austraLasia #778
FREEMASONS AND CATHOLIC KNIGHTS BURY THE HATCHET
All because of the Salesians in East Timor and Australia
MELBOURNE: 23rd December '03 -- It's a remarkable story, actually. Two groups bitterly opposed on religious grounds in the Australian State of Victoria (and almost everywhere else in the world) have worked together for a year for the Salesians in East Timor and have now publically shown a mark of respect for one another before the entire State. In the meantime, the Freemasons and the Knights of the Southern Cross have involved a quarter of a million Victorians in collecting and shipping over 3 million tools to East Timor in a programme that galvanised the entire State and has earned the undying gratitude not only of East Timor's Salesians but also of President Xanana Gusmao who was on hand to welcome the arriving shipment at the Salesian Centre in Comoro, Dili.
Behind it all has been the Australian Salesian Missions Office and (if one is to go by his absence in the photos sent to 'austraLasia' and to ANS) its unassuming Salesian director, Bro. Michael Lynch. Bro. Lynch has worked assiduously to ensure that these two powerful groups, representing so many of Victoria's business and social service personnel, understood a practical need - hand tools and garden implements to help rebuild East Timor's shattered economy but, in the first place, to help ordinary people get back on their feet. Once he had 'sold' the idea, the Grand Master and the Knight's Chairman made it work. And just a week or so ago, the KSC Chairman became arguably the first person in such a role anywhere in the world to address and thank a gathering of 2000 Masons on their own 'pad', the famed Dallas Brooks Hall in Melbourne.
At another gathering of Knights and Masons at the Hall a week later, President Gusmao's wife Kirsty, Sword Gusmao was guest of honour at a function to thank Victorians for the 3.6 million tools.
Readers of 'austraLasia' should keep an eye on the Salesian Website and ANSphoto over the coming month to see various photos of delighted young people of East Timor, and their Salesian mentors, trying out the new tools.
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