“Looking ahead, staying with the young: from memory to generate future.”
Bardolino – Tusini, November 22, 2025. The 50th Promise of Piermario Riva was not just an anniversary, but a training workshop for many Salesian Cooperators: a weave of personal life intertwined with the history of the Association, capable of rekindling questions, criteria, and concrete steps.
The mark of time is precise: November 11, 1975 his Promise; November 11, 1875 the first Salesian missionary expedition. Two twin dates that speak of fidelity and momentum: memory that opens to the future.
Piermario retraced decisive stages of his journey — encounters, turning points, “God-incidences,” daily fidelities — showing us that the Promise is not a memory, but a choice that matures over time. From there, a clear invitation: “There is no future for the Association without being with the young, together.” Looking to Don Bosco and, in his case, to the encounter with Attilio Giordani, Salesian Cooperator, he managed to understand what the Salesian compass that never fades is: living presence alongside the young, listening, educational co-responsibility, in oratories, parishes, workplaces.
From the testimony emerged a lexicon that is also a program: vocation, relationship, formation, planning, participation, prayer. These words have a single “root”: action. It is always the same root that also refers to the Association: the way Piermario’s personal story intertwines with the common story of the Salesian Cooperators and pushes it forward.
After this first moment, they went to church and on the Solemnity of Christ the King celebrated the Mass of thanksgiving for Piermario’s 50 years, within the echo of the 150 years since the first Salesian missionary expedition and in view of the 150 years of the Association that we will celebrate next year.
Thank you, Piermario: this personal jubilee of yours becomes a community commitment: your 50 years of “yes” remind us that the charism grows only when memory and future hold hands — together with the young, always.