austraLasia #1761
Australian-Pacific province: more than a
subtle shift, a reality.
MELBOURNE: 14th February 2007 -- Writing to his confreres, in fact from the Thai
Province where he is currently preaching retreats, Fr Frank Moloney, the AUL
provincial, has asked confreres in his province to refer, from now on to the
'Australian-Pacific' province rather than the 'Australian' province, suggesting
that 'it is always good to reflect in your title what you really are!'.
The Salesian presence in this province, geographically, numerically, and for
its multi-cultural outreach in ministry is far far more than
'Australian'. In fact in some 80 years of Salesian presence in the
Pacific, and on the Australian continent in particular, it is possibly true to
say that a confrere has rarely if ever found himself in a community of just one
culture - certainly this writer has never been in such a community in 40 or
more years of Salesian life, and that is discounting the last three in an
obviously multicultural setting.
The Australian-Pacific province has responsibility for three
Pacific nations - Australia, Samoa, Fiji, and at any one time there are likely
to be Salesians of this province at work in nearby Pacific nations (e.g. PNG
where there is currently one in Practical Training) or whose responsibilities
have them regularly travelling within the region (retreats, Mission and
Development Office). The Rectors in both Samoa and Fiji are Pacific
islanders. The novice master in Fiji is a Pacific islander - with four
novices from Samoa. Recently Bro. Paselio Tevaga (Samoa) made his final
profession in Fiji into the hands of the Vice provincial Fr John Papworth,
becoming yet another fine product of a long line of outstanding young men to
join the Salesians from the South Pacific zone in particular. There are
constant requests from Bishops elsewhere in the Pacific for Salesian presence.
The provincial made his comment in the context of a
recognition, strengthened at the recent meeting of EAO provincials and
provincial economers in Melbourne, that the Australian-Pacific province has
begun to enthusiastically and creatively embrace its participation in the EAO
region. For many years AUL was aligned with the then anglophone region,
and similar shifts of major cultural proportions have been made by other
erstwhile members of that region - USA, UK, Ireland, South Africa, to name
some.
The province has recently opened a new and major
multicultural venture in the inner Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, already a
Salesian Parish which has welcomed Anglo.Irish, Italians, Lebanese, Samoans
into its midst - and now in a special way Vietnamese. Fr Them, the VIE
provincial, recently concelebrated a Mass welcoming the beginning of a regular
Vietnamese Mass under the new parish priest of North Brunswick, Salesian Fr
Anthony Quang. Fr Quang has set up a large Vietnamese Centre in
Brunswick, an educational centre with English, Maths and Vietnamese classes all
well-attended. He is assisted in this venture by other Salesians and a
Salesian Sister. It is a work of the Australian-Pacific province. The
nearby Parishes of Clifton Hill and Collingwood, both relatively inner-city and
multicultural in their own right, have recently been handed over to the
Salesians by the Archbishop, thus clearly marking what has been an already long
and faithful service, especially with Italian and Chinese immigrants, to those
who were once quaintly called 'new Australians'. Clifton Hill, a post
novitiate formation centre, also currently hosts young Salesians from Thailand
and Vietnam.
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