Homily for Wednesday, 2d Week of Easter

Homily for Wednesday
2d Week of Easter
St. Pius V

April 30, 2024
John 3: 16-21
Collect
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, N.R.

Jesus Teaching (Rembrandt)

Today’s gospel continues Jesus’ discourse that began with his dialog with Nicodemus.  In the passage we read yesterday, however, specifically in v. 11, Jesus shifted from addressing Nicodemus in the singular, “thou” in older English, to the plural “you.”  Thus he and the evangelist are now speaking to a wider audience of those who believe and those who don’t.

The belief Jesus speaks of concerns God’s love, eternal life, light, and truth—main themes in John’s Gospel.  Jesus is among us and speaks to us to reveal God’s encompassing love, a love meant to bring men and women into God’s eternal life.  This is our choice to make, to believe or not to believe, to choose divine light or infernal darkness, to choose divine truth or Satan’s lies.

St. Pius V

We’re celebrating today the memorial of St. Pius V.  The saint’s collect notes his safeguarding of the faith, which he did in 2 ways:  organizing the military defense of Christian Europe against Turkish invasion, successfully accomplished with the totally unexpected victory at Lepanto, and the publication of a catechism that presented Catholic doctrine reaffirmed by the Council of Trent—light and truth.

The collect refers further to “more fitting worship” and our participation in the divine mysteries, an allusion to St. Pius’s promulgation of Trent’s liturgical reforms with the Roman Missal and the breviary.  Enlightened by divine truth and responding to God’s encompassing love, we worship him in the Eucharist and the Divine Office, which in turn reinforce and safeguard our faith; for in them we encounter Christ personally and profoundly.

Homily for Tuesday, 2d Week of Easter

Homily for Tuesday
2d Week of Easter

April 29, 2024
John 3: 7-15
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Nicodemus & Jesus on a Rooftop
(Henry O. Tanner)

“The wind blows where it wills…” (John 3: 8).

St. John is fond of wordplay, and his fondness is at work when he compares the Spirit to wind.  It’s the same word in Greek, pneuma.  It’s the same Spirit, the same “mighty wind” that “swept over the waters” when God began creating the universe (Gen 1:2), the same “breath of life” that God “blew into the nostrils” of the “man he formed out of the clay of the ground” (Gen 2:7) as his creation culminated in humanity.

The life breath of God, his creative wind, his Holy Spirit continues in the work of Jesus—a mysterious work that neither Nicodemus nor anyone can understand, any more than we can grasp “where the wind comes from or where it goes” (John 3:8).

We see and hear the wind’s effects—leaves swaying, windows rattling.  In Harriman last week I saw dozens of trees laid prone by violent storms.  Likewise, Jesus suggests, we behold the effects of the Spirit’s work.  Where did John XXIII come from, and where did God mean for him to take the Church?  Ditto Francis.  What’s next for God’s creative work among his people?  We certainly don’t want Jesus to say of us, “How will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” (3:12).

“The Son of Man has come down from heaven” (3:13) to reveal heaven’s workings to us and to unleash the Spirit of God in the Church, in his saints like Catherine of Siena, and in us.  In these days, of course, we’re praying that the college of cardinals (we SDBs have 5 electors) are listening to “the sound it makes” and trying to perceive “where it goes” (cf. 3:8) so that Christ’s Church may continue to lift him up for the world to see and believe (cf. 3:14-15).

Pastoral Assignments 2025-2026, First Batch

Pastoral Assignments for 2025-2026

Provincial Announces 1st Batch of "Obediences"

On April 24, Fr. Dominic Tran, provincial of the Salesians' New Rochelle Province, announced the 1st assignments for the pastoral year that will begin on July 1.

Fr. Jack Janko

Two directors completing 3-year terms have been named to new terms, 3d terms in each instance:  Fr. Jack Janko for the SDB community of East Boston, which operates the Salesian Boys & Girls Club of East Boston and assists in several parishes and other local ministries; and Fr. John Nazzaro for the SDB community of Orange, N.J., which includes the province's house of formation for candidates and newly professed Salesians as well as Our Lady of the Valley Parish.

Fr. John Nazzaro

The province's vocation director, Fr. Steve DeMaio, will move from the provincial house in New Rochelle to St. Benedict Parish in Etobicoke, Ont. (a Toronto suburb), to assist with vocation ministry in Canada.

Fr. Sean McEwen, currently the pastor in Etobicoke, will move to New Rochelle and assume direction of the province's vocation ministry.  Fr. Sean is also on the provincial council, and now he won't have to travel to attend its meetings; on the other hand, he'll do a lot more traveling to promote SDB vocations.

Fr. Sean's place at St. Benedict's will be filled by Fr. Adaikala Raja John (as administrator, not pastor).  Fr. John relocate from Edmonton, where he has been pastor of St. John Bosco Parish, and Fr. Chinnapparaj Desam will become administrator of that parish.  Fr. Desam has been serving at St. Charles Parish in Edmonton.

Homily for 2d Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Easter

April 27, 2025
Rev 1: 9-13, 17-19
The Fountains, Tuckahoe, N.Y.
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

The Alpha & the Omega,
the first and the last

“I am the first and the last, the one who lives.  Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever.  I hold the keys to death and the nether world” (Rev 1: 17-18).

All this week we’ve been celebrating Easter Day, celebrating that our Lord Jesus who “once was dead now is alive forever,” and he opens for us our own escape from “death and the nether world.”  “The nether world” or hades is what the Apostles Creed refers to when it speaks of Christ descending into hell; that is, he died and was buried.

