Dear friends,
A priest-doctor shared with me that the first task of a doctor is not to cure but to care. A doctor can cure only in as much as a person is curable. And yet, to care is something we can all do. And most of us, whether healthy or sick, need care.
I remember being sent to the young at risk. The love and care I invested in the relationship brought about their transformation, more than the structures and services that we provided.
I invite you my dear friends to be more caring, one person at a time, one person a day.
At the same time, this is also an invitation to self-care. We can only take care of others if we know how to take care of ourselves. Healthy self-love is important and needed. Even Jesus was affirmed by God as His Beloved.
May we remember always that we are God’s beloved.
Fraternally,
▀ Bro. Raymond Callo SDB
Member of Formation Sector
On 15 March 1924, the deacon Costantino Vendrame was ordaine a priest in the chapel of the Major Seminary of the Ambrosian Archdiocese in Milan, at the hands of Monsignor Giovanni Mauri, Auxiliary Bishop of Milan.
The theme of zeal for the glory of God and the apostolate emerges strongly from the Servant of God's letters to his mother Elena Fiori: ‘And you told me on another occasion that you entrusted this son of yours to Mary Help of Christians; well, he is precisely in her hands. I feel this predilection over me and every day I touch it with my hand; I feel that she wraps me in a look of tenderness that is more than maternal; I feel that she personally guides me in all things. It is for this reason that I am always happy and calm, convinced that everything that happens around me happens for my greater good. May this also be your conviction, Mother...’ (Letter of 19 May 1923).
Fr Costantino, a priest novice, received the missionary crucifix on 5 October 1924 at Valdocco, in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians. On 30 November, he left for India, in Assam, a mountainous area in the north-east of India, below Tibet, on the borders with China, among the Khasi and Jaintia tribes. Visiting villages, reaching ‘the peripheries’ along rugged and tiring mountain paths, meeting families and children without distinction of ethnicity or religion, starting Salesian oratories to make Jesus and his Gospel known – this was his mission, lived with the total gift of self for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, until the end of his life on 30th January 1957 at Dibrugarh. Not only do the number of conversions and baptisms he administered seem legendary. The fruits of his extraordinary mission continue to fill us with awe to this day.
What he wrote on his departure for India is meaningful: ‘I write under the gaze of the dear Help of Christians and the Heart of Jesus to whom I entrust everything and from whom I hope for everything, because they are my only inheritance and my great wealth. I was born in poverty, I grew up in poverty, but the love for Jesus has led me to a greater and more austere poverty of hand and heart, having renounced everything, perfectly everything, with a vow, by professing in the Pious Society of St Francis de Sales, to be all of God, and of God alone’.
▀ Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni SDB
General Postulator
Dear Fr. Taisali, what is the situation of the people you Salesians serve in Fiji?
First of all, we are situated just outside the city of Suva in the Nasinu district. It is a fast growing suburb. Most of the people who live here are urban migrants from outer islands and from rural areas, who moved here for obvious reasons – education, work and in pursuit of better living conditions. Unfortunately, most of these people are squatters because they can’t afford to buy land or build a good house. The living conditions are very poor and unhealthy. So, we are working in a parish that is comprised of the working class having quite a low income – a noteworthy percentage of them unemployed youths. There is also a significant multi-racial community of Indian, Rabian and Rotuman descent.
Do you have the opportunity and capacity to give attention to the sick in your work?
Actually, we can’t attend or provide assistance to all the sick, especially financial assistance, but we do administer the sacraments to the sick and bring them communion once a week.
What do you, Salesians in Fiji, need most?
To be really honest we need financial assistance to build our first Church. Our parish is new, inaugurated only in 2017. Since then we have been fundraising to build our first Church. It has taken us eight years to raise the foundation – clear evidence that our parishioners cannot afford to build it on our own. And we, Salesians don’t want to add more burdens on our community especially the low income families. Yet, they are so keen to build their church. Secondly, many families are squatters and do not have hygienic facilities such as toilets and showers. We do wish to help them but we do not have the resources to do so.
