austraLasia 1361
Two pioneers of the Asian Mission return 'to the
Father's House'
BEPPU: 19th December 2005 -- With the passing of Fr
Cesare Secchi last week at Beppu in Japan, and Fr Bruno Gelosa,
formerly of China Province a few days later at Arese (Italy), Salesian
Asia has lost two remarkable pioneers. Fr Secchi spent 67 of his
90 years in Japan (he was born in Certosa di Pavia, Italy), Fr Geloso
54 of his 91 years in China.
Fr Secchi was one of the pioneer missionaries on the
island of Kyushu, in the Beppu-Oita area. He spent his remaining
years in the Salesio community at Beppu, still celebrating Mass
in four languages, one language per week "to keep up the language":
English, Latin, Italian, Japanese. He had worked in many mission
stations and was a builder and rebuilder of many churches, chapels
including a memorial church to the famous Fr Peter Kibe, who died in
1639 and was the first Japanese to travel widely outside of
Japan. In fact we have a delightful 'My Memories' (but it exists
in Italian, not English), an autobiography which he wrote in the early
'90s with foreword by Fr Viganò. In there he speaks of his time
as a student of philosophy and practical trainee, during the difficult
days of the Second World War. At the time of the dropping of the
two atomic bombs, he had been sequestered away with the Salesian
community many hundreds of miles to the North of Tokyo in a mountainous
area where they had no radio. They only learned of the
bombardments and their destruction days later.
For very many years, Fr Secchi had to live alone -
in fact from 1954 until 1988, practically speaking. His great
love for Don Bosco and the Salesian community never wavered. He
sought, besides.l to always 'make friends with the
non-Christians'. As late as 1984 he taught himself how to use the
computer.
Fr Gelosa left Italy from Ivrea for China in 1939,
where he made his novitiate in Hong Kong. He was professed on 8th
September 1939. He moved to Shanghai for his postnovitiate and
studied Chinese. He also did his practical training and theology
in Shanghai, and was ordained in 1948. After ordination he became
a 'catechist' in Salesian schools and oratories - and kept that role
for nigh on twenty years, in Shanghai, and later in communities in Hong
Kong. He returned to Italy in 1993, but retained his great love
for China and for apostolic activity (especially with his bicycle to
get around) - in fact he already had his ticket, at 91 years of age,
for the centenary celebrations in China next year!
While austraLasia does not regularly run a 'mortuary
letter' series, this year we have had occasion to recall some of the
great missionaries of the region as the Lord has called them to
himself. They remain a vibrant witness of fidelity and missionary
zeal in a region that is strongly missionary not only in terms of
receiving, but now sending its own missionaries to other parts of the
world.
_____________________________
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