1397 Brothers
austraLasia 1397

Brothers, in EAO and elsewhere - two important ports of call

ROME: 19th January 2006 --  If you are a frequent visitor to the Salesian Web Portal site (you should be), you will have noted the 'Focus' for this month.  It is in view of the Brothers' Seminar for the EAO Region to be held in Cambodia in August.  That focus, available from the homepage of www.sdb.org will then lead you to Bosconet, and more particularly to the page dedicated to the Brother.  On this page alone you will find all that is available in English, and it amounts to hundreds of items in fact.  There simply is nowhere else that you will be able to access a collection of this kind.  You may also find it of interest to read the updated analysis of the responses that came in to a broad ranging questionnaire on the Brother in community, in the Province, in the Region.  This analysis takes time, and it now includes the second part of a three part set of responses.
    Of course, while the focus is the Brother, in real terms this material is a substantial set of reflections on Salesian life in its twin charismatic concept, lay and priestly.  You will find texts there going right back to Don Bosco himself and tracing the reflections of various Rectors Major since.  All that aside, there is no doubt that having the reflections of most of the 200 Brothers in the EAO region in one place is a powerful insight into Salesian life in the region at the moment.
    There are some 1300 Salesian confreres in the EAO Region, 200 of them Brothers and about 50 of these still in temporary formation.  In some parts of the Region it is a flourishing reality, this lay consecrated component of the Salesian vocation.  In other parts it struggles.  There are plans now well under development for a regional formation centre devoted to Brother formation.

____________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific.  It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome.  For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml