BIOGRAPHY

Speaker, author and world explorer. As a speaker, Janis McDavid is authentic and addresses topics with the knowledge that dreams are achievable. Using himself as an example, he shares his own experiences and positive mindset, leaving his listeners, determined to seize opportunities even in the most adverse of times. Born without arms or legs, he faced many challenges in his childhood and youth with tremendous courage, as he never let his disability decide what he could and could not do or influence his lifestyle.

Janis McDavid studied Economics at Witten/Herdecke University, and in March 2016 he published his first book, "Your Best Life: The Courage to Surpass Yourself and Make the Impossible Possible." He is also a UNICEF Ambassador of Courage and a "YES, YOU CAN" ambassador as well. Given his love for travel, Janis McDavid constantly takes trips to various European counties and has visited Brazil, Namibia, Iceland, Burma, Cuba and Vietnam. To date, he has given more than 300 talks and addressed more than 45,000 people. Winner of the 2018 International Speaker Slam in Hamburg, Janis McDavid enjoys what he does because he can make a difference.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In 2021 he published "Everyone Else Already Exists - The Art of Being Yourself": who are you when no one is looking? Who are you when all eyes are on you?  In his latest publication Janis McDavid takes a surprising look at the self that is always suspected of being narcissistic.

Janis McDavid

Speaker, author and world explorer

Website

“I want to live in a world,

in which features that distinguish us

do not lead to discrimination.”

BIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

On May 1, 2019, he published Artificial Humanity: it reached a fever pitch over the past decade. Never before has such a technological topic captured the attention and imagination of a generation. Learn more about AI from a philosophical perspective. 

Connected World - Penguin Books Limited  2018: the world as we know it is changing. Driverless cars, drone deliveries, and autonomous weapon systems are no longer the stuff of science fiction. But what's next for technology and business, and how will it impact our society? In Connected World, Philip Larrey of the Pontifical Lateran University explores the consequences of the new digital age in conversation with leaders including Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, and Maurice Lévy, CEO of Publicis Groupe. Ranging from the death of privacy to the rise of artificial intelligence, Connected World asks the existential questions which will come to define our age.

Thinking Logically - The Davies Group Publishers  2007: attempts to trace the development of the concept of knowledge appearing in W. V. Quine, Donald Davidson, Richard Rorty and Hilary Putnam, suggesting that all four authors share a common appreciation for the foundational role exercised by common sense knowledge.

Philip Larrey

Catholic priest

Website

“The richness of Catholic philosophical tradition,

for example, can shed an incredible light

to issues that are being debated right now 

in the technological field such as

artificial intelligence or robots.”

Annette Schavan

Former Federal Minister for Education

in Germany

Website

“We give out answers that are no longer convincing, to questions that no one asks anymore.” 

BIOGRAPHY

Antonello Vedovato is the Founder of the Edulife Group. Since 1988 he has been committed to research and development in the field of pedagogy in social innovation and in the workplace. He has been a Salesian Cooperator since 1991 and, as a layman, has embraced the charism of Don Bosco as his own polestar. In the late 1990s he founded the resource center for the application of communication technologies for education, which resulted in the creation of Edulife. After several training projects for teachers in Italy and Latin America, he devised a methodology named "The Edulife Cycle of Value," a method that interprets the preventive system in a secular form. In 2010, following the establishment of the Edulife Foundation, he embarked upon a long series of trips to China to accredit and spread the cycle of value in vocational training schools. In 2016 he activated an original Ecosystem of human and professional capacitation that draws its own pedagogical foundations from the Oratorian vision. This project was called 311. In 2021 following some scientific publications regarding the progress of Edulife, he designed the 311ECOVERSITY methodology. Antonello has been married to Susanna for 31 years and has a 28-year-old daughter named Sara; he lives in Verona and is passionate about reading historical and philosophical texts and caring for his small woods in Lessinia in the Veronese mountains.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Biografia di un imprenditivo dell’innovazione sociale (2021): this was the educational and entrepreneurial success achieved by the author. By tracing a path that outlines an unexpected entrepreneurial way of doing business related to education, Vedovato describes his cross-cultural journey by taking the reader to the places of innovation.

Capability ecosystem: the ecosystem for innovation and training. From co-working to the context of capacitation (2021): What new scenarios arise in the work environment today? What new values run through work and workplaces? This volume aims at presenting the findings of research conducted in the Edulife Foundation's 311 Learning Accelerator project.

Antonello Vedovato

Salesian Cooperator and Founder of Edulife Foundation

Website

“We are now facing an epochal challenge,
in which humans are at a crossroads:
either they will participate in choosing to live
their own lives profoundly, or they will allow themselves to be drawn into a comfortable yet certain decline towards a new and dangerous slavery in which the social, cultural and spiritual gap will have reached its peak,
in the total annihilation of Humanity.”

BIOGRAPHY

Emanuela Chiang, of Italian and Taiwanese descent, was born in Rome in 1975, where she attended classical high school and majored in Political Science. Raised in a Franciscan parish that had an oratory run by Salesian nuns, she has always seen St. Francis and Don Bosco as inspirational reference points that continue to illuminate her path. After earning a Master's degree in International Development Cooperation from the University of Pavia, she has worked at VIS since 2000 in the Project Office as coordinator of geographic areas and thematic sectors (at present she coordinates projects in the Middle East and works on the themes Migration and Integral Ecology).

After having earned the Joint Diploma in Integral Ecology and dedicating herself to promoting Laudato Si', she began working in the Youth Pastoral Sector of the Salesian Congregation as a contact person for Integral Ecology. She also collaborates on the same issues with the Laudato Si' Movement and the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Emanuela Chiang

contact person for Integral Ecology 

Youth Ministry Sector of the Congregation's Headquarters

Website

“True change originates within us; there is no peace outside of us if there is no peace within us.”

