Daejon, South Korea, 11 September 2022 -- This year 2022 no fewer than 3 Korean Salesians left for the missions. Two of them according to the mutual agreement among provinces ('temporary commitment) - Fr Matthew Moon for Yakutsk-Aldan community (Siberia-Sakha Republic-Russian Federation, SLK province) and Br Philip Hwang for Port Moresby - Gabutu DB (Papua New Guinea, PGS vice-province). The third, Fr Paul Kang, with Mongolia destination received from the Rector Major is now a member of the 153rd Salesian Missionary expedition, doing his new missionary course at Colle Don Bosco.
We may ask, when did these the Salesians start to dream about their 'new vocation within the Salesian vocation'? Some of them had already previously searched for a Congregation with missionary spirit, and some of them discovered this call of God during their early stages of formation. Among the 6 Korean Salesian novices in Daejon (Rector and Novice-master Fr. Felix Wee) some are nurturing their missionary dream. In the prenovitiate the candidates are asked to discern their Salesian vocation, while in the novitiate the form of Salesian consecrated life - Brother or Priest, anf before the end of the post-novitiate are asked to finalize their missionary vocation discernment. Two of our 6 novices are considering their missionary call at present. Among other motivations also the model of late Fr John Lee (+2010) is still attracting many young Koreans to Don Bosco or even to the Missions.
However, on their discernment journey, potential missionary vocation candidates are faced with the following challenges: the not-so-easy adjustment to the multi-cultural communities with the background of a not-so-open Korean society; lack of concrete missionary news; personal faith is not strong or deeply rooted enough; with the military culture background it would be not easy to be free and responsible on 'his own'; missionary formation is not yet sufficient (including the discernment criteria); the high standard of comfortable life in Korea is not easy to give up; thinking in 'narrow' ways only about the needs of Korea etc.
At present six Korean Salesians are living their missionary vocation in North East Asia, Mongolia and Cambodia. In the past, some confreres spent a few years in the missions and then returned to their homeland from PNG, Solomon Islands, Zambia, South Sudan, Malawi, Nigeria or South Africa. According to the mutual agreement between provinces, another two confreres spent a period of time in Japan or in Cambodia. Sharing of missionary experience makes an impact on the discernment of potential candidates.
On the 11th of the month, we remember in a special way all young Salesians who are discerning their missionary call!
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