MIYAZAKI: 1st November '04 --  Strange, but true it would seem.  Fr Ziggiotti was reputed to have visited every House in the Congregation, but....Miyazaki missed out.  The gap has now been filled, with the two day visit of Fr Pascual Chávez.  Miyazaki is important to Salesian Japan and to the entire Congregation - the Mother House of the Salesians in Japan, who came there with Fr Vincent Cimatti in 1926, and the Mother House of the second largest female Congregation in the Salesian Family, the Caritas Sisters of Miyazaki (CSM) with 1100 members.

    [More on the RM's visits to CSMs under separate cover].

    The Hyuga Gakuin Salesian Community has 7 members, and the Rector Major developed some ideas with these that have not appeared in earlier despatches.  He began by reminding them that as RM his first duty is to the confreres rather than the structures.  Well-motivated good confreres will ensure the structures and their animation!

    There, 'in a small city of 300,000 the Salesians can have much greater impact', he told the confreres.  The challenge is to guarantee the witness of consecrated Salesians.  Japanese society has guaranteed its citizens many things; it is so rich in human resources, but the high rate of suicide suggests it has not guaranteed the young (or the old) meaning in life.

    Globalisation has produced its own effects too, in Japan, which imports so many other resources.  The byproducts are at least three:

    1.  Weak, transient and short-sighted reflection on the part of the young, who do not have life projects to guide them. 'Did you watch the move Dead Poets Society?  You will have noted the epicurean motto of Carpe Diem, seize the present moment. Ultimately this on its own does not enable the person to face life's challenges.'

    2.  Fragmented life, the 'philosophy of collage'.  'Our C. 21 is a response to that.  Don Bosco's greatness lay here - all his natural and supernatural capacities geared to a unique life project.  He had a dream and a mission.  Think of the Dreamer Don Bosco and think of the rugged-faced, short-statured Mother Theresa of Calcutta.  Where did these two saints get their energy?  From the grace of unity; they were able to pool their energies for a single project.'

    3.  Ethical relativism: 'good is what I like and bad is what I don't.  Such an attitude breaks down families.  Divorce is a high statistic in Japan.  Imagine, then, what a gift for society and local youth in Miyazaki is a Salesian school!'

    Today's Salesian response is via the kind of integration that an EPC (Educative and Pastoral Community) brings and the kind of development brought about by an SEPP (Salesian Educative and Pastoral Project).  The former produces real identification with the institution and the educators' vocation.  The latter helps us clarify the educational values to impart.