austraLasia #2867 Stepping into a brave new world - the stuff that
dreams are made of
SALELOLOGA (Samoa): 6 June 2011 -- A
broad chronicle of events concerning the opening of what is
a most significant step for Samoa and the Australia-Pacific
Province and indeed Salesian presence in the South Pacific
was provided last week at or about the time the event took
place (you will recall the final comment about international
date lines and juggling the hours). It seems appropriate to
follow this with the actual address or part thereof, of the
Salesian Provincial, Fr Frank Moloney, for the occasion.
Photos of the event are likely to appear in either or both
ANS Imagebank and the sdb.org photo section for the
Region/Province.
"With these words, I salute all the young people of
Samoa. The Archbishop has highlighted that this is a
Catholic school. But precisely because it is
“catholic” it is open to all, of whatever religious
tradition, who wish to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ
lived and hear it proclaimed.
The request to the Australia-Pacific
Province of the Salesians of Don Bosco from the Archbishop
of Samoa-Apia to provide secondary education in Savai’i
was made many years before my time as Provincial Superior.
However, it never met the approval of the Provincial or
Superior Council of the Salesians of Don Bosco. In 2006,
during my first visit to Samoa as Provincial, Archbishop
Alipati again asked if the Salesians of Don Bosco could
meet the urgent educative and pastoral needs of young
people in Savai’i by founding a secondary school in
Salelologa. I have been coming to Samoa for more than 30
years, could see the need, and was personally supportive
of the initiative. However, the project again struck
problems in the Province and from Rome.There were three
major difficulties that were raised, and that continue to
pose a risk:
1.There had already been two Catholic
secondary schools in Savai’i. Both were initiatives of the
Archdiocese, and both had failed. They are nowadays used
for other purposes. Will Don Bosco, Salelologa, meet the
same fate?
2.We do not have enough Salesians of
Don Bosco. There was a time when young Australian
Salesians, with long experience in schools and
administration, could come and work side-by-side with the
growing number of Samoan Salesian Priests and Brothers.
That is no longer the case. We are struggling to maintain
a quality presence in Australia, and we have no young
Salesians in training. After 30 years of Don Bosco’s
presence in Samoa, will the Samoan Salesians of Don Bosco
– those already with us and those yet to come - make this
step into maturity, and carry on this project with
generosity and wisdom?
3.We do not have enough money to build
and maintain the school. The Archbishop wants it to
be a Salesian school, and thus the Salesians of Don Bosco
are to bear all the costs of building, staffing, and
maintenance. This is beyond our financial capacities. How
will we reach beyond the moment of the opening of a
physical building into a future that must be further
developed and maintained?
These problems remain, and I have no
immediate solution to them, but dreams and strategies are
in place. I will close by expressing a prayer and a hope
about its future.
1.The Salesians of Don Bosco thank the
Government of Samoa, and in a particular way, the Prime
Minister of Samoa, present today, for agreeing to a long
term lease of this piece of Government property to the
Salesians of Don Bosco at a very moderate rate. As you all
know, this piece of land was a rocky volcanic plain,
covered by tropical forest. It has cost us half a
million Australian dollars just to clear it. However, its
location in the heart of the new Township of Salelologa,
so close to the bus terminal, makes it ideal for the
purposes of a High School and technical centre for
children from all over the island. The generosity of the
Samoan Government is being met with great generosity of
the Australia-Pacific Province of the Salesians of Don
Bosco.
2.The Salesians of Don Bosco, in a
special way, thank the Federal Government of the German
Republic for the direct provision of over €500,000 for the
building of the first stage of the project – the
administration, the classrooms and workshops, the computer
centre and the toilets. This support was made possible
through the skilled intervention of Don Bosco Mission in
Bonn, Germany. We could not have even started without this
extremely generous support.
3.As the Provincial of the Salesians of
Don Bosco in Australia and the Pacific, I wish to
personally thank all my fellow Salesians from Australia,
New Zealand, Don Bosco Technical Centre, Apia, Upolu, and
Don Bosco House, Naulu, Suva, Fiji, for their
support. Each community has agreed to take money
from their savings and their investments to support Don
Bosco High and Technical Centre. The Australian and
Pacifican Salesians of Don Bosco have donated $58,000AUD
to this project. Another Salesian who has supported us is
the Rector Major of all the Salesians in the world.
Although he is not able to indicate a definite sum of
money at this stage (we should know by late June), he
wishes to support the building of the Salesian residence,
the Chapel and the volunteers’ residence, already advanced
in construction. Finally, my own family has given to the
Salelologa project $100,000AU from the heritage left to
the family by my parents.
4.Special thanks must go to Fr Mosese
Tui and the Salesian community here at Salelologa. The
submitted estimates were so high, three times the
architect’s estimates, that we were unable to contract the
building of the school to a building company. It has
been built in its entirety by the tradesmen from villages
in the Salelologa region, under the leadership of Fr
Mosese as the owner-builder. Thanks to you all, Salesians
of Don Bosco and village communities who have built this
school. This school is yours! You built it
with your own hands!
5.Finally, I would like to thank the
Vice Chancellor of Australian Catholic University, a
University that has recently honoured my own academic
career, Professor Greg Craven, for an unsolicited gift of
$10,000AU to Don Bosco High and Tech Centre, Salelologa.
In his words: “This is a project that must be supported.”
The driving force of the Salesian
educative system comes to us from our Founder, and the
Patron of this school, Don Bosco. He told us we were
to form “good Christians and honest citizens.” That
is what we want to do all over Samoa: at Alafua, at the
school and parishes of Salelologa, at Moamoa/Sinamoga, and
at Leauva’a with its large community and many churches. We
are aware that this is a huge challenge, flying in the
face of centuries of financial and subsequent cultural
dependence. Our task is to educate young Samoans to an
alternative culture, to lead them to an appreciation that
they will become good Christians and honest citizens when
they see that the most precious thing in life is not to
wait until someone “gives” you everything … but to reach
out and “give” of who you are and what you have, so that
others might have a better future". _________________
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