austraLasia 1626
Royal Decoration for Salesian Missionary in Thailand
BANGKOK: 13th August 2006 -- Fr Charles Velardo has been awarded a Royal Decoration, the Gold Medal of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn, for "his commitment in favour of the disabled and of the blind in particular. Fr Velardo has featured in austraLasia a number of times for his outstanding work as Director of the Skills Development Centre for the Blind at Pakkred, on the northern outreaches of Bangkok. The medal was bestowed on 29th July him by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, though it had been gazetted much earlier in communiques from the Office of Prime Minister regarding the awarding of decorations to persons other than Thai nationals. It is this fact, that Fr Velardo is not a Thai, that makes his award so much the more the recognition that it is.
The Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn is the Thai version of other Royal (or national) honour systems such as the British or Australian honours systems respectively. There are seven levels of the Most Admirable Order, beginning with Knight Grand Cross. The seventh level is the Silver Medal. Each level is an act of Royal Conferment, usually for 'devotional service to the Kingdom'. The definition of 'devotional service' is usually at least five years of such service and/or outstanding service to State, Religion, the People. Whichever way one looks at Fr Velardo's service it applies! The Ministries involved are required to certify the excellence of service. In Fr Velardo's case this was the Ministry for Social Development and Security.
___________________
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 Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm A separate service entirely is called F/OSSERVATORE to help us keep abreast of trends in the digital world.
Royal Decoration for Salesian Missionary in Thailand
BANGKOK: 13th August 2006 -- Fr Charles Velardo has been awarded a Royal Decoration, the Gold Medal of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn, for "his commitment in favour of the disabled and of the blind in particular. Fr Velardo has featured in austraLasia a number of times for his outstanding work as Director of the Skills Development Centre for the Blind at Pakkred, on the northern outreaches of Bangkok. The medal was bestowed on 29th July him by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, though it had been gazetted much earlier in communiques from the Office of Prime Minister regarding the awarding of decorations to persons other than Thai nationals. It is this fact, that Fr Velardo is not a Thai, that makes his award so much the more the recognition that it is.
The Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn is the Thai version of other Royal (or national) honour systems such as the British or Australian honours systems respectively. There are seven levels of the Most Admirable Order, beginning with Knight Grand Cross. The seventh level is the Silver Medal. Each level is an act of Royal Conferment, usually for 'devotional service to the Kingdom'. The definition of 'devotional service' is usually at least five years of such service and/or outstanding service to State, Religion, the People. Whichever way one looks at Fr Velardo's service it applies! The Ministries involved are required to certify the excellence of service. In Fr Velardo's case this was the Ministry for Social Development and Security.
___________________
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 Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm A separate service entirely is called F/OSSERVATORE to help us keep abreast of trends in the digital world.