BIOGRAPHY

Filip Lammens has a master of Philosophy from the University of Ghent Belgium. He held multiple positions in higher education in Belgium (teachin, research & administration). For 7 years he worked as a quality assurance officer and ICT manager for the umbrella organisation of Flemish higher education institutions. Since 2014 he has been working for VIA Don Bosco as general manager. In 2020 he championed a blockchain project to make the financial project management of the ngo 100% transparent.

Website

General manager of VIA Don Bosco

Filip Lammens

BIOGRAPHY

Born on 02.01.1973 in Mettmann, Germany. Married, 2 children, parents originally from Portugal.

Until 2000: Studies of social sciences at the Ruhr University Bochum, graduated with “Diplom” (corresponding to master) on “The implementation of the Agenda 21 in Mozambique”.
2000- 2005: PhD on "Conflict and Political Culture in Mozambique" at the Ruhr University Bochum / Institute for Development Research and Development Policy. 2006 to 2011 project manager for Africa at Don Bosco Mission Bonn. Since 2011 Managing Director of Don Bosco Mission Bonn and Deputy Mission Procurator. Since 2019 Head of “Transparency International” working group on prevention of corruption in church development cooperation.

Director General of the Don Bosco Mission Bonn

Website

“Our work for the youth is a testimony of
our faith as sincere Christians.
There is no room for corruption.”

BIOGRAPHY

Janko Jochimsen

Legal Consultant

“You might ask yourselves, 

the change is really relevant for us?

It will change and challenge the young people

the Salesians care about, so the Salesians

have to find answers for them.”

BIOGRAPHY

Andreas Machnik was born in Germany in 1967. After his school education he began a two year professional training at Commerzbank in Germany before he started to study Business Administration at universities in Germany and France. During his studies he occasionally worked as an intern for different banks in Germany, France and Belgium. After his studies he decided to continue his career in Pax-Bank. From 1995 till 2000 Mr. Machnik worked in former East-Germany and from 2000 till 2005 he built up a new office for Pax-Bank in Rome/Italy. Since 2005 he has been the Director for the Foreign Clients Branch in Cologne/Germany. Over this time many business trips led him to Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, India, South America and the Holy Land. Since 2015 he is a speaker at the annual seminar "Financial Management for Bishops from the former Soviet block" organised by the US Bishop's Conference (USCCB) and the Jesuits in Warsaw.  For 7 years now he has been a voluntary member of a financial committee of two African provinces of an international congregation of papal law.  Andreas Machnik is married and has three children.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ethical and Sustainable Investment Criteria, written by Pax-Bank in May 2021.

Andreas Machnik

Website

“We want to make a contribution
to a future worth living.
We believe in the good and work for good solutions, for people and creation.”

BIOGRAPHY

Don Pascual Chávez was born in Real de Catorce (San Luis de Potosi), a mining area in the heart of northern Mexico, on December 19, 1947. After a few years, his family moved to Saltillo where Pascual attended the Salesian school "Colegio Mexico"; here his vocation originated and his intention to follow Don Bosco grew. He made his first profession in August 1964 in Coacalco and in August 1970 he became a Salesian taking perpetual vows in Guadalajara. He received the diaconal ministry on March 10, 1973, still in Guadalajara, and again in the "La Perla Tapatia," capital of the state of Jalisco, he was ordained a priest on December 8, 1973. He lived the first years of his ministry in the Salesian youth community in formation in Chapalita (Guadalajara). From 1975 to 1977 he studied in Rome at the Biblical Institute where he earned a licentiate in Sacred Scripture.

He was Director of the Theological Institute of San Pedro Tlaquepaque from 1980 to 1988 where he taught Sacred Scripture. From 1986 to 1989 he also served as Provincial Councilor of the Mexico-Guadalajara Province. From 1989 to 1994 he was inspector of that same province, which includes all of northern Mexico up to the borders with the United States. In 1995, he began his doctorate in Biblical Theology and resided in Madrid-Carabanchel where he remained until receiving his degree from the Pontifical University of Salamanca (Spain). In 1996, during the GC24, he received a phone call from Rector Major Fr. Vecchi, who proposed that he become Regional Councilor for the Inter-America Region, despite the fact that he was not a member by right of that Chapter. Having accepted the proposal, he moved to the Generalate in Rome. In addition to GC25, Fr. Chavez also participated as a chapter member in GC23 in 1990, for which he served as a member of the pre-chapter commission. Being constantly updated on the facts of life and history made him particularly attentive to the signs of the times. Proof of this lies in the enthusiasm he put into consolidating and strengthening the work of the border oratories in Tijuana (Mexico) that was initiated by his predecessor Fr. Humberto Meneses. In serving the poorest of the poor and marginalized, he always had a strong Salesian sense of contact with the children for whom he carried out his mission as Head of the Mexico-Guadalajara Province. As Regional Councilor, he led a region comprising 14 provinces, strongly diversified in culture, traditions, standard of living and religious and Salesian experience. The institute's XXV General Chapter elected him Rector Major of the Congregation (Don Bosco's 9th successor). He was confirmed to lead the institute by the XXVI General Chapter: his term expired in 2014. As supreme moderator of the Institute, he also served as Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Salesian University. He currently serves the Congregation by motivating the entire Salesian Family around the world through lectures and preaching.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lettere circolari ai salesiani [The Letters to the Salesians], LAS, 2021;

Witnesses of the Living God. Nature and Future of Consecrated Life: A Salesian Vision], Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2012;

Vogliamo vedere Gesù [We want to see Jesus], Elledici , 2011;

Con Don Bosco e i giovani [With Don Bosco and the Youth], Elledici, 2010;

Portare il Vangelo ai giovani. Giornate della Famiglia Salesiana 2010 [Bringing the Gospel to young people. Salesian Family Days 2010], Elledici, 2010;

Salesiani da centocinquant'anni [Salesians for one hundred and fifty years], Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2009.

Pascual Chávez Villanueva

Rector Major Emeritus

Website

“One thing has remained constant, as a precious legacy: the educational passion, particularly for the poorest young people, whom we help to become aware of their dignity as persons and the value and possibilities their lives have for God and the world.”