But not for long!  In his vision to St. John in the Book of Revelation, Jesus calls himself “the first and the last.”  He’s the first because as God he created the universe and is the first human being to pass from death into eternal life.  He’s the last because in him the universe, and humanity in particular, reaches its perfection.  Perfection is life with God thru Jesus Christ.

Having passed thru death and into life, Jesus has the keys that allow all of us to make that same journey; he opens the doors for us.  Or, in the words he addressed to St. Peter, “the gates of hell will not prevail” over his Church, over Christ’s people (Matt 16:18).

Christ holds the keys to life.  These are the keys of God’s mercy; for it’s an act of mercy that God forgives our sins and takes us to himself because we are Jesus’ people; we belong to him and in him we’re children of God.

Christ appears in the Cenacle (Tissot)

In the gospel—a passage we’re all familiar with—Jesus gave his Holy Spirit to the apostles, i.e., to the Church, for the forgiveness of sins (John 20:21-23).  How many times did we hear our beloved Pope Francis speak of mercy and forgiveness!  That’s the Church’s purpose, to extend what Jesus himself did until the end of time.  He gave St. Peter a set of keys, and he gave all the apostles the Holy Spirit so that those keys can be used to set us free from our sins and let us out of the doom of the grave.

We prayed a little while ago (in the collect) that we might understand that Christ’s blood has redeemed us, his Spirit has given us a new life, and his Baptism has washed us clean.  Thru the sacraments of Baptism, Reconciliation, and the Eucharist, Jesus takes away our sins and fills us with his own life.  Because he lives, “his mercy endures forever” (Ps 118:2).  Thru our belief in him and our sacramental union with him, we “have life in his name” (John 20:31).

Pope Francis's Salesian Roots

Pope Francis’s Salesian Roots

Jorge Bergoglio (circled) and his classmates at the Salesians’ Villa Colon School in 1949

 (ANS – Lima, Peru – April 23, 2025) – Pope Francis’s death on April 21 invites us to look back on the Salesian roots of the man who, for the last 12 years, was the 266th Pontiff of the Catholic Church. Much of this information was recounted by Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself in letters written between 1986 and 1990 to Salesian historian Fr. Cayetano Bruno (1912-2003), found in the Salesian historical archives in Buenos Aires by fellow Salesian and historian Fr. Alejandro Leon and published in the book Francisco y Don Bosco (2014).

A family connection that dates back to Valdocco

Mario Giuseppe Francesco Bergoglio, father of the future Pope, was originally from Piedmont, Don Bosco’s homeland. He was born in Asti and from there moved to Turin. He frequented the basilica of Mary Help of Christians at a time when the SDB Generalate was still in Valdocco. As a result of this closeness, and as evidence of it, when he emigrated to Argentina in 1929, he took with him a letter of recommendation for the Salesians in Buenos Aires. Upon arriving in Argentina, he stayed with the Salesians at the Mater Misericordiae Church, the historic destination of the first Salesian missionary expedition in 1875.

A family formed thanks to the friendship of a Salesian and consecrated in the shrine of Mary Help of Christians

At the Salesian Mater Misericordiae house, he met Fr. Enrico Pozzoli, who became his confessor and introduced Mario Bergoglio to the Sivori brothers. Mario fell in love with Regina Maria Sivori and married her on December 12, 1935, in the church of Mary Help of Christians and St. Charles in Almagro. Five children were born from the union, of whom Jorge Mario was the eldest.

Baptized by a Salesian priest in a Salesian parish

A year after the wedding, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on December 17, 1936. It was Fr. Pozzoli who baptized him on December 25, 1936, in the baptistery of the basilica of Mary Help of Christians and St. Charles in Almagro. Visitors to this place today can see a sign indicating that it was there, in that eminently Salesian space, that the journey within the Church began for the man who would go down in history as the first Latin American Pope.

Salesian student in sixth grade

Fr. Pozzoli (whom the future Pope Francis described in a letter dated 1990 as “the spiritual father of the family”) arranged for Jorge Mario and his 2d brother, Oscar Adrian, to be admitted as boarders at the Salesian school in Ramos Mejia (Buenos Aires). There he attended 6th grade (in classroom 6B, to be precise). His time in the Salesian classrooms, altho only one year, was decisive: it was in the light of the work of Don Bosco’s sons that his priestly vocation was born. As Pope Francis himself recalled: “I first felt my vocation in Ramos Mejia, during my 6th year, and I spoke about it with the famous “fisher of vocations,” Fr. Martinez, SDB, but then I started secondary school, and that was it [he had to move to another school].”

The maturing of his priestly vocation in the warmth of the Salesians

It was also Fr. Pozzoli who spoke with Jorge Mario’s parents in 1955 and convinced them to accept their eldest son’s priestly vocation. It was in the chapel of Our Lady Help of Christians in the Salesian basilica in Almagro that Bergoglio chose in 1957, after his pneumonia and lung operation, to join the Society of Jesus. While he was preparing to join the Jesuits, and to avoid hid spending too much time away from a religious house, Fr. Pozzoli obtained permission from Bergoglio’s provincial to spend his holidays with the Salesian clergy at their house in Tandil, whence he would go on to the Jesuit novitiate, according to Fr. Alejandro Leon in his aforementioned book.

