By Fr. Vincent de Paul Prastowo SDB
Blitar-East Java, Indonesia, 26 February 2016 - A new school building, owned by the diocese, was innaugurated by Mgr Vincentius Sutikno Wikassono, Bishop of the diocese of Surabaya last Friday, February 26th. This event is quite significant for the ITM province because it happened a day after the feast of its patron saints: the Salesian Protomartyrs, St Aloysius Versiglia and St Callistus Caravario.
The innauguration ceremony was led by the Bishop and assisted by the two Salesians (Fr. Lino Belo and Fr. Benedictus Sunarjoko) who are directly involved in the running of this diocesan technical school known as SMK Katolik Santo Yusup. The whole teaching and non-teaching staff, student leaders and invited guests were present. This innauguration event and the signing of the commemorative stone marker is the realization of the Church’s concern for the formation of the young generation.
In his message during the ceremony, Bishop Vincentius affirmed that all those who have roles of educating -the Salesians, the teaching staff, and the other collaborators of the school should have a sense of debt towards the young generation. And another trait should be the sense of “handarbeni” (in the Javanese language means ownership) that the educators should feel responsible for the future of the young. The other point stressed by the Bishop was the awareness of the upcoming challenges of implementing the directives of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), hence the need for increasing the quality of education as one of the responses to these challenges.
Inspired by St. Aloysius Versiglia and St. Callistus Caravario, may the education ministry of the Salesians in Blitar continue to bear much fruit.
