devotions and veneration.

Having finally in Goma, in the late afternoon of Tuesday 20, the casket was taken to the Cathedral, where the faithful had been waiting since 10.00 in the morning. Mons. Louis Nzabanita, representing the Bishop  presided at Mass thanking the Lord for the opportunity to venerate Don Bosco’s relics, just a few months from the pilgrimage to the city of the relics of Blessed John Paul II.

The following day with a long and colourful procession, full of young people, the relic was taken from the Cathedral to the Don Bosco Centre in Ngangi. When it arrived there Fr Jean-Claude Ngoy presided at Mass during which Fr Piero Gavioli, the Rector gave the homily. The programme continued with a long period of veneration, by individuals and by groups, and then in the afternoon another Mass for the people from the local district. In the evening a vigil began which lasted all through the night until the next morning.

On Thursday 22 the casket was at the other large Salesian centre in Goma, the Goma Industrial Technical Institute (ITIG). The ITIG students went to the Youth Centre early in the morning and took part in the Mass. Then they escorted the casket in a procession to their own Institute while the Salesians led the singing and prayers and explained the l significance of the visit of the relics. When they arrived another Mass was said after which there was the veneration by all the students and staff.

On Friday 23 March the pilgrimage of the casket reached the city of Lubumbashi, where in the Cathedral, Bishop Gaston Ruvezi, SDB was waiting. First there was the veneration by various groups of faithful and then in the afternoon Mass at which the Salesian Bishop presided.

Published 27/03/2012