What are the 6 priorities of the Vietnam-Mongolia province?
By Fr. Joseph Quang
Provincial of Vietnam-Mongolia
Valdocco, Turin, March 2020 -- On behalf of the Vietnam Province and the Delegation of Mongolia, we send you all our warmest greetings. May Jesus the Good Shepherd, Mary our Mother, and Saint John Bosco our father, grant you abundant grace, joy and happiness being together in one Salesian Family.
It’s a great joy for me to be at this 28th General Chapter, in the name of my province, to learn and discern our Identity, to find out “what kind of Salesians we are for the youth of today”. This is the way to assure our charism, improve concretely and effectively our service to the youth of today, especially the most poor and forgotten ones. Dear Superiors and Participants of the 28th General Chapter, I take this precious opportunity to share with you the present situation of our Province, our mission, and our vision for the future.
I. The present situation of the Salesians in Vietnam and Mongolia.
The Province of St John Bosco includes Vietnam and Mongolia, with a large number of 343 confreres (205 priests, 63 lay brothers, 5 deacons, 70 clerics) and 18 novices. This year, we have 7 missionaries “ad Gentes” which brings the number of missionaries up to 103 confreres.
- In the North of Vietnam, there are 44 confreres working in 3 communities, 7 non-canonical communities (with 3 confreres), 10 parishes, one vocational school.
- In the South of Vietnam, there are 246 confreres working in 18 communities, 5 non-canonical communities, 19 parishes, 3 vocational and technical schools and one vocational training Centre of Hospitality.
- In the Mongolia Delegation, there are 11 confreres working in 2 communities, 2 parishes and one vocational school.
Besides, we still have 20 confreres in the period of specific formation and specialisation from abroad and 15 confreres collaborating with other provinces of the EAO Region.
A very special event happened in our Province in September 2019, when The Rector Major established a new delegation in the North of Vietnam, after 22 years of presence and service. We welcome this event as a blessing of God, an impulse to our expansion and development of the mission in the North for poor young people and as a new step in evangelisation. Thanks be to God, and we express our gratitude to our dear Rector Major and all the Superiors.
II. Our mission.
We, the Salesians of Vietnam and Mongolia, are always convinced that our mission and service are specifically with the young and for the young, especially the poor and most needy ones, and we are trying our best to realize this mission day after day.
After the events of 1975, due to the difficult and sensitive situation, we were dispersed and had to restart our mission from ground zero. We decided to enter into the pastoral field, working in parishes or far away places, and commencing the mission from the beginning. True to say, Divine Providence had His plan for us. Opportunely or inopportunely, the Salesians have been developing our mission until today.
We are serving in 31 parishes. In every parish, besides its common pastoral activities, has a daily oratory, special care for poor young people and the most needy, classes for drop-off children, charitable works and evangelisation, since the catholic are only of a small percentage in Vietnam and very very small in Mongolia.
Besides, we are working in five professional/vocational schools, one vocational training centre, two orphanages for poor and abandoned boys, one centre for disabled children, and we are trying to develop this kind of service more, especially for the kids from minority groups in the highlands and in the North of Vietnam, close to the borders.
The most important work that we are doing now in our Province is the formation of vocations. We are running several pre-aspirant centres for boys in secondary and high school, three aspirantates for young men at universities, one pre-novitiate, one novitiate, two study centres (post-novitiate and theology). Thanks be to God, vocations are still doing well in Vietnam. We are trying our best to do the phases of formation well, so we may have good, honest and qualified young Salesians.
III. Our vision for the future.
As the vision for the future of our province, we aim at and place importance on these aspects:
- Focus on the importance of qualified formation for the future and young Salesians, training them to live with a planning mentality and sense of belonging to the Congregation, the Province, the Community and the poor young people.
- Continue to develop youth centres and daily oratories in the Salesian parishes and communities.
- Develop more vocational training centres and professional/technical schools for poor young people, especially in the North of Vietnam, and supply jobs for them.
- Develop more centres to take care of street children, poor and abandoned boys, orphans and the children from minority groups in the highlands or close to the borders, especially those most in need.
- Strengthen and encourage our missionaries “ad gentes”.
- Extend intercollaboration between Vietnam and other provinces, especially those in the EAO Region.
To conclude this sharing, we invite you all to give thanks to Almighty God for the love He has had for our Province. We express our gratitude to our Mother Congregation, to our beloved Rector Major and all the General Superiors for the concern and love they have been having for us. We will try our best to live the Salesian Charism, the sense of belonging and the prior love for young people, especially those abandoned and most in need. Please, pray for us.
Thank you, and we wish you grace and love from Jesus, our Blessed Mother and Don Bosco."
All prepared (delivered and not delivered) Goodnights of the GC28 are available on Boscolink!
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