(ANS – Malta – November 10, 2026) – Five days of reflection, dialogue, and shared learning concluded in Malta with a commitment to turn the spirit of Don Bosco into concrete action for young people across Europe. Held November 4–8, EuroBosco 2026 explored the theme “Caring, Connecting, Creating – The Salesian Way to Youth Wellness,” bringing together young people, past pupils, friends of Don Bosco, and youth workers to consider how Salesian communities can respond to the realities facing young people today.
The gathering culminated in the EuroBosco Youth Wellness Manifesto, which brings together 21 commitments developed by 16 national groups. Its message is clear: listening to young people must lead to practical action that enables them to feel supported, experience belonging, and find opportunities to flourish.
Five Days of Caring, Connecting, and Creating
Throughout EuroBosco, participants explored youth wellness as a concern for the whole person. Caring meant recognizing young people’s needs and accompanying them with compassion. Connecting meant strengthening relationships, overcoming isolation, and building communities of belonging. Creating meant working together to develop practical responses rooted in the Salesian spirit.
The manifesto process connected evidence with experience and commitment. Seventeen fact sheets, drawing on recent European research, provided a foundation for international group discussions. Participants examined challenges affecting young people, shared perspectives from their countries, and considered possible responses.
National groups then developed selected ideas into SMART commitments for the year ahead. This progression from facts to dialogue to action gave the gathering a practical purpose: participants would return home with proposals to develop and commitments to fulfill.
A Manifesto That Reaches Beyond the Gathering
The manifesto addresses 12 themes, including social inclusion, access to opportunities, homelessness, loneliness, education, migration and belonging, discrimination, addictions, poverty, artificial intelligence and social media, spirituality, and mental health.
The commitments reflect the different realities of participating communities. Irish groups proposed a student common space, employment support for people experiencing homelessness, 100 care packages, and talks on addiction. A group from Belgium North and the Netherlands committed to accompanying 20 youth groups.
Slovak groups developed eight commitments, including language clubs for Ukrainian young people, stronger links with the Roma community, peer leadership, support for families in need, research on AI use, and life skills for young people leaving care.
Other proposals include events shaped by members’ needs in Hungary, a new early childhood center in Portugal, a permanent oratory space through the Croatia and Serbia group, the Boscolink employment network in Spain, and vocation-focused job training in Italy.
Malta’s commitments focus on extending mentoring to more young people, developing a youth residence in St. Julian’s, and launching a residential mental health initiative.
Each commitment is intended to be carried out within one year. Together, they express a shared responsibility to recognize young people in local communities, walk alongside them, and create conditions in which they can flourish.
A symbolic summary of the manifesto was presented to Fr. Joan Lluís Playà, Delegate of the Rector Major for the Salesian Family. The full manifesto, detailing the commitments and their supporting evidence, will be presented to Fr. Fabio Attard, Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco.
The Rector Major: Gratitude Must Become Mission
In his video message for the closing ceremony, Fr. Fabio Attard placed the gathering’s theme at the heart of Don Bosco’s educational mission. Youth wellness, he explained, embraces dignity, talents, faith, relationships, and participation in society.
Recalling Valdocco as a home, school, playground, and parish, he highlighted the continuing relevance of the Preventive System, founded on reason, religion, and loving-kindness.
Addressing the identity of past pupils and friends of Don Bosco, the Rector Major emphasized that love and gratitude for their Salesian education must become an active commitment to continue Don Bosco’s mission, especially among young people most in need.
He encouraged shared responsibility, a synodal style of leadership, and openness to renewal. Young people, he stressed, must be active partners and leaders in the mission, with spaces where they are listened to, trusted, and encouraged to take responsibility.
Welcoming the manifesto, he said: “I look forward to receiving and discussing your Youth Wellness Manifesto, and I encourage you to transform its proposals into concrete actions.”
The World President: Helping Others Discover Their Dawn
In his concluding address, Bryan Magro, World President of the World Confederation of Past Pupils of Don Bosco, offered a personal reflection on hope.
He described sitting alone on a balcony before sunrise, uncertain of what to say, before gradually seeing the sea, cliffs, grass, and trees emerge as dawn broke. This became an image of the difficult moments people experience and the hope found through creation, faith, and the presence of those who care.
Connecting this reflection to youth wellness, he reminded participants that sometimes people need someone to sit beside them while they wait for dawn.
He called on the EuroBosco community to care for one another, remain grounded in relationships, and create a better world by reaching young people with the genuine love Don Bosco showed the boys of Valdocco.
Thanking participants and the Malta organizing team, he invited everyone to carry the experience into their countries, communities, and homes: “Let us carry the light we have found here, and help others discover their dawn.”
EuroBosco 2026 concluded with a shared task for the year ahead: to make caring, connecting, and creating visible through local action and to place young people’s wellness at the center of a living Salesian mission.