austraLasia
1511
Fatumaca - focal
point
FATUMACA (East Timor): 30th March
2006 -- Just about anybody who has heard of Salesians in East Timor
has heard of Fatumaca. But otherwise, Fatumaca would not be a place many
people would have heard of. East Timor has made progress since the
difficult days of 2002, but even with that progress, once one leaves Dili,
opportunities for internet contact are few, and other communications are almost
non-existent. We don't know much about what is happening to them and they
don't know much about what is happening to us! There is a danger it
becomes a forgotten part of the world. austraLasia would like to play its
little part in reversing that.
So it is good when a little
news trickles out - and good news at that. Fatumaca is something of a
focal point for the Salesian vice province which bears the initials ITM.
It is not the seat of government, but it is in many ways the youthful heart of
the vice province: pre-novitiate, novitiate, primary, junior secondary l,
technical schools, pastoral care of a dozen mission stations, centre of a
long-standing social-agricultural work for poor farmers and families, national
Shrine to Mary Help of Christians and therefore Centre for ADMA, the association
founded by Don Bosco in Her name, Past Pupil centre.
Fatumaca has one other feature that allows it to stand out in the entire EAO
Region. With six practical trainees stationed there it is, if I am not
mistaken (and if I am the emails will come racing in! Sorry about saying DB's
dad died when he was 12 - you can change that in slide number two in the MM
powerpoint!) the location with most practical trainees working in the same
place.
So at best it is a complex community and one,
therefore, that needs - and has - a well elaborated Educative and Pastoral
Plan. Fatumaca has wonderful memories of great men. Some of them
have passed on - one only has to think of the figure of someone like Bro. Gamba,
for instance. Some of them are still alive and still working - think again
of someone like Fr Locatelli.
East Timor is going
through interesting times - difficult times economically, and with major social
changes. A Salesian work which is at the heart of ordinary Timorese life
might reflect those things too. But the dozen confreres who have
responsibility for all that happens at Fatumaca are aware of their
challenges. They know that their well-run technical centre is doing more
than just preparing young men to get good jobs in Dili - they hope that they are
also helping to develop the wider nation. But they also are working to see
that solid characters come forward to be the Bro Gambas and the Fr Locatellis of
the future. Fatumaca is potentially a vocational powerhouse, driven by
today's Salesian animating centre
Problems there
are. Language is one of them. The national option for Portuguese has
left some Salesians floundering without a solid grasp of that language.
Financial worries and an Education Ministry not yet fully up to the mark means
that text books are not easy to get hold of. And while life within the
intense religious and Salesian atmosphere of Fatumaca is fine, what happens to
graduates once they leave? Post liberation East Timor is a changing, more
free-thinking, less 'religious' place in many ways. The villages have lots
of priests, lots of catechists, lots of Catholics.....but sometimes empty
churches!
Problems aside, the reality is that if eastern
East Timor is evangelised, it is largely because of the Salesian
influence. There is much to be thankful for. They will be grateful
for our prayerful support now as they confront their challenging
future.
________________________
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