austraLasia #1683

Third World Congress Salesian Cooperators and East Asia-Australia

ROME: 9th November 2006 --  An initial point of clarification: Salesians SDB commonly refer to  the EAO (East Asia-Oceania)  Region.  Salesian Sisters tend not to work to a strictly regional framework though they have an area called SPR (South Pacific Region).  Salesian Cooperators call their region EAR - East Asia Australia Region, roughly similar to the EAO.
    The Third World Congress of Salesian Cooperators is an important gathering - after twenty one years, some 300 Cooperators are coming together to approve their new Project of Apostolic Life, now to be divided into two parts, a 'Statutes' and a 'Regulations' section, both to be ad experimentum for the next six years.
    At the invitation of the EAR Councillor and member of the world consulting body, Philip Yu (HK, China Province), 19 delegates involving both ASC and SDB members, gathered a day ahead of the main meeting, for a busy whole day preparation. The only province absent in representation was East Timor-Indonesia, due to the long-term situation of violence that province has been enduring in its East Timor sector where, indeed the first group of Salesian Cooperators has been founded. The group with widest representation for EAR is China.
    After sharing the vicissitudes of travel to Rome, which included several bouts of theft on buses or at airports, members of the group took in a welcome explanation from the World SDB Delegate, Fr Bolkovacs, on elements of the new Project of Apostolic Life. Fr Klement, EAO Regional, translated this session into English as Fr Bolkovacs needed to speak in Italian.
    China Coordinator, Dominic Chinh, led discussion on the next EAR Congress which will be held in Macau in May 2008. The new Statutes actually envision a World Congress every six years, so the EAR has set up a regional advisory body meeting every two years in preparation for the 2012 World Congress. THis body proposes 'Family' as a possible key topic.
    Philip Yu led a session on the drawing up of an EAR Directory, since the new statutes and regulations envision such directories for each region in an effort to give flexibility to local circumstances.  Further sessions, one of them of SDB delegates with Fr Klement, looked at formational issues - some of the provinces have relatively newly appointed delegates.  The 2008 Regional meeting is looking to provide a formation opportunity for delegates.
    The day concluded with a Mass together and a shared homily - one SDB delegate shared the extent that he had learned about his own Salesian vocation from Cooperators.
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