austraLasia #2715
Work and temperance - and 74 years a missionary in Japan
BEPPU: 15 September 2010 -- Move over, Vincent Cimatti, and make a little room for your faithful companion Francis Drohan, and perhaps there's a little work still to be done in paradise?
Let's hear from Fr Cipriani, Provincial in Japan as he returns from the funeral rites of this faithful missionary, 71 years in Japan.
"Yesterday we bade good bye to Fr Drohan. The church in Beppu was filled with Salesians, Salesian Sisters, Caritas sisters, Cooperators and friends.
He had been hospitalized in May in Miyazaki and though he had brief moments of getting better, he never recovered completely. At the end of August, (he could not stay any longer in the hospital since the 3 month period had passed, he was sent to the Home for the elderly in Beppu ( some 200km from Miyazaki). The house at Miyazaki installed an elevator, to have him back.
He was happy to be together again with the confreres, but day by day his health got weaker and weaker. He no longer could take food. It was on Sunday morning, 12 September, at 9:35 that he left for paradise. He was 91.
The confreres of the house had just finished Sunday mass in the chapel just in front of his room. I received the news just minutes before starting the First Mass of the newly ordained priest. Fr Kitagawa, in Chofu. I was able to let the confreres know the sad news and have a memento in the mass.
Fr Drohan arrived in Japan in November 1936 at the age of 17. He had made his first profession in the same year in the novitiate at Oxford. At first he was at the studentate in Tokyo where he studied and at the same time helped in the nearby technical school ( printing, tailaoring etc ). At his renewal of vows in 1939, underneath his letter of request, the Rector had written: ‘Si e’ comportato bene: Ama il lavoro’. I think this is a note that describes best the life of Fr Francis: He was a hard ‘worker’: as a priest, a teacher, a translator, a linguist and a skilled carpenter.
In 1941, months before the start of the war, he was sent to Australia to study theology. He had to remain there until after the war. He was ordained in Melbourne in 1946. (He returned to Australia many years later for a brief spell, teaching in Adelaide, amongst other things).
He returned to Japan in 1953 and was assigned to the school at Miyazaki. He worked hard. Unfortunately his health deteriorated. He contracted TB and had to spend some years in hospital; during his convalescence he acted as chaplain to the FMA in Yamanaka, a place very near Mt Fuji. He was back in Ireland for 2-3 years and again in Japan in Meguro Salesian junior High School. After two years there he went to Osaka where he spent a further five years, giving a very great impulse to the study of English ( it was a time when the Japanese were very eager to learn English). He started the Language Laboratory: one of the first in the Salesian schools, reaping great successes. Everyone recognized his high professionalism and at the same time his closeness with the other teachers and the students. He was very demanding but never harsh. He knew how to wait for the right time for the individual student.Then, after five years in Australia, in 1976 he spent a little time at the Catacombs of St Callisutus in Rome, and after a brief stay in Ireland returned to Japan in November 1980, first in Osaka, until the retirement year for school, 65 and then to Miyazaki where he spent the last twenty six year. 'L’anima silenziosa della casa' (the silent soul of the community). He was the first into the chapel in the morning, served the communities of the Caritas Sisters as a chaplain for Mass, benediction , confessions. He was confessor both for the confreres of the house and for all priests and religious of the area.
Work and temperance marked him out. He kept always doing things. One of his most rewarding work were the many translations he did. He translated the most important documents of the Caritas sisters from Japanese/Italian into English. They are a treasure for the future of the Sisters since English is ever more used as a common language. He also translated many articles and books from English/Italian/French into Japanese for the Salesians and the Salesian family, the main ones being Petite vie de Don Bosco, Robert Schiele’; 'A metà con don Bosco' the life of Fr Rua by Guido Favini and the Lives of Salesian Family Saints. This last has been published in a 10 booklet series.
We are very grateful to the Irish Province and the Congregation for having sent us a so great missionary. Thank you Fr Drohan. Pray for us all from Paradise".
