Salesians' leader makes rare visit to the U.S.

As a teenager in Mexico, Pascual Chavez asked his dying mother for money to buy a pair of basketball shoes. His mom agreed to give him the money if he became a priest. Today, at 59, Rector Major Chavez is the leader of the Salesians of Don Bosco, the second-largest Catholic order in the world, behind the Jesuits. He lives in Rome. His only superior is the pope.

In his first visit here to the U.S. since becoming rector major in 2002, Chavez is touring the Salesians' Eastern United States Province for two weeks this month. Headquartered in New Rochelle, N.Y., the province extends to parishes in Florida. St. John Bosco founded the order in the mid-1800s in Italy to educate and serve poor and abandoned children. Today the society has more than 16,000 members working in schools, youth centers and other programs for children in 134 countries.

On Sept. 7, Chavez visited some 2,500 Catholic students from area Salesian schools in a gathering at Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey. In the evening, he gave a more intimate talk at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange to an audience of about 50, including priests, teachers and young men in training -- or "formation" -- to become priests and brothers. He shared his own transformation from a teen in Mexico who yearned for basketball shoes to a Catholic world leader who grasps "the most beautiful gift" he received -- a calling to "the vocation."

"You should consider it a blessing," he said. "You have something to live for." Seated quietly in the pews, the group wore electric blue T-shirts with the words "Extreme Faith" and "Salesians be Saints" on the backs. The chapel's dome-shaped ceiling was adorned with saints floating in the clouds. Thirteen of the young men live in the Salesian Formation House, a former convent attached to Our Lady of the Valley. Hailing from places as diverse as Haiti, Canada, Ohio and Rhode Island, they are in various stages of "formation," embarking on the years-long process to becoming a priest or brother.

The Rev. David Moreno, one of four priests who are staff members, acknowledged that the number of young men choosing the vocation is dwindling. In 1968, there were 42 in his graduating seminary class in Newton. After the talk, the group strolled out to a back courtyard where red, white and green streamers greeted Chavez. A mariachi band sang in Spanish. Chavez, Mexican-born, is the first non-Italian Salesian leader.

The group ate grilled hamburgers. Some drank bottled beer and wine. The mood was festive, like a family barbeque. One young brother performed a juggling act with three balls, keeping the beat to a classical piano song. Another serenaded Chavez with a folk song while strumming his guitar. A new candidate brought out his bagpipes. Two young brothers leaped up at the sound of the music, dancing an Irish jig.

Seth Hogan, a 25-year-old from Montclair, has been living in the house for two years. Working with young people is what drew him to the Salesians. With tight black curly hair and a relaxed smile, Hogan explained how the calling to the priesthood is a process. "One misconception people have is that you have it all figured out, 'This is for me,'" he said.

"I'm pretty sure it's for me," said Hogan, who graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2004 and learned about the group after spending a post-college year in China teaching English with a Salesian mission. Another resident, Robert Malusa, 42, is studying to become a brother, a role where he can dedicate himself to serving kids. "I don't see myself performing the sacrament," he said, explaining why he did not choose the priesthood.

After years of teaching math and religion at a Lutheran school on Long Island, Malusa sought more from his spiritual life. He took a Salesian mission trip to Sierra Leone and decided to give his life fully to the Catholic order. "I always wanted to dedicate time to God, but I was so distracted," he said of his former life, where he filled his weekends sailing, scuba diving and riding motorcycles. Seated at one table were four young men who had joined the house just the week before, beginning a yearlong process of "discernment," a kind of dipping-their-toes-in-the water period. To be invited to the house, candidates undergo a series of interviews and psychological screening.

One discerner, Adam Dupre, said he enjoyed living alongside his new brothers. "It's like being in a college fraternity without waking up every day with a hangover," he said. They sometimes watch sports together on the communal television -- no video games, though. For fun they play soccer, baseball and basketball. The year ahead will bring a structured life of daily prayer, volunteering at a youth center and classes at Seton Hall University.

At the close of the evening Chavez stood up to give his "good night talk," a tradition began by St. John Bosco. Chavez expressed gratitude to "the many people not in the spotlight, behind the scenes making things happen." Before retiring for the night, he handed each candidate a rectangular silver pendant engraved with the founder's face. One new candidate pulled out a silver chain around his neck, a silver cross already dangling from it, and was ready to add his new pendant.

Fr. Pascual Chavez Villanueva

Fr. Chavez, a Mexican, was born on 19, December 1947 at Real de Catorce (San Luis de Potosì), a mining area in the centre of Northern Mexico. Some years later, his family moved to Saltillo (in the state of Coahuila) where Pascual attended the Salesian school, "Colegio Mexico". This is where his vocation began and he pursued his goal of following Don Bosco. He made his first profession in August 1964, and became a perpetually professed Salesian in August 1970 and was ordained a priest on 8 December 1973. He spent the first years of his ministry among the young Salesians of the formation community. From 1975 to 1977 he studied at the Biblical Institute in Rome where he obtained his Licentiate in Sacred Scripture.

From 1989 to 1994 he was Provincial of the same Province, which comprises the whole northern part of Mexico right up to the border with the United States. In 1995 he began his Doctorate in Biblical Theology and took up residence at Madrid-Carabanchel. He stayed there until he obtained his degree from the Pontifical University of Salamanca (Spain) The new Rector Major’s mother tongue is Spanish, but he is also fluent in English and Italian, and understands German, French and Hebrew as well.

In addition to his ecclesiastical degrees, Fr. Chavez is also a qualified teacher in scientific subjects. Both types of formation have made him a solidly spiritual person.

Father Pascual Chavez, center, the world leader of the Salesians, prays during an evening prayer service at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange. Father Mario Balbi, right, and Father Adelard Labonte, left, pray. The prayer service was attended by priests in training.

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