(ANS – Tirana) – The Salesian foundation in Albania is twenty years old this year: two decades during which the land of the eagles and the Salesian charism have grown up together. We can consider a little bit of history and look to the future.

In 1985 the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha died in Tirana after years of tyranny. Slowly but inexorably the imposed regime of dictatorship fell into decline By the beginning of the  ‘90s the authorities could no longer exercise control over the situation. The people had had enough and grinding poverty was widespread. The police and army could not contain the popular revolt.

1991 was a fateful year. On 4 November an Albanian priest  Fr Simon Jubani did something which only a few months earlier would have cost him his life: he said Mass in the cemetery in Scutari, with a large number of the faithful. It was something unheard of for the people accustomed to  40 years of religious oppression in what was among all the communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe the only one which had explicitly declared itself atheistic from its foundation.

Still in 1991 the first groups of Albanians began to arrive in Italy on the coast of Puglia. Soon thousands and thousands most of the young, in desperation left their own country still in an extremely confused state, seeking a better, a more human life.

John Paul II appealed to all the Major Superiors of all the Congregations to send missionaries there. Fr Egidio Viganò, VII Successor of Don Bosco, heard  the Pope’s invitation and urged the Superior of the Southern Italian Province (IME), Fr Luigi Testa, to consider the idea of a missionary expedition.

After some informal contacts the Salesians arrived in Albania, at Scutari on 24 September 1992. The pioneers were: Fr Michele Gentile, from IME; Fr Zef Gashi, from the Slovene Province; Fr Renato Torresan, from the then Roman Province; the Salesian Brother Francesco Gippetto, from the Sicily Province and two young Salesians in formation, Dominik Qerimi and Lek Oroshi, both from Slovenia; shortly joined by  Fr Oreste Valle from what was then the Vice Province of Sardinia. In Tirana the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians also arrived. For them it was a return, since prior to the communist dictatorship they had earlier been there since 1905.

In December 1992 the Salesian group  divided into two: a part remained in Scutari having transferred to the Italian Consulate Building just renovated, the others went to Tirana where they began pastoral activities. In 1997 there were fresh revolutionary movements but the Salesians stayed with the people, who appreciated the good they were doing: the parents of the pupils and friends of the centre in Tirana guarded the new vocational training centre to successfully prevent any looting or damage.

Since 2000 the Salesian presence in Kosovo – which before the official repression which began in 1967, depended on the Slovene Province – was entrusted to IME; at Pristina a large vocational training centre was built. In 2010, at the suggestion of the Rector Major, Fr Pascuál Chavez,  a new foundation was established in Kosovo, at Gjilan, 40 km from Pristina.

At present there are 11 Albanian Salesians of whom 7 are priests, one a deacon shortly to be ordained, one student of theology and two of philosophy. In addition there is a young prenovice and several in a process of vocational discernment. Much has happened since 1992. The seed that was sown twenty years ago has now become a small tree which is beginning to bear its first fruits and needs to continue to become deeper rooted.

Published 20/03/2012