Marco Carvalho
An extraordinary, hardworking man with human and professional qualities seldom seen – is how beloved Salesian missionary Father António Santos Rosa, who died on July 21, was recalled by former students and teachers of Don Bosco College, the institution of which he was a director in the 1980’s and the 1990’s.
Born in the small village of Casa Velha, not far from Fatima, the Salesian missionary died at the age of 94, after he left his mark as a pedagogue and school director in places such as Estoril, Funchal, Macau and Porto. In Macau, he was the helmsman of Don Bosco College in the uncertain years that preceded the handover between Portugal and the People’s Republic of China. The period is widely seen as an essential phase for the consolidation of the educational project of the Salesian congregation in the former Portuguese colony.
It was during his tenure as the director of the Don Bosco College that the D. Bosco College Sports Centre was inaugurated, providing the school with facilities such as a hot water swimming pool, two gyms and the synthetic grass football field that hosts the popular “Bolinha” football championship.
Tributes and homages multiplied after Father Rosa’s death was announced. The Regional Government of Madeira, Portugal, where the Salesian priest created the Atlantic Youth Club in the mid-1960’s, expressed “the deepest regret for the death of Father António dos Santos Rosa.”
In Macau, several voices remembered the life and legacy of “a good man, with a big heart.” Fátima Oliveira, a mathematics professor who worked at Don Bosco College from 1987 to 1992, with Father Rosa as the school’s director, recalls the great generosity that the priest always inspired in her.
“I was one of the people who had the privilege to cross paths with him. I was a teacher at Don Bosco for five years, three as a program coordinator. Joy, generosity, spontaneity, a great working ability, a great capacity to adapt and to improvise are attributes that characterized him well,” the teacher told O Clarim.
António dos Santos Rosa was ordained a priest in 1956, after finishing his philosophy studies in Estoril and completing his theological training in Spain and France. In addition to exercising his priestly life, Father Rosa carried out various activities in the educational domain, a venture typical of the Salesian missionary office as director of the Salesian community, teacher, school director, sports promoter, pastoral coordinator. António Santos Rosa was buried last Monday, July 24th, at the Parish Cemetery of Fátima.
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