austraLasia #2327


EAO Region now extends to the Marianas

ROME: 15th January 2009 -- Salesian occasional contacts with Guam, in the Marianas archipelago in the North Western Pacific Ocean, go back many years, and in more recent years those contacts have multiplied, with visits from Salesians from the US Californian Province (Guam is a US territory), more recently still from Philippines North Province. Archbishop Anthony Apuron of Hagåtña archdiocese, (possibly known to many still as Agana), belongs to the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (CEPAC) and has also been in contact with Salesians through his regular visits to Fiji.
    The upshot of all this, plus the obvious geographical vicinity to the Philippines, has been the successful request of the Archbishop to have a Salesian presence in his diocese, and in particular in the Fr Duenas Memorial School, a Catholic school of 400 students, about half of them indigenous to the Marianas (known as Chamorros) and the others Filipinos, Koreans, Japanese. Philippines North Province has been given permission by the Rector Major and his Council for them to set up a presence in the very near future. The Province would hope to do this in the new school year.
    Guam is, or certainly was a predominantly Catholic island, but the activities of sects there and in other parts of the Pacific have made huge inroads. The school used once have Religious behind it but they have long gone and the school has gradually slipped away from its solid Catholic foundation in the immediate post-World War II era. This urgent educational need, the difficult situation for young people in a very crowded population centre with all attendant social ills, along with the opportunities of working with poorer areas in the archdiocese, has convinced both the Province and the General Council of the value of this new missionary outlet for FIN.
    Currently Guam has just two Religious Orders/Congregations of men active in the archdiocese - the Capuchins, of which the Archbishop is one, and the Jesuits. Both communities now have just a handful of older members still active. There are around seven female institutes in the archdiocese. Nearby suffragan dioceses are the Carolines, Marshalls and Chalan Kanoa.  Some of the diocesan students for the priesthood go to Suva, Fiji, the Pacific Regional Seminary, while others go to the Philippines and the US.
    Officially, according to the 'red book' of statistics presented to GC26, there were 129 nations with a formal Salesian presence - that usually tends to get rounded off to 130.  That rounding-off will now be legitimate!
      _________________
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Title: australasia 2327
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces FIN - Guam
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2327