1314 EAO grateful for Polish missionaries - and pushing for more!
austraLasia 1314

EAO grateful for Polish missionaries - and pushing for more!

WARSAW-PILA-KRAKOW-WROCLAW: 1st November 2005 -- It could only be described as a whirlwind tour, but a seven day visit to formation houses in the four Salesian Provinces of Poland is an idea that found its origins in suggestions made to the EAO Regional Councillor, Fr Vaclav Klement, by existing Polish missionaries in the EAO Region.  There are Polish Salesians working in PNG, Japan, Philippines, Samoa and Mongolia.  On the worldwide scene there are very many Polish Salesian missionaries, many of them concentrated in Africa and Latin America - up to 140 of them.  In the recent missionary send-off a further 9 were sent out on mission 'ad gentes'.
    It would seem that vocational growth and missionary growth are intimately connected: there was an immediate increase in Salesian candidate numbers as a result of the recent missionary send-off.  With this realisation as background, Fr Klement brushed up on his Polish (perhaps relying on his native Czech to help him through, but also knowing that young Poles today speak English) and plunged into the fray!  His first stop was at the Warsaw-based Missionary Animation Centre, which houses the Development Office, but also a museum and offices connected with missionary animation.  He visited the novitiate in Czerwinsk, with 11 novices, a missionary museum and a Youth Ministry Team - and fielded questions about the Asian missionary thrust, its joys and sorrows.  Then off to Lodz to the postnovitiate and theologate (6 and 23 students respectively) - and again found the place full of missionary exhibits, through the zeal of the elderly Fr Schmidt who dedicated his life to keeping in touch with missionaries and missions.  The visits to the other three provinces followed much the same pattern.
    Reflecting on the visit after his return, Fr Klement saw that while Poland is still coming to terms with increased prosperity - and the inevitable secularisation that accompanies it - the missionary vocation is still attractive.  He found young confreres - and Provincials - open to the missions, but still the need for the Congregation in Poland to be seen more as a missionary Congregation.  Europe, too has it missionary needs, but this, he stresses, should not be exclusive or block out the view of wider mission.  He sees that more can be done to make John Paul's view of the Polish Church's worldwide responsibility a known and effective reality in Poland itself.  In this regard he noted the huge spiritual impact, assisted by the media, of the death of John Paul II on Polish youth.  It has already meant significant increases in some novitiates and in diocesan seminaries.  In short - now is the time to strike!
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