(ANS – Genzano, Rome) – When Don Bosco arrived in Turin, he came up against a hell. Don Cafasso led him to the streets to let him know the reality. Don Bosco saw the real and true misery: slavery, prison, people sentenced to death, exploited children, abandoned youth without their parents, without a home, without education, without religion. After more than one hundred years, the Sons of Don Bosco continue to live this drama of the youth, but give it some responses. The Salesian novices of Genzano, in Rome, want to be another Don Bosco in our time.

The Salesian Institute “St. Luigi Versiglia” of Genzano in Rome, is one of the international Novitiates and welcomes Salesian novices coming from all over the world.

“In Genzano we study, we work, we pray and we are well as we get to know the Congregation, studying and imitating Don Bosco”, says Fr. Damián Moragues, a Salesian of the Province Spain-Maria Ausiliatrice, who has the role of Socius of the Novice master at the Novitiate.

“One of the most appreciated activities is the weekly presence at the house ‘Borgo Ragazzi Don Bosco’ in the periphery of Rome, in Prenestina Avenue”, Fr. Damián adds, explaining the daily life of the youth and their work of immersion in the peripheries, following the recommendation of Pope Francis.

In Genzano there are now 15 novices; 5 from Italy, 6 from Croatia, 2 from Hungary, 1 from Portugal and 1 from Spain, from the Province of Madrid. The Salesian novices in this phase of their formation are given the possibility to begin a true Salesian religious experience. Accordingly, the community must set an example of life based on faith and nourished by prayer, where evangelic simplicity, joy, friendship and mutual respect create an atmosphere of trust and docility.

During the Year of Mercy, the young Salesians work to listen to the call of the Church that, as is well explained by Pope Francis, “is called to go forth, to go to the peripheries, not only the geographical, but also existential ones: those of the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance, of setting aside religion, of thought and of all miseries”.

Published on 26/02/2016