BIOGRAPHY

A Degree in 2005 in Science of Communications Studies with a major in Journalism from the FSC of the Salesian Pontifical University. A professional journalist, since 2005 he has worked at Avvenire, where he is Senior Editor of the Economics editorial staff. He also collaborates with other publications and various editorial projects. He has won the State Street Institutional Press Award twice and, in 2018, the "Pasquale De Vita" journalism award. He has been a professor of the Theories and Techniques Info Web - Journalism course at the Salesian Pontifical University since 2007. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Saccò Pietro – Paola Springhetti, “Corso Base di giornalismo”, Las, Rome, 2014.

“La notizia religiosa nella rete sociale” in Reti Sociali: porte di verità e di fede, nuovi spazi di evangelizzazione, Fabio Pasqualetti e Cosimo Alvati eds., Las, Rome, 2014.

“Il Cinema e il sacro”, in Editoria Media e Religione, Giuseppe Costa ed., Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City, 2009.

Pietro Saccò

A journalist - he is Senior Editor of the Economics editorial staff of the daily newspaper Avvenire

Website

“Swamped by a daunting surplus of information, in the uncomfortable position as permanent targets of skillful strategists of misinformation, never before have we been in such need of choosing which journalism to consume, so that it may truly help us read the world."

BIOGRAPHY

National Coordinator of "Bosconet", Director of the doctoral research and Academic Research Orientation in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India, and teacher at the Karl Kübel Institute for Development Education (KKID). From 1997 to 2004, he was Principal at the Inato Memorial High School Akuluto, Nagaland. He served as Secretary from 2005 to 2009 at the non-profit Society, UDHAYAM (Capuchins) at Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. He was Project Manager from 2010 to 2020, at CAUVERI Development Office (Trichy Don Bosco Society - INT) in India, and from 2011 to 2018 at the Don Bosco Action India in New Delhi.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Practical Guide to Participatory NGO Management

The prime objective of this book is to guide NGOs of Indian origin through the various aspects and elements of managing an NGO and organizational development for better reach out and impact. This book is now a text book for Post-graduation in Commerce studies in St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Trichy (Tamil Nadu).

2. Eco Concerns

The aim of this book is to promote awareness on ecological and environmental issues among children below 15 years of age. This book is being used in many primary and middle schools for environmental education. 

3. Essentials of Good NGO Governance

This book aims to improve the operational efficiency of Non-Governmental Organizations’ Board and administration; explains tools for self-assessment and steps for strategic improvement. 

4. Gender Equality and Equity among Young People

To promote and sensitize children and young people towards gender equality and gender equity. 

5. Child-labor Practice in the Fireworks Industry in and around Sivakasi - A Field Report

A Field Report It is a field survey report on the prevalence of child-labour practice in fireworks industry in and around Sivakasi.

6. Championing Child Rights (Co-author)

A resource book on awareness and strategies to prevent child marriage. It is an impact survey of the “CREAM” project implemented by Bangalore Rural Educational and Development Society (BREADS), Unit of Don Bosco, Bangalore – co-publisher UNICEF

Louis Manohar

National Coordinator of “Bosconet”

Website

BIOGRAPHY

Salesian, priest, economist and doctoral student in Moral Social Theology. In recent years, I have devoted myself to writing the thesis (to be defended on Sept. 30, 2022), "From the idolatry of the market to an economy with a human face: the critical-propositional contributions of Jung Mo Sung and the social magisterium of Pope Francis." Recent pastoral experiences are as follows: Responsible for the Don Bosco Oratory and Youth Center - Testaccio

Rome (2017-2019), Coordinator of the Social Action Network of the Salesian Province of São Paulo (2014-2015), Coordinator of the foster homes for boys in at-risk situations of the Don Bosco Social Work - São Paulo / Brazil (2014- 2015) and Parish Vicar at the "Nossa Senhora Aparecida" Parish - São Paulo / Brazil (2014-2015).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Degree

Moral Social Theology: Pontifical Lateran University - Accademia Alfonsiana / Rome (2016-2018).

Thesis: The moral reinterpretation of the free market in light of the theology of gift.

Doctorate

Moral Social Theology: Pontifical Lateran University - Accademia Alfonsiana / Rome (2018 - 30.9.2022).

Thesis: From the idolatry of the market to an economy with a human face: the critical-propositional contributions of Jung Mo Sung and the social magisterium of Pope Francis.

Renato Tarcizio
de M. Rocha

Salesian, priest, economist

"In the face of the globalization of indifference and the culture of waste, the urgency of a truly human alternative is emphasized. At the economic level, starting from the social magisterium of Pope Francis, this perspective is translated into the proposal of "an economy with a human face" preferentially oriented toward the poorest of the poor and the promotion of integral ecology."

BIOGRAPHY

Angel Gudiña has a degree in Chemistry by University of A Coruña (UDC) and helds two masters, one in

Fundamental and Environmental Chemistry (2009), and another one on Management of NGOs (2012).

From May 2015 to May 2019 he was the Executive Secretary of Don Bosco International, the EU-liaison

office of the Salesians of Don Bosco, in Brussels. In that position he was in charge of advocating for young

people in risk of Exclusion and sharing the expertise of the Congregation in the field of T-VET, Social

Inclusion Programmes and Non-Formal Education. He is currently responsible for the Corporate Relations of

Madrid Mission Office (Misiones Salesianas).

In terms of involvement of Salesian Family he was the Secretary General of Don Bosco Alumni (until 2021)

and has served as Vicepresident (2010-2018) where he was in charge of young people and leadership

programmes.

His link with advocacy and youth participation came through his voluntary involvement and his professional

experience leading the youth organization Confederación Don Bosco de Centros Juveniles (2011 - 2013) and

working as EU project manager (2010 – 2013) for the same organization and being an international trainer

in Don Bosco Youth Net (2010-2015). Through this organization he has also been part of the Spanish Youth

Council (2014-2016) as Board Member for International Affairs, and therefore involved in the European

Youth Forum and many other international events. As well, from June 2017 till January 2020 he was

member of the Advisory Panel of Fundamental Rights Platform of EU Agency for Fundamental rights in

Vienna and appointed in June 2018 facilitator of Youth Commission within the Catholic-inspired NGOs

Forum.

