austraLasia #3099
Archbishop Savio Hon with Salesian Family, KOR
SEOUL: 12 July 2012 -- Archbishop Savio Hon, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, who is visiting South Korea, met with the Salesian Family at the provincial house in Seoul, 12 July. As he has been in Korea four times during his period as provincial of the nearby China Province, he is very familiar with the Salesian Family in Korea. He also briefly passed through earlier this month on his way to Mongolia for celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the Church there.
Although the main purpose of the trip to Far East was visiting its newest Church, his three day stay-over in Seoul has been a busy one, meeting Church officials and visiting various institutions. But he did not forget to make the Salesian Family happy by meeting with them and and sharing. More than 150 people from the Salesian Family groups in Seoul came to meet him: SDB, FMA, SCG, VDB, SSCC.
"One time you were our neighbour in the Hong Kong province, now, your Excellency, you have responsibility for the missionary aspect of the Universal Church. We are very grateful for your visit and ask you to share the joy you have found in working to build the Kingdom throughout the whole Church”, Fr Stephen Nam, the provincial, said while introducing the Archbishop to everyone present.
The Archbishop spent an hour speaking with gratitude about his own vocational story, the graces received from the Salesian Family, interspersing his account with humour. In particular, he spoke of his mission to bring the Lord's love to people, as Don Bosco did so passionately. "I received three Fs from the Salesian Congregation. The first is Faith. I was not a Catholic when I first went as a child to a Salesian School. My education there gave me the faith and baptism. And Formation: the Salesian system not only enabled me to achieve academic success, gaining my doctorate in Dogmatics, but it also taught me about true happiness in life, showed me the way to sanctity. And finally Fervour, by teaching me about passion. According to the Salesian Constitutions, we are the signs and bearers of God's love to our young people. Now I'm doing this for the world, to all peoples in the way my Salesian upbringing taught me." With these words he expressed his appreciation for the Salesian Family, and encouraged all participants to be proud of belonging to one or other group of the Salesian Family.
Speaking of the Chinese Church, Archbishop Hon asked his listeners to pray that right relationships may be restored between the Holy See and China. He also asked them to pray for Bishop Ma, recently ordained in Shanghai and suffering for the Church.
The Nuncio for Korea and Mongolia, Archbishop Osvaldo Padilla was present, and revealed his affection for the Salesian Family. He spoke of his own vocational story of the fact that h had once considered becoming an SDB when he was a student in the Philippines but his mother wanted him be a parish priest, and, well, his mother won out! Despite this, he confessed, he makes a point of visiting Salesian houses wherever he goes as Nuncio, and that list is now quite long: Panama, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Costa Rica and now, Korea.
Archbishop Savio Hon with Salesian Family, KOR
Although the main purpose of the trip to Far East was visiting its newest Church, his three day stay-over in Seoul has been a busy one, meeting Church officials and visiting various institutions. But he did not forget to make the Salesian Family happy by meeting with them and and sharing. More than 150 people from the Salesian Family groups in Seoul came to meet him: SDB, FMA, SCG, VDB, SSCC.
"One time you were our neighbour in the Hong Kong province, now, your Excellency, you have responsibility for the missionary aspect of the Universal Church. We are very grateful for your visit and ask you to share the joy you have found in working to build the Kingdom throughout the whole Church”, Fr Stephen Nam, the provincial, said while introducing the Archbishop to everyone present.
The Archbishop spent an hour speaking with gratitude about his own vocational story, the graces received from the Salesian Family, interspersing his account with humour. In particular, he spoke of his mission to bring the Lord's love to people, as Don Bosco did so passionately. "I received three Fs from the Salesian Congregation. The first is Faith. I was not a Catholic when I first went as a child to a Salesian School. My education there gave me the faith and baptism. And Formation: the Salesian system not only enabled me to achieve academic success, gaining my doctorate in Dogmatics, but it also taught me about true happiness in life, showed me the way to sanctity. And finally Fervour, by teaching me about passion. According to the Salesian Constitutions, we are the signs and bearers of God's love to our young people. Now I'm doing this for the world, to all peoples in the way my Salesian upbringing taught me." With these words he expressed his appreciation for the Salesian Family, and encouraged all participants to be proud of belonging to one or other group of the Salesian Family.
Speaking of the Chinese Church, Archbishop Hon asked his listeners to pray that right relationships may be restored between the Holy See and China. He also asked them to pray for Bishop Ma, recently ordained in Shanghai and suffering for the Church.
The Nuncio for Korea and Mongolia, Archbishop Osvaldo Padilla was present, and revealed his affection for the Salesian Family. He spoke of his own vocational story of the fact that h had once considered becoming an SDB when he was a student in the Philippines but his mother wanted him be a parish priest, and, well, his mother won out! Despite this, he confessed, he makes a point of visiting Salesian houses wherever he goes as Nuncio, and that list is now quite long: Panama, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Costa Rica and now, Korea.
