(ANS – Sesto San Giovanni) – Yesterday, 30 October, at the Don Bosco Social Centre at Sesto San Giovanni, not far from Milan, the Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr Pasqual Chávez opened the new building for the  “Ercole Marelli” junior secondary school.

In the morning Fr Chávez said Mass for the pupils in the school yard, under a specially prepared marquee. In his homily, referring to St Dominic Savio and Blessed Laura Vicuna, the Rector Major invited the young people to know how to go against the tide and to make the right important choices, especially during their teenage years. Fr Chavez offered another example of courage and Christian commitment in the young Polish men from Poznan who were imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp and in spite of the circumstances managed to help the other prisoners keep up their morale. “You are the light of the world and the salt of the earth,” the Rector Major concluded.

This was followed by the opening of the new school premises. Among those present were the Mayor of Sesto San Giovanni, Dr. Giorgio Oldrini, the Mayor of the neighbouring town of Cinisello Balsamo, Angelo Zaninello, the President of the Province of Milan, Dr. Filippo Penati and the Salesian Provincial of  Lombardy-Emilia, Fr Agostino Sosio. The President of the Region of Lombardy, Roberto Formigoni, who because of other official duties could not attend, sent a message.

Afterwards the Rector Major met the 600 or so pupils who attend the III, IV and V classes, gathered in the school gymnasium with their teachers. The students who had been preparing for this occasion for some time then put some questions to Fr Chávez who spent about an hour answering them and commenting on subjects including education, the Church, Europe and the role of the young people themselves. Sixth Form students from the Scientific Sixth Form Centre and from the Industrial Technical Institute were clearly greatly taken by the words of the IX successor of Don Bosco, the Rector Major.

The Salesians of Don Bosco began their educational work in the “Rondinella” district on the boundary between Sesto San Giovanni and Cinisello Balsamo in 1948 at the invitation of Cardinal I. Schuster, who was then Archbishop of Milan. In the following years the apostlic activities of the Salesians developed gradually and strongly and today at Sesto there are: a Middle School, the Industrial Technical Institute with daytime and evening classes, a two year Technological Course, a Scientific and Technological Sixth Form College and a Vocational Training Centre.

Published 31/10/2007