austraLasia #1773

"An Australian...from Camerano D'Asti"

ROME: 27th February 2007 -- The regular series of Bolletino Salesiano (Italian edition) articles on a Salesian Brother of note has caught up with one such from the EAO Region - Brother Peter Dezani who, as the title line puts it, was born in Camerano in Piedmont in April 1925, and died in Hobart, Tasmania in November 2000.  The article appears in the March edition of the BS which has just hit the streets.
    Fr Giancarlo Manieri, the inimitable writer of these articles, and currently the editor of the BS, has cobbled together some of the facts and not a few of the stories about 'Bro. Peter', as thousands of Australian boys and girls knew him.  With a touch of artistic licence, Giancarlo has put together a two page spread on this outstanding figure of a Salesian and Brother - it did not leave much room for pics, but the several that appear certainly identify the man in his most characteristic moments and habits.  The subtitles pick up the elements that attracted the writer - Great gifts and a great heart, a mineful of initiatives, and a mine!  These last two play on the fact that Bro. Peter was a collector of minerals, but not just for fun: he would put them to good use by polishing them and making jewellery or larger objects.
    The story refers to a number of other very well-known characters in Australian Salesian history, all alive though 'getting on' and some not in good health at the moment - Bro Silvio Quaranta, Bro. Peter Swain, and Fr Dan O'Sullivan.
    Whatever else you say about it, the Italian Salesian Bulletin is the Original SB, Don Bosco's own, and to grab the middle pages as Bro Peter has done on this occasion, is an honour which he will be enjoying even, if not especially, in Paradise!  It is an honour one would like to accord to those still living, of course, but that would mean a different 'taglio' (editorial approach), and there is always a degree of certainty about the goodness of one like Bro Peter, who has handed in his chips to the Good Lord.
    If you don't get the BS in your community and still want to read the article, then you need go no further than the homepage of www.sdb.org and click on the Salesian Bulletin on the right.
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