Two Salesians Make First Religious Profession
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| Bro. Tim Hughes (left) and Bro. Franky Chazhikattu (right) with Fr. Dominic Tran |
Bros. Francis Chazhikattu, SDB, and Timothy Hughes, SDB, made their first professions as Salesians of Don Bosco on August 15, 2026, at the National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Haverstraw, N.Y.
Fr. Dominic Tran,
SDB, provincial, presided at the Mass of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, received the brothers’ vows, and preached.
The parents of each of the newly professed assisted at their sons’ profession. So did about 40 of their Salesian confreres, more than a dozen FMAs, 9 men and women who had been commissioned the previous day as Salesian Lay Missioners, other members of the wider Salesian Family, and young people from Salesian parishes and schools.
Fr. Dominic opened
his homily by noting that Mary’s Magnificat (in the day’s gospel reading)
includes 15 statements, and God is the subject in 11 of them. Mary recognizes
God as the actor in everything about salvation. He is the source of the
blessing that she experiences. Similarly, by their profession Bros. Tim and
Franky will praise God for what he does for the young thru Don Bosco under
Mary’s influence.
Fr. Dominic also
stressed the trust that following Jesus requires. Mary didn’t know what would
follow her “yes” at the Annunciation. Nor do we know how God will lead us to
our ultimate destination. It was so with Don Bosco too. His guiding dream at
age nine didn’t include details, only the surety that Mary would be his
teacher.
On their
profession day, we pray that Bros. Tim and Franky will go forward with the same
faith in Jesus that Don Bosco showed.
Early Formation of the Brothers
Bros. Francis and
Timothy spent a year of novitiate under the tutelage of Fr. Joseph Nguyen, SDB,
master of novices, and Bro. Thomas Dion, SDB, his assistant. There were 3 other
novices in the class: two from Ireland and one from the San Francisco Salesian
Province; they professed vows in their home provinces.
Before novitiate,
both young men completed the Salesian prenovitiate program at Don Bosco Prep in
Ramsey, N.J. As prenovices, they taught religious education at St. John Bosco
Parish in Port Chester, N.Y.; planned and ran youth retreats there; assisted in
campus ministry at the Prep, and accompanied Don Bosco students on service
programs.
Both young men
were then admitted to the novitiate and moved across the country to Richmond, Calif.,
in the San Francisco Bay area. As novices, the 5 classmates learned more about
St. John Bosco, Salesian spirituality, community life, Salesian traditions and
the Constitutions, and had the opportunity to practice being Salesian
educators.
The novices
assisted in campus ministry at Salesian College Prep and the Salesian Youth
Club in Richmond, planned parish retreats, and served at 2 summer camps. They
also took up roles for the San Francisco Province’s annual Salesian Youth
Leadership Conference.
Following their religious profession, the 2 new Salesian brothers will become part of the Salesian formation community at Orange, N.J. As “clerical” brothers, they’ll study philosophy at Immaculate Conception Seminary-Seton Hall University in South Orange.
Bro. Timothy Patrick Hughes, SDB
Bro. Tim Hughes was born in 1998, in Mission Viejo, Calif. He is the youngest of the 4 children of Patrick Joseph and Regina Hughes, members of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Carlsbad, Calif., in the San Diego Diocese.
Tim met the
Salesians thru Fr. Steve DeMaio on a FOCUS mission trip to Lima, Peru. He felt
an ease and kinship with the young priest, admiring his honesty, openness, and
willingness to play games and hang out with the young people on the mission
trip. Consequently, when Fr. Steve invited him to apply to the Salesian Lay
Missioner program, he took it seriously because the invitation came personally
from him.
During the SLM
orientation in 2022, he met many Salesians from the New Rochelle Province. He
and another young man then served at Casa Hogar del Nino Colimense in Colima,
Mexico, in 2022-2023, experiencing the impact of Don Bosco’s mission to the
young. He writes: “I came to have such a profound and arresting love for them,
and at the end of the mission when they said goodbye to me, I was struck by
their great love for me. It was being with those young people that made sense
of one of Don Bosco’s great quotes: ‘For you I study, for you I work, for you I
live, for you I am even prepared to give my life.’ Ultimately, I felt conquered
by the overpowering love of God the Fr. and the love of those young people.”
For Novice Tim, the best parts of the year at Richmond were “living in community with my brother novices and experiencing the joy of fraternal life with them as well as accompanying the St. Anthony’s Youth Group [in Oakland] and seeing their growth and receiving their trust as young people.”
