1602 Tokyo's 'most beuatiful church' in need of repair
austraLasia 1602

Tokyo's 'most beautiful church' in need of a little repair

TOKYO: 4th July 2006 -- Recall the Gospel passage where some enterprising men let a paralytic down through the roof to draw Jesus' attention to him?  It worked, we know.  Parish priest at 'Sarejio Kyokai' (Salesian Church), Fr Achilles Loro Piana, makes great use of the frescoes painted on the ceiling of his church years ago by Bro Giacomo Ferrari, Salesian artist-cum- missionary, to say a few words about Jesus to the visitors who come to admire the church each day.  Now he's thinking he'll have to add in the paralytic story, because the roof is leaking and the frescoes are in danger of being destroyed!
    It may not have taken much effort to restore a Palestinian roof, but it certainly takes a lot of money to restore a Church roof in Japan.  So on July 2nd, a special charity concert was held.  It was a 'home made' concert with some professional Opera singers and some instrumentalists plus the church choir who practised their sacred music to the point of perfection (nearly).  All tickets sold out and 500 people attended.
    The funds raised mean Fr Loro Piana can begin reconstruction work on the roof within a few weeks, and of course the other benefit, as always with this kind of effort, is the people building.  More things than roofs get repaired when people work together.  Father is sure that shared time, talent and effort has been one of the best results of the concert.
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On another note - reactions, all positive it seems - to the Bertone article #1600 are still coming in.  I have placed them in Boscowiki on the austraLasia page and invite you to take a look - even better, to ween yourself into using the wiki for your own comments, questions and so forth.  It adds an entirely new dimension to interactivity in the region.  While you are there, take a look around, because a number of members of the Salesian Family have begun to make use of this wiki and it is slowly (oh so slowly :-) becoming a valuable other resource.
    Shortly, when there is time, Bosconet main (the Bosconet that can be accessed by anybody, not just the wiki which is only available to austraLasia readers) will run a collection of everything we can find in English from Salesian documentation on Da Mihi Animas.  It will be our little way, with the help of VK who is doing a lot of the searching for this material, to get some early GC26 preparation into action.
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