5472_Gratitude for the past and openness to the future - AUL 2023
September 22, 2020
Melbourne, Australia, 22 September 2020 -- With the first Newsletter of the AUL Centenary launched on 21 September , the SDB and the Salesian Family in the Australia Pacific Province have begun preparations for 100 years of our presence in Australia. On 30 March 1923, the first group of Salesian missionaries led by Bishop Ernesto Coppo, SDB, reached Fremantle (seaport, Perth) in Western Australia. 'The image of the burning sun captures our origins in northern Western Australia and the boat is both a traditional image of the Church forever on mission, casting into the deep, and a concrete recognition of the SDB and FMA presence in the Pacific."
From the first Centenary Newsletter you can discover:
# the 6 member composition of the Centenary Commission, Chair: Fr Frank Moloney,SDB
# proposed 11 possible celebrations (visit of the Rector Major, retreat for all SDBs, setting up a 'permanent memorial room' at Rupertswood - first house in Melbourne; Centenary memorial book - prayer and preparation of resources about Don Bosco and Salesians in Australia for our young people.
The first EAO province to celebrate the arrival of the Salesians wasthe 'mother-province' of Mary Help of Christian (CIN) in 2006, one hundred years after the arrival of Fr Louis Versiglia and the first missionaries in Macau, at that time a Portuguese colony. After Australia (2023) Centenary celebrations will take place in Japan (2026), Thailand (2027) and Timor Leste (2027).
At present the AUL (Australia - Pacific) province has presences in Australia and 3 countries of the Pacific delegation (Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand), with 97 professed confreres (12 Salesian Brothers, 16 candidates to the priesthood in initial formation and 69 Salesian priests) living in 14 canonical communities. Salesian Archbishop Timothy Costelloe has, since 2012, been entrusted with the Perth Archdiocese. Most of the apostolic works of AUL province are schools and parishes.
