1384 EAO Numbers in Rome
austraLasia 1384

EAO has the numbers in Rome, and elsewhere

ROME: 9th January 2006 -- We are only talking students here, because the total number otherwise would be closer to 'the ton', but studentwise, Rome seems to have a certain attraction for EAO!  There is a total of 69 Salesian Family members studying in the Eternal City, around 20 of them SDB, another 30 or so FMA, plus assorted others.  If we then throw in other students in other parts of Italy, another 17 SDB students or practical trainees, for example between Messina in the south and the Crocetta up north, we arrive at a total of 88 SF-EAO students in Italy.
    Apart from the bulk of SDB and FMA, there are CSM (Charities, Miyazaki), VDB - one at the UPS doing Spirituality, and Past Pupils - 3 priests from Korea doing Church history, spirituality and youth ministry respectively.
    A good number of the Rome-based students are at the UPS, covering between them areas such as vocational pedagogy (CIN, KOR), Salesian Spirituality (KOR, THA, ITM,), Theology (ITM, VIE,) Catechetics (THA), Social Communications (THA).  Other than the UPS, our students frequent institutes such as the Gregorian (Moral Theology, Scripture) and St Anselmo's (Liturgy).    One from FIN is doing his doctorate in Scripture, another from GIA has started out on that long road in psychology.  The Salesian Sisters are naturally to be found at the Auxilium in the main, studying spirituality or catechetics/pedagogy.  The CSM Sisters seem to frequent places like the Claretianum and Santa Cecilia (for music, of course) but there are three at the Gregorian studying psychology, spirituality and missiology.
    ITM and THA have, for a number of years, sent most of their students of theology out of the country, the bulk of them to Italy (Messina), but not only - some to Jerusalem, for instance, one to Australia.  VIE has two theology students in Turin at the Crocetta and two practical trainees in Ligure-Toscana.  Australia, as we know, has offered its own resources especially to help students in the region gain a knowledge of English, but others (one from ITM, for example) have also benefited from the opportunity to pursue advanced studies in education and other fields.
    These figures are of interest, not only because, to the best of my knowledge at least, we have not seen an overall picture of this kind before, but also it does give one an idea of some of the future strengths in a region which is increasingly keen to share its considerable resources amongst its constituent provinces and groups.
VOCABULARY
the ton: a colloquial reference to 100

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