A Salesian devotion to Jesuit brothers: Brother Zatti

In 1976, as provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina (1973-1979), he noted with concern the decline in vocations for brothers in the Society of Jesus. He felt that they were in imminent danger of extinction. It was then that he learned about Artemides Zatti, a Salesian brother and Italian immigrant to Argentina like his father. He prayed to him for a solution to this problem. According to Bergoglio in a letter dated 1986, in July 1977 the first young brother joined, followed by new vocations in the following years, to the point that by the year the letter was written, “since we began our requests to Brother Zatti, 18 young brothers have joined and are persevering,” in addition to 5 others who left, making a total of 23. Years later, in 2002, Brother Zatti was beatified, and in 2022 Pope Francis himself canonized him.

Fan of a soccer team founded by a Salesian priest

Thruout his life Pope Francis was a fan of the San Lorenzo de Almagro soccer team, founded in 1908 in the same neighborhood where Bergoglio’s family lived by Fr. Lorenzo Massa, a Salesian priest. As Pontiff, he received the players and directors of San Lorenzo when they won the Copa Libertadores in 2014. In September 2024, they were once again welcomed to the Vatican by the Pope, who was delighted to hear that the team’s future stadium will bear his name.

A Pope close to the figure and work of Don Bosco

Thruout his pontificate, Francis expressed his admiration for the figure of Don Bosco on more than one occasion, as well as his closeness to the Salesians. His visit to the basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin on June 21, 2015, on the occasion of the bicentennial of Don Bosco’s birth, was particularly memorable. At World Youth Day 2019, he fondly recalled Don Bosco as an example of someone who was able to see clearly the needs of his situation. He also made significant contributions to the ecclesial recognition of Salesian holiness. In 2017, he approved the heroic virtues of Bishop Octavio Ortiz Arrieta, declaring him Venerable, and in 2022 he canonized Artemides Zatti. A unique fact: in 2022, in audience with the then Rector Major Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, he received from the hands of Don Bosco’s 10th Successor a copy of the book for the 100th anniversary of the basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Lima, as an outstanding editorial gem among all Salesian publications. Among the most recent milestones are the creation of Fr. Fernandez as cardinal in 2023 and bishop in 2024, who in the coming days will participate in the historic conclave where Francis’s successor will be elected.

Camille Costa de Beauregard to Be Beatified

Camille Costa de Beauregard to Be Beatified in Chambery

“We Love Them Deeply, and These Good Children Understand That”

by Paul Ripaud, SDB, in Don Bosco Aujourd’hui

(ANS – Paris – April 17, 2025) – On May 17, 2025, Fr. Camille Costa de Beauregard will be beatified in the cathedral of Chambery.[1] Tho this priest from Savoy never belonged to the Salesian Society, his cause for beatification was supported by the Salesian Postulation Department. But what’s his connection to the Salesians of Don Bosco?

In 1954, the Salesians were invited to Chambery to take charge of the Bocage orphanage—a home founded by Fr. Costa de Beauregard. Along with the orphanage, they inherited a house for a group of children, a large estate, and the canonization cause of Camille, which had been ongoing since 1925. Fr. Albert Chambe, the first Salesian director there, came to know the remarkable personality of this diocesan priest whose reputation for holiness had endured long after his death.

Camille Costa de Beauregard was born in February 1841 into a noble Savoyard family. His father, Marquis Pantaleon, was a wealthy landowner and grand equerry (grand squire or master of stables/royal household) to Charles Albert, king of Sardinia. A cultured man and lover of the arts, he was also politically active, opposing the secular policies of Cavour in the Turin Parliament and advocating for Savoy’s annexation to a more religiously tolerant France in 1860. His wife, the Marquise de Verac—descended from the noble Noailles family—was a strong-willed woman shaped by personal tragedies. She raised their children in a strict and deeply religious environment at their estate, the Chateau de La Motte-Servolex near Chambery.

Camille was the 5th of 9 children and struggled academically. He began with a private tutor, then entered boarding school at La Motte at age 9, followed by Jesuit schools in Brugelette, Belgium; Vannes; and Toulouse. Often plagued by illness, he eventually returned home to study with the Abbé Chenal, who would remain his mentor for decades.

Drawn to worldly pleasures and always elegantly dressed, Camille went through a period of spiritual crisis, abandoning most religious practices—though he never stopped praying to Mary. Abbé Chenal accompanied him patiently through this phase. One evening in Paris, after a gala with his parents, Camille was approached by two ragged boys asking for money. He gave them alms and returned to his carriage, where he dozed off. He dreamed of taking in those boys, educating them, and teaching them a trade. More children followed in the dream, overwhelming him. He woke up deeply shaken. From then on, his habits changed, and his reading became more spiritual.

Later, in the cathedral of Chambery, he experienced a powerful conversion. Overcome with emotion, he shed what he called “sweet tears” and felt called to dedicate his life entirely to God through the priesthood.

After a period of retreat, he entered the French seminary in Rome in September 1863. His transition to a simpler life was difficult, and the austere clerical garb weighed heavily on him. One day, Abbé Chenal gave him an image of St. Benedict Joseph Labré, the “beggar saint,” and said, “That’s how far you still have to go.” Camille took the message to heart.

In June 1867, newly ordained and back in Chambery, he asked the bishop for the humblest position—an unpaid, unlodged 4th vicar at the cathedral—so he could serve the working class. He also founded the Saint Francis de Sales Mutual Aid Society for workers.

