National Catholic Reporter article about Pope Francis’ call for peace in South Sudan includes interviews with Salesian missionaries working on the front lines of ethnic and religious conflict. WAU, South Sudan (May 5, 2019) Excerpt: “During the crises, it is the Church that people look to for a...
Read Full Story(Catholic News Service) Pope says priests must be “men of joy” and says St. Bosco is “best” example
January 31, 2019VATICAN CITY Jan. 31, 2019 (Excerpt) A priest must be able to see the people around him as his children, as brothers and sisters, and must be willing to risk everything for them out of love, Pope Francis said in his morning homily. In fact, the best example of this kind of priest is St.Read more...
(Crux/Catholic News Agency) The pilot bishop of the South Pacific
January 8, 2019GIZO, Solomon Islands Jan. 8, 2019 Known as the “flying bishop” of Solomon Islands, Bishop Luciano Capelli visits Catholics across dozens of islands by piloting a small airplane he also uses to deliver food and medicine. Capelli, an Italian, was a Salesian missionary in the Philippines for 35...
Salesian Priest Kidnapped in Yemen Details Ordeal in New Rochelle Talk
September 12, 2018NEW ROCHELLE, NY Sept. 12, 2018 (Excerpt) A chaplain to the Missionaries of Charity Sisters in Yemen at that time who was also serving Catholics there on a religious visa, Father Uzhunnalil, now 60, was abducted March 4, 2016, after a group of gunmen barged into the care home for the elderly run by...
(Crux) Preparing for pope, young Chileans say they’re glad he wants their views
January 8, 2018SANTIAGO, CHILE Jan. 8, 2018 (Excerpt) The playground at the Salesian-run school is filled with children in brightly colored swimsuits, laughing and screaming as young Catholic volunteers spray them with water in the 100-degree summer sunshine. The children range in age from 6 to 12. They are...
(Crux) Salesian priest remembers the day Father Tom was kidnapped in Yemen
December 15, 2017MUMBAI, INDIA Dec. 15, 2017 (Excerpt) Salesian Father George Muttathuparambil received the phone call at 11:15 in the morning on March 4, 2016. Sister Sally, the mother superior of the Missionaries of Charity center in the Yemeni port city of Aden, was in a state of shock on the phone. The other...
Global Sisters Report: Where gangs are family, job training offers chance to escape violence
December 14, 2017CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA Dec. 14, 2017 (Excerpt) It’s not the gangster language itself that worries Sr. Ana Maria Mainero, a Salesian Sister of Don Bosco. What worries Mainero is when young children start using those words, signifying their uneasy relationship with neighborhood gangs. Words like...
(Crux) Salesians use anniversary of Indian shrine to reflect on mission to youth
November 16, 2017MUMBAI, INDIA Nov. 16, 2017 (Excerpt) The church was built in the city’s Matunga neighborhood in 1957 by Italian Salesian Father Aurelius Maschio, who modelled it on the famous church in Turin bearing the same title. The Salesians already operated Don Bosco High School in the same neighborhood,...