The Don Bosco 2000 Association welcomes with great hope and confidence the election of the new pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, card. Robert Francis Prevost, the first American Pope in history, a missionary for many years in Latin America and a profound connoisseur of the challenges experienced by the most fragile populations.

“Help us build bridges”: these were among his first words as Pope, an appeal that we feel is ours,” said Agostino Sella, president of Don Bosco 2000. “For years we have defined ourselves as builders of bridges between Africa and Europe, between those who have and those who have not, between those who leave, those who stay and those who return. Today we feel encouraged to continue on this path. With Pope Leo XIV we feel a Church that is close to us, a Church that does not reject but welcomes, does not raise walls but opens paths.”

Leo XIV’s long pastoral experience as prior general of the Augustinians, then bishop in Peru and his work among the poor and migrants confirm a vision consistent with that of Pope Francis: a Church that puts itself at the service of the least and that recognizes the value of migration as a human process to be accompanied, not to be criminalized.

“Pope Leo XIV never sought ideological confrontation – continues Sella – but his story speaks for him: he lived on the peripheries of the world, he got his hands dirty with people’s real problems. This tells us that his pontificate will be marked by concreteness and mercy.”

Don Bosco 2000 joins the joy of the universal Church and renews its commitment to promoting projects of welcome, circular cooperation, convinced that building bridges is the real challenge of peace today.

Press Office