(ANS - Lonavala) - Before returning to the Generalate in Rome, Fr Pascual Chávez, Rector Major and Fr Adriano Bregolin, his Vicar, participated in several local events and celebrations.

Fr Pascual Chávez left the Province of Calcutta on Sunday 10 November and travelled the next day to Lonavala, where he presided over the inauguration ceremony of the Gromo Camp of the association of Salesian scouts and guides in India. (Gromo is an acronym for "Grow More").

The Gromo Camp is an annual three-day event organized by the Province of Mumbai. This year it involved 271 students from ten Salesian schools, united under the banner "Healing the world."

The opening ceremony took place in the early afternoon. The Rector Major visited each department, accompanied by Fr Godfrey D'Souza, Provincial of Mumbai, and other personalities. Then, after a march-past by the boys, there was a prayer dance and the singing of the Camp Hymn. In his speech for the inauguration, Fr Chávez spoke of the urgent need to heal a wounded humanity and then declared Gromo Camp 2013 officially open.

Among the guests of honour at the ceremony in Lonavala was Fr Bregolin, Vicar of the Rector Major. At the end of his visit to the Province of Panjim, Fr Bregolin joined Fr Chávez. Previously, after recalling the main challenges facing the Salesians in their Consecrated Life, Fr Bregolin had spoken to the pre-novices of the Province and met with about 160 members of the Salesian Family at the Salesian Institute in Fatorda. He recalled the five main objectives stressed in the Rector Major’s Strenna: the defence of all human life, the promotion of the family, the rediscovery of Salesian pedagogy, care for  evangelization and vocational accompaniment.

Published 13/11/2013