Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Dalat (Agenzia Fides) - To recall the first Salesian missionaries and re-launch mission today in Vietnam and all over the world: this is the spirit of the annual Salesian Mission Day celebrated in November establish to mark the first expedition of Salesian missionaries sent by Don Bosco to Patagonia in Argentina.
This year, according the Salesian bulletin ANS, a Salesian Mission Day was celebrated on 3 November in the Dalat community. Some 100 Salesians, 10 Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and two Don Bosco volunteers listened to reports from the 13 Vietnamese Salesians on mission ad gentes with regard to the missionary situation in East Asia and Oceania. The participants formed discussion groups to discuss the theme of Salesian mission.
There followed a concelebration of the Eucharist during which five religious having completed their Salesian Novitiate, presented requests to be sent on mission ad gentes. The community of Blessed Michael Rua of Dalat, which this year has 67 post-novices in formation, has had so many vocations that the Salesian counsellor for East Asia-Oceania Fr Vaclav Klement, named it “the community of missionaries”.
To foster greater participation, given the distance between communities in Vietnam, another Salesian Mission Day will be celebrated on 10 November in southern Vietnam. The Days highlight that even younger Churches, traditional receivers of missionaries from older Churches, are called to be missionaries in Asia and also in Europe, a continent in need of new evangelisation. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 6/11/2007 righe 27 parole 272)
