The Salesian Parish: A Focus of Ministry for the Young

By Fr. Louis Molinelli, SDB, Province Delegate for Youth Ministry

Over the past week, I had the opportunity to visit the Salesian Family at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Surrey, BC. This ministry comprises a parish, elementary school, pastoral care of a diocesan high school, Salesian Cooperators, members of the Association of Mary Help of Christians (ADMA), and countless groups of parishioners and the young who are on their journey of faith accompanied by four Salesians, three Salesian sisters, and many lay collaborators. Although it is the ministry furthest from the center of our province (2,972 miles and in the Pacific time zone), it is a ministry filled with young people of all ages and various cultural groups who call Our Lady of Good Counsel home.

The Salesian Youth Ministry Frame of Reference tells us that Don Bosco accepted seven parishes during his lifetime. In 1887, he wrote regulations for Salesian administered parishes. In these regulations, he states that the priority of attention is to be given to the young, especially those who are poor.

The Frame of Reference goes on to say that "The option for young people in the parish entrusted to the Salesians is not exclusive or discriminatory, but a preferential option." The Salesian Family cares for all groups in the parish with a preferential eye toward the young. The Salesian parish creates a community of baptized believers who experience the proclamation of the evangelical message and, growing deeper in their own faith, bring the young into deeper communion with the Lord and the Church he established.

The Salesian parish gives us a wonderful opportunity to develop a program of comprehensive youth and young adult ministry as well as solidify the vocation of all the laity. In fact, all in the parish take on a significant role in the evangelizing mission. It is strengthened through the establishment and ministry of assemblies, associations, small community groups and movements. Each group in the parish has a special call to keep the young at the center of their ministry.

Our province has dynamic parishes where the young are at the heart and center of its mission. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to experience the life of our family in Surrey. May all of our ministry be focused on the salvation of our souls and the salvation of the young!