4th EAO Salesian History Conference - phase one
Sampran, Thailand, 13 February, 2019 -- (On the same day (13 February) that the first Salesians arrived in our EAO Region, precisely to Macau with Fr Luigi Versiglia as leader). During the three days of the 4th EAO Salesian History Conference in Sampran, the 47 participants from 8 groups of the Salesian family have listened to the 17 presentations of the 'relevant Salesian personalities of 20th century'.
Most of the 17 figures were Salesian missionaries (SDB and FMA) mostly from Italy (Bishop Canazei, Bishop Passoti, Fr Della Torre, Fr Giacomin, Fr Cavoli, Sr Solari, Sr Mondin, Fr Martelli, Sr Romano and Sr Borges, Sr Miravalle and Sr.Persico) but also two from Spain (Fr Carreno and Fr Nacher), one from Ireland (Sr Moore), one from Slovenia (Fr Marega) and one from Thailand (Sr Anna Lattanan).
Although most of the time in the Conference hall is spent listening, the ACSSA President Fr Francesco Motto and his team - Sr Grazia Loparco and Fr Stanislaw Zimniak, don't spare the open forum periods for keeping the whole group on track with a few questions: What makes the Salesian personalities relevant in history? And how can we document their relevance without proper sources, like Salesian, Church or civil archive materials? Indeed most of the relevant personalities are founders of Salesian work in a specific country, founders of religious Congregation or simply holy members of the Salesian family who strengthen the Salesian identity.
The participants reflected on the importance of written documents, archives or personal tesimonials. Also two special members of ACSSA - Fr Nestor Impelido and Fr Stanislaw Zimniak (Treasurer and Secretary General) shared the fruits of their own research. Last but not least, very insightful was also the talk by Prof Puttipong Puttansri 'A History of the Church in Thailand and the 'Salesians and Siam Mission during the period of Bishop Rene Perros, MEP (1909-1947)'. His abundant archival research highlighted the participation of late King Rama V at the Canonization of Don Bosco in the Vatican and the 1919 Hong Kong publication about Don Bosco spread also in Thailand before the arrival of the Salesians.
All presentations are available in PDF format (full text and summary) on Boscolink, but in the Conference Hall most of the sharing was well documented with various photos or historical documents with power point on the large screen (5m x 3 m).
On February 13 all participants accompanied by the THA provincial and his confreres are visiting the 'Historical Salesian Sites' near Ratchaburi - Ban-Nok-Khuek (Cathedral of the Nativity), First places of SDB, FMA and SIHM, including the cemetery where Bishop Passoti is, Cathedral of St John Bosco and MHC (Tawa), Narivithaya School (Ratchaburi) and Banpong (Sarasit School, Narivooth School and Cemetery).
