Johannesburg and Rome: 28 October 2010 -- Fr Francois Dufour,
Superior of the Southern African Vice Province, dropped a short note
the other day, pointing out that the Michael Rua School in
Johannesburg, appropriately situated next to the Bosco Youth Centre
(the two names go together through time and space today as once upon a
time), would be losing its priest-principal at the end of the year
under government legislation which determines that once you have turned
65, that's it! Fr Dino Miotto has been principal for 17 years and he
may be the last Catholic priest principal in South Africa according to
our correspondent. Fr Dino is much loved, much respected. He will not
be replaced by a Salesian. Other provinces in the English-speaking
world have already taken the step of replacing top school leadership in
many instances with zealous, competent and men and women working within
the Salesian ambit, to guarantee, with the help of the 'animating
nucleus' as we are wont to say, the Salesian quality and spirit of the
school. We wish AFM a successful search and a little help from the
saint after whom not only the school is named but the Vice Province as
well.
So it's 'Rua Day' tomorrow, and a year's
celebrations culminate in a Congress in Rome that many have prepared
for and the Rector Major, in particular has wanted. There are 234
attendees, according to the final list, 17 of whom come from EAO, and
given that there are 33 Salesian Sisters on the list we could say that
there's a round 200 SDBs who will be attending.
Given such a broad attendance from around the
Salesian world, and given also some of the stimulating and indeed novel
(new content, new discoveries, e.g. the Vatican Secret Archives)
material, it seems a great pity that the material is largely available
only in Italian. That appears to have been a strategic choice, though
it's not sure what 'strategy' might be involved! Certainly no
requests were made for translations and given that many of the verbal
presentations are backed by a 24-29 page written document, it would
have required several months work to translate 24 separate addresses of
the kind.
But let's not cry over spilt milk. If you go
(in English!) to the Rua pages on sdb.org - assuming of course you are
a registered user, which every Salesian should be, but we can't do it
for him - you will find a deal of useful information. The programme has
been translated into English, and two of the early addresses also,
because they seemed, at least to this writer, to be particularly
valuable ones and worth doing anyway. Fr Francis Motto's "two
personalities, two inseparable names" is available in English as also
the address from an official of the Vatican Secret Archives. And
given that there are a couple of other presenters from countries which
use English, one might hope they would have their bit in English as
well or at least a copy in that language. It also has to be assumed
that in due course translations of the entire set of presentations will
be requested and accomplished for the benefit not just of English
speakers but Spanish, French, whatever. What we do know is that
Fr Nesty Impelido (FIN) been pressed into service as a simultaneous
interpreter for the event. That's good news.
The latest word from Bangalore is that the 'Life of
Fr Michael Rua' (from the Desramaut original in French) has been
published. We had obviously hoped that copies might arrive here, and no
doubt they will, but in the meantime you could find a last-but-one
corrected version on SDL in the Rua collection, as you will also find
all his letters, all 6,000 of them! In that collection too, if you are
looking for some pics or a prayer service for the Feast, go to the
'titles' tag and check out especially the D-V group.
And - happy feast day!
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