FATUMACA (East Timor): 30th March 2006 -- Just about
anybody who has heard of Salesians in East Timor has heard of
Fatumaca. But otherwise, Fatumaca would not be a place many
people
would have heard of. East Timor has made progress since the
difficult
days of 2002, but even with that progress, once one leaves Dili,
opportunities for internet contact are few, and other communications
are almost non-existent. We don't know much about what is
happening to
them and they don't know much about what is happening to us!
There is
a danger it becomes a forgotten part of the world. austraLasia
would
like to play its little part in reversing that.
So it is good when a little news trickles out - and
good news at
that. Fatumaca is something of a focal point for the Salesian
vice
province which bears the initials ITM. It is not the seat of
government, but it is in many ways the youthful heart of the vice
province: pre-novitiate, novitiate, primary, junior secondary l,
technical schools, pastoral care of a dozen mission stations,
centre of a long-standing social-agricultural work for poor farmers and
families, national Shrine to Mary Help of Christians and therefore
Centre for ADMA, the association founded by Don Bosco in Her name, Past
Pupil centre.
Fatumaca has one other feature that allows it to
stand out in the
entire EAO Region. With six practical trainees stationed there it
is,
if I am not mistaken (and if I am the emails will come racing in!
Sorry about saying DB's dad died when he was 12 - you can change that
in slide number two in the MM powerpoint!) the
location with most practical trainees working in the same place.
So at best it is a complex community and one,
therefore, that needs
- and has - a well elaborated Educative and Pastoral Plan.
Fatumaca
has wonderful memories of great men. Some of them have passed on
- one
only has to think of the figure of someone like Bro. Gamba, for
instance. Some of them are still alive and still working - think
again
of someone like Fr Locatelli.
East Timor is going through interesting times -
difficult times
economically, and with major social changes. A Salesian work
which is
at the heart of ordinary Timorese life might reflect those things
too.
But the dozen confreres who have responsibility for all that happens at
Fatumaca are aware of their challenges. They know that their
well-run technical centre is doing more than just preparing young men
to get good jobs in Dili - they hope that they are also helping to
develop the wider nation. But they also are working to see that
solid
characters come forward to be the Bro Gambas and the Fr Locatellis of
the future. Fatumaca is potentially a vocational powerhouse,
driven by
today's Salesian animating centre
Problems there are. Language is one of
them. The national option
for Portuguese has left some Salesians floundering without a solid
grasp of that language. Financial worries and an Education
Ministry
not yet fully up to the mark means that text books are not easy to get
hold of. And while life within the intense religious and Salesian
atmosphere of Fatumaca is fine, what happens to graduates once they
leave? Post liberation East Timor is a changing, more
free-thinking,
less 'religious' place in many ways. The villages have lots of
priests, lots of catechists, lots of Catholics.....but sometimes empty
churches!
Problems aside, the reality is that if eastern East
Timor is
evangelised, it is largely because of the Salesian influence.
There is
much to be thankful for. They will be grateful for our prayerful
support now as they confront their challenging future.
________________________
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