Dateline Salesian........throughout the world!

CHOFU, Japan-Four hundred boys from the six Salesian parishes of the Tokyo area took part in a "Youth Festival" at the Salesian Formation House in Chofu. The event was organized by the young people of Salesian parishes, helped by young Salesian brothers. Catholic boys usually don't have Catholic friends because of the extremely low percentage of Catholics in this country. To spend a day with Catholic friends is for them a rare, but useful and beautiful experience.

MELBOURNE, Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia-Fr. Frank Moloney, SDB, Professor of New Testament at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., has completed a study of the narrative design of the Gospel story of John and its application to the lives of Christians throughout the centuries and today in particular.

His work, The Gospel of John, has been published as part of the Sacra Pagina series, described by the journal Theological Studies as "gracefully erudite, historically astute, and theologically rewarding. Moloney's new work simply confirms his position in the forefront of Johannine scholarship." It was officially launched in Melbourne last June.

ROME, Italy

ROME, Italy-Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia are four Arabic-speaking countries of Africa in which the Salesians work. Meeting in Rome with the Regional Councilor for Africa, Fr. Antonio Rodriguez Tallon, the Salesian leadership of these countries "made contact with each other, exchanged information, clarified the educational and pastoral reality in these countries and discovered possible avenues of collaboration."

The official religion in these countries is Islam, and the degree

of toleration of other religions varies widely. In Egypt, other religions are permitted, and there are Christians, especially Orthodox Christians, who are natives of the country. Morocco and Tunisia tolerate other religions but only for believers who are foreigners. They have no native Christians; in Sudan there are many native Christians, especially in the south, where there is a bitter Moslem/Christian conflict.

HONG KONG, China

HONG KONG, China-The Don Bosco Youth Services Network, already well-established in Hong Kong, has opened its doors with a brand new "storefront" center in Macau at a ceremony led by the Bishop of Macau, Most Rev. Domingos Lam, and attended by the deputy head of education, other dignitaries and benefactors, Salesians, and the young people for whom the center is intended.

The center is in the middle of a built-up area and serves as a "convenience store" for young people, providing individual and family counseling, recreational and developmental activities, and programs

for young people, as well as remedial education projects. Staffed by volunteers, the Network has been in existence for six years and is their first "home base."

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador-Fr. Walter Guillén, SDB, president of the El Salvador Federation for Catholic Education, has been awarded the medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice by Pope John Paul II. The honor was conferred in a solemn function at the Apostolic Nunciature of El Salvador, in the presence of representatives of numerous religious congregations working in the field of education, representatives of the Bishops' Conference, various Salesians, and media personalities.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Throughout the nation, beginning this year, November 16 will be celebrated as the "Day of Salesian Evangelization in Patagonia." This celebration has been decreed by the Province of Rio Negro to recall the evangelizing, educational and social activity begun in 1876 by Salesians in the southern region.

SUVA, Fiji Islands

SUVA, Fiji-On January 31, 14 Salesians with Fr. John Murphy, provincial of the Province of Mary Help of Christians (comprising the Australian Continent and the South Pacific Islands of Samoa and Fiji), took part in a ceremony which formally declared the Salesian presence of "Don Bosco House" in Suva a reality.

The city of Suva has a population of 140,000-a predominantly young population with high unemployment and poverty. The Salesians are living in the poorest and most industrialized sector of the city, where they are presently renting accommodations from the Marist Brothers.

BRAZZAVILLE, Congo

BRAZZAVILLE, Congo-Salesian priests Francisco Balauder (Spanish) and Pierre Morteau (French), kidnapped for four days by rebels, have returned to the parish of St. Charles Lwanga in the Salesian mission at Brazzaville. Notice of their disappearance had been given by the Nunciature on January 30. The rebel troops, located close by the parish, had kidnapped the two Salesians and two lay people. On February 1, the two missionaries sent news of their liberation to the French embassy.

CALCUTTA, India

CALCUTTA, India-Fr. Jose Nedumattathil, SDB, of Don Bosco Maram, was shot dead in his office on November 22, 1998. He was 35 years old. He was born in Vadakkancherry, Trichur, Kerala. "Fr. Jose was shot from the back by assailants while working late in the school office on Saturday night," said Fr. Tom Karthikapallil, principal of Don Bosco School, Imphal, after visiting the site. Fr. Nedumattathil is the third priest/principal to be shot at in the last seven years in Imphal.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti- Flemish Salesians Josef and Luk Lannoo, brothers aged 65 and 68 years, have made available 350,000 liters of drinking-water each day for the 200,000 residents of Cité Soleil. The brothers' simple and ingenious system of tubing, allows the residents to draw water in a manner similar to pumping gas. The pumps deliver up to 20 liters in large buckets which can be carried on the head.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., (USA)-The six provincial councils of the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians held five days of meetings in Santa Cruz, Calif.

The three councils of women and three of men gathered as the "Salesian North American Conference" (SNAC). This series of meetings provided Salesian leadership in North America with avenues of collaboration in areas of youth ministry, education, youth advocacy, adult education, and religious formation of future and young Salesians in the United States and Canada. Topics for SNAC 1999 included multicultural ministry and its implications for education and religious communities, as well as a study of the recent document on "Collaborative Ministry" by the Rector Major, Juan Vecchi, SDB, and the Mother General, Antonia Colombo, FMA.

ROME, Italy

ROME, Italy-After the first meeting of Salesian Universities, at Brasilia, Brazil, in August 1995, a second convention was held at the Generalate (Salesian headquarters in Rome). There are 30 Institutions in 27 provinces in 18 countries; nearly one province in three has an institution of university level. The majority are to be found in Central and South America (16 centers), six are in various countries of Asia and eight in Europe.

MELBOURNE, Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia-The 4th East Asian-Australian Brothers Congress was held in February 1999. Salesian Bishop, Carlos Belo, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, dwelt on the complementarity of brother and priest in the one consecrated Salesian life. The theme of complementarity was reiterated by Fr. Joaquim D'Souza, regional superior. Fr. Joaquim emphasized the special configuration of the Salesian Congregation. "Because Don Bosco's mission to young people has a twofold dimension-the secular and the sacred-the Congregation he founded for them has a twofold inner composition-the consecrated layman and the priest," Fr. Joaquim said. Br. John Rasor, SDB, from the San Francisco Province, was the keynote speaker.