Posted December 12, 2007
El Salvador – Recognition for the work of “Padre Pepe”
(San Salvador) – On November 29, 2007, the Salesian priest Fr. José María Moratalla, S.D.B. received an official mark of recognition for his outstanding work in all-round education for young people at risk from the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador.
The members of all the different political partiesl congratulated Fr. Moratalla, known as “Padre Pepe”, for his work with young people, especially at the Polígono Industrial Don Bosco, a complex of small business enterprises in one of the more notorious areas of the city. For 20 years the center has provided a new way of life for youngsters, boys and girls caught up in the gang culture. Thanks to Fr. Pepe, what was once a rubbish dump has now been transformed into a school for the local children, a clinic and sports grounds next to the Polígono.
This mark of recognition, is the latest of many others received from a variety of international organizations, honors the commitment and dedication of Fr. Moratalla, who arrived from Spain in the 1970s to this fertile mission land.
In addition to the Polígono Industrial Don Bosco, Padre Pepe runs other centers to assist those in need in El Salvador.
RMG – Voluntary Service and the Salesian Mission
(Rome) There has been a wonderful growth in the number of young people choosing to volunteer to work in various mission works. With this growth, the need for guidelines to clearly outline the parameters of the roles and responsibilities of the volunteers and the Salesian Works has become evident. About 50 people took part in the final of the regional gatherings organized by the Youth Ministry and Missions Departments in recent months in various continents.
At the heart of the days, as in the other meetings, was the draft of the document Voluntary Service and the Salesian Mission, produced by the two Departments. The meeting was chaired by Fr. Francis Alencherry, Councillor for the Missions and Coordinator of the Africa Region, and Fr. Dominic Sequeira from the Youth Ministry Department.
The meeting examined the experiences of the various Provinces with Voluntary Service and sought to establish guidelines for more effective collaboration with Volunteers in Provinces and in individual local communities.
A final document, Voluntary Service and the Salesian Mission, will now be prepared from the proposals made at each of the regional meetings and will be presented to the General Council for final approval.
Thailand - Salesian Games 2007
(Banpong) - The `Salesian Games 2007`, brought together some 3,700 Salesians, staff and students from all Salesian schools in Thailand at Sarasit Pithayalai (Bampong), November 27-30, 2007.
The Thai Province holds a major event for all its schools each year, varying the focus on a three year cycle: Academic Contests, Scouts, Games. Salesian Games 2007 was the sixth such set of Games.
The Salesian Games are organised in such a way that the youngsters can participate in either sports or music, reminiscent of Don Bosco’s custom of taking youngsters on long walks through the countryside and had them enjoy sports and entertaining each other with music. In the modern Thai version of Don Bosco’s walks the youngsters journey to different parts of the country to compete against other schools in games such as football, basketball, badminton, tennis, golf, table tennis, swimming. The evenings are full of dramatic and musical performances from the schools.
The Provincial, Fr. Dheparat Pitisant, opened the Games on November 27th and expressed his desire that not only schools but all centers of the Province in Thailand, Cambodia and now Laos would be able to participate in future events of the kind.
On November 28th, separate from the sports contests of the day, there was a concert in honor of King Rama IX to mark his 80th birthday (December 5th). In this concert, 200 members of school bands from different school joined together as a combined orchestra for a wonderful concert.
Spain – Don Bosco “Parliamentary Group”
( Madrid) – A plenary session on Children organized by the Spanish Council for Youth was held on Nov. 19, 2007 at the Congess of Deputies in Madrid. The event was held to mark the United Nations’ observance of Universal Children’s Day
The Salesians participated in the celebration through the Confederation of Don Bosco Youth Centers, represented by boys and girls from the Citycentro Youth Center, a unit of the Valdoco Federation. During this special parliamentary session, the young people making up the Don Bosco Parliamentary Group, put several questions about the right to education to the members of parliament.
Mr. Jesús Corujo, President of the Don Bosco Confederation accompanied the young people as did young people and staff from the Salesian Boys Town in the Vallecas district of Madrid.
Slovakia – Being faithful to the young through the media
(Bratislava) – Recently, the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Slovakia and the Czech Republic began collaborating in media education in the areas of religious formation and pastoral work.
A special team of three Salesians and two Sisters are carrying out a study of the main documents of the two Congregations in order to draw up joint plans and courses for media training. The retreat house in Plavecky Mikulas, a small village in the Malé Karpaty Slovak mountains, was the setting for the third meeting of the small group November 7-9, 2007. In their reflection and preparation of two training projects they started from the letter of the Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chávez, on Social Communication of June 24, 2005 entitled "With the courage of Don Bosco on the new frontiers of Social Communication" (AGC 390).
The team members who will meet again in January to consider other documents of the two Congregations on Social Communication are convinced that "media education and training is necessary in order to be faithful to the young."
India - The crises and challenges of Asia's youth
(Mumbai) – Fr. Vattathara Thomas, Executive Director of Don Bosco Institute in Guwahati, in an interview given to Nirmala Carvalho, and published in Asianews, the PIME Agency, analyses the continent's main issues regarding young people and speaks of the need for the Church to act rapidly to help the young find meaning in their lives.
Fr. Vattathara, had just returned from a meeting of the Bishops' Institute for Lay Apostolate" (BILA), organized by FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops' Conference), Youth Desk held Nov. 10-14, 2007 at Johor Bahru, Malaysia and puts attention to young people and their education as the priority of the Asian Church.