Soon after, a cholera epidemic struck Chambery, leaving many children orphaned. Moved by compassion, Camille welcomed some of them into his modest 2-room apartment. But as more came seeking help, he needed more space. Count Boigne, a benefactor of the city, offered him an old customs building. In 1868, Fr. Camille and Abbé Chenal moved there, to what became Le Bocage.

This was the beginning of Camille’s life’s mission: serving orphans and abandoned children. His quiet, tireless work with the young earned him widespread recognition for holiness—even among anticlericals. From morning to night, he was at their service, using a method inspired by St. Francis de Sales—“Nothing by force, everything through love”—closely aligned with Don Bosco’s approach, whom Fr. Camille had met in Turin in 1869.

The heart of his method was affection. “People often asked me what system or special method we used to form our children this way. One person even asked me, ‘What’s your secret for educating young people so well?’ I answered, ‘Our secret is very simple; it’s not complicated at all: we love them very much, and these good children understand that.’ It’s probably this love that helps us find the best way to reach their hearts and minds, to form them well.”

Fr. Camille Costa de Beauregard lived a life of total self-gift—marked by boundless charity, chosen poverty, and profound humility. He died on Good Friday, March 25, 1910, at the age of 69, worn out by worry and poor health.

A few months after his death, a boy suffering from a severe eye injury was healed following a novena asking for Fr. Camille’s intercession. This healing, unexplainable by science, was recently recognized as a miracle—clearing the way for his beatification.

---

[1] Editor’s note: Due to the death of Pope Francis, the beatification may have to be postponed.

Salesian Missions Funds Security & Studies in Zambia Postnovitiate

Salesian Missions Funds Security and Studies at the Postnovitiate in Zambia

(ANS – Makeni, Zambia – April 14, 2025) – The postnovitiate house in Makeni, part of the Sacred Heart Salesian community in Lusaka, Zambia, has recently been able to enhance its security and install solar lighting systems thanks to funding from Salesian Missions in New Rochelle. In a postnovitiate community, recently professed religious continue their formation in philosophy or other studies and deepen their commitment to the life and mission of their religious family.

With this generous donation, the Salesians in Makeni have installed new aluminum windows, burglar-proof bars, and a solar backup lighting system for alternative energy use. Before these upgrades, the community faced recurring issues such as theft of bicycles and computers. Without surveillance systems, it was impossible to identify the thieves or recover the stolen items.

“The project has brought great relief to all the Salesians,” shared one community member. “The new solar system has helped reduce the impact of power outages, and the improved security has eased our concerns about theft. The rooms have also been refurbished, providing students with comfortable sleeping arrangements.”

The funding from Salesian Missions also made it possible to purchase books for the library and IT equipment to enhance student learning. Thanks to the generosity of donors, seminarians preparing for the priesthood now have access to a wide range of educational resources, including over 300 textbooks, computers, and a printer.

One Salesian remarked, “This project brought joy to the academic dean and to the students, who now have access to the teaching materials they need in the library and can use computers to search for additional information that is not always available in books.”

Salesians in Zambia run various educational and social development programs to support vulnerable and at-risk youths, helping them build healthy and productive lives. Access to early education provides a solid foundation for future vocational training and employment. Along the way, their basic needs are met, ensuring they can focus fully on their studies.

Poverty remains widespread in Zambia, where 64% of the total population lives below the poverty line. In rural areas, according to UNICEF, the poverty rate is as high as 80%. Over the last 3 decades, income levels have steadily declined, and many people cannot afford basic necessities such as shelter, nutritious food, and medical care.

Homily for Saturday, Octave of Easter

Homily for Saturday
Octave of Easter

April 26, 2025
Acts 4: 13-21
Provincial House, New Rochelle

St. Peter before the Sanhedrin
(artist unknown)

“It’s impossible for us not to speak about what we’ve seen and heard” (Acts 4: 20).

Peter and John, as well as the rest of the 12 and numerous other disciples, like Mary Magdalene, “out of whom Jesus had driven 7 demons” (Mark 16:9), all witnesses of Risen Jesus, must proclaim the works of Jesus, the “abundance of [God’s] grace,” as the collect phrases it.  They must proclaim the resurrection and the new life promised “to every creature” in “the whole world,” according to Mark’s version of the great commission (16:15).

Peter, John, and the others were aware of their failures.  They’d experienced—maybe more times than the gospels tell us—Jesus’ forgiveness and patience, “the abundance of [divine] grace.”  They’d experienced his “looking with favor on those [he had] chosen” (Collect).  That mercy was more precious than physical cures or nature miracles, more powerful than human nature and our spiritual ailments.  That mercy gives meaning to the resurrection and makes Jesus worth proclaiming “to every creature.”

In these days the Church thanks God the Father for the “increase to the peoples who believe in” him, “those reborn thru the sacrament of Baptism” (Collect) and their faith in Jesus.  In France alone, it’s reported that 10,000 people entered the Church at Easter, far more than in any year in recent memory.  Perhaps those thousands were influenced in part by the life and example of Pope Francis, and perhaps in part by the national trauma and rebirth of Notre Dame Cathedral.  If that latter suggestion is valid, then we may say that our Lady’s hand has been at work in this spurt of belief.

So we pray that God’s grace continue to give increase, that it may persist in those who’ve answered God’s choice and been clothed in grace, that France, e.g., might reclaim her ancient title “eldest daughter of the Church,” which harks back to the conversion of King Clovis and his Frankish kingdom in 496.  We pray that growth in the number of God’s children continue everywhere and that the children who’ve run away from their Father in Western Europe, North America, and everywhere—who’ve abandoned the Church if not the faith entirely—might return like the prodigal son.

