austraLasia #2949
Symposium on the late Fr John Trisolini SDB
SEOUL: 23 November 2011 -- On 22 November evening, a symposium was held in the provincial house in Seoul, organised by the Salesians, with presence of two bishops, many Salesian Cooperators, staff and lay people involved in the workers pastoral ministry, and a good number of Salesian Family and friends. The topic of the symposium was the ‘Life and Spirituality of the late Fr John Trisolini’ (on the first anniversary of his death).
"Fr John, during the fifty years of hard life in this land until the moment he was called home by The Father, dedicated himself totally to youth and migrant workers, following Don Bosco' example of bringing them the salvation that comes from Our Lord's sacrifice. As a member of the Episcopal Conference of Korea, I express my sincere thanks to the Salesian Congregation for sending us such an excellent, valuable confrere. And I would like to ask you to continue to form and send good Salesians for the universal mission of the Church, especially for the poor and marginalised." these were the words of Bishop Lazaro Yu, Daejeon diocese.
John (more commonly and familiarly known simply as 'Jack') Trisolini was born in 1937, in New Jersey USA, and in 1959 was sent to Korea as a missionary. He died last year after more than 50 years dedicated entirely to the poorest of the young, and especially young workers, and in recent years especially young migrant workers.
He was involved in the JOC (Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne) from the beginning of its organisation in Korea when it emerged as a strong workers' manifestation against a dictatorial government. JOC was 'militant' only in the sense that it fought for human dignity and basic rights for workers in the early 1970s. Jack, always in the full spirit of Church, and with Christian values foremost, helped the movement to focus more on the preservation of human dignity of the young workers, instead of fighting for ideological and fundamentalist principles, always a danger in social movements of this kind.
He was the Assistant for IYCW-Asia-Pacific ( the International Young Christian Workers Movement) from 1993-2010.
"We can define his life as entire dedication to poor and abandoned youth. He was always the first one to set out looking for the poor in society and felt distressed, at times, when our privileged interest in poor youth in the Salesian mission seemed to have been neglected. He visited the jail for young prisoners every Saturday to celebrate the Sacraments and to make friends with them. He established a youth centre with a dormitory for those who did not have a place to stay; hundreds of ex-prisoners spent their youthful days learning some job skills, like carpentry or ceramics, or studying school subjects with which they could then integrate into society”, explained Fr Michael Chang, the chief inspiration behind the symposium.
Especially in the last twenty years of his life, Fr Jack paid much attention to helping migrant workers in Korean society emerge as a new phenomenon from the '90s, by opening a counselling office for migrant workers in order to better integrate them into the Korean reality, and by building up nationally-based immigrant communities: Filipino, Vietnamese, Thai, Mongolian, Peruvian, Bangladeshi.... to help them address their own problems by themselves.
There was also an impressive testimony from a Salesian Cooperator, Anselmo Kim, who was a member of the team led by Jack. “As we know very well, he contracted infantile paralysis shortly after he arrived in Korea. It became a personal crusade for him, I heard this from him directly. He was selected as a representative amongst the theological students to go to the installation ceremony of Pope Paul IV, in 1963, during which he felt strongly that he would be healed if he made a pilgrim to Lourdes. He also told the Rector Major of the time about this. The RM was also present at the celebration in St Peter's. Three weeks later, the RM sent him a round ticket to Lourdes. But instead, he prayed before Our Blessed Mother telling her that if she wanted to intercede for someone, she should do it for whoever was in greater need than he was..., and that evening he heard that someone was cured”.
There were many more testimonies of the heroic life of this good Salesian, who spent his life until his last breath working for the salvation of youth.
_________________
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 . RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2011 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
Symposium on the late Fr John Trisolini SDB
SEOUL: 23 November 2011 -- On 22 November evening, a symposium was held in the provincial house in Seoul, organised by the Salesians, with presence of two bishops, many Salesian Cooperators, staff and lay people involved in the workers pastoral ministry, and a good number of Salesian Family and friends. The topic of the symposium was the ‘Life and Spirituality of the late Fr John Trisolini’ (on the first anniversary of his death).
"Fr John, during the fifty years of hard life in this land until the moment he was called home by The Father, dedicated himself totally to youth and migrant workers, following Don Bosco' example of bringing them the salvation that comes from Our Lord's sacrifice. As a member of the Episcopal Conference of Korea, I express my sincere thanks to the Salesian Congregation for sending us such an excellent, valuable confrere. And I would like to ask you to continue to form and send good Salesians for the universal mission of the Church, especially for the poor and marginalised." these were the words of Bishop Lazaro Yu, Daejeon diocese.
John (more commonly and familiarly known simply as 'Jack') Trisolini was born in 1937, in New Jersey USA, and in 1959 was sent to Korea as a missionary. He died last year after more than 50 years dedicated entirely to the poorest of the young, and especially young workers, and in recent years especially young migrant workers.
He was involved in the JOC (Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne) from the beginning of its organisation in Korea when it emerged as a strong workers' manifestation against a dictatorial government. JOC was 'militant' only in the sense that it fought for human dignity and basic rights for workers in the early 1970s. Jack, always in the full spirit of Church, and with Christian values foremost, helped the movement to focus more on the preservation of human dignity of the young workers, instead of fighting for ideological and fundamentalist principles, always a danger in social movements of this kind.
He was the Assistant for IYCW-Asia-Pacific ( the International Young Christian Workers Movement) from 1993-2010.
"We can define his life as entire dedication to poor and abandoned youth. He was always the first one to set out looking for the poor in society and felt distressed, at times, when our privileged interest in poor youth in the Salesian mission seemed to have been neglected. He visited the jail for young prisoners every Saturday to celebrate the Sacraments and to make friends with them. He established a youth centre with a dormitory for those who did not have a place to stay; hundreds of ex-prisoners spent their youthful days learning some job skills, like carpentry or ceramics, or studying school subjects with which they could then integrate into society”, explained Fr Michael Chang, the chief inspiration behind the symposium.
Especially in the last twenty years of his life, Fr Jack paid much attention to helping migrant workers in Korean society emerge as a new phenomenon from the '90s, by opening a counselling office for migrant workers in order to better integrate them into the Korean reality, and by building up nationally-based immigrant communities: Filipino, Vietnamese, Thai, Mongolian, Peruvian, Bangladeshi.... to help them address their own problems by themselves.
There was also an impressive testimony from a Salesian Cooperator, Anselmo Kim, who was a member of the team led by Jack. “As we know very well, he contracted infantile paralysis shortly after he arrived in Korea. It became a personal crusade for him, I heard this from him directly. He was selected as a representative amongst the theological students to go to the installation ceremony of Pope Paul IV, in 1963, during which he felt strongly that he would be healed if he made a pilgrim to Lourdes. He also told the Rector Major of the time about this. The RM was also present at the celebration in St Peter's. Three weeks later, the RM sent him a round ticket to Lourdes. But instead, he prayed before Our Blessed Mother telling her that if she wanted to intercede for someone, she should do it for whoever was in greater need than he was..., and that evening he heard that someone was cured”.
There were many more testimonies of the heroic life of this good Salesian, who spent his life until his last breath working for the salvation of youth.
_________________
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 . RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2011 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
