austraLasia
#1841
Salesian Japan faces up to
the challenges - especially in schools
TOKYO-CHOFU: 7th May 2007 -- As elsewhere
in the Region, Japan is going through the various processes which a Provincial
Chapter in preparation for a General Chapter requires. In a number of provinces
in the region the PC is now behind them. In Japan it is scheduled for
early June. Vietnam, Korea and Philippines North are likewise in proximate
preparation for theirs.
Just yesterday, Sunday 6th May,
some 50 confreres from communities around the Tokyo area, Yokohama and Osaka met
in proximate preparation for PC2007. They have already noted the challenge
of evangelisation in the school setting, and especially since schools have been
an outstanding feature of Salesian work since the beginning in Japan. They
have also noted a number of new frontiers, though as always, the challenge is to
maintain current frontiers within the educational structures they have.
Nevertheless, Japan is moving quite decisively into some of the less explored
areas of juvenile delinquency, ministry amongst migrant workers and their
children - there are any number of families who hold double nationality, for
example Brazilian and Japanese. There is constant awareness of the danger
of being too closed to certain realities within Salesian works, while there are
many needs of young people beyond. The Chapter will also look at the other
areas that have been common to Provincial Chapters around the world, responding
to the Da mihi animas' theme of GC26 - the need to know Don Bosco better and to
overcome the temptation to think that we already know him; the need to relaunch
the figure of the Salesian Brother; the need to improve still further the human
quality of fraternal life for ourselves and to make it more attractive to young
people.
A similar gathering will be held further South in
the province in the coming week.
The Regional, Fr Klement,
will be in Japan during this period of preparation for the Chapter, and will
then move on to similar brief animation visits in nearby parts of the
Region.
_________________
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