Hajja Salesjana

The Ordinary Public Consistory at St. Peter’s Square this morning, 30 September 2023, was indeed a celebration of the universality of the Church and a renewal of the thrust of evangelization, during which the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, was officially created Cardinal. There was great emotion for the entire Salesian Family when the Holy Father Francis pronounced the official formula for the creation of the 21 new cardinals, and even more so when, face to face with the Rector Major kneeling before him, he imposed on him a purple skullcap and biretta, the cardinal’s ring and publicly assigned him the ‘Salesian’ diaconate of the Church of Mary Help of Christians in Via Tuscolana. The subsequent moment of embrace of Card. Fernández Artime to the Holy Father was at the same time a symbolic gesture, a sign of fidelity in ecclesial service, and also an expression of concrete closeness and affinity between the two pastors. Earlier, in the solemn rite which witnessed the first of the 21 nominated cardinals, the Augustinian Card. Robert Francis Prevost, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, gave a message of homage and expressed his thanks to the Pontiff on behalf of all. He emphasized how the cardinalate brings with it honours, but above all responsibilities, and the sense of inadequacy of the new cardinals in the face of the greatness of the service to which they are now called. However, in a spirit of trust in Divine Providence and in the Pontiff’s farsightedness, he renewed everyone’s adherence to the task assigned, to be carried out with absolute dedication, utmost humility and total loyalty. A red letter day for the Salesian Congregation A day of celebration for the Salesian Family: The Rector Major is a cardinal by ANS - Vatican City 6 Ottubru-Diċembru 2023 hajja