Proclaiming God to the poor the Salesians’ mission

World Mission Sunday 2023 – Celebrating and Supporting the Legacy of Irish Missionary Work

Salesian missionaries proclaim God in word and deed to the marginalised, Fr Dan Carroll SDB tells Ruadhán Jones

For almost 150 years, Salesian missionaries have been bringing God’s word and hope to the poorest and most marginalised in society, says Fr Dan Carroll SDB.

The congregation’s charism is to bring “the Word of God to young people, particularly to those who are poor, marginalised and abandoned”, the Irish Salesian continues.

They do this both by word and action, witnessing to the Faith through their acts of charity, and then teaching the good news to all.

The Salesians have a missionary presence on most of the continents, including hard-hit countries in Africa such as South Sudan and the Congo, as well as parts of South America, India and Europe.

“Work for the migrants and immigrants and internally displaced people has been going on for decades in the Salesian mission work,” Fr Carroll tells The Irish Catholic.

Turin

“The mission work began in 1875 when a group of Salesians went from Turin to work with a group of Italian migrants in Argentina. A few years later, in 1879, they began to work with what we would now call indigenous peoples in Patagonia.”

The congregation was just 16 years old when it began its missionary work. Founded by St Don Bosco in 1859, the congregation focuses on attending to the needs of young people.

Don Bosco founded the congregation “in response to the great need he saw in Turin” to help young boys who, because of rapid economic change, were forced to move from farms to big cities.

They weren’t able to cope with the changes “and became a major problem. When he began ministry, he noticed this and in 1841, he began a ministry with those young people,” Fr Carroll explains. “Basically many of them were refugees, they had come a long distance to that place. All the problems of the modern world were in that that group at that stage.”

Following on from Don Bosco, the first call for each Salesian is to go out and proclaim God’s word, bringing his hope to those who need it.

First, though, they strive to meet people’s material needs, whether it be “education, health needs, having a direction in life… welcoming young people in particular”, says Fr Carroll.

While much of the congregation’s missionary work has been carried out in developing nations, the Irish Salesian says the congregation has noticed a growing need for a missionary focus in Europe too: “We need missionaries here in our part of Europe as well since the cultural change and so forth, there are a lot of young people who haven’t heard the word of God. That’s certainly part of the focus.”

Trend

There is a “reverse missionary trend”, he says, highlighting the changing demographics for vocations: “Our missionaries were coming from the Western world, now they come from everywhere. In Ireland now we have Salesian missionaries from India, from Vietnam, a couple from Nigeria and one from East Timor.”

In Ireland, the congregation has a relatively small membership. They work in secondary schools and agricultural colleges predominantly, and also with vulnerable people in Dublin city. A number of Irish Salesians went ‘on the missions’ in Africa, South America and particularly India.

One aspect of Salesian life the Irish province is seeking to promote is volunteer centres, Fr Carroll tells this paper.

“We offer opportunities to people who would like to go to a missionary centre maybe for a few months or a year, just for that experience. Volunteering is quite big in the congregation in other places in South America, in Europe and so forth. We’re trying to develop that, it’s an important part of it.”

In some parts of the world, the missionaries’ work can be fraught with danger, due to hostility to Christianity and other minority faiths. Fr Carroll gives the example of North Africa, where the word of God can’t be openly proclaimed.

“But by their example and their values, social services, education centres and refugee centres, they give witness to the Gospel,” Fr Carroll stresses. “The missionaries in India are reaching out to all these different caste groups and ethnic groups. Witness there is the first thing and they proclaim where they can.”

Europe

Looking at Europe, “there is a lot of work in nearly all the parishes and there are Salesian centres in all Europeans countries, supporting migrants and displaced people, supporting young people who are very poor and not able to access education,” Fr Carroll explains.

“Skills education has become a focus of our work, enabling young people to have skills that will hopefully help them enter the workplace. That was one of Don Bosco’s core themes, helping young people to take their place in society, to be good citizens and good Christians. That encapsulates what he was about.”

Over the many decades that the Salesians have been sending out missionaries, the Irish people have been very generous to their noble cause.

“People very kindly and generously respond to our requests for support for places like South Sudan, the Congo, the Philippines, Asia, Syria,” Fr Carroll says gratefully.

“Misean Cara has been wonderful in supporting the projects we have sent to them over the years. When we look back over time, all the generations of Irish people have supported missions in India, in South America – an enormous amount of support has been forwarded to the missions.”