St. John Bosco (1815-1888), as far as I know, never set foot in Africa. But the Italian founder of the Salesians is today very much present in Africa. Of course, as many know, God’s call to this man was for him to be a shepherd for poor children. The sons of Don Bosco are still doing the same all over the world.
A Distressing Situation
One important example of their work is flourishing in the former British colony of Sierra Leone, a predominantly Muslim country, in West Africa. It is a country devastated by a decade-long civil war full of atrocities. U.N. peacekeeping troops are currently keeping order, but the future is uncertain.
In the midst of this uncertainty and terrible poverty, the Salesians are energetically active. I recently met one of Don Bosco's sons during a missionary appeal for contributions that he was making in the United States. This Salesian priest was a 37-year-old native of India who works as a missionary in Sierra Leone. He speaks English perfectly, an ability which stands him in good stead given that English is one of the main languages of Sierra Leone.
He described to my American parish the malnutrition and desperation of the children of Sierra Leone, with girls turning to prostitution at a young age. He also described the sight of many people missing limbs intentionally cut off by combatants in the recent civil war for the purpose of terrorizing the population.
The Messenger as Message
I was struck by the youth and friendliness of this Salesian. And I can say that I have heard few American priests celebrate Mass with as much dignity, devotion, and clarity as this native of India did. Two significant things about this priest came out in his homily: first, he has seen miracles and so believes that God is still working miracles today; and, second, he and his fellow Salesians are converting Muslims in Sierra Leone.
Let us turn to miracles first. He mentioned that in his own poor Indian childhood home the family water buffalo was the key to survival for him and his mother. The water buffalo provided the milk which sustained them. One day the water buffalo took seriously ill, collapsed, and became bloated due to contaminated water. Seeing their only means of survival dying, his mother began to cry. Yet, being deeply religious, she ran inside to get holy water with which she blessed the collapsed water buffalo. And she prayed a Hail Mary. Soon enough the water buffalo was back on its feet and the bloated stomach had subsided. As you can imagine, the child, who later became a priest, still remembers this event distinctly.
This Indian Salesian, like many Third World Christians, believes that God's miracles are not just for the pages of the Bible. In contrast to our Western skepticism based on decades of immersion in a science-worshipping society, these Christians still have the biblical faith in divine intervention. Having that biblical faith is alone enough to make this priest noteworthy to a westerner.
The second thing that struck me is that this priest happily recounted how hundreds of Muslims are converting to Catholicism in Sierra Leone. This evangelizing work is not the wishy-washy type of evangelization in which only the unchurched or religiously unaffiliated are seen as ripe for conversion. The conversion of those already associated with another religion is another instance of the biblical faith which marks the work of these Salesians.
It is an aspect of biblical faith in contrast to the squeamishness exhibited by too many Christians in our own country who do not think it necessary to convert those of other religious backgrounds. The Salesians in Sierra Leone are not practicing a secular-style, “Peace Corps” missionary enterprise: they are preaching the gospel to all; they are baptizing converts from other religious traditions, while also being deeply engaged in the corporal works of mercy.
A New Evangelization
In addition to being struck by his biblical faith, I also recognized that this young priest is the product of the John Paul II era. The New Evangelization of the pope is bearing fruit. It is prospering especially in Africa and in Asia. This missionary appeal was decidedly different from what I had been exposed to before.
True to the charism of their Italian founder, these Salesians focus on providing education, shelter, and work for desperately poor young people. It is indeed amazing to see the international reach and continuing vibrancy of the vocation of Don Bosco, who himself began life as a poor boy. It is a miracle in itself that the present calling of this Indian priest to work for the poor youth of Africa is traceable to God's call to a poor boy in nineteenth-century Italy.
You can learn far more about this missionary work in Sierra Leone in living color and greater detail at the BoscoHall.org website. You will see that they surely need your help. If you wish to contribute, please go to SalesianMissions.org (scroll down). You can earmark contributions “for Sierra Leone.”
Oswald Sobrino’s daily columns can be found at the Catholic Analysis website. He is a graduate lay student at Detroit’s Sacred Heart Major Seminary. He recently published Unpopular Catholic Truths, a collection of apologetic essays, available on the internet at Virtualbookworm.com, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble.