The growth in faith and the maintenance of healthy faith among those who do believe depends on the courageous faith, practice, and preaching of apostles like Peter and John.  We keep in mind our mission to the young and to their families.  In this 150th year of our missions, we keep in mind those who have yet to hear the Good News that God “raised Jesus Christ the Nazorean from the dead,” as we heard Peter preach yesterday (Acts 4:10), so that in Jesus’ name salvation be offered to the whole human race (4:12).

It’s impossible that Don Bosco’s sons and daughters, called and chosen by grace to be apostles, not speak about what they’ve seen and heard—in the power of the Scriptures, in the power of the sacred liturgy, in the testimony of the lives of the saints, in our own experience of God’s grace touching our souls.  “My strength and my courage is the Lord, and he has been my savior.  I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (Ps 118:14,17).

Homily for Tuesday, Octave of Easter

Homily for Tuesday
Octave of Easter

April 22, 2025
Acts 2: 36-41
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

St. Peter Preaching (Charles Poerson)

“The promise is made to you … and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2: 39).

Announcing Jesus’ resurrection and the forgiveness of sins thru him, Peter sees these as a promise of God meant for anyone who will believe and accept—believe in Jesus as the Christ, repent, and accept forgiveness.

The promise, Peter declares, is meant not only for those hearing him on Pentecost morning in Jerusalem but also for “all those far off.”  Luke has reported the presence of Jews from all over the Empire (2:5-11).  Peter, presumably, means that God’s promise extends to all their fellow Jews back in their home countries, the far reaches of the world as known in Jerusalem.

We can see a farther reach to God’s promise of salvation:  not just to Jews but also to “those far off” from Jewish belief and nationality, “far off” from hope in the 1st century.  God’s promise will extend also to Greeks and Romans, to Gauls and Arabs, and to everyone else (even the Irish).  Moreover, we see a farther reach in time, “far off” from the age of Jesus and the apostles, extending, as Jesus himself said, “to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20).

This extension in space and time is echoed in our 3d Eucharistic Prayer:  “from the rising of the sun to its setting a pure sacrifice may be offered to” the name of God thru our Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit; from the sun’s rising in the east to its setting in the west, across the whole geography of the earth; from its rising in the morning to its setting in the evening, across the span of time—everywhere and forever.

This is the scope of God’s promise of redemption.  We, so far from Jerusalem and so far away in time, are grateful to God for his mercy and offer our Eucharist, our thanks, thru Christ our Lord.

Homily for Easter Sunday

Homily for Easter Sunday

April 20, 2025
John 20: 1-9
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

(Window at OL of the Assumption Church)

“Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning” (John 20: 1).

Sts. Matthew, Mark, and John inform us that Mary had been at Jesus’ crucifixion.  She and the other witnesses knew that he was quite dead.  St. John adds the detail that one of the soldiers made sure of that by thrusting a lance thru Jesus’ rib cage and into his lungs so that “blood and water flowed out” (19:34), i.e., blood and serous fluid from his chest.

So Mary, and according to the other gospels, some of the other women disciples, came to Jesus tomb expecting only to find his body and complete the customary ritual anointings.  She hardly expected to find the tomb empty.  Resurrection isn’t part of our experience; it’s not what anyone would have expected on the 3d day.  That’s partly why St. Paul tells the Colossians to “think of what is above, not what is on earth” (3:2).

It’s still unexpected by a lot of people.  Ted Williams believed firmly in the power of science and the science of hitting a baseball, which he did spectacularly well—well enuf to hold the 5th-highest career batting average (9th if you include the old Negro Leagues).  If he hadn’t lost 5 seasons in his prime while serving as a Marine combat pilot during WWII and the Korean War, he might have broken Babe Ruth’s home run record.

When Ted died in 2002, part of his remains were preserved by cryonics—low-temperature freezing and storage, in the hope that science would make resurrection possible in the future.  Had he believed in God’s promises, he and his family wouldn’t have had to resort to such a flimsy hope.

Ted Williams being sworn into military service, May 1942

It seems that Mary of Magdala and the other disciples also had flimsy hope on the morning after the Sabbath, 2 days after the crucifixion—in biblical reckoning, the 3d day (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).  Discovering the tomb open and empty, Mary’s 1st supposition is that Jesus’ body had been taken away.  Her supposition is extended in the next passage of John’s Gospel, which we’ll read at Mass on Tuesday, and you can read anytime you pick up your New Testament.  Next Sunday’s gospel, continuing John’s Gospel from there, will tell us how skeptical, then amazed, the apostles were, especially “Doubting Thomas.”

In the passage we read this morning, even St. Peter doesn’t get it.  He sees the burial cloths and the head covering lying on the shelf in the tomb (20:6-7), which seem to have been left rather neatly on the shelf.  But Peter doesn’t understand what’s happened any more than Mary does.

The Beloved Disciple, however, does “see and believe” (20:8).  Tradition identifies him as the apostle and evangelist John, the eyewitness of the Last Supper, the crucifixion, and several of Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection.  Whoever this disciple was, he had an exceptionally close relationship with Jesus.  Now he understands the scriptural prophecies as well as what Jesus had told them all.  The tomb is empty because Jesus is alive—not resuscitated as if EMS had been there, but transposed to a higher form of life.  The apostles will come to understand that when he appears to them bearing on his body his deadly wounds.