Ángel Gudiña Canicoba

Corporate Relations Manager

of the Madrid Mission Office (Misiones Salesianas).

Website

"Whether we like the word or not, the Salesian Congregation is a multinational youth education and youth ministry company. In fact, we are very good at it. But in order to maintain our "competitiveness" we need to update our structures and interpersonal relationships to the 21st century to continue to reach the most vulnerable youth. And all this, without disrupting our spirituality and Salesian Charism."

BIOGRAPHY

The beginnings

The sculptor Mauro Baldessari was born in Rovereto, Trento Province, on July 21, 1942. He started his training first in Trento, where he learned the technique of wood carving. In 1960 he moved to Milan, where he worked at the studios of the artists F. Mina and M. Buttafava. He later graduated from the Artistic High School "Beato Angelico" where, a few years later, he taught nude and sculpture. In the mid-1960s he led an important experience in Burundi where he taught and founded an art high school that is still operational. During his six-year stay in Africa he made numerous sculptures and decorated six churches with large pictorial series. Upon returning to Milan, he combined his work as a sculptor with his profession as a teacher until 1980. The African experience particularly influenced the sculptures of this early period both in terms of subjects (The Game, The Harp Player, In the Name of Love...) and the type of figuration.

Abstraction and figuration

Subsequently, for Mauro Baldessari figuration or abstraction would be two possible ways to operate, even simultaneously, in relation to subject and context. However, they always both presented energy, gestures and spatial dynamics, both interior and exterior.

From the 1980s onward and up to the present, his research addresses, running through both modes of expression, certain recurring themes such as the body, sensuality, and feeling.

Sculpture became an opportunity to meditate on the processes and dynamics of reality, generating some abstract series such as: Nascita del Pensiero, the result of attending the Center for the Study of Experimental Psychology (Centro Assenza) for thirteen years and Pensando a... a series of portraits generated by the physical absence of the subject but by his or her presence as "unconscious memory" and Research conducted in the 1990s with writings, drawings and sculptures towards a NEW FIGURATION

Commissioned Artwork

Motivated by his training as a teacher and his African experience of art lived as genuinely communal, he distanced himself more and more, beginning in the 1980s, from an idea of artistic production that was distant and isolated from the social context. He therefore abandoned the world of exhibitions and competitions and made himself available to commissioned artwork and its dynamics: listening to the client and his/her needs, listening to the object to be made and to the environment in which the work would be placed.

The idea of sculpture-making as "putting oneself at the service of" sees its full implementation in the active involvement of the communities in designing the works of art, as was the case when he collaborated with the Brigidine Sisters for the works of their mother house or with the Italian community of Bolzano for the realization of the portal of the Church of St. G. Bosco. In Italy he creates sculptural works - statues, monuments and panels in high and low relief - for numerous religious institutes: Jesuits, Canossian Sisters, Fatebenefratelli, Camillian Sisters, Brigidine Sisters, Hospitaller Sisters, Teresian Carmelite Sisters, Capuchins, Don Orione, Little Sisters of the Holy Family.

The last ten years are characterized by an important collaboration with the Salesian Institute in Turin for which he created works in Italy and around the world.  Such collaborations often transcend the realization of an isolated work and instead concern the total reorganization of the interior and exterior areas of buildings of worship for which he not only conceives the sacred furnishings (as for the San Giovanni Rotondo Shrine), but he also designs solutions of the "sense" regarding the rethinking of liturgical functions within the buildings (the Church of Maria Auxiliadora in Cordoba, Argentina, and the Marian Shrine of Better Living in the Philippines, both redesigned in recent years for the Salesians). His clients also include municipalities, provinces, regions, universities, banks, companies and some private individuals. In Trentino, for example, he executed two large sculpture series for the Federation of Trentino Cooperatives and the Sait Cooperative.

Medals

In the line of medals, by producing almost a thousand models and using his strongly sculptural style, he has revolutionized the style and approach of this sector in Italy and abroad, being the first to introduce the "blurred background," a fusion of a subject and the background in a sculpture.  Those to be mentioned for their beauty, originality and prestige, are the medals dedicated to Paganini, Stradivari, G.Mendel, A. Degasperi, Manzoni, the Municipality of Melegnano (MI), the travels of Pope John Paul II, the University of Padua and the Jubilee Year 2000; all made on the occasion of the most important religious and civil events: anniversaries, commemorations, canonizations...

Portraits

For him, portraits are special situations of expression. With more than three hundred portraits, all marked by a strong psychological connotation, he ranges from the classic half-length to complex compositions that contextualize the subject.

Material

Having been trained in wood carving, initially this was the material he preferred in making sculptures, shaping them with distinct designs. He progressively began working with marble, terracotta, bronze, Murano glass, stainless steel and Plexiglas. His knowledge of these materials allows him to combine them at times in complex and free sculptures.

Research

His sculpture-making is supported and flanked by a continuous search with psychological, philosophical, expressive or more overall human implications. This has enhanced his sculpture-making by characterizing its approach and enriching it with a particularly intense and rigorous method, made up of both a true deep participation in the subject matter dealt with and a significant essential nature.

Studies

For the past fifty years he has worked in the courtyard at 14 Mac Mahon Street, a suburb of small brick buildings immersed in the countryside, once the mill of the Renaissance Villa Simonetta that went on to become the "sculptors' courtyard" since the early Twentieth Century.  Not far from the Monumental Cemetery, the courtyard was home to marble workers and decorators who worked for big names such as Andrea Cascella, Cappello, and Manzù. Nowadays the courtyard is dedicated to new purposes and Mauro Baldessari has remained the only one to carry on and renew this ancient tradition of sculpture.

