austraLasia
1420
ITM - statues mark Don Bosco day
in Indonesia
JAKARTA: 31st January 2006
-- Benefactors and council members of the St. John Bosco Parish in
Jakarta, Mr and Mrs Henry Chandra have donated not one but four
statues of St. John Bosco to the four SDB communites in Indonesia.
They are fibreglass statues similar to the one found in the General House at the
Pisana.
The celebrations for
enshrining these statues started on the 30th of January with a Mass presided
over by Fr. Yohannes and the blessing of the first statue in the Sunter
Post-novitiate. After a good supper, the FMA, SDB along with parents,
benefactors and some parishioners were entertained by brief skits from the
post-novitiate Salesians and the Sisters. On the morning of the 31st,
Tigaraksa Community held the usual children's games for their Islamic neighbors.
About 250 kids participated in the event, along with a handful of children
from the nearby parish. By noon time, the games ended as the visitors from
Jakarta arrived, including the FMA, the aforesaid post-novitiate Salesian
community from Sunter and St John Bosco Parish, Jakarta. The second
statue was blessed and unveiled despite a brief shower of rain. Lunch was
served for all who came and afterwards everyone left for the next
activity....another blessing of another statue! This third event was
the blessing of the statue in the St John Bosco Parish itself, at 5:30pm.
The Solemn Mass was presided over by the parish priest, Fr. Noel
Villafuerte. Supper and cultural presentations capped the day's
festivities..
The fourth statue
for the new novitiate is still on its way to the island of Sumba. For now they
won't have the statue to remind them of Don Bosco's zeal for souls and
for the welfare of youth. But no worries, they have the presence of Fr. Andres
Calleja, the Provincial! He has been there since the 29th and planned to
stay with the novices for the Feast of Don
Bosco.
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