{"id":15241,"date":"2026-03-10T07:50:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/index.php\/2026\/03\/10\/the-message-of-the-vicar-of-the-rector-major-fr-stefano-martoglio-sdb\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T07:50:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:50:56","slug":"the-message-of-the-vicar-of-the-rector-major-fr-stefano-martoglio-sdb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/2026\/03\/10\/the-message-of-the-vicar-of-the-rector-major-fr-stefano-martoglio-sdb\/","title":{"rendered":"THE MESSAGE OF THE VICAR OF THE RECTOR MAJOR, Fr\u00a0Stefano Martoglio, SDB\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header pos-rel\">\n<div class=\"read-details\">\n<div class=\"entry-header-details af-cat-widget-carousel\">\n<div class=\"figure-categories read-categories figure-categories-bg categories-inside-image\">\n<ul class=\"cat-links\">\n<li class=\"meta-category\">\n                             <a class=\"morenews-categories category-color-1\" href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/ingoldsite\/index.php\/category\/gc29\/\" aria-label=\"GC29\"><br \/>\n                                 GC29<br \/>\n                             <\/a>\n                        <\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"entry-title\">THE MESSAGE OF THE VICAR OF THE RECTOR MAJOR, Fr\u00a0Stefano Martoglio, SDB\u00a0<\/h1>\n<div class=\"aft-post-excerpt-and-meta color-pad\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta author-links\">\n<p>                            <span class=\"item-metadata posts-author byline\"><br \/>\n                                            <i class=\"far fa-user-circle\"><\/i><br \/>\n                          <a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/ingoldsite\/index.php\/author\/admin_gp\/\"><br \/>\n              Admin-ING      <\/a><br \/>\n                    <\/span><\/p>\n<p>                            <span class=\"item-metadata posts-date\"><br \/>\n                    <i class=\"far fa-clock\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><br \/>\n                    March 7, 2025                <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"aft-comment-view-share\">\n      <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<p><!-- .entry-header --><\/p>\n<p>        <!-- end slider-section --><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-img pos-rel\">\n<div class=\"post-thumbnail full-width-image\">\n          <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"655\" height=\"436\" src=\"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Fr-Stephano.jpg\" class=\"attachment-morenews-featured size-morenews-featured wp-post-image\" alt=\"Fr Stephano\" loading=\"lazy\">        <\/div>\n<p>                                                                                    <span class=\"aft-image-caption\"><\/p>\n<p>\n                                                    THE VICAR OF THE RECTOR MAJOR, Fr Stefano Martoglio, SDB                                                <\/p>\n<p>                                            <\/span>\n                                                                    <\/div>\n<div class=\"color-pad\">\n<div class=\"entry-content read-details\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dear friends and readers, members of the Salesian Family, for this month\u2019s greeting in the\u00a0<em>Salesian Bulletin<\/em>\u00a0I will focus on a very important event that the Salesian Congregation is holding presently: General Chapter XXIX.\u00a0This assembly, the most important one that the Congregation can experience, occurs every six years along the Salesian Congregation\u2019s journey.<\/h3>\n<p>Our lives are filled with many things and this Jubilee Year proposes to us many important events; however, I want to focus on a different, particular one because, even if it would seem outside one\u2019s realm, still, it concerns all of us.<\/p>\n<p>Don Bosco, our Founder, was aware that things would not end with him but that it was only the beginning of a long journey to be traveled.\u00a0One day in 1875, when he was sixty years old, Don Bosco said to Don Giulio Barberis, one of his closest collaborators: \u201cYou will finish the work I am beginning;\u00a0I am making the sketch, you will add the colors\u201d [\u2026]\u00a0I will make a rough copy of the Congregation and I will leave to those who come after me the task of making it beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With this happy and prophetic expression, Don Bosco outlined the path that we are all called to take. Its highest form is what we are carrying out at this time in Valdocco: the General Chapter of the Salesians of Don Bosco.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The prophecy of the caramels<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s world is like that of Don Bosco, but there\u00a0<em>is<\/em>\u00a0a common characteristic: it is a time of profound change.\u00a0Total, balanced, and responsible humanization [of his boys] in both their material and spiritual components was Don Bosco\u2019s true goal.\u00a0He was concerned with filling the \u201cinner space\u201d of the boys, making \u201cwell-formed minds\u201d, \u201cvirtuous citizens\u201d.\u00a0In today\u2019s world, this is more relevant than ever.\u00a0Our world needs Don Bosco today.<\/p>\n<p>Before all else, everyone must pose to him or herself one simple question: \u201cDo I want an ordinary life or do I want to change the world?\u201d\u00a0But can we even still speak of goals and ideals today?\u00a0Whenever a river stops flowing, it turns into a swamp \u2013 even so with man.<\/p>\n<p>Don Bosco never stopped moving forward.\u00a0Today he does so with\u00a0<em>our\u00a0<\/em>feet.<\/p>\n<p>His conviction about young people was this: \u201cThis most precious segment of human society, upon whom all hopes of a\u2026\u00a0happy future are founded, is not of itself of a bad disposition\u2026 If at times these youngsters are already infected with evil, it is more often through thoughtlessness than through deliberate malice. These youngsters truly need a helping hand to take care of them and to lead them away from evil to the practice of virtue\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1882, in a conference to the Cooperators in Genoa: \u201cBy removing, instructing, and educating young people in danger, it is good for the whole of civil society.