_________________
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 2010 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
Work and temperance - and 74 years a missionary in Japan
BEPPU: 15 September 2010 -- Move over, Vincent Cimatti, and make a little room for your faithful companion Francis Drohan, and perhaps there's a little work still to be done in paradise?
Let's hear from Fr Cipriani, Provincial in Japan as he returns from the funeral rites of this faithful missionary, 71 years in Japan.
"Yesterday we bade good bye to Fr Drohan. The church in Beppu was filled with Salesians, Salesian Sisters, Caritas sisters, Cooperators and friends.
He had been hospitalized in May in Miyazaki and though he had brief moments of getting better, he never recovered completely. At the end of August, (he could not stay any longer in the hospital since the 3 month period had passed, he was sent to the Home for the elderly in Beppu ( some 200km from Miyazaki). The house at Miyazaki installed an elevator, to have him back.
He was happy to be together again with the confreres, but day by day his health got weaker and weaker. He no longer could take food. It was on Sunday morning, 12 September, at 9:35 that he left for paradise. He was 91.
The confreres of the house had just finished Sunday mass in the chapel just in front of his room. I received the news just minutes before starting the First Mass of the newly ordained priest. Fr Kitagawa, in Chofu. I was able to let the confreres know the sad news and have a memento in the mass.
Fr Drohan arrived in Japan in November 1936 at the age of 17. He had made his first profession in the same year in the novitiate at Oxford. At first he was at the studentate in Tokyo where he studied and at the same time helped in the nearby technical school ( printing, tailaoring etc ). At his renewal of vows in 1939, underneath his letter of request, the Rector had written: ‘Si e’ comportato bene: Ama il lavoro’. I think this is a note that describes best the life of Fr Francis: He was a hard ‘worker’: as a priest, a teacher, a translator, a linguist and a skilled carpenter.
In 1941, months before the start of the war, he was sent to Australia to study theology. He had to remain there until after the war. He was ordained in Melbourne in 1946. (He returned to Australia many years later for a brief spell, teaching in Adelaide, amongst other things).
He returned to Japan in 1953 and was assigned to the school at Miyazaki. He worked hard. Unfortunately his health deteriorated. He contracted TB and had to spend some years in hospital; during his convalescence he acted as chaplain to the FMA in Yamanaka, a place very near Mt Fuji. He was back in Ireland for 2-3 years and again in Japan in Meguro Salesian junior High School. After two years there he went to Osaka where he spent a further five years, giving a very great impulse to the study of English ( it was a time when the Japanese were very eager to learn English). He started the Language Laboratory: one of the first in the Salesian schools, reaping great successes. Everyone recognized his high professionalism and at the same time his closeness with the other teachers and the students. He was very demanding but never harsh. He knew how to wait for the right time for the individual student.Then, after five years in Australia, in 1976 he spent a little time at the Catacombs of St Callisutus in Rome, and after a brief stay in Ireland returned to Japan in November 1980, first in Osaka, until the retirement year for school, 65 and then to Miyazaki where he spent the last twenty six year. 'L’anima silenziosa della casa' (the silent soul of the community). He was the first into the chapel in the morning, served the communities of the Caritas Sisters as a chaplain for Mass, benediction , confessions. He was confessor both for the confreres of the house and for all priests and religious of the area.
Work and temperance marked him out. He kept always doing things. One of his most rewarding work were the many translations he did. He translated the most important documents of the Caritas sisters from Japanese/Italian into English. They are a treasure for the future of the Sisters since English is ever more used as a common language. He also translated many articles and books from English/Italian/French into Japanese for the Salesians and the Salesian family, the main ones being Petite vie de Don Bosco, Robert Schiele’; 'A metà con don Bosco' the life of Fr Rua by Guido Favini and the Lives of Salesian Family Saints. This last has been published in a 10 booklet series.
We are very grateful to the Irish Province and the Congregation for having sent us a so great missionary. Thank you Fr Drohan. Pray for us all from Paradise".
_________________
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 2010 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
