Salesian Fr. Sala Appointed Secretary for Synod on Youth

Salesian Fr. Rossano Sala Appointed Special Secretary for the Synod of Bishops on Youth

ANS doesn't identify the two priests, one of whom is Fr. Costa, the other Fr. Sala.

We can be pretty sure which man is the Pope and which one the cardinal.

(ANS - Vatican City – November 20) - Pope Francis has appointed a relator general, Cardinal Sergio Rocha, archbishop of Brasilia, and two special secretaries for the 2018 Synod, which is dedicated to young people. The secretaries are Fr. Giacomo Costa, SJ, and Fr. Rossano Sala, SDB. The appointments took place at the end of the November 16-17 meeting of the council of the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.

Announcing the nomination, the general secretariat explained that “the appointment of two special secretaries conforms to Article 14 §3 of the Ordo Synodi Episcoporum” (see Can. 348 §2 of C.I.C.)

Cardinal Rocha was made cardinal by Pope Francis on November 19, 2016. Fr. Costa has been director of the journal Aggiornamenti Sociali since 2010, and is thought to have been one of those consulted in the writing of the encyclical Laudato Si’.

Fr. Sala has been a Salesian since 1992 and a priest since 2000. For four years, he served his pastoral-educational ministry in the Salesian house of Bologna, and for six years he was director and principal of Brescia’s Salesian Institute. Licensed in sacred theology in 2002 at the Interregional Theological School in Milan, in 2012 he received his doctorate in sacred theology at the same School.

He taught fundamental theology at the Studentato Teologico Salesiano in Turin (the “Crocetta”). Since 2011, he has been part of the academic community of the Salesian Pontifical University of Rome. In 2016, he was appointed director of the magazine Note di Pastorale Giovanile.

“This assignment as special secretary is a sign of confidence in the Salesian Family,” Fr. Sala told ANS. “It is a task that comes from the Holy Father to be of help and support in the preparation of the Synod and, above all, to accompany Cardinal Rocha closely.”

“I am very grateful for the confidence shown to me by the Holy Father, as a Salesian and, above all, as a representative of the Salesian Family, which works with young people,” he said. “We are a large family which has an educational-pastoral ministry with young people, a way of being with young people, and a style to accompany them. This is a great responsibility for me, and I ask you to accompany me with prayers. As the sons of Don Bosco, we must be faithful to our founder when it comes to a commission that comes from the Holy Father.”