Fr. Juan Vecchi's Annual Strenne

Fr. Juan Vecchi’s Annual Strenne

(ANS – Rome – Dec. 22, 2023) – The first non-Italian successor of Don Bosco (although the son of Italian immigrants) in the history of the Salesian Congregation was the Argentine Fr. Juan Edmundo Vecchi, born in the same city where “the nurse of the poor,” today a saint, operated: St. Artemides Zatti, SDB, to whom Fr. Vecchi was related. Although illness did not allow him a longer term of office, it was he who guided the Salesians of Don Bosco from the old into the new millennium.

The 8th successor of Don Bosco, having completed his initial formation between his native land and Italy, had already served for 24 years (from 1972 to 1996) on the Congregation’s general council before assuming the role of Rector Major: as regional councilor for Latin America, general councilor for youth ministry, and vicar of the Rector Major. The choice of the 24th General Chapter of 1996 to elect him to the leadership of the Salesian Society was therefore a choice with a guarantee of competence, vision, and continuity.

A man of great horizons, apostolic courage, and ecclesial sensitivity, he faced the illness that consumed him and marked the last years of his life first with courage and then with serene abandonment to the will of God. He was a great innovator in the field of youth ministry, and, coming from a missionary land himself, he continued his predecessor’s Project Africa, founded new missions, and organized new projects for missionary areas, then animated the Extraordinary Missionary Expedition 2000.

At the same time, he paid great attention to communication, in which he believed with real conviction: the tangible sign was the relaunching and renewal of the Salesian Bulletin in 52 editions. Another emblem of his term of office, the shortest in Salesian history so far, was the impulse given to lay collaborators in the mission and to the recognition and acceptance of their role.

He died in Rome on January 23, 2002, lovingly and filially assisted by the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary – the religious congregation founded by Blessed Louis Variara, SDB – a few weeks after the completion of his six-year term.

As for the strenna, at the structural level all six strenne that Fr. Vecchi produced and delivered are simple and short, characterized by the organic and stable presence of a biblical reference, in most cases, or at least an ecclesial one.

He did not leave any written commentary on the strenna; but every year, at the Salesian Family Spirituality Days, which at the time were celebrated in Rome in January, he always made a presentation and explanation of the strenna.

In the small body of his strenne it is not difficult to identify a sense of Church as the dominant characteristic, the Congregation’s journey in harmony with the life of the Church; so much so that his strenne are all in line with the great Jubilee of 2000 called by Pope John Paul II. The first 3 are part of the path of preparation requested by the Pope himself; the one for the Holy Year takes up the central theme of the Jubilee, reconciliation; and the 2 subsequent ones aim to have the seeds of grace come to fruition from that great universal event.

No mere symbolic sense of Church, then, but desired, sustained, and decisive, which did not replace but rather supported and strengthened the Salesianity of the strenna.

Here, then, are the 6 strenne left by Rector Major Fr. Vecchi:

1997: “With our gaze fixed on Jesus, the firstborn of many brothers, let us help young people to welcome him in the faith.”

1998: “‘Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Let us turn to him with childlike love, to be builders of fraternal solidarity with the young.”

1999: “In hope we have been saved: let us rediscover with young people the presence of the Spirit in the Church and in the world, to live and work with confidence from the perspective of the kingdom.”

2000: “In the name of Christ, our peace, let yourselves be reconciled.”

2001: “Christ a gift for all. As a result of the jubilee, let us revive our missionary spirit and solidarity.”

2002: “‘Duc in altum’: lets us launch out into the deep and the open sea.”