HONG KONG: 14th February 2006 -- 'Killing us softly'
...'with his song', you might want to add, if you know the song, or
maybe you know the movie which wasn't about a song! But the line
came this time from another bystander at events surrounding the Rector
Major's visit, back in Hong Kong once more, at Tan King Po. It
wasn't a complaint, just a recognition that this is a pretty hectic
visit and our Chinese confreres have gone out of the way to try to
soften the intensity of it all and help the main protagonists through
it all. The one who is handling it best of all is none other than
the Rector Major. Today the Salesian Family schools came together
at the HK Convention and Exhibition Centre, the place where the
handover from UK to China took place in 1997. Today, of the three
halls available, the Salesian Family hired out only the small
one....for 6,000 people!
600 students on stage, another 5,000 in the
auditorium, plus staff, visitors and guests. It was some
show. Music was composed by past pupils (Tan King Po has 10,000
of them). They presented a span from creation to the beginnings
of Chinese culture and history, the arrival of the Salesians, Versiglia
as Bishop, the growth of Salesian work in education and
evangelisation. There was a devil, a big one, two pillars,
Eucharist and Mary, and the final victory. Music, lighting and
split-second choreogrpahy were the key to success, plus twelve months
of work by students and teachers from 19 schools.
"I am deeply impressed. You have shown us how God
created the world. He loves us, we are his dream! I am very
touched, moved. I want to congratulate you - bringing together so
many youth from 19 different schools throughout Hong Kong".
The Rector Major was looking for superlatives to try to encompass what
everyone had experienced. "China is now the greatest country in the
world, so you have shown the greatest performance I have ever seen in
my lifetime".
Earlier in the day the Rector Major had been at Tan
King Po school, where he addressed the students and spoke, amongst
other things, of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, using it as an image to
spur them to greater growth and higher aims. He then opened the
Don Bosco Discovery Centre in the nearby Catechetical Centre. Fr
Carlo Socol took the Visitor around, showing him the display from
Valdocco to China. It is set up and documented in a way that
easily rivals the 'camerette' in Valdocco itself! There is the
original statue of Mary Help of Christians, given by Don Rua to
Versiglia, and the chalice, too. 22,000 Salesian Family school
students will go through this display which is rich in multimedia and
two-way communication experiences.
In the evening another musical and another 4,000
school students and 1,500 Salesian Family members. This time the
Chief Executive, Donald Tsang and the Bishop of Hong Kong, Bishop Zen
were present. Perhaps the only song missing was 'Killing us
softly"!
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