austraLasia #1801

Conclusion of Extraordinary Visitation series for 2002-08 EAO

CEBU CITY: 4th April 2007 -- Just in time for the Holy Week events, Fr Klement, Regional Councillor for East Asia Oceania, has brought the final Extraordinary Visitation of Philippines South Province to a successful conclusion, thus completing the programmed series of visitations made on behalf of the Rector Major for the six year period 2002-08.  Shortly Fr. Klement moves on to a brief animation visit on the Indochina peninsula and will meet the Rector Major in Vietnam after Easter, where he too is completing the last several visits of the six year period - but this time to all the provinces of the Salesian world!  It has been a relentless schedule, especially in the past year.
    The FIS Extraordinary Visitation concluded yesterday 3rd April with the final meeting of the Provincial Council.  The Province finds itself in a situation not unknown to many other provinces throughout the world - increasing demands for Salesian presence (and an obvious appreciation of the value of that presence in education, formation of the laity, parishes....) yet an inadequate stream of vocations to meet those demands, yet Fr Klement has found a youthful and vital province and one ready to face the challenges.  The two presences in Pakistan remain to be visited - he will manage to get there some time in May or June.  Entry into Pakistan (visa requirements) takes time and cannot be hurried, as the Missions Councillor recently discovered.  Government red tape works on its own schedules rather than the busy schedules of those who must be in various parts of the world in quick succession.
    One of the features of Salesian development in the Southern Philippines Province over the past six years has been the 'missionary' slant, both internal to the Philippines and in Pakistan.  Whereas most of the works were once centred on Cebu itself, there has been an increasing move towards presence and activity in Mindanao and Negors islands, and of course in Pakistan - with a trickle of new vocations coming from this outreach.
    Fr Klement concluded his comments on the visitation with a thought that had arisen and was reported earlier in these pages, from the pre-chapter meeting in FIS: the notion of radicality.  The insistent call for meaningfulness of Salesian presence comes to fruition when individuals themselves are meaningul. Mission gains its significance when individuals re-capture the original meaning of Salesian life - Da mihi animas!
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