(ANS – Carchá) – 31 January 2013, Don Bosco's feast day, was an historic day for the Salesian mission at Carchá, in Guatemala. The Missionaries of Christ the Good Shepherd, a male religious group, was given canonical recognition as a diocesan religious congregation under the authority of the local bishop. The new congregation has 4 perpetually professed members, 7 temporary professed, 4 novices and 39 prenovices.

Under the leadership and energy of Salesian missionary Fr Anthony De Groot, 25 years ago the first group of men who now form this new congregation had already begun. Fr De Groot, who was born in Holland, but grew up in Australia, came to the Carchá mission in 1975, and began to encourage the growth of young people there through education.

In the beginning there was a only a small group of young people involved, but the initiative soon began to bear fruit and grow, and three large institutes came into being at Carchá, Raxruhá and Chamelco, today looking after a total of 1,600 young local people, mostly of Qeqchí origins.

To guarantee continuity and effectiveness of what was called  the Don Bosco Centre, Fr De Groot invited young men from the three locations to come together into a religious group. As the small group of members gradually began to take on numerical consistency and a spiritual identity, statutes, constitutions and regulations were gradually drawn up.Thus the Missionaries of Christ the Good Shepherd came into being, and it is now a diocesan religious congregation with a Salesian spirituality

Last thursday the central eent was the solemn open-air Mass at which the local bishop, Bishop Rodolfo Valenzuela presided, accompanied by Salesian and diocesan clergy. 1,600 students from the three centres were also there; despite the rain, the religious ceremony kept the solemnity proper to the local indigenous culture.

Don Bosco Centre focuses on basic school subjects, giving special attention to technical skills that are useful in the local context. The programme is very careful about work and study. The young students live in and carry out pastoral activities in 42 nearby villages to encourage their fellow countrymen to mature as human beings and in their Catholic faith

The Don Bosco Centre is the male counterpart to another local educational project thought up for local girls, known as “Talita Kumi”, which came into existence through the inspiration of Salesian missionary from India, Fr Jorge Puthenpura, and which is now run by his religious diocesan congregation, the Sisters of the Resurrection.

Both these educational efforts are part of the much broader missionary activity developed by the Salesian community, made up of nine missionaries working alongside other Salesian Family Groups.

Published 05/02/2013