Two Salesians Make First Religious Profession

By Fr. Mike Mendl, SDB

(New Rochelle, N.Y. – August 19) – Brothers Francis Chazhikattu, SDB, and Timothy Hughes, SDB, made their first professions as Salesians of Don Bosco on August 15, 2026, at the National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Haverstraw-Stony Point, N.Y.

Father Dominic Tran, SDB, provincial, presided at the Mass of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, received their vows, and preached.

The parents of each of the newly professed assisted at their sons’ profession. So did about 40 of their Salesian confreres, nine young men and women who had been commissioned the previous day as Salesian Lay Missioners, a dozen FMAs, other members of the wider Salesian Family, and students from Salesian parishes and schools.

Father Dominic opened his homily by noting that Mary’s Magnificat (in the day’s Gospel reading) includes 15 statements, and God is the subject in 11 of them. Mary recognizes God as the actor in everything about salvation. He is the source of the blessing that she experiences. Similarly, by their profession Brothers Tim and Franky will praise God for what he does for the young through Don Bosco under Mary’s influence.

Father Dominic also stressed the trust that following Jesus requires. Mary did not know what would follow her “yes” at the Annunciation. Nor do we know how God will lead us to our ultimate destination. It was so with Don Bosco, too. His guiding dream at age nine did not include details, only the surety that Mary would be his teacher.

On their profession day, we pray that Brothers Tim and Franky will go forward with the same faith in Jesus that Don Bosco showed.

Early Formation of the Brothers

Brothers Francis and Timothy spent a year of novitiate under the tutelage of Father Joseph Nguyen, SDB, Master of Novices, and Brother Thomas Dion, SDB, his assistant. 

There were three other novices in the class: two from Ireland and one from the San Francisco Salesian Province; they professed vows in their home provinces.

Before novitiate, both young men completed the Salesian prenovitiate program at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J. As prenovices, they taught religious education at St. John Bosco Parish in Port Chester, N.Y.; planned and ran youth retreats there; assisted in campus ministry at the Prep; and accompanied Don Bosco students on service programs.

Both young men were then admitted to the novitiate and moved across the country to Richmond, Calif., which is in the San Francisco Bay area. As novices, they, together with their other three classmates, learned more about St. John Bosco, Salesian spirituality, community life, Salesian traditions and the Constitutions, and had the opportunity to practice being Salesian educators.

The novices assisted in campus ministry at Salesian College Prep and the Salesian Youth Club in Richmond, planned retreats for a couple of parishes, and served at two summer camps in 2026, Camp Don Bosco in Rosemead, Calif., and Camp St. Francis in Aptos, Calif. They also helped to accompany youth during the San Francisco Province's annual Salesian Youth Leadership Conference.

Following their religious profession, the two new Salesian brothers will become part of the Salesian formation community at Orange, N.J. As “clerical” brothers, they will study philosophy at Immaculate Conception Seminary-Seton Hall University in South Orange.

Brother Timothy Patrick Hughes, SDB

Brother Tim Hughes was born on July 2, 1998, in Mission Viejo, Calif. He is the youngest of the four children of Patrick Joseph and Regina Hughes, members of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Carlsbad, Calif., in the San Diego Diocese. Brother Tim’s older brother is Joseph Hughes, and his older sisters are Ann and Giovanna Hughes.

Tim met the Salesians in the person of Father Steve DeMaio on a FOCUS mission trip to Lima, Peru. He felt an ease and kinship with the young priest, admiring his honesty, openness, and willingness to play games and hang out with the young people on the mission trip. Consequently, when Father Steve invited him to apply to the Salesian Lay Missioner program, he took it seriously because the invitation came personally from him.

During the SLM orientation in 2022, he met many Salesians from the New Rochelle Province. He and another young man then served at Casa Hogar del Nino Colimense in Colima, Mexico, in 2022-2023, experiencing the impact of Don Bosco’s mission to the young. He writes: “I came to have such a profound and arresting love for them [the youth in Colima], and at the end of the mission when they said goodbye to me, I was struck by their great love for me. It was being with those young people that made sense of one of Don Bosco’s great quotes: ‘For you I study, for you I work, for you I live, for you I am even prepared to give my life.’ Ultimately, I felt conquered by the overpowering love of God the Father and the love of those young people.”

For Novice Tim, the best parts of the year at Richmond were “living in community with my brother novices and experiencing the joy of fraternal life with them, as well as accompanying the St. Anthony’s Youth Group [in Oakland] and seeing their growth and receiving their trust as young people.”