\u00a0If young people are well educated, we will have a better generation over time.\u201d\u00a0It is as if to say: only education can change the world.<\/p>\n<p>Don Bosco had an almost frightening capacity for vision.\u00a0He never says \u201cuntil now\u201d\u00a0but always \u201cfrom now on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Guy Avanzini, an eminent university professor, always repeated: \u201cThe pedagogy of the twenty-first century will be Salesian, or it will not be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One evening in 1851, from a window on the second floor, Don Bosco flung a handful of caramels. Naturally, this resulted in great joy. One of the boys seeing him there, smiling at the window, yelled up to him: \u201cDon Bosco, how wonderful it would be if you could see the whole world studded with oratories!\u201d Don Bosco fixed his serene gaze toward the horizon and responded, \u201cWho knows? The day may come when Oratory boys will really be scattered all over the earth!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Don Bosco fixed his serene gaze heavenward and replied: \u201cWho knows, the day may come when the sons of the oratory are truly scattered throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Looking Far Beyond<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But what is a General Chapter?\u00a0Why fill these pages with a theme that is specific to the Salesian Congregation?<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Constitutions<\/em>\u00a0of the Salesians of Don Bosco, their way of life, in article 146, define it as follows:\u00a0<em>\u201c<\/em><em>The general chapter is the principal sign of the Congregation\u2019s unity in diversity. It is the fraternal meeting in which Salesians carry out a communal reflection to keep themselves faithful to the Gospel and to their Founder\u2019s charism, and sensitive to the needs of time and place.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Through the general chapter the entire So\u00adciety, opening itself to the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord, seeks to discern God\u2019s will at a specific moment in history for the pur\u00adpose of rendering the Church better service.<\/em><em>\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The General Chapter is therefore not a private matter of consecrated Salesians, but a very important assembly that concerns us all, touching the whole Salesian Family and those who have Don Bosco within them, because the people, the mission, the Charism of Don Bosco, the Church and each one of us, of you, are at the center.<\/p>\n<p>Fidelity to God and to Don Bosco along with the ability to see the signs of the times and of different places are also at the center.\u00a0This fidelity is a continuous movement, renewal, and the ability to look far ahead while keeping one\u2019s feet firmly planted on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>For this reason, about 250 Salesian confreres from all over the world have gathered to pray, think, dialogue with each other, and look far beyond\u2026\u00a0in fidelity to Don Bosco.<\/p>\n<p>Then after having constructed their vision, they will elect the new Rector Major, the successor of Don Bosco and his General Council.<\/p>\n<p>This Chapter is not something extraneous to your life, dear friend who is reading this, but is part of your life and your \u201caffection\u201d for Don Bosco.\u00a0Why tell you this?\u00a0So that you will accompany it with your prayer \u2013 prayer to the Holy Spirit that He may help all the capitulars know what is God\u2019s Will so we may give better service to the Church.<\/p>\n<p>I think that GC29 \u2013 no, I am sure \u2013 will be all this:\u00a0an experience of God that will help us \u201cclean up\u201d some parts of the sketch that Don Bosco left us, as all the General Chapters in the history of the Congregation have done before, always in fidelity to his plan.<\/p>\n<p>I am certain that even today we can continue to be enlightened so as to be faithful to the Lord Jesus and our original charism with the faces, music, and colors of today.<\/p>\n<p>We are not alone in this mission and we know and feel that Mary, our Mother and Help of Christians, the Help of the Church and model of fidelity, will sustain all our steps.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-item-metadata entry-meta author-links\">\n                                    <\/div>\n<nav class=\"navigation post-navigation\" aria-label=\"Continue Reading\">\n<h2 class=\"screen-reader-text\">Continue Reading<\/h2>\n<div class=\"nav-links\">\n<div class=\"nav-previous\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/ingoldsite\/index.php\/2025\/03\/06\/chapter-members-working-on-the-three-core-themes-of-gc29\/\" rel=\"prev\"><span class=\"em-post-navigation\">Previous:<\/span> Chapter Members working on the Three Core Themes of GC29<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"nav-next\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/ingoldsite\/index.php\/2025\/03\/07\/happy-birthday-dear-fr-joseph-almeida-sdb\/\" rel=\"next\"><span class=\"em-post-navigation\">Next:<\/span> Happy Birthday Dear Fr Joseph Almeida SDB<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GC29 THE MESSAGE OF THE VICAR OF THE RECTOR MAJOR, Fr\u00a0Stefano Martoglio, SDB\u00a0 Admin-ING March 7, 2025 THE VICAR OF THE RECTOR MAJOR, Fr Stefano Martoglio, SDB Dear friends and readers, members of the Salesian Family, for this month\u2019s greeting in the\u00a0Salesian Bulletin\u00a0I will focus on a very important event that the Salesian Congregation is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gc29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donboscoguwahati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}