SEOUL: 24 January
2013
-- It is a busy and joyful time for
KOR
Province today: 3 ordinations to diaconate, 4 ordinations to
priesthood
(more about these tomorrow) and the official announcement of
the new
Provincial to take office immediately following GC27. And in another part
of the Region, Fr Peter Baquero is officially installed as
the Delegate
for the PNG/SI Delegation, taking over from Fr Raffy Galve
who has
begun a long-awaited and well-deserved sabbatical.
The new Provincial for KOR is Fr Stephen Yang Seungkuk,
currently Vice Provincial and Delegate for GC27.
Stephen Yang was born in 1959, of a Christian family, the
first of three sons of Joseph Yang and Lucia Cho.
Although originally from Seoul, during his childhood the
family moved
to Daegu, a metropolitan city in the south. He graduated from
a
technical high school in design art, and was then employed by
Samsung
Heavy Industries in the ship design section for six years,
during which
he was a leader in the Christian community among the employees
since
there was no chaplain. His special zeal for Legion of
Mary activity
eventually led him to respond to God's call by becoming a
Salesian.
His confreres describe Fr Stephen as a model of a humble and
poor life
style in community, as well as being a good listener. He
is also a
well-known writer in the spirituality field. ‘The Master of
Blessing’,
the latest of his seven books, published by the Caritas
Sister’s
bookshop, has seen success in the market, selling more than
20,000
copies. He contributes daily to the Salesian website(www.ibosco.net)
with meditations on the Gospel of the day. Not only religious
and people in
ministry but also many lay people follow these reflections as
an aid to
their journey of faith.
Fr Yang made his first profession at Kwangju in 1987 on this
day, the
Feast of St Francis de Sales. He was ordained priest in Seoul
in 1994,
24th June. He holds a licence in Spirituality from the UPS in
Rome
(2000) and a BA from the Catholic University in Seoul. Besides
his
written publications and the web contributions, he has also
contributed
spiritual reflections for TV and Radio in Seoul.
Immediately after his ordination, Fr Yang worked in Kwangju,
in charge
of the Family Home there for young people at risk, and worked
also
with the aspirants. He then moved to Seoul, to Shin Weol Dong
where he
took up similar work for the Family Home there. On
return from Rome he
has held various positions of responsibility as Rector, Novice
Master
(2005-2011), Provincial Councillor, and became Vice Provincial
in 2010.
He has been on the Provincial Commission for Ongoing Formation
since
2004.
Currently Fr Yang is Rector of the Provincial House in Seoul.
His installation as Provincial will take place on 26th April
2014.
Korea Province has 117 members, 13 communities with new
communities
planned. It covers a wide range of apostolic work, all the
tradiitonal
Salesian works. One prominent aspect of this work is the focus
on young
people at risk, with a number of centres dedicated fully to
this. There
are five Korean confreres who are missionaries 'ad gentes': 2
in
Cambodia and one in each of Malawi, Mongolia, PNG.
