Hajja Salesjana July-September 2019

BLOOD POURED OUT BRINGS FORTH LIFE 30 H AJJA S ALESJANA THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR DON ÁNGEL FERNÁNDEZ ARTIME It was very moving for me to meet with Bororo and Xavante youth joined together in this land where the Bororos live, to meet the missionaries who share day-to-day life with them and to celebrate our Faith right on the spot where our martyrs met their deaths My dear readers, You are probably asking what I mean by the title given to this letter and what topic I wish to speak about. I understand your wonder. So as to dispel any doubts, I shall begin by sharing with you what I experienced during one of my latest visits to our Salesian presences. Not too long ago, I was visiting and accompanying the people in the Salesian works in Mato Grosso and Southern Mato Grosso in Brazil– specifically in the tiny village of Cuiabá – where our first Salesian missionaries arrived 125 years ago. Today it is a very beautiful little town. I told my brother Salesians that, just as I had done in El Chaco, Paraguay, I wanted to visit our work among the indigenous peoples in Mato Grosso, where we have been among the Ayoreos, the Maskoy, and the Chamacocos for decades. I also asked to visit our missionary presences in Mato Grosso. We arrived in Meruri, the settlement of the indigenous Bororo people, around dusk. In 1894, our Salesian missionaries made their first contact with the Xavantes Indians of the area. That first encounter was a sad one. The indigenous people killed the first two Salesian missionaries to arrive. Nonetheless, the missioners soon founded the Sacred Heart Colony and began the evangelization of the Bororos living in this region. In 1906, they founded the Sangradouro Colony. It was to this colony that the Xavantes came after having been expelled and almost annihilated by Parabuburi of the area.