austraLasia #2658
Fans and faithful alike: "...to listen, enlighten, guide"
JOHANNESBURG: 10 June 2010 -- Most readers will have little difficulty identifying part of the headline source, GC26, and for Salesian communications enthusiasts, the most-quoted line in that Chapter other than maybe 'Da mihi animas'! It speaks of "The 'playground' where we need to be...".
With World Cup fever running high, and not just in South Africa where it is being hosted, it may came as a pleasant surprise to hear the as yet untold story of deep Salesian involvement, an excellent example of GC26's exhortation.
A good starting point is the website that you have possibly already visited, "Church on the ball", (http://www.churchontheball.com/index.php for anyone for whom the inserted link is not working), a site promoted by the South African Bishops Conference. Now here's a little useful background to that.
Some twenty months ago, the Bishops Conference approached the Salesians in the country asking them to take charge of the pastoral outreach for the World Cup. That was some demand, and not an easy one to meet with limited resources, but it was enthusiastically taken up by Fr Francois Dufour, Superior of the Southern Africa vice province (note the distinction - the vice province takes in more than the Republic of South Africa, including independent Swaziland and Lesotho as well, both of which have Salesian presences).
With a small committee led by Fr Dufour, preparations got under way for the Church to be in action "in the most cost-effective way at the coal face" as Fr Dufour puts it, adding wryly that he wasn't exactly provided with a budget at the time!
The first decision of the Committee was to ask the Bishops to declare a World Cup Sunday, which was duly proclaimed, and they provided the liturgical ideas for every parish to celebrate it. It happens this coming Sunday, 13 June.
Then they edited a handy pocket prayer book which includes information about the Church, and is being distributed already to fans and faithful alike for free.
And the third key and concrete decision was that Fr Dufour agreed to assist the media-dedsk of the Bishops Conference to help set up the 'church on the ball' website indicated above.
Apart from that the various Salesian Houses and communities have organised football events and teams. Just yesterday there was a visit from Giovane Elber, the renowned Bayern Munich player, along with three film crews, one of which has an average audience of 13 million. That took place at the Salesian Education Project, Finetown, near Jo'burg.
austraLasia has already received a number of recommendations to go to the 'church on the ball' website. Now the 'recommenders' know where it really comes from!
SDB Southern Africa, it seems, has already kicked a goal and the game has hardly begun!
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
Fans and faithful alike: "...to listen, enlighten, guide"
JOHANNESBURG: 10 June 2010 -- Most readers will have little difficulty identifying part of the headline source, GC26, and for Salesian communications enthusiasts, the most-quoted line in that Chapter other than maybe 'Da mihi animas'! It speaks of "The 'playground' where we need to be...".
With World Cup fever running high, and not just in South Africa where it is being hosted, it may came as a pleasant surprise to hear the as yet untold story of deep Salesian involvement, an excellent example of GC26's exhortation.
A good starting point is the website that you have possibly already visited, "Church on the ball", (http://www.churchontheball.com/index.php for anyone for whom the inserted link is not working), a site promoted by the South African Bishops Conference. Now here's a little useful background to that.
Some twenty months ago, the Bishops Conference approached the Salesians in the country asking them to take charge of the pastoral outreach for the World Cup. That was some demand, and not an easy one to meet with limited resources, but it was enthusiastically taken up by Fr Francois Dufour, Superior of the Southern Africa vice province (note the distinction - the vice province takes in more than the Republic of South Africa, including independent Swaziland and Lesotho as well, both of which have Salesian presences).
With a small committee led by Fr Dufour, preparations got under way for the Church to be in action "in the most cost-effective way at the coal face" as Fr Dufour puts it, adding wryly that he wasn't exactly provided with a budget at the time!
The first decision of the Committee was to ask the Bishops to declare a World Cup Sunday, which was duly proclaimed, and they provided the liturgical ideas for every parish to celebrate it. It happens this coming Sunday, 13 June.
Then they edited a handy pocket prayer book which includes information about the Church, and is being distributed already to fans and faithful alike for free.
And the third key and concrete decision was that Fr Dufour agreed to assist the media-dedsk of the Bishops Conference to help set up the 'church on the ball' website indicated above.
Apart from that the various Salesian Houses and communities have organised football events and teams. Just yesterday there was a visit from Giovane Elber, the renowned Bayern Munich player, along with three film crews, one of which has an average audience of 13 million. That took place at the Salesian Education Project, Finetown, near Jo'burg.
austraLasia has already received a number of recommendations to go to the 'church on the ball' website. Now the 'recommenders' know where it really comes from!
SDB Southern Africa, it seems, has already kicked a goal and the game has hardly begun!
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
