austraLasia
#1865
Solomon Island Salesian
Rector appointed Bishop of Gizo
ROME: 5th June 2007 -- Readers of austraLasia may well know by now or at
least may have accurately guessed that the new Bishop of Gizo in the Western
Solomons, was announced by the Holy Father today. He is none other than Fr
Luciano Capelli, by no means the first Salesian to live and work in the Solomon
Islands, but widely recognised for the sheer energy and accomplishment of the
years he has spent there, developing many aspects of the Salesian presence (in
particular the Don Bosco Technical School at Henderson outside Honiara).
Fr Capelli has also been noted for his ready and creative response to the many
human and spiritual needs of the people of the Solomons, and recently his work
to improve their health services. Indeed, most recently, these pages have
noted the rapid response unit, so to speak, that he put together when the very
same Gizo diocese was struck by an earthquake and tsunami, drawing the
admiration and heartfelt thanks of the people of that area, and the
Government. It could be said, kindly, that Gizo has a further tsunami
ahead - a tsunami of activity and concern for their people's
welfare!
So, in the wake of the recent appointment of
Bishop-elect Tim Costelloe to the Archdiocese of Melbourne, the EAO Region gives
up another of its precious members to the wider pastoral needs of the
Church. Gizo which, incidentally, is separated by a large expanse of sea
from another diocese administered by a Salesian, Alotau-Milne Bay (Bishop
Panfilo), is a relatively small diocese with some 11,000 Catholics (about 10% of
the population) and just 8 priests, 4 of them diocesan and the other 4
religious. Again, interestingly, bishop-elect Capelli and bishop Panfilo
followed each other as provincials in Manila, the former then going to the
Solomon Islands while the latter went to Papua New Guinea.
Bishop-elect Capelli was born in Northern Italy at Cologna di Tirano
(Sondrio). He made his first profession with the Salesians in 1965 in
Italy (Lombardo Emiliana or ILE province) after which he went to the Philippines
and remained there, returning to Italy for his priestly studies. He was ordained
at Cologna di Tirano in 1975. In his student days he was well-known for
his prowess on the football field. As we write, the date of his ordination as
bishop is unknown - it will undoubtedly fall within the next three months and
not so far from his 35th anniversary of priesthood.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the
Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for
ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact mailto:admin@bosconet.aust.com. Use
BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library
at at http://sdl.sdb.org/. To contact austraLasia by voice on Skype, the Skype
name is austraLasia