ROME: 9th January 2006 -- We are only talking students
here, because the total number otherwise would be closer to 'the ton', but studentwise, Rome seems to have a
certain attraction for EAO! There is a total of 69 Salesian
Family members studying in the Eternal City, around 20 of them SDB,
another 30 or so FMA, plus assorted others. If we then throw in
other students in other parts of Italy, another 17 SDB students or
practical trainees, for example between Messina in the south and the
Crocetta up north, we arrive at a total of 88 SF-EAO students in Italy.
Apart from the bulk of SDB and FMA, there are CSM
(Charities, Miyazaki), VDB - one at the UPS doing Spirituality, and
Past Pupils - 3 priests from Korea doing Church history, spirituality
and youth ministry respectively.
A good number of the Rome-based students are at the
UPS, covering between them areas such as vocational pedagogy (CIN,
KOR), Salesian Spirituality (KOR, THA, ITM,), Theology (ITM, VIE,)
Catechetics (THA), Social Communications (THA). Other than the
UPS, our students frequent institutes such as the Gregorian (Moral
Theology, Scripture) and St Anselmo's (Liturgy). One
from FIN is doing his doctorate in Scripture, another from GIA has
started out on that long road in psychology. The Salesian Sisters
are naturally to be found at the Auxilium in the main, studying
spirituality or catechetics/pedagogy. The CSM Sisters seem to
frequent places like the Claretianum and Santa Cecilia (for music, of
course) but there are three at the Gregorian studying psychology,
spirituality and missiology.
ITM and THA have, for a number of years, sent most
of their students of theology out of the country, the bulk of them to
Italy (Messina), but not only - some to Jerusalem, for instance, one to
Australia. VIE has two theology students in Turin at the Crocetta
and two practical trainees in Ligure-Toscana. Australia, as we
know, has offered its own resources especially to help students in the
region gain a knowledge of English, but others (one from ITM, for
example) have also benefited from the opportunity to pursue advanced
studies in education and other fields.
These figures are of interest, not only because, to
the best of my knowledge at least, we have not seen an overall picture
of this kind before, but also it does give one an idea of some of the
future strengths in a region which is increasingly keen to share its
considerable resources amongst its constituent provinces and groups.
VOCABULARY
the ton: a colloquial reference to 100
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