Subject: 'austraLasia' #267

WHERE THE YEAR BEGAN AND ENDED

Julian Fox

The Pacific: 1st Jan 2000 -- The Australasia region, of all the Salesian

regions, has something distinctive about it - it is the place where the

century and millennium ended and began. More precisely, the Australian

Province embraced both. The Salesian presence in Fiji (opened just one year

ago on 1st Jan '99), situated as it is on the 180 degree meridian, saw the

beginning of the world's celebrations. The Salesian presence in Samoa, being

the last landfall before the international dateline, saw the final

celebration. On this day too, the Australian Province is under new

leadership in the person of Fr. Ian Murdoch.