(ANS – Tijuana) – As part of the planning work carried out by the Council of the Educative and Pastoral Community of the Tijuana Salesian Project (PST), the official inauguration of a new Salesian community in Tijuana, Baja California, named “St. Francis de Sales,” took place on Wednesday, August 26, 2026.

The PST is a multifaceted organization offering a variety of educational, pastoral, and social services for children, adolescents, young people, families, and people experiencing displacement and vulnerability through six works operating in different Salesian contexts. Until this summer, all these activities and services had been carried out by a single Salesian community, the Blessed Philip Rinaldi Community, founded in 1987, together with a large group of lay collaborators.

Following approval by his council, a few months ago Fr. Francisco Cervantes, SDB, Provincial of the Guadalajara Province, Mexico (MEG), submitted a request for the establishment of a new Salesian community. The request was first submitted to the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Tijuana, Msgr. Mario Nicolás Villanueva, and subsequently to the Rector Major, Fr. Fabio Attard, and his Council. The decree establishing this second Salesian community, under the patronage of St. Francis de Sales, is dated April 15, 2026. For the 2026–2027 cycle, the community comprises four Salesians.

The beginning of this new community’s life was also marked by the installation of its first Rector, Salesian Brother Jesús Armando García Rodríguez, who is also the first Salesian Brother in the MEG Province to be appointed as a community rector.

The installation took place during a Eucharistic celebration presided over by Fr. Cervantes, in the presence of the Council of the PST Educative and Pastoral Community, including the Salesians of the Blessed Philip Rinaldi Community, a priest from the diocesan clergy, sisters, benefactors of the Salesian work in Tijuana, and Salesians from the Mexicali community. The celebration took place in the church of the Don Bosco Oratory, where the new community is based.

The Provincial invited those present to share their views on this new Salesian presence in the city: a single Salesian project managed in a coordinated manner by two different communities—the existing one in the western part of the city and the new one in the eastern part of Tijuana. The responses emphasized how “promising” and “significant” this new Salesian presence is in this border area with the United States.