austraLasia #1882

Volunteers With Don Bosco - growth in the Region

MANILA: 13th December 2006 --  A vibrant member group of the Salesian Family, one of the most recent to be founded in fact (1994) is known as the Volunteers With Don Bosco - they bear the initials CDB from the Italian version of that title, Volontari Con Don Bosco.  The group can be seen as 'cousins' of the Volunteers OF Don Bosco, a female group which goes back to 1917, though it has to be said that the desire to live out one's consecration in the world in secular form arose quite independently in a number of individual young men in Venezuela, Paraguay, Malta, Italy and only then began to be thought of as a group somewhat along the lines of its female counterpart.  One distinct similarity between the two groups, however, has been the close involvement of a Rector Major in the formation of the group - Fr Rinaldi in 1917 and Fr Viganò in 1994.
    The CDB, who number 60 members, already have representation in Korea, with two members in formation.  In recent months, after a Good Night Talk given to the CDB Assembly earlier in the year by the EAO Regional, Fr Klement, the CDB Council decided to send one of its members to the Philippines.  Fr Klement had put before them the example of a member of the Volunteers of Don Bosco who years before had travelled the region, with good results in terms both of greater awareness and vocations.  The CDB representative this time spent an entire month in Manila, staying at the Seminaryo ng Don Bosco, and in the company of Fr Danilo Torres, who is the Regional Assistant for the Volunteers of Don Bosco.  The experience was enriching in both directions, according to the visitor.  Given that he was staying in a seminary context, many young Salesians from the Region came to know a little more of this new branch of the Salesian Family - although communications had to overcome the language barrier.
    The result of the visit has been the directly expressed interest of two candidates for the CDB from the Philippines.
    After a long period of representation before ecclesiastical authorities, in particular the Archbishop of Caracas, under whose jurisdiction the group was first established as a Public Assocation of the faithful, the hope is to achieve Secular Institute status properly speaking some time in 2008.  The Constitutions have been fully revised and are due for publication in Italian as an original version, shortly. An English translation has already been achieved and is awaiting further comment before being available for printing.
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