APIA (Samoa): 20th-21st October '04 --  'I give thanks'.  Fr Pascual Chávez repeated the phrase many times on his short but event-packed visit to the South Pacific islands of Samoa.  He gave thanks for the consecrated Salesian life that has flourished there, when nobody would have thought 25 years ago that it was possible, and despite many difficulties along the intervening years.  This year the Salesian presence, under the aegis of the Australian province, celebrates 25 years in these South Pacific islands, beginning with Samoa.

    'I give thanks' for the presence of 25 years of Fr. James Adayadiel, Indian Salesian missionary to Samoa.  The Rector Major presented Fr James with a medal of Don Bosco to commemorate his personal 25 years of presence.

    In the course of his visit to each of the Salesian works in Samoa, including the FMA who work within the two Salesian parishes on the main island of Upolu, Fr. Chávez responded to questions, offered advice.  To the novices (of whom there are four, two from Samoa, one from PNG, one from Japan) he advised ´learn from Don Bosco how to handle young people because they are the reason for your life';  to 'become community men, because ours is a life in community';  to 'become men of prayer and know especially how to read the Scriptures'.  To the Salesians in each of the works, words of hope and support through difficult times: 'We have a great future in Oceania.  Develop the missionary spirit for the sake of the other islands' (there are hundreds of them!). 'Give God the primacy he deserves, along with your spiritual life', 'go to the young ... get out there amongst them in the playground', 'know Don Bosco and the Samoan culture even better than before', 'GC25 was a time of grace for us all'.

    During supper in the evening, at Sinamoga Parish, the Rector Major made a phone call to the 14 confreres at the postnovitiate and theologate community Don Bosco House Suva, Fiji, the other major South Pacific House of Formation in the province.