Relics of St. John Bosco will travel to five continents

(June 10,2009): Celebrations for the bi-centennial of the birth of St. John Bosco, the founder of the Salesian order, and champion of underprivileged children, are underway with a five-continent "pilgrimage" of his relics. The crystal and aluminium urn containing a likeness of the saint and his right arm bone, has been displayed in several Italian cities.
On June 4, top Vatican officials honoured the saint, when the urn was brought to the St. Callixtus catacombs on the Appian Way in Rome. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, participated in a Mass there for St. John Bosco. Cardinal Bertone praised him for his dedication to young people, "especially those abandoned and threatened," calling him "a man of action." The Cardinal also complimented the Salesian order, of which he is a member, for continuing the saint's work with communities for orphans and troubled and poor children.
The urn's journey began in Turin, in northern Italy, on April 25 in a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Salesian order. It will make stops in several South American countries, Central America, the United States, Canada, Asia, Africa and back to Europe. The pilgrimage is expected to end in Turin in 2014. The bicentennial of St. John Bosco's birth in Castelnuovo D'Asti, near Turin, will be celebrated with events in 2015. Pope Benedict XVI has agreed, at the request of the Father Pascual Chavez Villanueva, the Salesian rector superior, to grant plenary indulgences to those, who make a pilgrimage to see and pray before the urn in various locations around the world. Salesian communities for youth are now found in 128 countries.