DBFC – Boscolink – Kep, Cambodia, 2 October 2026 — Recently, Fr Rafael Bejarano, the General Councillor for Salesian Youth Ministry, was in Cambodia, a first for him and indeed for any YM General Councillor, as Fr Albeiro Rodas, a long-time missionary in Cambodia from Medellin, Colombia, pointed out, as he interviewed the Councillor. Here following are some excerpts from the interview, which was conducted in Spanish, the first language of the two protagonists in the interview, but with subtitles also in Khmer and English.
Fr Bejarano began by pointing to the history of post-Vatican Salesian renewal since the Special General Chapter in 1972. He explained the role of the YM Councillor as he accompanies the Salesian mission, in line with Pope St Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi, on proclaiming the Gospel to today’s world. First Announcement, Catechesis, Pastoral Ministry, especially as it is expressed in Salesian tradition through Oratories and Youth Centres, Schools, Vocational Training Centres, Universities, Works and Services for youth in vulnerable situations, Parishes. And since he was making these comments in a Buddhist world now, he spoke of interreligious dialogue and sensitivity, alluding to the interesting and generally unknown statisticthat 63% of the Salesian mission today is carried out is carried out in non-Christian contexts. As he put it in the interview, “we embrace all cultures and all communities. It is like this, for example, if we work in Christian environments, if we work in Catholic environments, but above all we work in Buddhist environments, in Muslim environments, in Hindu environments, in animist environments, or in such secularised environments that have already lost the theme of transcendence, so that there is also an opportunity there, especially from spirituality, to make this encounter with the human being.”
He referred to how Salesians enter the roots of local cultures to engage in integral human development through Don Bosco’s Preventive System. “So I find myself, for example, here in this house with all the Salesian elements. I find myself with a school that educates for life, I find myself with this school being a house that welcomes young people, because I understand that many of them come from distant environments where there is no access to education, or suddenly there is a situation of risk due to violence or other manifestations that can violate their rights, and that is why they also come here. I find that there is a space for evangelisation, or a space to talk about faith, openly, whatever faith it is, because what matters is that if we are Christians and if there are Buddhists, we can find the fundamental values that make us brothers, and from there build society.”
Fr Bejarano also addressed the issues of violence (also part of Cambodia’s past) and its effects, especially on young people: Two weeks ago I was in Ethiopia. Then I had the opportunity to visit the Tigray, which at the moment is at war with Eritrea. We have thousands of young people in the refugee camps and the Salesians there with proposals like this, with schools, with dining rooms, with workshops where they learn to develop a new form of human beings. In February I had the opportunity to be in Goma, in the eastern part of the Congo, where a bloody war between indigenous communities and sister communities is taking place. I was also in Ukraine in May, accompanying our Salesians, accompanying all the suffering of our most affected by this war between Slavic peoples. I had the opportunity to accompany our young people from our Colombian homeland, who are still being abused by armed movements outside the law, and who continue to use them as cannon fodder to build a future that for them means death.” He then went on to say: “And in each of these places we have our Salesians, our brothers and sisters, like you, who are saving the Salesian mission. That’s why this visit for me has a very deep meaning, and that is to learn from you. Because Youth Ministry is not a book written at a desk in Rome. Youth Ministry is Don Bosco, which is updated every day, especially in the most vulnerable places.”
It is a fascinating interview, and well worth spending time to look at.