Bro. Tim hopes “to
hit the ground running and truly discern how I can serve in the mission and
encounter the young that God sends to us. I want to take seriously my Salesian
identity and truly embrace this total self-gift that God is calling me to.”
In the longer
term, he aspires to ministry in media. He states: “Prior to my discerning the
Salesians, I was about to begin pursuing a career in acting. I already had
extensive experience studying it, making film projects with friends, and
performing onstage. After having read about the realm of communications within
our mission as laid out in our Constitutions, it makes me see more the fertile
ground there is here for evangelizing and educating young people within our
provinces utilizing all forms of media and storytelling arts. I would be honored
to utilize my gifts and the skills I’ve acquired in theater, film, and
storytelling to help grow this key sector of our mission to the young for our
province and the Congregation.”
Bro. Tim adds this
coda to his story: “I am thankful to God for this vocation and that he has
brought immense joy to my life. I hope that my simple living out of my Salesian
life may be a testimony to the young that they may encounter Christ’s love and
receive the joy He calls them to in their vocations. My advice to young people
is, ‘Let God surprise you!’”
Bro. Francis Siri Chazhikattu, SDB
Bro. Franky Chazhikattu was born in Philadelphia on July 14, 2003. His parents are Siri and Reny Chazhikattu, and he has an older sister and 2 brothers. The Chazhikattus relocated to Brandon, Fla. (your humble blogger’s hometown[1]), just outside Tampa. There they belong to Sacred Heart Knanaya Catholic Forane Parish, part of the Syro-Malabar Diocese of Chicago. Before the Syro-Malabar parish had their own church, they worshiped and received religious education at Mary Help of Christians Center in Tampa.
At MHC, Fr. Steve
Ryan was the first Salesian he got to know. “He showed me what it meant to be a
true spiritual father. Despite directing a very busy place, he always
prioritized the people he served, welcoming my family, learning our names, and
making us feel at home.”
Fr. Steve
encouraged Franky’s mother to enroll him at Cristo Rey Tampa Salesian High
School, which eventually “brought me to the door” of vocational discernment. As
he was growing up, he “was instilled with a strong sense of devotion—to hard
work, to family, to those in need, and above all, to God.” He took part in a
Salesian leadership retreat, where he “experienced God’s love in a new way and
became more open to His call.” When Fr. Eddie Chincha invited him to serve at
Mary Help’s summer camp, he accepted and discovered a new way of self-giving.
After Franky graduated
from Cristo Rey Tampa, the Salesians continued accompanying him and inviting
him into youth ministry. Thru the young people he encountered, “especially
those on the peripheries, and a rambunctious yet wise Salesian community, I came
to recognize Christ present in surprising yet very real ways, where others
might not see Him in them.”
Thru all this, several specific Salesians “accompanied me at crucial moments, teaching me thru their example that even after leaving a place, I never left their thoughts and prayers, and ultimately they were the ones who ‘guided me to step thru the door’ of his vocation.” Franky recognizes “that God had quietly made the Salesians an integral part of my life long before I ever wanted to become one. Ultimately, I realized that God had been guiding and reshaping my entire journey to be ingrained in the Salesian charism, giving direction to that desire to devote myself to Him and leading me toward an ever-deepening and daily-renewing ‘yes’ to His call.” He came to see that he could serve the young generously as a professed Salesian himself.
The best part of Novice
Franky’s novitiate year “was the many opportunities for personal formation. Thru
the various classes, prayer life, examples of confreres and lay collaborators,
and especially thru the young people who were a ‘burning bush,’ I was
continually reminded of the need and way to grow. I came to recognize that
almost every experience contained an opportunity for formation, one that I am
glad to undergo, which continues to strengthen my desire continually to grow in
my identity as a Salesian.”
As a postnovice in
Orange, he aspires “to deepen the necessary knowledge, assimilate the Salesian
charism and my vows, and become better prepared to serve Don Bosco’s mission in
whatever reality I am sent. Ultimately, if I continue growing in my
relationship with God and faithfully responding to His call, I trust that
everything else will follow as I strive to live in the footsteps of Don Bosco
and Christ the Good Shepherd.”
Bro. Franky is open to whatever mission God will call him to as a Salesian pastor-educator, ready to collaborate with lay people as well as his confreres. He looks for the prayers and other support of the many friends of Don Bosco.
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