austraLasia #1944
(Apologies for regular breaks in service over these weeks - I am in places where wireless links break off after a few minutes, making the dispatch of austraLasia difficult. The best I can get through is a few at at a time. Hope you understand jbf)
(Apologies for regular breaks in service over these weeks - I am in places where wireless links break off after a few minutes, making the dispatch of austraLasia difficult. The best I can get through is a few at at a time. Hope you understand jbf)
Jakarta ordinations, September 8
JAKARTA: 12th September 2007 -- Jesuit bishop Julian Sunarka, of Purwokerto diocese (southern Java) ordained two Salesian Indonesian priests on September 8 - Saturday, 5 pm at Jakarta-Sunter, Parish of St.John Bosco. They are Fr. Herybertus Agung and Fr. Tarsisius Trianto. It is the second priestly ordination in the recently erected Salesian parish (2004).
The ordination took place in a packed parish church, enlivened by the zeal of the parish community of about 5000 Catholics with 200 catechumens, who have prepared for the occasion over the past three months. The visible sign was an ordination booklet of 128 pages, containing not only details of and remarks by both ordinands and their families but also a rather detailed introduction to the Salesian congregation, Don Bosco and the Salesian Family in Indonesia, which came into being only in 1985 - but now has more than 50 local confreres, 6 novices and 10 prenovices distributed over 4 communities.
Bishop Sunarka, SJ had done his research on Don Bosco and the Salesians and shared, in his passionate homily, his 50 years long personal admiration for the Saint: "For me Don Bosco is a great educator. He is like the orchardist looking after the apple trees - he knows the youth, he loves the youth and cares about about their growth!' He finished his homily with 'I hope you two will spread devotion to education in Indonesia as Saint John Bosco did in his times'. And he repeated twice his invitation to the Salesians to develop vocational training center (computers etc) in the diocese of 70.000 catholics with about 37 local diocesan priests and some religious.
Some 1500 faithful, 30 priests, The provincial of ITM and 30 Salesians, 6 Salesian Sisters, 20 Salesian Cooperators, numerous aspirants , the SDB regional EAO, many religious and young people took part in the event. A special touch to the liturgy was the very close inclusion of the parents in all the rites, following their sons closely to the altar, helping with the vestments. All were in typical Javanese traditional clothes.
On Sunday 9 September the Thanksgiving masses were offered in their respective places of family residence, at the outskirts of jakarta diocese, some 70=90 minutes by car from the formation house. In the St. Bartholomew parish of Bekasi - Fr. Agungs' home parish - the homily was interactive - dialogue between parents and homilist, sharing his vocational story (3 brothers tried the seminary, only the 1st now the new priest remained) and SVD parish priest invited local youth to think about a Salesian vocation as well, with a concrete Come and See program offered by the SDBs!
With accustomed Indonesian hospitality, all participants after the ordination or first mass were treated with a short academy and meal, which SDB communities also took part in.
Both new priests are assigned to formation houses in Jakarta - Fr. Agung as catechist to the Postnovitiate in Sunter and Fr. Trianto to the prenovitiate in Tigaraksa.
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org. To contact austraLasia by voice on Skype, the Skype name is austraLasia1
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org. To contact austraLasia by voice on Skype, the Skype name is austraLasia1
