austraLasia 2292

Life of Jesus in Icons and in the Gospels

MELBOURNE: 19th November 2008 -- In his latest book, Frank Moloney, Provincial of the Australia-Pacific Province, comments on 30 icons of the life of Jesus from the Cathedral in Tblisi, Georgia. The book is being launched today, 19th November, in Melbourne by Bishop Tim Costelloe SDB, DD.
    The icons, rarely seen in the West, witness to the richness of the sacred tradition of the Universal Church, and help to build a bridge between the Churches of Eastern Europe and the West. The author is already widely acclaimed as a BIblical scholar internationally, his most recent academic position being Katherine Drexel Professor and Dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. He resigned that post to take up his current role as Provincial Superior. The book is being launched under the joint auspices of th Australian Catholic University, where Frank was the Foundation Professor of Theology, St Paul Publications and the Salesians of Don Bosco.

'Lectio Divina' takes centre stage in THA mission animation visit

SURAT THANI (Thailand): 19th November 2008 -- After four days in Cambodia and a Laos-related meeting in Bangkok, the Salesian MIssions Councillor, Fr Vaclav Klement, put in a full day in Surat Thani diocese (under the care of Bishop Joseph Prathan SDB). He was accompanied by the Provincial, Fr John Bosco Depharat. The visit, Fr Klement remarks, was strongly characterised by discussion and activity concerning 'lectio fivina'. The bishop has just returned from the Synod on the Word in Rome, about which he was most enthusiastic. In a direct hint about the next Synod, which has as its proposed topic Social Communications, the bishop is hoping to proclaim the Word 'from the rooftops' by setting up a diocesan radio station. Even before he became a bishop and certainly since, Bishop Prathan has carried out a tireless lectio divina apostolate that is bearing fruit in his diocese. The impact of this is felt in clergy meetings, the standard of homilies and the response from the faithful. The MIssion COuncillor received a 'My Lectio Divina Notebook', an item given out to all the faithful of the diocese.
    The other focus of the animation visit was, of course, to meet with the 15 confreres currently working in the diocese, and to share a particular aspect of GC26 with them: Don Bosco the missionary-pastor-communicator, a message the Councillor has repeated as he moves around mission territories. He was able to listen to their concerns which include a desire for more missionary formation, greater care for missionaries 'inter gentes' in the Asian context, and the hope that more mission animation communications products be available but rather than 'about' missions, offering the voice of the missionaries themselves.
    A practical symbol of effective patient missionary presence (in the deep Muslim south of the country) is the recently opened DB Vocational Centre, home now to one hundred drug addicts under Salesian care with direct government interest and involvement.

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Title: australasia 2292
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces AUL, THA
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2292