Carlo Socol – “The implantation of the salesian charism in China (1906-1936): ideals, challenges, answers and results” in “Implantation of the Salesian charism in Asia – Ideals, challenges, answers, results”

The Salesians landed in Macao on 13 February 1906 to take over the management of a diocesan orphanage and set up a school of arts and crafts, with the aim of expanding gradually into China proper, which they first did in 1911, shortly after the Portuguese republican revolution forced the them out of the enclave.

For 17 years, from 1911 to 1928, a dozen Salesians (ten priests, a lay brother and a cleric) took turns three or four at a time and worked with some degree of success in the Heungshan district, in Chinese territory just north of Macao, under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of that city.

I Salesiani sbarcarono a Macao il 13 febbraio 1906 per assumere la gestione di un orfanotrofio diocesano e fondare una scuola di arti e mestieri, con l’obiettivo di espandersi gradualmente nella Cina propriamente detta, cosa che fecero per la prima volta nel 1911, poco dopo la rivoluzione repubblicana portoghese che li costrinse a lasciare l’enclave. Per 17 anni, dal 1911 al 1928, una dozzina di salesiani (dieci sacerdoti, un coadiutore laico e un chierico) si sono alternati a tre o quattro alla volta e hanno lavorato con un certo successo nel distretto di Heungshan, in territorio cinese appena a nord di Macao, sotto la giurisdizione ecclesiastica del Vescovo di quella città.

Index:

• Introduction
• 1. Fr Ignaz Canazei and Fr Carlo Braga, the Will and the Heart
• 2. The “Don Bosco System”
• 3. A Change in Scenario
• 4. Challenges at the Vigil of the 1927 Extraordinary Visitation
• 5. Evaluation by Extraordinary Visitor Fr P. Berruti in 1937 and the Test of Further Development and Policies
  • 5.1. The House of Formation
  • 5.2. The Preventive system adapted to the local situation: Freedom of Religion, Catholics and Pagans.
  • 5.3. The Oratory as Symbol of the Don Bosco System
  • 5 .4. Clash of Mentality and Methods in the Vicariate Apostolic of Shiuchow
• Conclusions

Reference time period: 1906 – 1936

Reference institution:
ACSSA