What the Beloved Disciple “saw and believed,” if not fully at that moment, then gradually, was that Jesus’ resurrection validated his teaching—his teaching about God’s love for us and the forgiveness of our sins. 

Peter & the Beloved Disciple 
at the empty tomb (Romanelli)

Pope Francis assures us that “the Risen One gives us the certainty that good always triumphs over evil, that life always conquers death, and it’s not our end to descend lower and lower, from sorrow to sorrow, but rather to rise up high.  The Risen One is the confirmation that Jesus is right in everything.” (from an Easter audience a few years back)[1]

From St. Augustine early the 5th century, we hear: “It is a great thing that we are promised by the Lord; but far greater is what has already been done for us, and which we now commemorate. . . .  [Christ] had no power of himself to die for us:  he had to take from us our mortal flesh.  This was the way in which, though immortal, he was able to die; the way in which he chose to give life to mortal men:  he would first share with us, and then enable us to share with him. . . .  He effected a wonderful exchange with us, through mutual sharing:  we gave him the power to die, and he will give us the power to live.”[2]

Jesus’ passing thru death—his passover, the paschal mystery—is our redemption and our passageway into his mystery.  Jesus lives and offers us life.  No cryonics needed, only faith in him and a relationship with him.

---

[1] General Audience of 31 March 2021: Catechesis - The Easter Triduum | Francis.

[2] Sermo Guelferbytanus 3 (LOH 2:432).

Literary Giant Vargas Llosa Attended a Salesian School

Mario Vargas Llosa

Literary Giant Walked the Halls of a Salesian School

by David Franco Cordova
Historian of the Salesian Congregation of Peru

(ANS – Lima, Peru – April 15, 2025) – On April 13, Mario Vargas Llosa, passed away in Lima. The renowned Peruvian writer was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature. A former student of the Salesian school in Piura and an admirer of Don Bosco’s work in Chacas, Vargas Llosa never forgot his time at the Salesian school, as he later shared in his memoirs.

A Salesian Student

In the summer of 1946, just before turning 10, Mario Vargas Llosa moved with his mother to Piura, where his maternal grandfather, Pedro Llosa, served as the department’s prefect. At the time, José Luis Bustamante y Rivero—his grandfather’s cousin—was President of Peru (he would later be overthrown in 1948 by General Manuel A. Odria, whose regime inspired Vargas Llosa’s celebrated novel Conversation in the Cathedral).

It was his grandfather Pedro who enrolled Mario in the Salesian school of Piura that year. Given his prominent position, his decision highlights the significance of the Salesians in the region during the mid-20th century.

Vargas Llosa recalled this moment in his memoir A Fish in the Water: “Grandpa welcomed us at the Talara airport and handed me a postcard with the front of the Salesian school of Piura, where he had already enrolled me in the fifth grade” (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1993, p. 23).

A colored postcard of the school’s facade—likely similar to the one young Mario received—is preserved in the Salesian Historical Archive of Peru.

However, his initial experience at the school wasn’t entirely pleasant. As he wrote: “My first encounter with the Salesians and my new classmates wasn’t great. They were all one or two years older than me, but seemed even older—they used bad language and talked about dirty things we at La Salle in Cochabamba didn’t even know existed” (El pez en el agua… A Fish in the Water, p. 24).

He also mentioned being teased for his highland accent and “rabbit teeth.” Despite the rough start, he formed lifelong friendships there, including with Javier Silva Ruete—nicknamed ”el gordito” (chubby)—who would later become Peru’s minister of finances in several administrations from the late 20th to early 21st century.

Though brief, his time at the Salesian school had a lasting impact on his life. He absorbed a kind of rough, masculine vernacular that would later show up in his literary voice. And thanks to his friend Silva Ruete, he also got his first glimpse of political life. Silva once attended a rally for Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, the leader of the APRA party, and this early exposure to political passion left a mark. Politics would become a major theme in both Vargas Llosa’s work and his public life.

In 1946, the year Vargas Llosa studied there, the school’s director was Fr. José Safarik, with Fr. Francisco Dañek as catechist, and Fr. Mario Genero as primary school counselor (Elenco Generale 1946, vol. II, p. 124).

Admiration for Don Bosco’s Work

Nearly 70 years later, in March 2013, by then a Nobel-winning author, Vargas Llosa traveled to Chacas in the Ancash region—over 10,000 feet above sea level—to celebrate his 77th birthday. He had heard of the Salesian priest Fr. Ugo De Censi (1924–2018) and was eager to see the work being done there firsthand.

He described the experience in his article ”Chacas and the Sky,” published in Spain’s El País in early April 2013. [See also From the Eastern Front: Nobel Laureate Praises Fr. Ugo de Censi.]

Describing Fr. Ugo’s legacy in the remote White Mountains, he wrote: “This slightly anarchist and dreamer of a priest is, at the same time, a man of action—a true mover and shaker—who, without asking the State for a single penny, and putting his bold ideas into action, has led a real economic and social revolution in Chacas and the surrounding areas.”

The article was reprinted in full by ANS and widely shared by the Salesians of Peru and media outlets across the globe.

Editor’s note: Products of Fr. Ugo’s workshops are available commercially at Artesanos Don Bosco, 244 S. Highland Ave. Baltimore, Maryland 21224.
410-417-8747               http://www.artesanosdonbosco.com/

GC29 Approved Renewed Vision of "Missions"

GC29 Approves a Renewed Vision of the Missions

(ANS – Rome – April 16, 2025) – In recent years, the Salesian Congregation has gradually embraced a broader and more contemporary understanding of the concept of “mission.” This theological and pastoral evolution has led to a re-reading of the traditional notion of mission in light of new socio-cultural, ecclesial, and digital challenges.

