austraLasia

Preparing the Beatification of Titus Zeman (30th September 2017)

By Fr. Silvio Roggia, SDB
Formation Sector

RMG, 12 August 2017 -- Dear confreres, I’m writing to you this time not to ask once again a help for the tabulation of questionnaires on salesian personal accompaniment as I did knocking often at the doors of many of you during the past weeks – Thanks to everyone for such a generous response! 3815 questionnaires received almost all tabulated with the cooperation of 224 Confreres who volunteers their service from all et 7 Regions the Congregation, and made this over 1400 hours of work done in 2 months time!

I would like to propose another initiative, for those who would be interested in it. As you know on the 30th September 2017 our confrere Fr. Titus Zeman will be solemnly proclaimed a Blessed in Bratislava. Titus was born on 1915 in Slovakia. Bro. Stephen Sandor was born in Hungary in 1914.

They were almost age mates, living in countries sharing borders. These two Salesian martyrs are a beautiful expression of the Salesian consecrated identity in its two forms. Fr. Titus gave up his life in order to accompany and give a future to the vocational growth of many young people and Brother Stephen could have easily saved his life, but rather preferred to remain faithful to the end to the youth with whom he lived whole his life, especially those he cared for in the technical schools.

We would like to be able to present well and together these two confreres, and through them to communicate who is the Salesian of Don Bosco: our one vocation and mission in the two forms Don Bosco wanted be lived by his sons – Salesian Brothers and Salesian Priests.

How to do so?

We would like to propose to young confreres who are particularly skilful with power point, prezi etc… to prepare a presentation that will offer a good and correct image of the Salesian of Don Bosco. A special attention is to be given to the life of Stephen Sandor, Salesian Brother, and Titus Zeman, Salesian priest. Maximum duration of the presentation: 20 minutes.

Please notice that what is requested is not a summary of the biography of the two Blessed, already available on websites or in printed materials. The goal is rather the presentation of the one Salesian vocation in its two forms. The life of our two confreres pay witness to the meaning and beauty of this call.

For whom?

The first beneficiaries will be the prenovices in our seven Salesian Regions (around 600 every year). It is in fact the prenovitiate the phase of formation (the first!) in which the Salesian consecrated identity in its two forms ought to be well presented. This new means could become a valuable help. Obviously, the same presentation can be used in many other context.

Language

The international language you are more comfortable with, Translations will follow – therefore the presentation has to be submitted as editable, and not blocked to modifications.

The available reference material will be sent to those who show interest in the initiative just as we were able to gather it (mainly Italian or English …unfortunately no time and means now to organize the translations). There are also good resources already available online.

Timeframe

The date of eth beatification of Zeman (30th September 2017) is the deadline for submission.

Encouragement

As encouragement to this initiative there is also an award. If you are interested you can participate as an individual or in tandem with another sdb or friend. The prize is a new laptop for the participant ‘running alone’, and two tablets (with a combined equivalent value of the laptop) if the participants ‘run in pairs’. There will be a jury made of 7 confreres, members social communication and formator department plus the Postulator for the cause of canonization. They will evaluate the presentations with a variety of criteria and award the prize.

Therefore

If you know confreres who may be interested in this initiative, please share the message with them. To participate is enough to respond to this email message declaring one’s interest (sroggia@gmail.com). Then the support material will be sent to the participants. Obviously each one will be free to make reference as well to other reliable sources he may found.

A sincere thanks for your attention and a triple big thanks to those who will reply welcoming the proposal.