By CINSCO

Hong Kong, China, January 2024 -- On January 1st, the Octave of Christmas and Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, the last course of CIN Province Annual Retreat 2023 concluded with the solemn Mass celebrated by Card. Joseph Zen Ze Kiun S.D.B. Like all the preceding Retreat courses (Taiwan, Cheung Chau, Casa Braga), this Shau Kei Wan Salesian Missionary House course was dedicated to a deepening of the knowledge of life, work, and spirit of our two Salesian Protomartyrs, St. Luigi Versiglia and St. Callisto Caravario. This theme was chosen for 2023 by the Provincial Ongoing Formation Committee to commemorate three anniversaries: the 150th Anniversary of St. Luigi Versiglia's Birth (1973-2023); the 120th Anniversary of St. Callisto Caravario's Birth (1903-2023); and the 40th Anniversary of their Beatification (1983-2023).

An interesting detail of this last course of CIN Annual Retreats was that no less than five Provincials found themselves involved in it: first of all, the incumbent Provincial Fr. Joseph Ng Chi Yuen (2018-2024), then former Provincial Fr. Lanfranco M. Fedrigotti (2012-2018), former Provincial Fr. Simon Lam Chung Wai (2006-2012), former Provincial Fr. Norbert Tse Shiu Chung (1983-1989), and former Provincial Card. Joseph Zen Ze Kiun (1977-1983). If we then take in all Retreat courses for this year 2023, then the number of Provincials involved increases to seven.

The sixth Provincial is the recently deceased revered and dear Fr. John Baptist Zen Shing Yeh (†02-09-2023). He had taken part in the Taiwan course of the same Retreat. The seventh Provincial is Provincial-elect Fr. Domingos Leong Teng Kok. Though one of the preachers of this year's Annual Retreats, he was not present in person in this course, having had to go to Taiwan to preach the Mid-Year Five-Day Retreat of the CIN formation communities. And yet, Fr. Domingos was fully present every day in this course, too, through the fine PowerPoint and Retreat Booklet he had prepared for the participants of all Retreat Courses of the year 2023.

In preparing the PowerPoint, Fr. Domingos relied especially on the newly-published Chinese translation of "Martiri in Cina," the biographical masterpiece of Don Guido Bosio S.D.B. The English translation of this same work ("Martyrs in China") is also available in digital form on the BoscoLink site. We are grateful to God and to the hard-working translators for making this valuable work more widely available. Perhaps it would not be a bad thing if the Luigi-Versiglia Callisto-Caravario PowerPoint was uploaded on BoscoLink as a little contribution to the celebration of their three anniversaries. In CIN Province, we are also very grateful to the two Vice-Provinces of our EAO Region who chose to be named by the beautiful names of our two Protomartyrs: the Santo Callisto Caravario Timor Est Visitatoria (TLS) and the San Luigi Versiglia Indonesia Visitatoria (INA).

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