KOR
Volunteers depart on Feast of Sts Versiglia and Caravario
SEOUL: 27 February 2012 --
The
Feast of the Salesian pro-martyrs, February 25th was the
setting
for a very meaningful celebration held at the provincial house
in
Seoul: Mass and the consignment of the Mission Cross to the
three
Korean lay volunteers for Poipet, in Cambodia for one year.
The Mass
was celebrated by Fr Isidor Hong, the Mission Delegate, who
had
followed them up for several months in preparation. The
volunteers are
Joseph Lee, a medical practitioner, 49 yeas old, Mr Edward
Heo, a
leading Chef, 25 years old, and Mrs Rosa Song, 24 years old,
just
graduated from Catholic University last February 17th.
Dr Lee is a specialist in emergency medicine, and has been
working in a
university's general hospital Emergency Department. But he
also has a
strong desire to return to the farm, in the countryside. He
thought
that it would be good if he spent some time abroad, where
people suffer
from poverty so he left work and joined the Salesian Volunteer
Network
last November.. It was not easy to decide to be a volunteer,
leaving
his wife and two daughters, one twelve the other eleven.
Strangely
enough, he has just discovered that he was a public high
school
classmate of Fr Michael Chang, the new Provincial Economer and
in
charge of the Mission Office in Korea, and graduated from the
same
medical university with the late Fr John Lee.
Providence!
After taking a degree in Culinary Arts, Mr Heo took a job in a
famous
hotel restaurant. Despite earning well, he began questioning
that money
could say it all, and asked himself if there was something
more
important. This question about the meaning of life eventually
led him
to the Salesian Volunteer Program with intentions to remain
for the
longer-term. He too had earlier knowledge of the Salesians
Society
because he had heard something about it from his younger
brother,
currently in military service for two years. His brother had
attended
the alternative school managed by the Social Communication
Center in
Seoul.
Mrs Song has just graduated in Social Work at Catholic
University on
February 17. She has already had experience of volunteering in
Cambodia
for three weeks in January 2009. It was a Catholic Caritas
program. She
was deeply impressed by the purity of the people’s heart in
Cambodia
and felt very much that she was loved by the people. She
sought the
opportunity to go back there with the title of Salesian
volunteer.
In his homily, Fr Hong referred to Pope John Paul II's
‘Redemtoris
missio’: “Every member of the faithful is called to holiness
and to
mission”, and emphasized that “you have to inscribe it n your
heart
that even though you are going as a volunteer, you are a lay
missionary; take advantage of this opportunity for your growth
in faith
rather than considering yourself as someone who will be able
to do
something for them. Especially since you will live in the
Salesian
community together with Salesians, be involved with the
preventive
system, and entrust all things to the protection of Our Lady.”
Of the three, for the Dr Lee will support the Salesians in
Korea for
his journey and living expenses in Cambodia; the other two
volunteers
will be supported by KCOC (Korea NGO Council For Overseas
Cooperation)
as participants in that program.
On this Feast of St. Aloysius Versiglia and St.Callistus
Caravario,
Salesian pro-martyrs these lay volunteers have departed for
their
mission territory. Pray for them that they can be faithful
witnesses to
the Lord, and that they may defend the dignity of young people
and be
good friends and collaborators of Fr Gabriel Kang who until to
now has
worked without another Salesian beside him in the very
large
institution at Poipet.
