(ANS - Rome) - Fr Jorge Crisafulli is Provincial of the English-speaking Province of West Africa (AFW). He began his Goodnight talk last Tuesday by saying, "Pope Francis invites us to go out to serve others, and not to be afraid. He calls on us to overcome our preoccupation with self and to reach out to people who are marginalized, to those who are suffering, unloved and forgotten."

He went on to say: "In our fourth Provincial Chapter, we decided to take concrete steps in this direction - to bring the Church into the marketplace and Christ to the prisons, where many young people have been waiting a long time for Don Bosco."

The province includes Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is a young province, founded in 2004, and the average age of the Salesians is only 33.  "In 2004 there were 52 African confreres. Today there are 122, almost 80% of the total. We have 16 novices, 35 post-novices, 18 practical trainees and 24 students of theology. There is also a relatively large number of Salesian Brothers – twenty in all, most of them of African origin."

Geographically the province is vast and beautiful with tropical forests, sandy beaches and the emerald green sea, as well as savannas and desert areas. The four nations that make up the province are rich in natural resources, unfortunately for too many years managed badly, but especially human resources. There are 200 million inhabitants of whom 119 million are under the age of 25 -  fertile ground for the Salesian mission!

Fr Crisafulli related an interesting experience he had had recently when he heard confessions and celebrated mass in the market place. “We got there about ten in the morning. I sat on a seat, thinking that no one would leave their business to come to confession. Instead, to my surprise, the people began to come and kneel down there, under the tropical sun of Africa. Meanwhile, someone erected a canopy. A small amplifier was brought and I started Mass. Imagine, more than 200 people interrupted their business to participate in the Mass – on market day! After the Mass some of them came to me and asked me to bless their shops.”

He spoke about another experience he had had in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. The Pademba prison there was built for 300 people, but now houses 1,876 inmates. "In the prison I met a young man named John Bosco.  ‘With a name like that you should not be here,' I said jokingly. He could have  been released on bail for only 20,000 leones, about two American dollars, but no one knew he was there." Today that young man, John Bosco, is out of prison and with other ex-prisoners of Pademba is studying or learning a trade.

The Director of Don Bosco Fambul, Salesian Brother Lothar Wagner, is now having a well dug in Pademba prison and a tower built for the water tank.  He has got books for the library and is running a workshop for the prisoners.

"This is our mission. By going out to evangelize the marginalized we will truly become what we ought to be. It is by following this path, that we will collect the fruits of holiness and joy."

Published 13/03/2014