Mauro Baldessarri

Sculptor

Website

BIOGRAPHY

Doctorate in Systematic Theology. He defended his thesis on June 25, 2002, in Milan, at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy: "The Sacramental Effectiveness of Faith. Mystery, Symbol and Rite in Odo Casel," published in full under the title "Mystery, Symbol and Rite in Odo Casel," Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2003.

Doctorate in Classical Literature. He defended his thesis on Nov. 6, 1992, in Turin, Italy: "Augustine's Hermeneutics. Theory and reading of the Enarratio in Ps. 103," from which resulted a short essay published under the title "Augustine's Hermeneutics: theory and interpretive practice," in PROVERBIO G. (ed.), Dum docent discunt. For a didactics of classical languages, Patron, Bologna 2000, 249-261.

Current academic positions

Since August 2021, Rector Magnificus of the Salesian Pontifical University.

Since 2013, Ordinary Professor at the Faculty of Theology of the UPS - Turin Section.

Since 2006-2007, Professor at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy in Milan.

BIBLIOGRAFIA

Books

2020-2021

Bozzolo - M. Pavan, La sacramentalità della Parola, Brescia, Queriniana, 2020

2019-2020

The Dual Form of the Salesian Vocation. A theological interpretation, Bengaluru, Kristu Jyoti Publications, 2019.

2016-2017

A. Bozzolo - F.G. Brambilla - L. Testa - S. Zanardo - E. Zanetti, L’amore e la fede. Il legame coniugale e l’amore come sacramento, Glossa, Milano 2017.

2017-2018

(Ed), I sogni di don Bosco. Esperienza spirituale e sapienza educativa, Roma, LAS, 2017.

​

Articles

2021-2022

Il Libro e il rito. La sacramentalità della Parola, in «Rivista Liturgica» 108 (2021) 3, pp. 31-49. "Motivazioni che conferiscono possibilità reali di stabilità" (AL 209, cfr.205-211): la pratica del discernimento per riconoscere la consistenza del legame di coppia, in «Anthropotes» 28 (2022) 1-2, pp.  35-54.

2020-2021

Sinodalità missionaria e antropologia vocazionale: le consegne del Sinodo dei giovani alla Chiesa, in «Archivio Teologico Torinese» 27 (2021) pp. 63-82

​

Parola ed Eucaristia. La Voce e il Corpo del Signore, in «Teologia» 46 (2021) pp. 157-178

2018-2019

 “L’opera delle nostre mani rendi salda” (Sal 90,17). Il lavoro nell’orizzonte del sacramento, in «Sacramentaria e Scienze Religiose» 28 (2019) 2, pp. 29-57.

​

Trasformazione missionaria e rinnovamento degli studi nel Proemio di Veritatis Gaudium, in «Salesianum» 81 (2019) 1, pp. 47-71

​

Salezjanin kapłan i salezjanin koadiutor: sugestie do interpretacji teologicznej, “Zeszyty Duchowosci Salezjankiej” 7 (2019), pp. 153-211

2021-2022

Un "sacramento anomalo"? Prospettive di teologia sacramentaria, «Rivista di Pastorale liturgica» 353 (2022) 4, pp. 15-19

2017-2018

Amore coniugale e teologia del matrimonio. La difficile transizione verso un nuovo modello di pensiero, «Rivista del clero italiano» 2018 n. 9, pp. 629-640.

​

“Io faccio nuove tutte le cose” (Ap 21,5). Giovinezza della Chiesa, cultura vocazionale e pastorale giovanile, in “Note di Pastorale giovanile” 2018/n. 6 pp. 26-44.

​

Giovani, mondo da abitare. Intervista a cura di F. Bello, «La voce e il tempo» 7 ottobre 2018, pp. 18-19.

2016-2017

A dupla forma da vocação salesiana: presbiteral e laical, “Cadernos Salesianos” 8 (2017) n. 15, 29-46.

​

Other publications

2020-2021

voci: Eucaristia; Matrimonio, in Nuovo Dizionario Teologico Interdisciplinare, EDB, Bologna 2020.

2016-2017

Antropologia del consenso e teologia del matrimonio: la fede e il rito, in: Bozzolo - F.G. Brambilla - L. Testa - S. Zanardo - E. Zanetti, L’amore e la fede. Il legame coniugale e l’amore come sacramento, Glossa, Milano 2017, 53-118.

Andrea Bozzolo

Rector Magnificus of the Salesian Pontifical University

Education is transmitting a happy energy and spirituality is its deep secret.

BIOGRAPHY

Born on August 21, 1960, in Gozón-Luanco, Asturias, Spain; he took his first profession on September 3, 1978, his perpetual vows on June 17, 1984, in Santiago de Compostela, and was ordained a priest on July 4, 1987, in León. Originally from the Province of León, he received a degree in Pastoral Theology and a License in Philosophy and Pedagogy. He was Delegate of Youth Ministry, Director of the Ourense School, member of the Provincial Council and Vicar, and from 2000 to 2006, Inspector (Provincial). After serving on the technical commission that prepared the 26th General Chapter, in 2009 he was appointed Superior of the Province of South Argentina, based in Buenos Aires. In this capacity he also got to know and collaborate personally with the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Card. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, today Pope Francis.

On December 23, 2013, he was appointed Superior of the new Province of Mediterranean Spain, dedicated to "Mary Help of Christians," but before he could assume this new position, on March 25, 2014, he was appointed by the 27th General Chapter as the new Rector Major of the Salesian Congregation and the 10th Successor of Don Bosco. And last March 11, 2020, he was confirmed by the GC28 as Rector Major for second sexennium from 2020-2026.

Ángel Fernández Artime

Rector Major of the Salesian Congregation

Website

"Our world needs young people who feel they have a mission dreamt of by God and who fall in love with it. Young people who feel that God has a dream and a beautiful project for each one of them. Young people with hope and strength. Young peoplewho do not allow thems elves to be robbed of hope!"

BIOGRAPHY

Ramón de Meer has a degree in Law and a master's degree in Humanities, studying his PhD in Humanities at the Francisco de Vitoria University and in Law at the Complutense University of Madrid. He is professor of Philosophy of Law and academic director of Virtus Universitas and head of communication at Alveus. 

