austraLasia #2571
 
First Chinese to head Salesian China province dead at 90
(please note that this is 'lifted' almost in its entirety from the HK Examiner. One has to get one's news from somewhere!)

HONG KONG:  10th January 2010 -- Born in Mexico of a Chinese father and a Mexican mother, Father Alexander Ma Yiu-hon (Alejandro Machuy Cervantes), a Salesian of Don Bosco for 66 years, and a priest for 55, died peacefully on 28 December 2009, in St. Paul’s Hospital, aged 90.
    During turbulent times for the Church and China (1968 to 1974), Father Ma was the first Chinese to head the Salesian’s China province, the land of Don Bosco’s dreams.
    In the early 1930s, he migrated with his family from Mexico to Shaoguan in Guangdong province, China where he attended secondary school at Don Bosco Lai Kwan College. He joined the Salesian in Shanghai in 1943 and was ordained to the priesthood in Hong Kong in 1954. At around the same time, two of his sisters joined the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
    Father Ma taught at the Instituto Salesiano in Macau, then in Hong Kong at the Salesian Missionary House, Shaukeiwan; the Aberdeen Technical School; St. Louis School, West Point; Kowloon Tang King Po School, Tokwawan. He was later Rector of the Salesian School, Shaukeiwan, and, again, at the Instituto Salesiano. After his stint as provincial, he worked for four years in the Salesian Generalate in Rome before retuning to the Instituto Salesiano in Macau, after which he was at Yuet Wah College for 23 years. In 2008, afflicted with leukaemia, he retired to Casa Braga, the home for elderly Salesians in Shaukeiwan.
    During his illness, he patiently offered his suffering to God for the good of the Church and the young people of China. The Salesians are grateful to the Sisters of St. Paul’s Hospital and their staff for the tender care they extended to Father Ma during his long periods of stay in the hospital. His Salesian confrères, past pupils and co-workers remember Father Ma as a man of principle and deep integrity, a faithful disciple of Jesus and Don Bosco, a forceful and caring superior, a capable soccer-player and a dedicated teacher, companion, and friend of young people.
     A Requiem Mass was celebrated on January 7 at St. Anthony’s church, Pokfulam, by Father Simon Lam Chung-wai, the Salesian provincial. The Funeral Mass was celebrated at 10.00am on January 8 in the same church, by former bishop of Hong Kong, Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun sdb.

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Title: australasia 2571
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces: CIN, Fr Ma
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2571