Relics of St. John Bosco will travel to five continents

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Celebrations for the bicentennial of the birth of St. John Bosco, the founder of the Salesian order and champion of underprivileged children, are underway with a five-continent "pilgrimage" of his relics.

The crystal and aluminum urn containing a likeness of the saint and his right arm bone has been displayed in several Italian cities. On June 4, top Vatican officials honored the saint when the urn was brought to the St. Callixtus catacombs on the Appian Way in Rome.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, participated in a Mass there for St. John Bosco, who was inspired in a boyhood dream to devote his life to children and young people on the margins of society.

Cardinal Bertone praised him for his dedication to young people, "especially those abandoned and threatened," calling him "a man of action." He also complimented the Salesian order, of which he is a member, for continuing the saint's work with communities for orphans and troubled and poor children, Vatican radio reported.

During his lifetime, the saint, commonly known as Don Bosco, often visited the catacombs, a burial site for early Christians that dates to the second century. He was drawn by the "courage and charity" of those first followers of Jesus Christ, the radio report said. Salesians have been the custodians of the San Callixtus Catacombs since 1930.

The urn's journey began in Turin, in northern Italy, on April 25 in a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Salesian order. It will travel first to Chile, stop in several South American countries, Central America, the United States, Canada, Asia, Africa and back to Europe. The pilgrimage is expected to end in Turin in 2014. The bicentennial of St. John Bosco's birth in Castelnuovo D'Asti, near Turin, will be celebrated with events in 2015.

Pope Benedict XVI has agreed, at the request of the Father Pascual Chavez Villanueva, the Salesian rector superior, to grant plenary indulgences to those who make a pilgrimage to see and pray before the urn in various locations around the world.

Salesian communities for youth are now found in 128 countries.

Our Patron: St. John Bosco (1815-1888)

Saint John Bosco, Popularly known as Don Bosco (Italian for Father Bosco), was born at Becchi, in Piedmont, Italy on August 16, 1815. From a very young age he had decided that he had been called to work for the poor boys of that era when Europe was under the grip of the Industrial Revolution. After being ordained Priest of the Catholic Church in 1841, Don Bosco came to the rescue of these poor boys with his novel method of educating youth through total dedication and personal involvement in their lives and problems.

To ensure that his total dedication to their cause shone through his actions, he based his education on the three great principles of Reason, Religion and Loving Kindness, loving those to whom he dedicated his life, as a caring father, and doing everything possible for their welfare. Don Bosco visualized a system of education in which one’s community, vocational guidance, training and job placement played a vital role.

The system of education that emerged from these principles of Don Bosco is popularly known as the Preventive System, and is the system that is practiced in St. Anthony’s College. It is a system that inspires love, confidence in the students and make the educator a friend guide and a mentor. The system aims to create a generation of young men and women steeped not only in sound knowledge-based education but also in a strong value-based education for life. And the motto of the college says it all: Excelsior: Ever More and Better Ever.

I met and learned some of the story of a wonderful fiftyish Filipino (ex-Salesian) priest, who recently was released, through Rome, from the Order so that he could more closely pursue a parochial vocation in a strongly Filipino parish.

Through nepotism, he has been reduced to the status of being 'in residence' and has been 'usurped' by two nephews of another local priest whom I believe is in an influential position with the Salesians and the local Bishop.

Because I only know of his great spirit and acceptance of not knowing how he will be allowed to serve and his apparent kindness ... I cannot give other detail, because I know that the Bishop is involved (Orange County, CA diocese). I have met this 'exile" though, and seen his bewilderment at what has happened right through his "up" personality.

I hope you will remember this gentle and humor filled priest in your prayers, so that somehow he is removed from his "exile" ... to any place where he can return to his Salesian Community or be a great asset to any parish, if the Bishop will allow it.

God will know this wonderful priest "in residence" by name and He will hear our prayers, I am sure!

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