Rector Major begins visit to Hong Kong with three Hail Marys
HONG KONG: 11th February 2006 -- The Rector Major, Fr
Pascual
Chávez,
arrived in Hong Kong late evening Friday 10th from Hyderabad,
India.
He arrived amidst the whirr of hi-tech cameras, and a display of
posters depicting Don Bosco and himself from all 18 Schools around Hong
Kong and Macau. There was an official welcoming speech in Chinese
by
one of the 100 or so young people there to greet him.
He told them how happy he was to be in Hong Kong with them, and that he
wanted them to be happy now, and forever. The Provincial, Fr.
Savio
Hon, some 25 other Salesian confreres and Salesian Sisters were part of
the welcoming group.
The Rector Major was exhilarated, if a little tired,
and after this
tumultuous welcome, and the journey back to the Provincial House,
eventually retired early this morning,
11th, after saying three Hail Marys with the confreres. This is
the
first visit by this Rector Major to the
Province and he comes inspired by Don Bosco's dream - not just a
general dream, but something quite precise.
He comes to the province,
he explained, bringing with him the outstanding impressions he
had gained from India, the tangible missionary apostolic zeal he saw
there. But he comes especially with a long-nurtured desire to come to
the China Province. The two (India,
China Province) he likened to siblings stemming from Don Rua's send-off
back at the beginnings of the twentieth century, in both cases bringing
with them a statue of Mary Help of Christians. India's
original statue is kept in the parish Church in Thanjavur. For
China,
the original statue was brought by the then Fr Louis Versiglia to
Macau in 1917 and is now kept in the Tan King Po School Don Bosco
museum.
Fr Carlo Socol, the province's historian, narrated the events
surrounding this statue to the Rector Major and the group at the
Provincial House on his arrival.
At the airport he had been presented with
flowers. Before
retiring, in the small chapel at the Provincial House, Fr Chávez
offered the flowers to Our Lady, accompanying the offering with the
traditional three Hail Marys.
After a good rest, the visit will begin later in the
morning by
meeting with the Provincial Council.
________________________
AustraLasia is an
email
service for
the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an
agency
for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
