(ANS - Turin) – At 5.45 p.m. today, Thursday 14 May, the President Sergio Mattarella will visit the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians. To welcome him there will be the Vicar of the Rector Major, Fr Francesco Cereda, and the Superior of the Salesians in Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta, Fr Enrico Stasi.

The President will be accompanied on a visit to the altar with the casket of Don Bosco for a moment of personal prayer, and to mark the occasion he will lay a wreath. Then there will be a meeting and an official greeting to the young people in the courtyard of the Basilica.

Fr Stasi said: "We are honoured, in this year of festivities and celebrations when we celebrate our beloved Saint, to welcome President Mattarella, to the places where Don Bosco realized his dream, where he founded the congregation and helped young people become the protagonists of their future. We thank the President for repeatedly stressing the importance of young people in our society, for saying frequently that we cannot do without them and that young people 'must be part of the system as protagonists'."

During the President’s day in Turin, apart from meetings with various institutions, there will be other significant moments including a meeting with the families of seven workers who died on the job in the Thyssenkrupp establishment in 2007, and with the relatives of the Italians who died in the terrorist attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March of this year.

After his visit to Valdocco the President will conclude the day at "SERMIG" (Young Missionary Service), a former weapons factory transformed in 1964 by a group of young Catholics into an "Arsenal of Peace" and a house that offers accommodation to people in difficulty.

Published 14/05/2015