Young people are the hope of Asia as she goes through the effects of globalization. "Only a few of them, the better educated can enjoy a globalized world. Therefore the first objective is to ensure a good education." "We have witnessed that the invasive and manipulatory powers of the media on impressionable minds can twist the family and societal values of the youth and make them lopsided. Prestige, power, possessions are the values aggressively promoted by the media. The traditional idea of the family is in danger." – Fr. Vattathara continued. "The value-system needs to be reinforced Unfortunately in today's Global Village, it makes the youth feel obsolete and outdated to even have a different mind-set, because they stand alone and against the popular tide."
Referring to his thirty years of experience as an educator in north east India, the Salesian pointed to two problems for young people: unemployment and being semiliterate. "The young need something to give them hope for a better future."
Philippines - Symposium on lay and religious missionary formation
(Manila) - In commemoration of the first Salesian expedition to Patagonia, led by then Fr. John Cagliero (November 11, 1875), the Salesian Mission Animation (SMA) of the Philippines North Province held its 3rd missionary symposium on Nov. 10, 2007. The theme was: Preparing a Missionary Volunteer. The Salesian Missionary Animation Ministry, directed by Fr. Salvador Pablo, SDB, renewed the call to invite religious and lay volunteers to join in fostering an awareness of mission and the volunteer movement. It was a fitting tribute to Don Bosco's dream of sending Salesians throughout the world first realized 132 years ago.
The SMA office has been contributing to missionary awareness through a monthly e-newsletter, Auxiliaries of the Mission. It has also generated text messages in a `text brigade` sent weekly to friends, those who pray for the missions, and to Salesians, as a show of support and appreciation to Salesian and volunteer missionaries in the field.
The missionary symposium was a one day event held at Roozen Hall, Makati (St. John Bosco Parish). The event was opened by Fr. Danny Torres, Vice Provincial, followed by a keynote address by Sr. Mary Evelyn from the Society of St Paul. She spoke of the need for innate power, driving power and staying power, for missionaries. Fr. Gary Carbon, a Filipino missionary in Taiwan, spoke of the missionary experience in that context and concluded with a presentation on Salesian Missionary Saints Versiglia and Caravario, Salesian proto martyrs.
The symposium also launched an experimental Salesian Formation Kit Handbook to help prepare volunteers and Salesian Religious as missionaries. The kit and handbook will be made available for Mission clubs in schools and for older young people already in the work force, perhaps with professional qualifications, who are considering the possibility of mission work at home or abroad.
Chile – The verdict against the killers of a Salesian confirmed
(Santiago) – Thirty four years after the assassination of Fr. Gerardo Poblete, a Chilean Salesian priest, the legal process has ended with a guilty verdict against three former policemen responsible for the death of the Salesian. Judge Joaquín Billard, of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Santiago, handed down the judgement.
On November 5, 2007, the magistrate sentenced Blas Barraza Quintero and Froilán Mondaca Saez to 10 years and a day declaring them responsible for the death of the priest. Enzo Meniconi Lorca, on the other hand was sentenced to three years and a day imprisonment for not revealing the incident. Meniconi Lorca was given a suspended sentence; while the other two must complete the whole sentence.
The enquiry confirmed that on Sunday, October 21, 1973 the three, without any warrant or motive, arrested Fr. Gerardo with the seminary student Ricardo Salgado Torres at the Don Bosco Institute in Iquique. In the course of the interrogation that followed the three policemen struck Fr. Poblete with blunt instruments breaking his breastbone and some ribs and causing internal haemorrhaging which led to his death. If he had received medical treatment, he might have lived.
In the dossier put together by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, the police had reported that the priest's injuries were the result of an accidental fall from a truck, and Fr. Gerardo was then found dead in his cell. The same document also gave various reports that questioned this version of events and claimed that the death of Fr. Gerardo took place in the police station. The Salesian had been arrested following a false accusation that he was a spy. According to the witnesses, while being tortured Fr. Gerardo shouted "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
When the verdict was announced the Chilean Salesian Province issued a public statement which referred to the "long years of sorrow and consternation" for all the time that had passed without any clarification for the loss of a confrere who had been "at the service of youth and of the Church," and mourned by his family.
The same statement expressed the hope "that the next stages will be shorter than the previous ones so as to be able to close the case for good and bring a little comfort to our hearts and those of his family." Since none of the accused appealed against the verdict within the time established by law, the case was definitively closed and the verdicts confirmed.
When he was killed Fr. Poblete was 31 years old and had been a priest for 2 years.
Albania - All different, all equal
(Tirana) – In an event intended to coincide with Universal Childrens' Day promoted by UNICEF, the International Voluntary Service for Development (VIS) in Albania is organizing two important events at the Don Bosco Social Center in Tirana.
At the closing of the project: All different, all equal: promoting the human rights of Rom and Gypsy children at basic level in Albania, a presentation of the results of their research will be made entitled Children’s Rights Starting for New Horizons. A Documentation Center for Human Rights will be inaugurated in the Don Bosco Sixth Form Center in collaboration with Italian Cooperation. This work is financed by the European Commission as part of "European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
A Local Delegation of the European Commission, representatives of local institutions and of various non-governmental organisations, both Rom and Gypsy, and other international and local groups who are working in the same area will participate in the ceremonies.
This is the second project on childrens' rights in Albania that VIS has carried out with the European Commission. Each of the projects has produced publications that it is hoped will be useful for teachers, educators and children in educating about human rights, in particular the rights of children.
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