Volunteers of Don Bosco - General Assembly concludes
ROME: 29th July 2007 -- The Volunteers of Don Bosco,
a Salesian Secular Institute for Women founded at the time of Fr Philip
Rinaldi and with his direct involvement, concluded their General
Assembly in Rome on 27th July. Further details about that
Assembly can be read in ANS. austraLasia takes a look at the VDB
as represented in its own region.
In some ways, though not all, the VDB mirror the
situation of growth or otherwise of their consecrated brothers and
sisters SDB/FMA. Europe has seen a gradual decrease in numbers, other
areas are steady, while 'Asia' has seen growth. One can view
their statistics either as totals of membership or as 'groups'. Asia
has grown from 13-15 groups (and from 124-130 members). In terms
of total numbers, the VDB are 1301, just 30 down on what they were 6
years ago.
Of the 78 delegates who were represented at the Rome
Assembly, 6 came from the Asian region: 1 from Honk Kong/China, 2 from
Thailand, 3 from the Philippines and 1 from each of Korea and
India. The most recent development in what we call our EAO region
(for them either Asia or Oceania) is the advent of two groups in Timor
Leste, where they also have 7 aspirants. Given that they have 88
aspirants world wide, this is a significant number.
The recent General Assembly has seen an
internationalisation of the Council at top level - the new General
President of the Institute is Olga Krizova, 57 years of age, from
Slovakia. Amongst the 9 councillors one from the Asia region was
re-elected, and additionally there are members from Latin America,
Slovakia and Italy. There has also been a major effort to present
the Institute very attractively through updated and well-prepared
multilingual literature. An excellent example of this is a small
brochure produced in 9 languages, called 'A Life Given As Gift', 14
colour pages presenting the VDB identity as a lay person amongst lay
people to be a sign; Mission, Consecration... They have also
produced a CD with the main official documents and 5 European
languages. The 'English' part is now to receive a boost with the
help of Fr Bernard Grogan, who will find time to update materials that
have not as yet appeared in English. _________________ AustraLasia is an
email
service
for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions
as an
agency for ANS based in
Rome.
For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com
.
Use BoscoWiki
to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm Avail yourself of the Salesian
Digital
Library
at at http://sdl.sdb.org
