1483 Salesian Cooperators - Interview with Philip Yu
austraLasia 1483
WCB meeting in Rome - interview with Philip Yu
ROME: 8th March 2006 -- WCB must be one of the most
widespread acronyms in the world! For some readers it will refer to
one or other Cricket Board no doubt, but 'Philip Yu' is the giveaway,
unless Hong Kong still has a flourishing cricket team. Instead, in
these parts, it refers to a World Consultative Body, this time of the
Salesian Cooperators. Philip Yu is the Regional ASC Coordinator for
EAO. Rome being Rome, it took rather longer for the trip from the
airport to the Pisana than it did for the Paris-Rome sector of his
flight! Fiumicino-Pisana today took two hours instead of the usual 15
minutes. Rather more like Bangkok than quiet extra-suburban Rome, so
it gave one ample time to talk with Philip about developments in the
EAO-ASC part the Family.
The outstanding success story of the Region at the moment appears
to be Korea, where thirty plus units have sprung up, with a strong
formation programme. Many of these units are based on married
couples. It certainly seems to be working well. The Korean Salesian
Cooperators have apostolic works in their own right, including one
'reception' centre where they take in youngsters who face problems at
home. This is not only true of Korea. Philip was also able to speak
with pride of his own China Province where the Cooperators have
developed a centre to help youngsters with their homework. The China
Units also came very much to the fore during the recent centenary
celebrations where each branch of the Salesian Family had a role to
play. The ASC looked after accommodation details for visitors, airport
transfers and the like.
There are parts of our region where the ASC may not exist
officially, but this does not prevent them from meeting and being
active and indeed flourishing. He was not talking of his own province
in this instance. There is also one part of the region where
Cooperator units have not existed until now, not because of any
government strictures but for a host of other historical reasons. But
there are plans afoot to develop the ASC in ITM and in actual fact
there are very many cooperators with a small 'c' in both Indonesia and
East Timor. It simply remains to organise this more formally and to
establish a formation programme, which is essential. Philip expressed
his delight and gratitude at the help he has received from Fr. Bob
Bossini of AUL, especially in his work with documentation, unitised
formation programmes and the like.
Elsewhere the ASC is active too - Philippines, Japan, Thailand were
amongst three areas Philip spoke enthusiastically of. In Thailand the
ASC has been strongly involved in post-Tsunami reconstruction, assisted
by the Japan ASC who have raised substantial funds to this end.
The WCB meeting is in proximate preparation for the World ASC
Congress to be held in Rome later this year. One of the central
matters for both meetings is to finalise the new Regulation of
Apostolic Life or RAL. These will now be more like the standard two
part set of constitutions and regulations to be found amongst the SDBs
and will also bring the ASCs in line with contemporary developments in
lay apostolic spirituality and action.
GLOSSARY
WCB: World Consultative Body
ASC: Association of Salesian Cooperators
EAO: East Asia-Oceania
ITM: Indonesia-East Timor
AUL: Australia
RAL: Regulations of Apostolic Life
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