Missions and Mission Procures

This morning the university was the site of a gathering of African Salesians who study or teach at the UPS and the Auxilium. They celebrated Natalino. The word literally means “Little Christmas” but really signifies a “Pre-Christmas Party”.

The gathering started with a welcoming and newsy talk by Fr. Guillermo Basañes, regional council member for Africa and Madagascar. Fr. Guillermo is one of the youngest members of the new council; he was born in Argentina in 1965, made first vows as a Salesian in 1986, and was ordained in 1995. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and English. Perhaps now that he is regional, he is also working on French.

Guillermo Basañes

The talk was followed by a liturgy, followed by dinner. The enthusiasm ran high: we could hear the group singing during the mass across the piazza of the university! And at the end of the gathering, as they started to leave toward 15.00 in the afternoon, many lingered to socialize further.

As I watched the gathering of so many African Salesians who represented many different nations on that incredibly large continent, I could not help but reflect on the whole reality that Salesians called Project Africa. At the 21st General Chapter of the Salesian Society (GC24) in 1977-1978, the Salesians took up the call to make a concerted effort to help with evangelization on that, long neglected and exploited continent. When Project Africa was launched in 1980, we only had houses in Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa and the Congo. But every province sponsored a mission, and now we are present in 42 nations. In 1980, only the Congo (Zaire then) was a province; the other works belonged to delegations of the Middle East (Egypt, Ethiopia) or Ireland (South Africa). Now there are 2 provinces, 9 vice-provinces, and one delegation, with 1271 Salesian brothers and priests, 93 novices, and 7 bishops. An incredible growth!

Novices from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria in Ondo, posted by ANS in November 2007

This is reflected at the UPS. When I was a graduate student here between 1990 and 1994, there were no African Salesians as students, and only 3 missionaries who came to do advanced studies. Now one-third of the Salesian students are Africans, not to mention the many from other religious communities and dioceses. Don Bosco’s mission in Africa has really experienced a rich blessing.

By total coincidence, I ran into an old friend as I was closing my office before dinner. This was Fr Mark Hyde, the new mission procurator from New Rochelle, New York. With him was one of the professionals who works with the Salesian Missions, Jaime Correa Montalvo, who is the officer for international programs.

Don Gianfranco Coffele was bringing them around the UPS when I ran into them. Gianfranco invited me to join them for dinner, and so we had some time to visit before their return to the Salesian general headquarters for meetings. A very interesting chat we had.

From what I understood, Fr Mark and Professor Correa are here for a gathering of the four major mission procures in the Salesian world. These four are New Rochelle New York (which is the oldest), Torino (which is centered at the Salesian mother house at Valdocco), Bonn and Madrid (the newest of the four centers). We did not discuss the agenda of the meetings, but from what I understood, the leaders from the four centers planned to discuss resources, outreach and communications among themselves and with Salesian headquarters.

Fr Marc Hyde (L) and Prof. Jaime Correa Montalvo (R) receive the Medal of the Salesian Pontifical University from Rector Magnificus don Mario Toso

As I said, Mark Hyde is new to this work. He has worked in youth centers and as pastor in Manhattan (Mary Help of Christians, 12th Street), and only came to the Mission Office on 1 September of this year. Jaime Correa, instead, has worked with the Mission Office for a number of years. Previous to that time he worked for the state department and taught at George Wasington University; he studied Economy and Commerce at the University of Bologna and so, besides speaking Spanish (he is a native of Puerto Rico) and English, he is also well versed in Italian and, I suspect, can defend himself in the other languages as well.

What neither seemed well versed in, however, was the Italian concept of midday dinner. They were ready for a little lunch; Gianfranco brought us to a Sardinian restaurant where the appetizers were abundant, the four types of pasta rich… and where the two had no room for the main course. However through the slicing of cheeses, the dishing up of mushrooms and roasted zucchini, the pouring of Sardinian red wine and Roman mineral water, they shared their hopes for making a new presentation of the needs of the missions in developing countries. It is crucial to do so as the economy becomes more stressed and the recession (spelled with a “d”) becomes more accute.

But please don’t quote me. Everything that was said was very informal, and we alternated important international topics with explanations of Sandinian specialities in roasting potatos and egg plant. More than anything else, it was a happy midday dinner, a total surprise and a total joy.

Surprise Sardinian dinner in Rome with (L-R) Gianfranco Coffele, Jaime Correa Montalvo, Mark Hyde and Joe Boenzi

∞