3794(I)_No English, No Vocation!

By Fr. Peter Ngan, SDB

Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, November 8, 2015 - Like every year we have received last October to our formation house new prenovices. This time were selected among the 45 screened candidates only 17 young men for the prenovitiate. One of the reasons is a new policy of our province. This group would be the first in the history of Vietnam province that will start in the first year of their postnovitiate in Dalat (academic year 2017-2018) with a bi-lingual program in English and Vietnamese language. So the old saying 'No English - No Vocation' is partly becoming true also for the Salesians in Vietnam!

The life of our formation community is busy. The environment of our community offers a good chance for a good experience of our prenovices - with a small Parish community, Oratory, Vocation program and daily opportunity for manual work on our property. In the class of the prenovices are involved many Salesians from Saigon area as well one senior Dominica sister - a renowned psychologist.

To accompany our young men in the first formal step of Salesian vocation is a privilege for the whole formation team. Our Salesian community is composed of nine confreres, seven Salesian priest, one (strong) Salesian Brother and one cleric in practical training. The age of our prenovices does range from 23 to 27 years, some of them are also from the Northern part of our country.