Hic domus mea, inde gloria mea

At the Provincial House of the “Saint Francis Xavier” Province in Mumbai, India a Marian heart beats: the church dedicated to Mary Help of Christians better known as “Don Bosco’s Madonna”. In just over fifty years, the church at Matunga has become a focal point for the Mumbai faithful and for the promotion of Marian devotion in India and beyond. On 4 December 1964, Pope Paul VI went to visit it and blessed the statue of Mary Help of Christians which is still used today in the annual procession.

The church is the spiritual centre of a large undertaking which the Salesians have in Mumbai: from the primary and secondary school with 3000 pupils, to the aspirantate, from social assistance programmes to the “Tej Prasarini” communication centre, and the Provincial headquarters from which the work of the Salesians is organised in the 4 States of Maharastra, Kudrat, Rajastan and Madhya Pradesh and in the new foundations in Kuwait and in the Arab Emirates.

As has happened with the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, so too the sanctuary of Matunga seems to reflect the success of the pastoral mission of the Salesians in Mumbai. Here too what the Help of Christians said to Don Bosco in his dream of 1844, “Hic domus mea, inde gloria mea” has happened.

At the side of the sanctuary, in the office block, the magazine “Don Bosco's Madonna” has its headquarters. Also begun by Father Aurelio Maschio, since 1937 the magazine “Don Bosco's Madonna” has reached thousands of people in Mumbai, in India and throughout the world. Following the tradition of Don Bosco, it is a magazine addressed mainly to the ordinary people. Relying on the generosity of its readers, over 97 thousand copies of “Don Bosco's Madonna” are printed, of which 42 thousand are sent abroad. In its preparation and production the Salesians of the Province collaborate, and the readers themselves contribute  letters, stories and personal experiences. Here too, as in all parts of the Salesian world, the pastoral activities of the Sons of Don Bosco, are under the protective mantle of the Help of Christians.