Today, speaking of “missions” no longer means only thinking of geographically distant lands or so-called “mission territories.” Rather, it recognizes that the call to evangelize crosses cultural, social, and even digital boundaries of today’s world. The mission takes place wherever there is a need to proclaim the Gospel—including in countries with a long Christian tradition, which now call for a new evangelization, as highlighted in Evangelii Gaudium (no. 14).

This shift in perspective has been taking root in the life of the Congregation for decades: Salesian missionaries now come from all continents and are sent all over the world, bearing witness to an intercultural and universal vision of the missionary charism.

Even the Special General Chapter (GC20) acknowledged this development:
“Re-proclaiming the Gospel and reestablishing the Church in de-Christianized areas is also missionary action” (GC20, no. 465).

During GC29, this renewed vision was formally adopted as a shared heritage of the Congregation. Through a process of deep discernment and dialog, the chapter approved a revision of Article 30 of the Salesian Constitutions, which will now be submitted to the Holy See for approval.

The proposed new version of the article reads:
“People not yet evangelized have always been the focus of Don Bosco’s apostolic zeal and concern. They continue to inspire and sustain our missionary fervor: we see missionary work as an essential characteristic of our Congregation. Through missionary action, we carry out a patient work of evangelization, the establishment of the Church within a human group, and the revitalization of faith even in countries with an ancient Christian tradition.”

“It is especially meaningful that, in this 150th anniversary year of the first missionary expedition, we have approved the updating of the concept of mission in our Constitutions,” emphasized the Rector Major, Fr. Fabio Attard.

Homily for Holy Thursday

Homily for Holy Thursday

April 12, 2001
Collect
Salesians Sisters, Mary Help of Christians Academy, North Haledon, N.J.

Without a liturgical assignment this year (2025) except to participate in the community’s celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at Salesian HS, I post an old homily for the day.

(from the Sistine Chapel)

“We pray that in this Eucharist we may find the fullness of love and life” (Collect).

That was our prayer a few minutes ago.  In this Mass of the Lord’s Supper we commemorate 3 foundations of our faith; we celebrate 3 essentials of our salvation.  These are the institution of the Holy Eucharist, of the Christian priesthood, and of the command to love one another.

At the same time, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper must be seen in context.  We have begun the Easter triduum, our 3-day celebration of the paschal mystery.  In these liturgical days—Thursday evening to Sunday evening—we take part in, we share in, we become part of the passion, death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Our opening prayer told us, in the form of our address to God:  “We are gathered here to share in the supper which your only Son left to his Church to reveal his love.  He gave it to us when he was about to die and commanded us to celebrate it as the new and eternal sacrifice.”  So the Holy Eucharist, this sacred supper, is linked to the Lord’s death.  It is the perpetual presentation—making present to us, making effective in us—of his sacrifice of the cross.  It is both supper and sacrifice, both nurture and atonement, the personification of Christ’s love and the means by which we absorb his love and the strength for us to offer his love to our sisters and brothers.

The 2d Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy calls the Eucharist “the source and summit of the Christian life.” (#47).  That is, all our liturgical actions, all our public worship, take their energy and their life from the Eucharist, from Christ’s sacramental presence in the Church.  And all our liturgical actions, all our public worship, aims at the Eucharist, at our complete communion with our Savior.

Thus the holy priesthood whose anniversary we mark tonite exists for the Eucharist and from the Eucharist.  For the Eucharist, because Christian priests’ main purpose is to celebrate the sacred mysteries of the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection in the Eucharist and to nourish all believers with this sacred food, the bread of life.  We baptize so that the number of believers may increase and may participate in these holy rites.  We preach so that those who have not heard the Good News may come to know it and to believe it, and those who have believed it may be strengthened in it and keep coming to their Savior.  “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26).  Christ established the ordained priesthood so that his sacrifice could be perpetually present to his people.

The priesthood is rooted in the Eucharist.  1st of all, there is only one Christian priest.  Jesus has offered the one and only sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the whole world:  “This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”  Marked by his blood, as the doorposts of the Hebrews in Egypt were signed by the blood of the paschal lambs (Ex 12:1-8,12-14), we are saved from eternal death.  The apostles and every other priest of the Christian Church share in the one priesthood of Christ, exercise his priesthood in offering his eucharistic sacrifice, make his one and only sacrifice present for believers in every age and in every place.

2d, by his celebration of the Eucharist, the priest communes with Christ.  Without the Eucharist, he can’t be a priest.  His communion with Christ his master and model strengthens him for his apostolic mission of evangelizing, comforting, absolving, guiding, and everything else he does as priest, as alter Christus.

(by Rubens)

The 3d aspect of our liturgy this evening is the command to love one another.  Jesus gave us a 2-fold example.  The 1st we heard in the gospel:  his humble service with the command to do the same.  The 2d part of his example of love comes from his discourse at the Last Supper:  “Greater love than this no one has, to lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  This is my commandment:  love one another as I love you” (Jn 15:13-14,12).  He loved us to the point of death.  Or, as John said in the 1st verse of this evening’s gospel, “He loved his own in the world, and he loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1), which can mean either “to the end” of his earthly sojourn, or “to the utmost, to the limits of human possibility.”  John loves those little sacred double entendres.