Ramón de Meer 

Head of communication at Alveus 

"Humanities are essential to comprehend the importance of a human managment" 

BIOGRAPHY

Jorge holds a Mining Engineer degree from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. He has developed his professional career in finance and technology. In 1987, he established together with his siblings the first venture in Spain that provided quantitative financial advice by digitally processing market information (ETS Asset Management Factory, www.etsfactory.com). That first company evolved into a group provides a variety of services, from AI based quantitative investment advice to wealth management solutions and financial education.

Since 2003, Jorge chairs the family foundation and its social enterprise SAVINCO Social Finance (www.savinco.org). With the goal of promoting social inclusion through financial education and technology. Savinco focusses on one main
initiative: the “Saving for Learning” project. Jorge is an active advocate of trust-based saving groups as a scalable and self-sustainable way to fight poverty and empower grass-roots levels of society.
Jorge is also one of the founding partners at ALVEUS ( www.alveusinvesting.com ), a regulated Investment Manager founded with the mission of raising awareness of
the need for a radical change in the way financial advice has worked and continues to work today, so that it fulfills its true final function. Alveus proposes a different approach, focused on transparency, objectivity, efficiency, ethics and, above all, respect for the mission and core values of each entity.

Jorge Bolivar Almela

Founding Partner
at ETS and ALVEUS Investing
Founder and CEO
at SAVINCO Social Finance

“Our customers have one thing in common: A mission to fulfill. Our mission is tending your asset management as if were ours. And you, do you have a mission? ”

BIOGRAPHY

Fr. Rafael Bejarano Rivera is a Salesian priest who works in the social sector, convinced that working on preventive education is the key to transforming culture. Originally from Colombia, where he participated in processes for strengthening active citizenship with youth and communities whose rights have been violated, he works in the Salesian Sector of Youth Ministry at the headquarters in Rome as a contact person for social works and services. His Salesian vocation has led him to work together with many lay people, strongly committed to local and regional innovation through proposals that consider the human capital of each territory as an opportunity for the collective construction of measures for integral human development. 

He considers the challenges of the social sector stimulating, because working with and for the most disadvantaged people in society leads him to establish networks with people and institutions from very different backgrounds, but who share the same goal, that of building a culture of peace and justice. Having studied Philosophy, Theology and Social Management, he is a graduate student in International Migration and International Development Cooperation. From this perspective, he does research on the social impact of Church institutions and the significance of Salesian social works from the perspective of sustainability.

"Having a merciful gaze toward the most vulnerable encourages us to seek common solutions. This requires that we Salesians transform our institutions using expressions capable of connecting us to the world, so as to move us towards an integral human development with the appropriate practices that allow us to approach the young people and communities most at risk with an attitude of reverence and respect for them." 

Rafael Bejarano Rivera

Youth Ministry Sector, Salesian Headquarters

"Having a merciful gaze toward the most vulnerable encourages us to seek common solutions. This requires that we Salesians transform our institutions using expressions capable of connecting us to the world, so as to move us towards an integral human development with the appropriate practices that allow us to approach the young people and communities most at risk with an attitude of reverence and respect for them." 

BIOGRAPHY

Maximus Okoro is a Salesian of Don Bosco and holds a Masters in Business Administration. He is currently serving at Mary Help of Christians community, Provincial House Iju Lagos Nigeria as the Project Director of the Provincial Development Organism (PDO) Nigeria and Provincial Economer, where he superintends over the projects of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Nigeria and Niger. As the Director, he is charged with ensuring that the whole Salesian communities in the Province are activated with sustainable projects and activities to promote the Salesian mission and charism. By virtue of this office, he stands as the interface between the Salesians and development partners. He also ensures mutually-beneficial relationship between the Salesians of Don Bosco in Africa Nigeria-Niger and donors/collaborators/funders both local and international.  

Jorge Bolivar Almela

Project Director of the Provincial Development Organism (PDO) Nigeria

BIOGRAPHY

Fabio ATTARD was born in Gozo, MALTA, on March 23,1959. He became a Salesian of Don Bosco on September 8, 1980, and was ordained a priest on July 4, 1987. 

He participated in re-founding the new Salesian presence in Tunisia in 1988. From 1991 until 1996 he worked and was director at both St. Patrick's House and the Salesian Oratory, also in Sliema. 

Since 1999, after finishing his doctoral research in Dublin, Ireland, he took up teaching at the Pontifical Salesian University, Rome, providing his contribution to the Alphonsian Academy, Rome and the State University of Malta as well. 

From 2005 to 2008, the Archdiocese of Malta entrusted Fr. Fabio with the task of founding and directing the Pastoral Training Institute. 

During the 26th General Chapter of the Salesians of Don Bosco, 2008, Fr. Fabio was elected as a member of the General Council entrusted with the responsibility for youth ministry. He was reappointed to that position for another six-year term in March 2014. 

On October 6, 2018, Pope Francis appointed Fr. Fabio as one of the Consultors of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life. 

During these years Fr. Fabio has published several books and several articles on youth ministry. Together with his collaborators, he has led the process of rethinking youth ministry in the Salesian Congregation with the publication of the volume “Salesian Youth Ministry. Frame of Reference (2014)”. A similar process was undertaken in the field of Salesian spiritual accompaniment through various study seminars with the subsequent publication of the proceedings in various languages. Together with the two Dicasteries for Formation and for Missions, he accompanied the processes to re-launch the theme of spiritual accompaniment in the formative stages and update Salesian missionary volunteerism. 

After the 28th General Chapter (2020), the Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, asked Fr. Fabio to take on the Coordination of Salesian and Lay Formation in Europe. 

Fabio Attard 

Consultors of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life

"In an environment characterised by fragmentation and liquidity, young people are looking for authentic adults whose lives, ideas and actions speak louder than words. In this new social unchartered territory, the role of leaders needs to be a prophetic one. Leaders whose ability to listen and discern favours communion. towards a common mission. Here lies a better future which the young deserve.”

