(ANS – Turin) – When they arrived in Turin, most of them looked around as if they were in a trance. Thousands of young people had really looked forward to that journey. From the Argentina of #Bergoglio, from Germany, India, Italy and many other extra-European countries, about four thousand ‘disciples’, as we might call them, of the holy educator of the youth reached Turin in the week August 10th-16th, to live for themselves the conclusion of the #bicentenary of Don Giovanni Bosco’s birth.
by Antonio Carriero
They were hosted for the night in the oratories and Salesian schools of Turin. It is difficult to say how many of them, after an intense day of emotions in #PalaRuffini, preferred their sleeping bag and a good sleep to a pleasant night chat with the friends of their own group. “There is only one Salesian Youth Movement”, answers a young man from Ecuador, at 3 in the morning, as he is singing with his group without showing any sign of exhaustion.
And those who were not singing, were interacting with their smartphones, entrusting to Facebook the short memories of the day. Francesco da Re posted on his profile a message that was shortly shared by hundreds of youth. “The night between 15th and 16th, on the Hill of the Youth Beatitudes, was the night of ‘da mihi animas’ (give me souls). Five thousand beautiful souls of young people coming from 53 Nations were literally ‘dragged’ by #donBosco, making them taste the good of that past he himself had lived, to make it present today in each of them and hand it over, without fear, to a world that many times would like to hide beauty and hope”.
The director of the Salesian Oratory ‘San Luigi’ in Turin is convinced that Don Bosco still gives hope, or rather a chance, to the poorest and desperate youth who today arrive in our coasts. “On the occasion of SYM, 12 unaccompanied foreign minors coming from Egypt, Morocco, Senegal and Albania (all of them Muslim) welcomed the groups we hosted in the oratory”, recounts Fr. Mauro Mergola. “They prepared the place before their arrival, distributed meals to the pilgrims and accompanied them to the various spaces of the Salesian community. They eventually narrated to the SYM youth their experience made of much fear, but also of much hope. A hope that is cultivated in Don Bosco’s name”.
Published 26/08/2015
