ROME: 2nd March 2006 -- Note, not 'EAO connection' with
Africa, although EAO missionaries
certainly have played a role in Africa over a long period and there is
an
increasing number of EAO missionaries working in one or other part of
Africa. No, 'African connection' heads the phrase, grammatically
speaking, and
that does make
a difference! It is now Africa's turn to be missionary.
The Rector Major has only very recently returned from South Africa,
from
one of its capital cities, (SA has three capital cities, if
you'd like to include this as a question in the next community
'trivial pursuit'. For now the first, most correct answer to "which
are they?" gets a prize from austraLasia! SA citizens excluded). An
African Team Visit was held for the first time last week.
The event makes history for at least two reasons. (1) There has never
been an all-Africa Team Visit before. (2) Project Africa,
which
is in its 25th year, was officially brought to a conclusion! That
does not mean that Salesian Africa has solved all its problems - what
region has? It does mean that Africa-Madagascar, as the entire region
is known in Salesian terms, now officially takes its place alongside
other regions in the Congregation. The various circumscriptions, while
maintaining friendly and at times substantial links with 'founding'
provinces, most of them in Europe, have moved into Vice Province or
Province status, so no longer have juridical links (though besides the
'circumscriptions', there remain areas
in Africa which are part of a circumscription outside of Africa: Egypt,
Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Cape Verde). The Team visit has encouraged
the region to aim as soon as possible for financial
self-sustainability
and to be missionary in its own right.
And there's the link. Shortly, a young African Salesian (Ethiopia)
will head out for PNG in a missionary capacity. This has to be a
milestone in the Congregation and a wonderful link for EAO. There are
other links, too. Of the three 'growing' regions in the Congregation,
Africa and EAO are two of them - South Asia is the third, though if you
want that in numerical growth order, it has to be South Asia first,
Africa second and EAO third. S. Asia had 156 novices last year,
Africa-Madagascar 95 and EAO 61. S. Asia 'grew' by 46 persons from
'04-'05, Africa by 27, EAO by 3. S. Asia entered this year with 2379
confreres, Africa with 1135, and EAO with 1258.
Enough of the numbers. The mission focus for this year is Sudan.
Unfortunately, our TV screens are still filled with stereotyped images
of Africa - hunger, war, corruption. Stereotypes or not, there is
hunger, war and corruption, in large doses, and in Sudan as much as
anywhere, but those
situations should not blind us to huge strides in human development,
holy witness
to the point of martyrdom - and a region that now wishes to play its
own part in sharing its faith and Christian enthusiasm to rejuvenate
ours.
GLOSSARY
financial self-sustainability: this is one to keep an eye on, in the sense that it is
a relatively new term in Salesian circles and I note that it is
constantly being mistranslated from Italian as 'auto-financing of
works'. That just isn't English! We need to nip this one in the bud
before it spreads!
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