BIOGRAPHY

Fr. Thomas Pallithanam is a priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

From September 2017 to date, Thomas Pallithanam is the UN representative of Salesian Missions Inc, an NGO with Special Consultative Status with UN ECOSOC since 2007.

Prior to moving to New York, he was the National Convener of WADA NA TODO ABHIYAN (WNTA) – Keep Your Promise Campaign – India’s largest civil society coalition for Advocacy Lobbying and Governance Accountability. The Coalition has a membership of over 1500 NGOs, community- based organizations, activists, academics, and professional social workers. He was also the India representative of Global Call To Action Against Poverty (GCAP), which is a network of over 11,000 civil society organizations (CSOs) organized in 58 National Coalitions and in constituency groups of women, youth and socially-excluded people, among others.

He led the Indian Civil Society’s 2017 Voluntary National Review and represented WNTA at the 2017 VNR during the HLPF in New York.

He has over 30 years’ experience as an activist working for the rights of agricultural labourers, women and children. He was the organizing secretary of Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Labourers’ Union with a membership of over 100,000 men and women. He was a member of the National Core Committee of Institute of Human Rights Education, a pre-eminent Human Rights Education Organization in India. He was also a member of the India Team of Gender At Work, founded in 2001 by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, now UN Women), and Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP).

He has a Post-graduate degree in Human Rights and a Special Graduate Diploma from the Institute of Social Studies, Den Haag. He is also a registered advocate at the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh.

Thomas Pallithanam

UN representative of Salesian Missions Inc

"Change begins by Asking the Right Questions, not by Giving the Right Answers.OR  Want Change? Ask the Right Questions, right answers might follow, but Change will happen."

BIOGRAPHY

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Coast (Ghana) and the first native Ghanaian Cardinal.

On August 31, 2016, he was appointed Prefect - effective January 1, 2017 - of the new Dicastery for Promoting Human Integral Development instituted by the Holy Father Francis with the Apostolic Letter Humanam Progressionem of August 17, 2016.

On March 8, 2018, the Holy Father Francis appointed Cardinal Turkson, Member of the Pre-Synodal Council that worked with the General Secretariat in the preparation of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region.

As of Jan. 1, 2022, he is the Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for Promoting Human Integral Development.

On April 4, 2022, Pope Francis appointed him Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

He was created Cardinal by St. John Paul II and proclaimed in the Consistory of October 21, 2003, as Titular Cardinal of St. Liborio.

He is a Member of:

• the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; Dicastery for Evangelization; Dicastery for Culture and Education;

• the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity;

• the Office of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See.

Card. Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson

BIOGRAPHY

Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, was born on24 April 1947 in Mafra, Brazil. 

He was ordained a priest on 26 November 1972 for the Diocese of Apucurana.He holds a licence in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Lateran University.

On 6 April 1994, he was appointed titular bishop of Flenucleta and Auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Vitória. He received episcopal ordination on 31 May 1994.

On 12 August 1998, he transferred to Ponta Grossa and on 17 July 2002 he was elevated Archbishop of Maringá.

On 28 January 2004, he was appointed Archbishop of Brasília, where in 2010 he organized the XVI Eucharistic National Congress.

He was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on 4 January 2011.

He participated in the conclave of March 2013, which elected Pope Francis.

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by Benedict XVI in the consistory of 18 February 2012, of the Title of S. Elena fuori Porta Prenestina (St. Helena outside Prenestina Gate), Deaconry elevated pro hac vice to Presbyteral title (4 March 2022).

Member of:

• Congregations: for the Clergy, for Catholic Education; for Bishops;

• Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses.

• Dicastery for Liaty, Family and Life.

Card. João Braz de Aviz

BIOGRAPHY

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, Apostolic Almoner,  was born in Łódź, Poland, on 25 November 1963.

After his high school studies, he entered the diocesan seminary of Łódź in 1982. On 11 June 1988, after obtaining a degree in theology from the Catholic University of Lublin, he was ordained a priest.

For two years he carried out pastoral work in his diocese as parish vicar, first in Rusiec and then in Łódź. In 1990 he was sent to Rome to continue his studies at the Saint Anselmo Liturgical Institute. On 5 March 1993 he obtained a licentiate in sacred liturgy from the same Liturgical Institute and on 10 March 1995 a degree in theology, with specialization in liturgy, from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas.

During his stay in Rome, he collaborated with the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff and was Chaplain of the “La Sapienza” University Orthopedic and Traumatological Clinic.

He returned to his diocese in 1995, was master of ceremonies for the Archbishop and taught liturgy in the diocesan seminary and in the Franciscan and Salesian Seminary, as well as in the Warsaw Academy, having also been appointed prefect of the diocesan Seminary.

In 1998 he returned to Rome and was appointed by the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

On May 12, 1999 he was appointed as Papal master of ceremonies.

On 3 August 2013 he was appointed as Almoner of His Holiness and titular archbishop of Benevento.

He received episcopal consecration on the 17 September 2013.

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the consistory of 28 June 2018, of the Diaconate of Santa Maria Immacolata all'Esquilino.

Member of:

Dicastery for promoting Integral Human Development;

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments;

Cardinal Commission for the Supervision of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR).

Card. Konrad Krajewski

BIOGRAPHY

Sara Edmonson covers the role of General Manager for Europe and UK for a global green energy company, committed to producing zero-carbon green hydrogen from 100 per cent renewable sources.

Sara’s primary role is to build a strong portfolio of offtake for the green fuels, including hydrogen and ammonia, that will be produced from the company’s key production centres. Sara is also working closely with key European governments, industry and research institutions to identify collaboration opportunities aimed at unlocking a thriving hydrogen economy in Europe and abroad.

Sara has extensive experience in natural gas and the energy markets having been the Chief Executive of two independent listed energy companies for a combined period of 10 years

She is fluent in Italian, having previously worked both in Italy and internationally for EY Parthenon and Transaction Advisory Services. During her tenure at EY, Ms Edmonson advised numerous blue-chip corporate clients on transactions in Russia, Romania, Turkey and the US including the US$5 billion acquisition of DRS Technologies by Finmeccanica in 2008. Ms Edmonson holds an MBA from St John’s University in New York and is completing a Masters in Sustainability Sciences at Harvard University.