How important is the theme of the command to love in our liturgical commemoration?  So important that it gave the old name to the day, Maundy Thursday.  Maundy is a Middle English word rooted in the Latin mandatum, “command.”

Jesus has left us the Eucharist as a sign of his love, a means to empower us to love as he did, a reminder that we must love one another sincerely, as that ancient Maundy Thursday hymn tells us:  “Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.  Amemus Deum vivum.  Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero” [Where charity and love prevail, there God is ever found.  Let us fear and love the living God, and love each other from the depths of our hearts.]  Our only reason for proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes is to proclaim his redeeming love and to let his love work thru us until it has touched every man and woman.

Signs of Hope in a Fragmented World

Signs of Hope in a Fragmented World

The Concluding Message of the 29th General Chapter

(Published by ANS on April 14)

(ANS – Rome – April 12, 2025) – The 29th General Chapter of the Salesian Congregation concluded on April 12 at the basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome, following the Eucharistic celebration. This moment marked the culmination of a journey of discernment, reflection, and prayer lasting 55 days, with the central theme "Passionate about Jesus Christ, dedicated to the young.”

The concluding ceremony, held around midday, was a moment of deep gratitude, communion, and renewed commitment to the future of the Salesian mission. The presence Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, whose titular church is the Sacred Heart Basilica, added an additional sign of spiritual support to the Congregation.

The Rector Major, Fr. Fabio Attard, delivered his concluding address, in which he shared the fruits of the chapter and outlined the guidelines for the future of the Congregation.

In his speech, Fr. Fabio expressed profound gratitude for the experience lived during the general chapter, describing it as a "moment of Salesian Pentecost.” He highlighted how the Holy Spirit guided every phase of the chapter through the method of "conversation in the Spirit,” and he invited the entire Congregation to continue on this path of listening and discernment.

Fr. Fabio with the new general council.
Our Fr. Gabe is 5th from left.

Key Points from Fr. Fabio’s Address

The Presence of the Holy Spirit
The chapter was experienced as a moment of Pentecost, in which the Holy Spirit was constantly invoked and perceived, guiding the Salesians in their discernment.

The Chapter as a Milestone
Fr. Fabio described the chapter as a milestone that ensures continuity with the journey begun in Valdocco and is now renewed with the same spirit of commitment and dedication.

The Final Document
The chapter concluded with the approval of a Final Document, which will guide the Congregation from 2025 to 2031. However, Fr. Fabio emphasized that the value of this document will depend on the Salesians’ ability to maintain the spirit of listening, openness, and accompaniment by the Holy Spirit.

Personal Conversion
Fr. Fabio stressed the importance of personal conversion, emphasizing that every pastoral renewal must start with a profound and authentic change in the heart of each Salesian. Personal conversion, he said, is not an intimate experience but the foundation for renewed pastoral and spiritual care.

Knowing Don Bosco
It is not enough to love Don Bosco; it is necessary to know him deeply. Fr. Fabio warned against a superficial knowledge of the Salesian charism, which risks reducing the mission to mere superficial activities. He urged Salesians to  study Don Bosco seriously to embody his spirit in today’s contexts.

A Sign of Hope in a Fragmented World
In a world marked by conflicts, wars, and ideologies that strip young people of their dignity, Fr. Fabio reminded the Salesians that they must be a sacrament of hope, offering young people spaces for growth, welcome, and a future.

Courage and Authenticity
He called on the Salesians to grow in fidelity and prophecy, emphasizing that these virtues form the foundation of the Salesian mission. The courage shown during the chapter must serve as the basis for tackling future challenges without being paralyzed by fear.

New Challenges
He identified two areas of focus for the future:

• Artificial intelligence (AI), seen as a new frontier for the Salesian mission. Fr. Fabio reminded that while AI can be a useful tool, it can never replace the human and pastoral touch that defines the Salesian charism.
• Care for integral ecology, which requires a change in mindset and an educational commitment to fostering a healthy relationship with creation.

The Vision of the Valdocco Oratory
Fr. Fabio reiterated that the model of the Valdocco Oratory—a home, a parish, a school, and a playground—must remain the permanent criterion for discerning and renewing every Salesian activity.

Words of Gratitude
At the end of his speech, Fr. Fabio expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Fr. Stefano Martoglio, vicar of the Rector Major, for his contribution in guiding the Congregation during the preparation of the chapter. He also expressed his appreciation to Fr. Alphonse Owoudou, moderator of the chapter, for his dedication in coordinating the work. He thanked Fr. Pascual Chavez, for his valuable contribution during the chapter and for agreeing to prepare reflections useful for implementing the directives of the chapter. He welcomed and thanked Cardinal Versaldi for his presence and spiritual encouragement.

After these acknowledgments, Fr. Owoudou declared the 29th General Chapter officially closed.

The ceremony concluded with all the chapter participants turning to the famous painting of Mary Help of Christians, entrusting the fruits of GC29 to the hands of the Blessed Mother, and renewing their commitment to living Don Bosco’s charism with authenticity, singing and praying the Marian hymn.

Looking to the Future

GC29 has left a strong spiritual and pastoral legacy, offering a clear vision for the next 6 years. As Fr. Fabio emphasized: “When we are truly passionate about Christ and dedicated to the young, we discover that walking together is beautiful, even if it is challenging.” With this perspective, the Salesian Family is ready to continue its journey, bringing hope, light, and love to young people around the world.