Rome: 4
January 2012 -- If you have taken a look at the text
for the Strenna 2012 (it
is available online here,
if you do not have a paper copy as yet, or in video - cf the
photo
above), you will have noted that it begins a new 'series',
inasmuch as
it is the first of three which will lead up to the
Bicentenary.
Thanks
to ANS and sdb.org at Congregational level, the Salesian
inspiration
for the year (the year which begins 1st January and finishes
31st
December!), which is the Strenna, is rapidly made available,
and then
subsequently active digital natives, amongst others, add to
this in
many ways. One thinks back to the 'Yellow Umbrella' which
became a
Youtube favourite! This year too, one notes that an active
digital
native from our Region has already placed the Strenna on
his Youtube account, and that has helped overcome a
temporary glitch in the 'official' version's streaming.
Could
not help but notice that our Region gains one particular
mention
towards the end of the Strenna, or at least a member of our
Region
does: Fr Lawrie Moate (Australia-Pacific) is credited as the
source for
the RM's second anecdote (the first being the dream at nine
years of
age, of course). What struck me there was the particular
context for
this source at the time - the way we tell the story of
ourselves and
our confreres on Jubilee occasions. These are wonderful
occasions
because, while it is also good to speak well of the dead, it
is better
still to speak well of the living!
Which led to another thought over these days, reading through
the Strenna, and it is to do directly with austraLasia.
You will note that this particular medium of communication is
nearing
its 3000th edition, and that it has covered the entire
duration of our
Region as EAO. In fact it began some years before, at the time
of the
Australasia Region from which, in fact, it derived its name.
We decided
to retain the name for the e-letter, calling it austra-L-asia, the 'L',
standing for 'link'. But that means 15 years of telling the
story of
our region, however it might have been called since
1998. Think of
this, now, in the light of one comment of the RM's in his
latest
Strenna:
Salesian
literature, Salesian publications, Salesian preaching, the
circulars of
those in positions of responsibility at various levels, communication within the
Salesian Family all
need to be on top of the situation. The traditional popular
nature of
Salesian literature, its widespread dissemination, ought not
to mean
superficiality in its contents, disinformation, the
repetition of an
untrustworthy past. Whoever
has the
gift or the opportunity to write, to form, to educate
others needs to
ensure that he is constantly updated regarding the subject
he talks or
writes about. Popular media products need to be of a
high quality and
of the greatest possible reliability.
That
paragraph is both cause for pride and penitence, for
austraLasia! But
we do our best, and our best has to rely on everyone in the
Region. We
are different to other communications media in the
Congregation in
that, from the outset, the philosophy has always been 'every
confrere
is a correspondent'. One person takes ultimate responsibility
for what
is published, as it must be, but you, the members of the
Salesian
Family, are our correspondents! I have taken the liberty of
highlighting a couple of elements of the above citation. They
apply to
us all.
austraLasia
began
with 10 members at a meeting at Batulao 15 years ago - they
agreed to
share their email addresses (at a time when email was only
just in its
early stages of development). That has grown to a thousand. It
goes
much wider than the region, since Salesians who speak some
English
anywhere in the world have often asked for it to be sent to
them so
you'll find it in the UK, Africa, the Americas, Russia!
Everywhere in
fact. And people respond from everywhere. Yesterday, James
Trewby, who
heads up the GBR BOVA (Volunteer Association) wrote saying the
item
reminded him of his year in Pasil (Cebu), and maybe other
readers would
be interested in a link
where other volunteers speak of Christmas in Cebu.
How can austraLasia help with Strenna 2012? Partly by
continuing what
it does, and doing that better. It has only one aim - to build
up the
Region and build up the Congregation. But it has many
extensions, some
less visible than others. It will have been forgotten now, but
the
large and rather efficient machine now known as BIS (Bosco
Information
Services) in India began as an offshoot of austraLasia. There
are still 100 or so confreres in India, however, who like to
continue receiving austraLasia.
Salesian Africa is now looking at how it can develop a similar
service, and see austraLasia
as a possible simple model (except that it would need to run
in three
languages!). Just as
an aside, Salesian Africa has come to th e escue of French
translation!
Given the desperate situation - we were quite unable to find
people to
help out with translation of so much material available on
sdb.org - a
dozen French-speaking confreres from Africa, only two of them
with a
French mother tongue experience, put their names forward to
help and
are now busy beavering away at documentary and other material.
Question, in the light of this - do austraLasia items get translated into our regional
languages?
And nobody would be aware, except the individuals who
write on a regular basis asking to be put in touch with
so-and-so, or
to be sent such-and-such, how the medium functions to connect
individuals around the world. SDL (Salesian Digital Library)
grew out
of austraLasia, initially as
a response to these requests. It now contains
some 300,000 items
in 40 collections and 23 languages, and might well be the
largest
collection of material readily available, by any Congregation
today.
And I suppose you could say that Salesian
Termbase
also grew out of it, given the need that so many people have
evidenced,
to have a ready reference for terms and a kind of brief
compendium of
'Salesian stuff'.
As it all comes back to the 1500 individuals in the Region,
plus other
members of the Salesian Family spread around the globe who
like to make
use of these items to build up the Congregation, perhaps I can
leave you
with a few questions:
Do I make use of these 'aids' in building up our Region and
our Congregation, our Salesian Family?
Have I ever considered how I might contribute to them?
Have I actively promoted them, encouraged non-receivers or
users to join in?
How can I improve them?
Answers to these questions will form part of our response to
Strenna 2012.
