These days we are all experiencing a multitude of emotions.\u00a0 Besides dealing with all of what Covid-19 has brought and how it has changed our lives drastically, now we as a country (and, world) are dealing with the injustices and violence of the racism that still dominates our country.\u00a0 Once again we are reminded of the oppression against minorities, the entitlement of certain cultures over others, the lack of compassion and clear direction from our leaders, including Church leaders.\u00a0\u00a0 It can leave us confused, angry and hopeless.<\/p>\n
As Christians and as Salesians, optimism, hope and a future worth living are always viable options offered to us by our loving God.\u00a0\u00a0 There are some, maybe, even members of the Salesian family, who see these protests and only see violence, lack of law and order and anarchy.\u00a0\u00a0 While we cannot close our eyes to the reality of those who violate the law and harm others, the majority of people who march are trying to make a statement of solidarity with our African American community but also with all minorities and, really, with all humankind.\u00a0\u00a0 All lives matter because all life comes from God.\u00a0\u00a0 No one culture has a right to oppress another culture.\u00a0 And, this is done in many ways, not just through physical slavery.<\/p>\n
This month of June, the Rector Major sent his monthly message which highlighted what the young people said at the Chapter in Turin back in March.\u00a0 There were 16 young adults from six continents who accompanied us, the Chapter members, on our journey at the General Chapter.\u00a0\u00a0 They connected with us Salesians and with each other in a wonderful way.\u00a0 \u00a0The Rector Major quoted some of the words that these young adults gave us:\u00a0 \u201cWe succeeded in having our hearts beat in unison.\u00a0 You\u2019ve given us the opportunity to connect with you, Salesians, whom want among us.\u00a0\u00a0 You did this in your Salesian style.\u00a0 Stay with us, side by side, and allow us to be protagonists, too.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The Rector Major described how these young adults initially struggled with each other, not because of age difference, but because of different languages (not all spoke English), culture differences and ways of thinking.\u00a0\u00a0 But, they had a common value and a common choice to unite for the same cause.\u00a0\u00a0 They spent several day in dialogue, not always agreeing, but in the end coming up with a common statement to present to the Chapter assembly.\u00a0 The Rector Major went on to say, \u201cThe young people told us that they love us, that they really love us as educators\u2014love us like friends, brothers and parents\u2014since, they added, the young people of today suffer from a great dearth of fatherly care and concern.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The young people asked us to be companions on the road.\u00a0 They don\u2019t need someone to tell them how to think and live.\u00a0 But, they do want us by their side, even when they make mistakes.\u00a0 They want us close to them as they make decisions.\u00a0 They wanted us to show them that God loves them, that there is a God who is Love and who loves them unconditionally.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They want us to keep saying this and say it to all the young people of the world.\u00a0 The Rector Major quoted Fr. Juan Vecchi, one of the past Rector Majors, as saying: \u201cyoung people save us.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, young people save us from becoming too complacent, too comfortable, too safe, too clerical (and, entitled).<\/p>\n
I go back to Simone Jacques, the 17 year old girl who with her friends saw the injustices in our world and decided to do something.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, Young people save us!!!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They have power to do much good.\u00a0\u00a0 What they ask of us adults (Salesians) is to love them, show them God\u2019s unconditional love and be close to them along the journey.\u00a0\u00a0 They can transform the world!\u00a0 They have power, creativity, hope and love to do great things.\u00a0 We have seen that in recent days.\u00a0 They see the hatred, the racism, the silent leadership, the fear in us that wishes to squelch any freedoms of expression and thought.\u00a0\u00a0 As Salesians we are always against all racism, discrimination and violence.\u00a0 We stand with people of all colors and creed to create a world that promotes justice, peace, compassion, kindness and love.\u00a0\u00a0 The young people know how that looks.\u00a0 Do we?\u00a0\u00a0 Do we love each other enough to take care of each other? Let us stand with the young of good will.\u00a0\u00a0 Let us\u00a0 be close to the young.\u00a0\u00a0 They will save us!!!<\/p>\n
With warm regards and gratitude,<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Salesian sisters and brothers, Yesterday, June 3rd, a huge protest and rally of 10, 000 people or more (some even reported 30,000) took place in the Mission district of San Francisco.\u00a0\u00a0 The protest was peaceful.\u00a0 The march was organized by a 17 year old high school student and her friends.\u00a0\u00a0 Simone Jacques and her friends organized the demonstration through an Instagram group called NOJusticeNoPeaceSF … Continuar leyendo Provincial Letter June 4th, 2020<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20310044],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-province-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-Rk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10336596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3306"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3309,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306\/revisions\/3309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"ted_signature\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salesianbulletin.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ted_signature.png?resize=240%2C69&ssl=1\")
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