austraLasia #2722
EAO part of the Missions department's effort in drawing up its framework
ROME: 29 September 2010: They have come in from all over the globe, including missionaries of fifty plus years of experience along the Amazon and its tributaries from Ecuador to Venezuela to Brazil..... from the deserts of the Middle East, the sub-continent and from the Pacific in all its EAO extension! The Missions Department, following in the footsteps of Youth Ministry and Social Communications (and involving them closely) is drawing up its Framework of Reference during these final days of September.
There are two representatives from Oceania (including one from the SC Department), two from Asia proper. The group is being directed, other than by Fr Klement as Missions Councillor, by Fr Alfred Maravilla, long-time missionary in Papua New Guinea and now assigned to the Missions Department especially to assist in the preparatory courses now being run annually for new missionaries - and long-standing ones. The Salesian Sisters and the Cooperators (from a group actively involved in mission and development in Spain) are also represented.
All in all, then, the breadth of experience and the degree of enthusiasm in the group bodes well for the framework which will still take a year or more of hammering in the anvil of day-to-day practice, to emerge. Despite the inevitable deluge of doctrinal reflection, essential in an area that is at the heart of the Church's activity and re-thinking in today's world, the very depth of this reflection, coming as it is from skilled practitioners like Fr José Bortoli from Isla de Ratón, or Mouse Island for the rest of us, on the Orinoco (who claim wryly that he's probably still alive because of FARC, not despite them!), who did most of his reflections while on his interminable boat trips down the River.
In the discussion just about everything is 'up for grabs', meaning that nothing, other than a few immutable verities of the faith, of course, is set in concrete, not even the hallowed name of the Department, whose title 'Mission/s' often leads to not a little confusion.
And there are revelations too. Fr Pozzo, who left Italy in the 50s for the Middle East, and has taught Arabic to the Arabs, has been one of the most tireless workers on draft versions of the 'Framework', bringing his enormous, common-sense but deeply reflective experience to the task. He couldn't quite get his head around 'inter gentes'. 'Ad gentes' is one thing but where did this other thing come from! And how does it fit into the ups and downs of what goes for Christian-Muslim dialogue these days! From the combined wisdom of the FABC in Asia, Fr Alfred pointed out with a smile, tracking the term back to its inception as the bishops wrestled with "being with the people, responding to their needs, with sensitiveness to the presence of God in cultures and other religious traditions, and witnessing to the values of God's kingdom through presence, solidarity, sharing and word". (FABC 5th Plenary Session 2001). Inb fact something of this idea had been echoed already in the discussions before Fr Pozzo raised it. A bearded Patagonian missionary was already claiming that indeed we have to be 'evangelized' by local cultures too - it's a two-way process if we really listen to what the Church says. And the Church does say it. Just read Aetatis Novae on evangelizing communication today!
So there has been plenty of opportunity for Communications to offer a point of view, help with terminology, and be enthused in turn by the wisdom of missionary elders!
The work continues, two more days of it.
Spare a prayer, too for the new missionaries, many of them from our region, who are heading out to Recife or God knows where, trying to negotiate the world's airports with little knowledge, at this stage, of any language that might help them while airlines change departure gates at whim, and with little real idea of what might await them on arrival, other than a warm and long-expected welcome!
_________________
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
EAO part of the Missions department's effort in drawing up its framework
ROME: 29 September 2010: They have come in from all over the globe, including missionaries of fifty plus years of experience along the Amazon and its tributaries from Ecuador to Venezuela to Brazil..... from the deserts of the Middle East, the sub-continent and from the Pacific in all its EAO extension! The Missions Department, following in the footsteps of Youth Ministry and Social Communications (and involving them closely) is drawing up its Framework of Reference during these final days of September.
There are two representatives from Oceania (including one from the SC Department), two from Asia proper. The group is being directed, other than by Fr Klement as Missions Councillor, by Fr Alfred Maravilla, long-time missionary in Papua New Guinea and now assigned to the Missions Department especially to assist in the preparatory courses now being run annually for new missionaries - and long-standing ones. The Salesian Sisters and the Cooperators (from a group actively involved in mission and development in Spain) are also represented.
All in all, then, the breadth of experience and the degree of enthusiasm in the group bodes well for the framework which will still take a year or more of hammering in the anvil of day-to-day practice, to emerge. Despite the inevitable deluge of doctrinal reflection, essential in an area that is at the heart of the Church's activity and re-thinking in today's world, the very depth of this reflection, coming as it is from skilled practitioners like Fr José Bortoli from Isla de Ratón, or Mouse Island for the rest of us, on the Orinoco (who claim wryly that he's probably still alive because of FARC, not despite them!), who did most of his reflections while on his interminable boat trips down the River.
In the discussion just about everything is 'up for grabs', meaning that nothing, other than a few immutable verities of the faith, of course, is set in concrete, not even the hallowed name of the Department, whose title 'Mission/s' often leads to not a little confusion.
And there are revelations too. Fr Pozzo, who left Italy in the 50s for the Middle East, and has taught Arabic to the Arabs, has been one of the most tireless workers on draft versions of the 'Framework', bringing his enormous, common-sense but deeply reflective experience to the task. He couldn't quite get his head around 'inter gentes'. 'Ad gentes' is one thing but where did this other thing come from! And how does it fit into the ups and downs of what goes for Christian-Muslim dialogue these days! From the combined wisdom of the FABC in Asia, Fr Alfred pointed out with a smile, tracking the term back to its inception as the bishops wrestled with "being with the people, responding to their needs, with sensitiveness to the presence of God in cultures and other religious traditions, and witnessing to the values of God's kingdom through presence, solidarity, sharing and word". (FABC 5th Plenary Session 2001). Inb fact something of this idea had been echoed already in the discussions before Fr Pozzo raised it. A bearded Patagonian missionary was already claiming that indeed we have to be 'evangelized' by local cultures too - it's a two-way process if we really listen to what the Church says. And the Church does say it. Just read Aetatis Novae on evangelizing communication today!
So there has been plenty of opportunity for Communications to offer a point of view, help with terminology, and be enthused in turn by the wisdom of missionary elders!
The work continues, two more days of it.
Spare a prayer, too for the new missionaries, many of them from our region, who are heading out to Recife or God knows where, trying to negotiate the world's airports with little knowledge, at this stage, of any language that might help them while airlines change departure gates at whim, and with little real idea of what might await them on arrival, other than a warm and long-expected welcome!
_________________
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
