We share this letter from our World Coordinator, Antonio Boccia, on this August 16:

Dear Salesian Cooperators: last May, on the occasion of the meeting of the World Council of the Salesian Family, I had the opportunity to express a few words of thanks to Fr Angel for his service as Rector Major.

I repropose it today, 16 August 2024, the day Fr Angel ends his term as Rector Major, as our thanks for his ever loving and paternal presence in the Association of Salesian Cooperators.

Below is the text of the message:

From the Salesian Family Identity Card,

Art. 13.: The Rector Major in the Salesian Family

Belonging to the apostolic Family of Don Bosco has its origin in communion and is nourished by communion. This consists in corresponding to the Spirit Who leads it towards unity, bringing into existence and giving practical and even official forms to it, so as to ensure an effective relationship and collaboration in activities.

Belonging to the Salesian Family therefore of necessity requires a vital centre which makes the reference to Don Bosco, to the common mission and to the same spirit a reality.

This centre, according to the mind of Don Bosco, is the Rector Major. In him all recognise a three-fold ministry of unity: Successor of Don Bosco, common Father, centre of unity for the entire Family. It falls within his official competence to admit to the Salesian Family the Groups which request it, according to the pre-established criteria.

Since this is his mission, he feels he has a duty to offer the necessary guidelines to ensure the fruitfulness of the charism in each Group of the Family.

Through his example and teaching he constructs unity and ensures in the  variety of the specific vocations, fidelity to the spirit and the coordination of certain initiatives. He exercises this ministry with the paternity which was Don Bosco’s own: an approach that requires understanding and kindness, attention to the growth of each one, guidance in charismatic fidelity, commitment to the fruitfulness of the Salesian vocation in all its expressions, just as Don Bosco had written:  «Your Rector will have care of you and of your eternal salvation ».

Reading this article in the Charter of the Charismatic Identity, I had no trouble finding traits of Fr Angel’s presence among us between the lines.

We have always perceived his attention to the Salesian Family as a whole as well as, and I bear witness to this as far as Salesian Cooperators are concerned, to each group in particular.

Attention that has always been closeness in the moments of meeting, which have never been exclusively institutional, but of intentional relationship and not of circumstance.

Thinking of the Salesian Family Days, there was no shying away from exchanges of greetings, confidential moments and countless endless photos, and at the same time an attentive and sensitive participation in what the various groups were proposing.

Suffice it to think of the “strenne” that the Rector Major proposed to us each year, which always took into account themes precisely highlighted by the World Council of the Salesian Family.

We all feel Don Angel close like a father who does not spare himself for his children.

In fact, through him we have come to know the paternity of Don Bosco in the characteristic traits indicated in the article I quoted: He exercises this ministry with the paternity which was Don Bosco’s own: an approach that requires understanding and kindness, attention to the growth of each one, guidance in charismatic fidelity, commitment to the fruitfulness of the Salesian vocation in all its expressions.

He has the ability to model these attitudes according to circumstances without demeaning some at the expense of others.

Even in convivial and less formal moments. I remember his performing on guitar, together with the band, during the World Congress of Cooperators in October 2018, managing to catalyse everyone for tens of minutes.

There is no doubt about the ability he had to keep the Salesian Family united during the pandemic, spurring everyone not to give up but to become bearers of hope, not to mention the whole Pisana affair which, as he always said, proved to be a prophecy of new ways of being present in the area.

I am sure that what I am saying brings back to everyone’s memory moments of personal and group relationships with Don Angel.

You will excuse me if I mention a personal episode.

During the Salesian Family Days in January 2018, I had been asked to ‘present’ some moments in the theatre at Valdocco.

I dusted off my past as an animator at the oratory and tried to lighten that moment a little to make it less cathartic, so I went down to the audience to ask a few things about the Days, and then came up to Don Angel and asked if I could ask him a few questions.

He replied in a joking tone, ‘watch the question you ask me, because then we will meet again on the way’, general laughter and we moved on.

But that sentence had struck me and I sometimes thought about it.

It may have been by chance, and if it wasn’t Don Angel knows it, the fact is that in October 2018, nine months after the days, he appointed me World Coordinator of Salesian Cooperators.

I have shared this with you because for me, the things said about his paternity towards us in the Salesian Family, I have always touched with my own hands.

He never failed to support the Salesian Cooperators, making himself present at every invitation we, as World Council, addressed to him.

And if it is for me, I am sure it is for all of you, as I am sure we would all have things to talk about

And we come to 30 September 2023.

We were all there in St Peter’s Square. Some physically and others with hearts at a distance, but all with the same attitude, that of someone participating in an important family moment.

A son marries, a brother is ordained a priest, a sister takes perpetual vows and so on.

One of the family received an invitation from Pope Francis to serve the Church as a Cardinal.

Maybe I am exaggerating, but it is a bit like we have all been called by the Pope.

I am sure, dear Don Angel, that your being a Salesian of Don Bosco is an extra gear in carrying out what Pope Francis will ask you to do, and we, as your family, will continue to support you with our prayers and in every possible way because we love you.

The things said are our thanks to you and to the Lord who wanted our lives to intersect.

My wish for you in the future is borrowed from my Neapolitan dialect: ‘a Maronna t’accumpagna’, for the translators ‘May the Madonna accompanies you’.

Thank you, Don Angel