2767 Yokohama Salesian School celebrates 50 years
austraLasia #2767
 

Yokohama Salesian School celebrates 50 years

YOKOHAMA:  12 December 2010 -- This year has seen the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Salesian school at Yokohama. The commemoration took place on two occasions, one the official date of 4 December for past pupils and other guests, and the other on 8 December, for today's pupils, currently numbering in excess of a thousand.
    Opened in 1960 in Meguro, Tokyo, the school was then transferred to its present site at Kawasaki, surmounting difficulties to develop and become renowned throughout the region. In 1968 the infant school was built and now has 220 children in it. At the beginning of the 70s the Saginuma church was built, and soon became a parish. The church has been extended twice and the parish now has 2200 Catholics. An SDB and an FMA residence were built. In 1974 the hostel became an aspirantate with a festive oratory attached. In 1995 the work was then rebuilt five kilometres from Yokohama in the new suburb of Tsuzuki with the parish and infant school remaining at Saginuma.
At the beginning of the commemoration ceremony on 4 December the Prefect of Kanagawa Province, Mr Shigefumi Matsuzawa, congratulated the Salesians and their lay staff for the competence and professionalism of their educational work. Bishop Raphael Umemura Masahiro was the chief celebrant at the Mass, and expressed satisfaction, during the homily, for the fact that he had a Salesian school in his diocese.
    After mass and prior to a sumptuous lunch the Nuncio, Archbishop Alberto Bottari De Castello, conferred the Knights Cross of St Gregory on Mr Thomas Norihisa Maeda who has spent the last 40 years beside the Salesians, especially the aspirantate, generously and kindly offering help.
    The Yokohama school is outstanding for the its religious education and for its academic results. Many of its students have gained entry to Japan's most prestigious universities.
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