(ANS – Hong Kong) – The ten Provincials and four superiors of the Delegations (Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea – Solomon Islands and Cambodia) from the East Asia Oceania region, with their respective Economers, met for six days, 2–7 March, for their annual regional meeting. It was hosted this year by the China province in the Don Bosco Retreat house in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong.

For the first two days the Superiors and Economers met separately. On day 3 and day 4 they all met all together and the last two days were for the Provincials and Delegates only. Today, 5 March, there is a cultural visit to a Buddhist temple in the nearby Lantau Island. Times of prayer, Eucharist, Rosary and meals are shared together.

With the guiding presence of Fr. Francesco Cereda (Vicar of the Rector Major), Fr. Ivo Coelho (Councillor for Formation), Br. Jean Paul Muller (Economer General), Fr Václav Klement (Councillor for East Asia Oceania region) and some of their staff from the Generalate, all forty participants have been kept working hard all day every day.

With the Vicar of the Rector Major there was an in-depth reflection on religious life, religious discipline, sense of the Congregation and especially animation and government at provincial level. Each province shared its situation, good practices and open questions about the working of the provincial council, animation of the delegations, role of the Vice-Provincial, and the functioning of provincial commissions.

Fr. Ivo Coelho and Bro. Raymond Callo, regional coordinator of formation, dialogued with the groups about many matters: the methodology of formation, the role of formators, the friendly talk and spiritual accompaniment, plan for the qualification of personnel and for the ongoing formation of formators, lack of clarity regarding Salesian identity and so on.

Regarding economy and administration, Bro. Jean Paul Muller and his team spoke about “The shared responsibility of the Provincial Economer for the strategic implementation of the provincial strategic plan’ and other directives of GC27.

Alongside the main programme there were many other events. One of these was the sharing among the Provincials of the new book on formation by Fr. Chrys Saldanha. There was also a vibrant sharing by Card. Joseph Zen Ze-kiun on the recent history of the Church in China.

Published 05/03/2015