2750 KOR Don Bosco's Casket
austraLasia #2750
"Thanks with all our heart, Don Bosco, you
have finally come
to Korea"!
Seoul: 1 November 2010 -- "Welcome to Korea, Don
Bosco, father
for poor boys. Welcome and thank you for being amongst us.
Meet our
boys, encourage them and give those who follow you your
passion for the
salvation of youth!" .This was the prayer of the provincial,
Fr Stefano
Nam, during the celebration of the opening ceremony for the
pilgrimage
of Don Bosco’s casket in Seoul, Korea.
On November 1st, the Solemnity of All Saints, in the chapel
which is on
the seventh floor of the Provincial House in Seoul the
pilgrimage in
Korea officially began, with about three hundred
participants, members
of the Salesian Family and Friends of
Don
Bosco. The casket will visit communities of SDB, of FMA and
CSJ
(Caritas Sisters of Jesus) in Seoul and Kwangju until
November 17
before leaving for Thailand.
After finishing its pilgrimage through
the Americas the casket
temporarily returned to Italy, and had to make a long
journey to Korea
to begin the East Asia-Oceania segment of the worldwide
pilgrimage. In
an interesting way, the famous 'dream' became a reality. Or
is it a new
dream? On October 24, from Brescia to Milan where he took
the flight to
Asia that made a stopover in Rome Don Bosco traced a route
across
Moscow, Siberia, Mongolia and above the city of Beijing,
which Don
Bosco dreamed of in 1885 in Barcelona, a prophetic dream,
the
fulfillment of his mission to the young that extends across
the world,
from Valparaiso to Beijing. and from there he arrived in
Seoul.
"I am very pleased to know that Don
Bosco's casket has arrived safe
and sound in Seoul. The Rector Major, Fr Pascual
Chávez, sent this
message to the confreres to encourage them and make them
know that he
is very close to them during the pilgrimage of casket in
Korea.
The celebration began with a band of
traditional instruments made
and played by students of Don Bosco Youth Centre, then Fr
Marcello Baek
was presented with the keys of the House, a symbolic gesture
of what
Don Bosco would have done had he appointed him as Rector,
and a gesture
that gave a true sense of arrival of the Founder. Then
people moved to
the chapel for the welcoming liturgy.
As an event, the pilgrimage of a
saint is not common in oriental
culture. The media, especially those of the Church, took
great interest
and interviewed provincial on the meaning of pilgrimage and
on Don
Bosco himself. Fr Nam told them: "Finally, Don Bosco has
arrived in
East Asia which he had dreamed of 125 years ago. I think
it's very
significant because the city Seoul, where Don Bosco is
hosted now, is
close to Beijing, the city of his dream, in the long journey
of the
whole pilgrimage which commemorates of the 200th anniversary
of his
birth. We pray, in front of the casket, that his dream will
indeed be
realised, even if in this time he has no opportunity to
visit that
particular city. May he also encourage us with missionary
zeal in our
province."
