A THOMASIAN was selected to participate in the 28th General Chapter of the Salesians of Don Bosco (GC28) from Feb. 16 to April 4 in Italy.
Engineering student Andre Launio said it was the first time the congregation invited young people in the General Chapter.
“[The young people] will be able to give inputs and insights that will help in the discernment of the theme,” Launio said in an online interview with the Varsitarian.
“My task here is to express the concerns of not only the Filipino youth, but the youth of all Southeast Asia,” he added.
Launio, president of the Bosconian Thomasian Youth Movement and an alumnus of Don Bosco Technical College, was among the 18 individuals selected from around the world.
He said St. John Bosco’s “preventive system of education” influenced his life.
The General Chapter of the Salesians of Don Bosco is the supreme authority of the Salesians of Don Bosco, which is headed by the rector major and the society’s general council.
Rector Major Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, in his letter of convocation last May 24, proposed a “challenge” to be explored in the order’s provincial chapters.
The challenges are: “to look deeply into the Salesian mission among today’s youths,” “the profile of the Salesian being formed to serve young people today,” and “sharing with the laity in the mission and the formation that is projected into the future.”
GCS28’s theme is “What kind of Salesians for the youth of today?”
Founded by St. John Bosco in 1859, the mission of the Salesians of Don Bosco is the pursuit of “the Christian perfection of its associates obtained by the exercise of spiritual and corporal works of charity towards the young, especially the poor, and the education of boys to the priesthood.” with reports from Joselle Czarina S. de la Cruz
