austraLasia 1473
Sumba's Salesians, Indonesia - an interesting hook
into the Memoirs of the Oratory
WEEPENGALI (Sumba): 3rd March 2006 -- There is a
comment made by Don Bosco in the first chapter of the Memoirs of
the Oratory. It is in the paragraph immediately after he
describes his father's death on 12th May 1817, which he follows by
saying, "the crops that year failed because of a drought". We now
know that the reason crops failed - they had failed in 1816 first, and
again in 1817, in Europe and North America - was the 'year without
summer', that followed the largest volcanic explosion in recorded
history when 53 cubic kilometres (yes, kms) of rock and soil were
thrown into the earth's atmosphere and remained there for well over a
year. The explosion took place on April 11, 1815 on the island of
Sumbawa, across the strait from Sumba. These days, the new
Salesian novitiate is located on Sumba, inland a bit from that strait,
at Weepengali. It is also interesting that at the other end of
Don Bosco's life, in 1883, the second most famous volcanic explosion in
the world took place - also in Indonesia on the island of Krakatoa,
where 25 cubic kilometres went up, and up.....and only at the end of
1888 did enough of it come down for world climatic conditions return to
normal.
The Salesians first came to Sumba, an island you can
explore via Google Earth if you are linked up that way, in 2002, and
took over a small training centre in Weetebula, which is named on maps
of Sumba. That school is called Budi Daya Don Bosco. Sumba
is a largely Catholic island of 500,000 people. Other than surf
beaches and cashew nuts it has little else to offer the outside world,
but it has become a very significant Salesian location in ITM, for its
pastoral potential and its geopolitical centrality in the archipelago.
The novitiate for the Indonesian part of ITM transferred from Tigaraksa
on Java, near Jakarta, to Sumba in December 2005, and the new location
at Weepengali was blessed on 28 February 2006.
From the outset the Salesians there, including the
Fr. Calleja, now superior of the vice province, made themselves
available in every pastoral capacity to the local clergy and the
people, so they have been made very welcome. Bishop Pareira SVD has
been an outstanding main benefactor. He has his Salesian
connections too! He is a past pupil of the UPS in Rome,
1975. No wonder he is so happy to have the Salesians in his
diocese. The local parish where the novitiate is located is an
SVD parish. Weepengali is the largest 'station' (they call it
'stasi' in Bahasa Indonesia) in the parish with some 1600 Catholics and
its own catechist and now, with the Salesians there, daily Mass.
Of course, the novitiate has opened an Oratory, so there are 100 plus
youngsters attending that regularly. The community is also
developing a vocational training centre and general youth ministry
service within the 10 hectare property the Bishop provided for the
Salesians.
Longer term plans are to maximise the facilities in
a range of ways: an aspirantate for this part of Easter Indonesia which
could include Flores and West Timor, facilities for secondary school
students, and formation of leaders for nearby parishes.
Long before Google Earth was thought of, there were
Don Bosco's dreams ranging across the globe from South to North.
Who knows what he saw along that famous line to Beijing with its
interesting deviations. What we now know is that he may have had
to contend with a lot of upper atmosphere dust along the way :-)
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