Hajja Salesjana May June 2017

30 Fr Horatio says: "It is my lot to participate in every celebration since wherever the Rector Major goes, there is sure to be festivity. However, I can compare myself to the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem while being part of everything, but merely in the ròle of a donkey! " Interviewing Fr Horatio Lopez, personal secretary of the Rector Major How did your vocation come about? It came about almost as a joke. However, that "Yes" which I pronounced at the age of 17 is, to this day, as determined as ever. Until then, I had no intention of becoming neither a Salesian, nor a diocesan priest. However, I wanted to be "salesian" forever because, I had discovered that I wanted to stay with don Bosco. As a matter of fact, I was preparing to make my promise as a Salesian Cooperator which I fulfilled when I was short of 18 years. Among other things, my dream was, to teach either Spanish, music, mathematics or even theology and while doing so, to commit myself to live intensely as a committed Salesian Cooperator. What induced you to follow this dream? I received God's gift of having grown up in a positive and healthy family environment open to Christian faith, where, honesty and mutual love reigned. Both my parents, Mario and Elena were both working, while our grandmother, nonna Angela, who had been in Argentina since she was 18 years of age also lived with us. Strangely enough, she had been on the same boat on which the father of Pope Francis and his grandfather had travelled to Argentina. It so happened that they had missed the boat on which they were meant to travel and which sank on the journey. My grandmother who was from the south of Italy played a significant part in my Written by O. Pori Mecoi and translated from the original article by Sr. Theresa Curmi FMA published in the Bollettino Salesiano, Gennaio 2017 Accompanying Fr. Angel as we travel around the world Born in Mar de Plata, Argentina 51 years ago, he was Provincial of La Plata from 2005 - 2010, Fr Horatio Adrian Lopez has already visited a third part of the Salesian world consisting of 50 nations, as he accompanies the Rector Major.