austraLasia 1007
Solomon Islands: imminent transfer of Salesian mission from GIA to FIN
ROME: 23rd January 2005 -- In a letter officially dated 24th January, the Rector Major, Fr Pascual Chavez, has accepted the request of the Japan Province to seek a transfer of the Solomon Island mission to another province, while promising to support the same mission financially for as long as the Rector Major deems this to be necessary.
Fr Chavez has indicated that the Solomon Islands will come under the Philippines North Province - and with close ties, then to the PNG delegation - from 1st April 2005. The statutes for this transfer will be drawn up shortly.
The transfer is not a step away from missionary activity in Japan. Far from it. Apart from the obvious efforts to support the Solomon Islands mission for the past decade with both personnel and finance, there has been a development of missionary consciousness within the Province, including the mission 'ad gentes' on Japanese home territory, itself a demanding mission, and the mission to Catholic immigrants, many of them children of Japanese forbears who settled elsewhere but whose descendants have returned to Japan in search of work. The Japan province has also developed a Mission Office in Tokyo which does more than simply collect funds but helps to make Don Bosco's name known and loved in that part of Asia.
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