(ANS - Caracas) - Fr Miguel González García, SDB, died on Friday 14 March at the age of 86. He was founder of the Damas Salesianas (ADS), one of the  groups of the Salesian Family. Fr Miguel was born on 27 April 1927 in Urdiales del Páramo in the  Province of Leon in Spain.  He spent his whole life in the service of God and neighbour, after the example of Don Bosco, father and teacher of the young.

Fr Miguel was sent to America to fulfil his missionary vocation. He completed his studies at the Don Rua International Institute in El Salvador, where he graduated in Sociology and Theology and was ordained priest on 14 November 1954. "For you, O Lord, the honour and the glory, for me, the work" was the motto he chose for his priestly life.

After his ordination he was sent to Cuba, where he lived and worked for seven years. This experience marked the rest of his life and his way of seeing the world. He thought it essential to convince those who are better off that it is not enough to practise charity. They also had to be actively involved in working for social justice. Fr Miguel was a bold visionary, ahead of his time, particularly with regard to the inclusion of the laity, especially women, in social work.

He arrived in Venezuela on 6 March 1961. At Valera he organized men and women of the community in working on behalf of the weakest members of society.  He set up a Social Action Committee which became the nucleus of his future great work. He was put in charge of the building of the National Temple of St John Bosco in Altamira. He spoke to the architects and arranged for the basement to be designated for the social works that he planned to start. This was the beginning of the Don Bosco Social Complex, Mother House of the Damas Salesianas.

On 13 May 1968, the Assocciation of Damas Salesianas was formally constituted.  It is a lay non-profit Association, a private group of the faithful of canonical right, composed of Catholic lay women.  Their work is to promote integral human development, with particular attention to women and young people as these were the weakest sectors of society in Venezuela in the sixties.

The Damas Salesianas received ecclesiastical recognition by decree of Cardinal José Alí Lebrun on 29 September 1988, and recognition as a group of the Salesian Family, granted by the Rector Major, Fr Egidio Viganò, on 29 December of the same year.

Don Miguel dedicated half a century of his life to social work. Today, the fruits of his work are visible in the 127 centres of Damas Salesianas in Venezuela, and other countries of America, from California to Patagonia, as well as in Spain and in the Philippines.

These are the fruits he will bring as he appears before his Creator, with the certainty of having kept, slowly but surely, throughout his long life the promise he made ​​on the day of his ordination: "For you, O Lord, the honour and the glory, for me, the work"

Published 17/03/2014