Your Excellency, Bishop William Shomali,

Reverend Father Emanuele Vezzoli, Vice Provincial,

Reverend Fathers, Superiors,

Rev. Fr. Leo Arockiam

Rev.Fr. Jose Kochamkuneel

Rev. Fr. Mathew Coutinho, Patriarchal Vicar

Dear Salesian Brothers and Sisters,

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

May the Lord give you peace.

Happy Feast Day!

I am truly very happy to celebrate the Solemnity of Saint John Bosco with you. I rejoice in meeting you, the sons and daughters of Don Bosco; yet today I come among you not only as a guest, but as a son of Don Bosco myself. At the age of five, I was entrusted to a school run by the Salesian Sisters, and later to the Salesian Fathers, until my graduation from high school at the Sacred Heart of Jesus School in São Paulo, Brazil. I then pursued my studies in Clinical Psychology at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome, where I completed my doctorate under the guidance of Professor Father Michele Pelerey. Our Patriarch, Cardinal Pizzaballa, when he was still Custos of the Holy Land, once said to me with a smile: “You are a Salesian, disguised as a Franciscan.”

Yes, it is truly beautiful to celebrate Saint John Bosco with you, and to celebrate his holiness. And the heart of Don Bosco’s holiness is contained in a simple phrase he often repeated: “It is enough that you are young for me to love you.” These words contain the whole Gospel lived by Don Bosco. He firmly believed that every young person – even the most difficult, even the most wounded – is good soil in the eyes of God. And here I would like to say to all of you, Salesian brothers and sisters: keep your charism alive.

Your charism is a way of looking, a way of speaking, and a way of caring for young people. I say this as someone whose life has been deeply touched by it. This charism is not a philosophy or an ideology; it is life, it is a dream, it is Don Bosco’s dream. Don Bosco dreamed. Young people dream. And those who work with young people must also dream. No one has the right to destroy dreams, dreams of a better world, of a more humane and fraternal society, where young people are protagonists. Believe in their potential. Believe in their capacity for good.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us: “Let the children come to me.” Don Bosco took these words seriously. He allowed young people to come to Christ as they were, without demanding perfection. In his priestly life, he understood that young people need not only correction, but presence; not only rules, but trust; not only instruction, but love.

That is why he dedicated his entire life to protecting, educating, and accompanying young people, especially those most exposed to danger, poverty, and abandonment. He accompanied them step by step, teaching them that holiness is not sadness, but joy; not an escape from the world, but responsibility within it. Here we can also recall Saint Francis, who asked his friars to be joyful, because for him sadness was the fruit of sin. Don Bosco, too, insisted on joy. His teaching is well known: “Holiness consists in being very happy.”

This is not superficial happiness, but the deep joy that comes from feeling loved, forgiven, and capable of doing good. Don Bosco knew that a young person who feels loved grows well, and that a young person who experiences love learns how to love.

Today, in the world in which we live, so many young people feel lost, alone, and full of questions and fears. The celebration of Saint John Bosco challenges us and calls us to live his spirit. What place do young people have in our communities, in our families, and in our hearts? Are we capable of listening to them, of being patient with them, of believing in them even when they make mistakes?

As Bishop of Cyprus, from the very beginning of my ministry in 2022, my first pastoral priority was young people and adolescents, and it continues to be so. Because, as Pope Leo reminds us, young people are not the future of the Church; they are her present. They are the present of the Church.

As I move toward the conclusion of this homily, I ask your forgiveness if I have spoken at length. I would like, however, to recall a letter of Don Bosco that continues to guide me even today in my episcopal ministry: the famous “Letter from Rome” of May 10, 1884, written from the Opera del Sacro Cuore. For me, it is a key text of his educational spirituality. In it, Don Bosco urges the Salesians to love young people in such a way that they feel loved. He says: “Strive to make yourselves loved.” You are not physically present in Cyprus, but you have arrived there through this bishop who is in love with your charism and who seeks to live Don Bosco’s teaching every day.

I conclude by asking for the intercession of Saint John Bosco. May he teach us his gaze: a gaze that does not judge, but encourages; that does not give up, but hopes; that never tires of loving. Let us entrust to him all the young people of our diocese and of the whole world, that they may be protected with love and accompanied toward Christ with joy, peace, and hope.

Amen.