Subject: 'austraLasia' #267
WHERE THE YEAR BEGAN AND ENDED
Julian Fox
The Pacific: 1st Jan 2000 -- The Australasia region, of all the Salesian
regions, has something distinctive about it - it is the place where the
century and millennium ended and began. More precisely, the Australian
Province embraced both. The Salesian presence in Fiji (opened just one year
ago on 1st Jan '99), situated as it is on the 180 degree meridian, saw the
beginning of the world's celebrations. The Salesian presence in Samoa, being
the last landfall before the international dateline, saw the final
celebration. On this day too, the Australian Province is under new
leadership in the person of Fr. Ian Murdoch.