Brother Tim states: “I hope to hit the ground running and truly discern how I can serve in the mission and encounter the young that God sends to us. I want to take seriously my Salesian identity and truly embrace this total self-gift that God is calling me to.”

In the longer term, he aspires to ministry in media. He states: “Prior to my discerning the Salesians, I was about to begin pursuing a career in acting. I already had extensive experience studying it, making film projects with friends, and performing onstage. After having read about the realm of communications within our mission as laid out in our Constitutions, it makes me see more clearly the fertile ground there is here for evangelizing and educating young people within our provinces utilizing all forms of media and storytelling arts. I would be honored to utilize my gifts and the skills I’ve acquired in theater, film, and storytelling to help grow this key sector of our mission to the young for our province and the Congregation.”

Brother Tim adds this coda to his story: “I am thankful to God for this vocation and that He has brought immense joy to my life. I hope that my simple living out of my Salesian life may be a testimony to the young that they may encounter Christ’s love and receive the joy He calls them to in their vocations. My advice to young people is, ‘Let God surprise you!’”

Brother Francis Siri Chazhikattu, SDB

Brother Franky Chazhikattu was born in Philadelphia on July 14, 2003. His parents are Siri and Reny Chazhikattu, and he has an older sister, Mary, an older brother, Cyriac, and a younger brother, Joseph.

The Chazhikattus relocated to Brandon, Fla., just outside Tampa. There they belong to Sacred Heart Knanaya Catholic Forane Parish, part of the Syro-Malabar Diocese of Chicago. Before the Syro-Malabar parish had their own church, they worshiped and received religious education at Mary Help of Christians Center in Tampa. At MHC, Father Steve Ryan was the first Salesian he got to know. “He showed me what it meant to be a true spiritual father. Despite directing a very busy place, he always prioritized the people he served, welcoming my family, learning our names, and making us feel at home.”

Father Steve encouraged Franky’s mother to enroll him at Cristo Rey Tampa Salesian High School, which eventually “brought me to the door” of vocational discernment. As he was growing up, he “was instilled with a strong sense of devotion — to hard work, to family, to those in need, and above all, to God.” He took part in a Salesian leadership retreat, where he “experienced God’s love in a new way and became more open to His call.” When Father Eddie Chincha invited him to serve at Mary Help’s summer camp, he accepted and discovered a new way of self-giving.

After Franky graduated from Cristo Rey Tampa, the Salesians continued accompanying him and inviting him to engage in youth ministry. Through the young people he encountered, “especially those on the peripheries, and a rambunctious yet wise Salesian community, I came to recognize Christ present in surprising, yet very real ways, where others might not see Him in them.”

Through all this, “Fathers Franco Pinto, Jay Horan, Dennis Hartigan, Eddie Chincha, and Brother Jieo Tecson accompanied me at crucial moments, teaching me through their example that even after leaving a place, I never left their thoughts and prayers, and ultimately they were the ones who ‘guided me to step through the door’ of my vocation.” Franky said: “I recognize that God had quietly made the Salesians an integral part of my life long before I ever wanted to become one. Ultimately, I realized that God had been guiding and reshaping my entire journey to be ingrained in the Salesian charism, giving direction to that desire to devote myself to Him and leading me toward an ever-deepening and daily-renewing ‘yes’ to His call.” He came to see that he could serve the young generously as a professed Salesian himself.

The best part of Novice Franky’s novitiate year “was the many opportunities for personal formation. Through the various classes, prayer life, examples of confreres and lay collaborators, and especially through the young people who were a ‘burning bush,’ I was continually reminded of the need and way to grow. I came to recognize that almost every experience contained an opportunity for formation, one that I am glad to undergo, which continues to strengthen my desire continually to grow in my identity as a Salesian.”

As a postnovice in Orange, he noted: “I aspire to deepen the necessary knowledge, assimilate the Salesian charism and my vows, and become better prepared to serve Don Bosco’s mission in whatever reality I am sent. Ultimately, if I continue growing in my relationship with God and faithfully responding to His call, I trust that everything else will follow as I strive to live in the footsteps of Don Bosco and Christ the Good Shepherd.”

Brother Franky is open to whatever mission God will call him to as a Salesian pastor-educator, ready to collaborate with lay people as well as his confreres. He looks for the prayers and other support of the many friends of Don Bosco.

Watch the livestream from Bros. Francis and Tim’s first profession, and explore more photos on Shutterfly.