Father Mike Mendl, SDB (and a former teacher at Savio High School) writes of the pope’s relationship with the Salesians of Don Bosco:
This morning there was a death in the Salesian Family. Pope Francis, tho a Jesuit, had a Salesian heart: his parents’ marriage was witnessed by a Salesian, and that priest also baptized him; a Salesian founded his soccer team, San Lorenzo; he maintained his devotion to Mary Help of Christians all his life; he insisted that Ceferino Namuncurá’s beatification be celebrated among his native people and not in Buenos Aires. See From the Eastern Front: What Jorge Bergoglio Learned from the Salesians (published in the fall of 2016). I can add, also, that he named as cardinals all five Salesians who now are cardinal electors, as well as one cardinal who has passed 80. So, yes, the Salesians have lost a family member.
Read more:
Archbishop Henning’s statement.
Archbishop Hennings’s announcement of local Masses to mourn Pope Francis
Francis Rocca’s “The Passion of Pope Francis”.