Sara Edmonson

“There has never been a more compelling time to focus on the energy of the future. Green hydrogen is the key to unlocking more responsible energy consumption globally”.

BIOGRAPHY

Mr Stephen Igbokwe holds a Master degree in Public and International Affairs. He has also acquired various trainings in Media, Project Management, Human Resources and Safeguarding and Child Protection. He has 20 years of working experience and is currently the deputy director of the PDO Nigeria under the Africa Nigeria-Niger Province. Since 2015 when he joined the PDO, he has worked hard to make positive impact as the manager in charge of Planning, Networking and Fundraising activities.

Stephen Igbokwe

''The happiness of the young people is the sustainability of our mission. The goal at the center of don Bosco's mission was to make the young people happy, and over a century that mission is still active and alive. If we fail to make the young people happy, then the mission cannot be sustained''

BIOGRAPHY

Gian Francesco Romano, a graduate in Communication Theory and a journalist, has collaborated with the most diverse communication realities: Small IT research companies, short film production houses, television broadcasters, national digital newspapers... Since 2009, he has been working with the Salesians, as editor of the Salesian iNfo Agency, dealing with the dissemination of 'good news'.

Gian Francesco Romano

It is true that a falling tree makes much more noise than a growing forest. But how can we change the world if we do not convey the beauty of every seed sown, tended and cultivated?

BIOGRAPHY

Juan Pablo is a layman who has embraced the charism of Don Bosco, he is an expert of the university and he dreams of it being the protagonist of change and producer of novelty, transforming the environment having as its center the construction of responsible citizenship and the free person, a university that embraces the purest origin of human knowledge that tastes of life, to create an autonomous community that develops projects of life and therefore society.

PhD in Economics and Management for Innovation and Sustainability from the University of Ferrara (Italy), a Master in Innovation and Business Development from the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), and he is a Mechanical Engineer from the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (Ecuador). His doctoral thesis, which proposes an ecosystem organization for the university, was awarded as the best of the year 2017 in Ferrara-Italy. Currently (since 2015) he is the Vice-Rector for Research at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, where he was the promoter of the Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem. He is the founder of the Coworking StartUPS initiative as an environment that enhances youth skills through entrepreneurship and associativity; In addition, he is a researcher at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana in the following groups: University and Common Good (GIUB), Gamification (GAME LAB-UPS) and Artificial Intelligence and Assistive Technologies (GI-IATa).

Among other functions, he has served as Advisor to the Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy of Ecuador (2010-2011) and as Secretary of Human and Economic Development of the Municipality of Cuenca-Ecuador (2011-2015).

BIBLIOGRAFIA

• Conference TEDx: La educación inimaginada (unimagined education).

• Salgado-Guerrero, J.P. (2021). An ecosystem called university. Editorial Universitaria Abya-Yala.

• Salgado-Guerrero, J. P., Juncosa Blasco, J. E., Soriano Cevallos, B., Carrera Hidalgo, P., Álvarez Morales, G., Izquieta Chevez, V., & Altamirano Chingay, K. (2021). El Centro Educativo Salesiano-Bien Común: gobernanza, innovación y emprendimiento (The Salesian Educational Center-Common Good: governance, innovation and entrepreneurship). Editorial Universitaria Abya-Yala.

• Herrán Gómez, J., Juncosa Blasco, J. E., Salgado, J. P., Salgado Guerrero, B., Carrera Hidalgo, P., Morandi, A., ... & Solórzano, F. (2019). THE UNIVERSITY as COMMUNE: centrality of community action in university management and practices. Editorial Universitaria Abya-Yala.

• Salgado-Guerrero, J. P., Juncosa Blasco, J. E., Solórzano, F., Carrera Hidalgo, P., Torres-Toukoumidis, Á., Romero-Rodríguez, L. M., & Salgado, B. (2018). THE UNIVERSITY AS A COMMON POOL RESOURCE. Set of resources, moral and cultural values of the Academic Community of the Salesian Polytechnic University. Editorial Universitaria Abya-Yala.

• Salgado-Guerrero, J. P. S., Sanchez, D. J. P., Mena, J. A. G., Bykbaev, V. E. R., Wong, P. V. C. L., & Narváez-Pacheco, A. (2018). CREAMINKA: An Intelligent Ecosystem for Supporting Management and Information Discovery in Research and Innovation Fields in Universities. In Management of Information Systems (pp. 223-244). IntechOpen. https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/59084

Juan Pablo Salgado-G.

Vice Rector for Research, UPS

“The fear is the antithesis of love”

BIOGRAPHY

Alex Garattoni, 39, Master's Degree in Management Engineering - Finance at the Politecnico di Milano in 2007. CFA Charterholder since 2012. From 2008 to 2010 in Allianz Investment Management in the investment monitoring unit. Since 2010 in the private company SIM, for consulting and management activities.

Alex Garattoni

Consultant

Michael Koenen

"As the world keeps turning and new challenges

are constantly emerging, it takes leadership to anticipate them, to convince those affected and take them with them by an appropriate change management.

Or with other words:

If you always do - What you always did - You will always get - What you always got (Lincoln)."

BIOGRAPHY

Pietro Tardini, 66, has a degree in Economic and Social Disciplines from the Bocconi University in Milan and a Master in Economics from the University of Chicago. Winner of the B. Stringher scholarship of the Bank of Italy. Lecturer for more than 15 years at Bocconi University SDA courses relating to financial issues. Chief Executive Officer of Compagnia Privata SIM S.p.A., which provides asset management and consultancy services to institutional clients (industrial holding companies, insurance companies, foundations, non-profit organizations). For 30 years member of the boards of directors and consultant of numerous non-profit organizations, foundations, religious bodies.

Pietro Tardini

Consultant