His Beatitude Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, blessed a unique ecumenical center for youth in Lviv on 21 September 2001. Established by the Salesian Order, the Don Bosco Center, named after a popular Italian saint, will offer classes in vocational skills.
Youth of different religious backgrounds will be able to gather together at the center, which operates at Lviv’s Church of the Protection of the Mother of God. The center will offer computer, art and foreign language classes (Italian, German and English). One hundred and twenty high school graduates will be able to master the trade of carpenter or seamstress in classrooms equipped with the most modern professional technology from Germany and Japan. The Salesians have been working on this project for 70 years. In the 1930s a group of youth including the current head of the Salesian Order in Ukraine, Bishop Andrei Sapelyak, traveled to Italy with the blessing of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky to learn firsthand about work with youth. At that time the group decided to work with youth in Ukraine. The General Director of the Salesian Fathers in Italy sent a telegram greeting all present at the opening ceremonies, which were held on the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God according to the Julian Calendar. Youth from the Center of Creativity for Children and Youth of Halychyna (western Ukraine) graced the festival proceedings with their songs and dances. Information for this article was taken from the Ukrainian-language website, http://postup.brama.com.