austraLasia #2841 Taiwan Warmly Welcomes Don Bosco!
(By the time this article goes out the pilgrim casket
containing the relic of St. John Bosco will have left Taiwan
in preparation for its post-Easter visit to the South Asia
Region)
TAIPEI: 14 April 2011 -- The Relic of Don Bosco finally
arrived in Taipei City, Taiwan, last April 7 in the
afternoon, and departed on the evening of April 10. But
since October of 2010, St. John Bosco Parish of Taipei has
been energetically and diligently preparing and promoting
the event. There was much apprehension throughout the
preparation until the day of its arrival: we did not know
how the Relic would be received by the Taiwanese people. The
culture is rather sensitive to viewing “remains of the
deceased”. Then, with its 23 million population of whom only
1.4% are Catholic, St John Bosco is barely known. Then
finally, when we began dealing with the airport and customs
authorities regarding the relic’s arrival, the authorities
did not understand the word “relic” in Chinese. They even
suggested we change our declaration to “art work for public
exhibition”!
However, in the final few days before Don
Bosco’s arrival, “miracles” began to happen! First, from out
of the blue the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began calling
everyday offering us any help. Then a day before the relic’s
arrival, the government issued a memo informing the agencies
and departments concerned to expedite the process of the
relic’s arrival and gave them instructions to give utmost
care to the arriving “package”. Thus, in the end we
experienced zero red-tape from customs and airport
authorities. On that day too, the President of Taiwan, the
Premier, and Minister of Foreign Affairs sent bouquets of
flowers and their best wishes for the event.
A week prior to the arrival of the relic,
many groups and parishes from different parts of Taiwan
began calling and informing us of their coming. During those
four grace-filled days, the parish was never empty (we
opened 24hrs for this event). We had an average of a
thousand pilgrims a day… we prepared 4,000 souvenir items to
distribute but they sufficed only for the first three days.
The confessionals were never empty, almost 20 masses were
celebrated for the event, and all were jam-packed. A big
group even drove 8 hours just to see and be able to pray
before the relic of St. John Bosco! The crowds that came
exceeded all our expectations. We did not know that Don
Bosco has so many “fans” here in Taiwan…as our provincial
happily observed.
The highlight of the relic's visit was
the Salesian Spirituality Day for the whole Salesian Family
on the morning of April 9, 2011, followed by a grand lunch
for all, the renewal of promises by 35 Salesian Cooperators
during the mass, and a youth festival and youth vigil late
in the afternoon till evening. It is interesting to note
also that on this very day, exactly 125 years ago in 1886,
Don Bosco, on his visit to Barcelona, dreamed of the future
expansion of his work, including our part of the world
here....this might be a strange coincidence… but for us here
in the Salesian China Province it is a thing to carefully
reflect upon.
Don Bosco’s visit here truly made a very
deep impression on all of us.
Note: If you want more details about the
relic’s visit, visit us at Facebook: Don Bosco Comes to
Taiwan. _________________ 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
. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click
on austraLasia 2011 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS
orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from
there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle.
Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
