Humanity has no way forward but peace, says 10th Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr Artime
THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Education is the panacea to India's problem of poverty and a "wonderful garment" for the young which gives them a future and also the path to peace, said Fr Angel Fernandez Artime the global head of the Salesian Society founded by St Don Bosco.
Fr Artime who is in Goa on an official visit addressed a press conference at Don Bosco's, Panjim, and described India as a very diverse country where there is a lot of contrast between the poor and rich.
Recalling that his own country, Spain, also has a lot of poverty, Fr Artime opined that it is not easy for India to find a solution but that education was one way.
"India is a very diverse country...there is lots of contrast between the poor and the rich. It's not easy for India to find a simple solution. But what we need is education. It is a wonderful garment for the young, which gives them a future," Fr Artime said.
He also highlighted that in the Assam Don Bosco University, there are 1,500 university students from different backgrounds co-habiting peacefully.
"Salesians believe in humanity. Humanity has no way forward but peace. For the last 20 years, we've seen violence across the world that was unknown before. We've seen hatred. It will never bring anything good," Fr Artime said.
Stating that the Salesians are doing very well in education, Fr Artime also dwelt on the menace of narcotics which he said was a serious issue.
As the 10th Rector Major of the Salesians who have presence mostly in the education sector in as many as 132 countries, Fr Artime has traveled to 86 countries and wants to visit all the 132 nations where the Catholic society has presence.
"In our institutions, we have Hindus, Catholics and Muslims. In our educational institutions 70 per-cent are mostly students of other religions, not Catholics. The greatness of a nation lies in living together in diversity," Fr Artime further said, adding that across the world, there is currently a tradition of trying to kill diversity.
He said, peace can only be brought about by education and that sometimes, despite education, there is still strife because of power hungry people and it should be sorted out through dialogue.
The Salesian head co-celebrated mass on Saturday along with the Archbishop of Goa Filipe Neri Ferrao, the Bishop of Sindhudurg Allwyn Barreto and the Salesian provincial of the Konkan province Fr Felix Fernandes. He also visited the Don Bosco centre in Fatorda where the society runs an Engineering College and met with the youth and also inaugurated a pre-novitiate house in Loutolim.
"Prevention better than cure," Fr Artime said of the social evil of addiction to narcotics, adding that those involved in the supply (trade) should be fought.
"This (drug trade) is one type of corruption. It allows the society to be damaged. We believe in prevention (of drugs)," he said, responding to a question posed by journalists at the press conference.
Fr Artime said in Don Bosco schools and Oratories, a conscious effort is made to to prevent youth from getting into drugs.
Fr Artime who arrived in Goa on March 27 and will depart on April 1, will spend Sunday in Panjim and will be interacting with youth from the entire Konkan province, young Salesian brothers and also celebrate a private mass at the tomb of St Francis Xavier in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa.
He will also visit the Home at Paliem-Uccassaim run by the Salesian priests for the marginalised and street boys.
