【慈幼通訊社 ─ 2019 年 04月 05 日羅馬慈幼總部訊】 ─ 「我們知道鮑思高如何愛上地界地圖。他每每對地圖細閱參考，尤其當他事業的版圖，衝出了比哀蒙的範圍，遍及19世紀下旬稱為『意大利』的地區，到達位於更遙遠的世界，那些需要拯救的，大大小小遭遺棄的靈魂，尤其是未得到耶穌信仰啟蒙的靈魂。」
總部社會傳播委員 斐利伯公沙利神父
慈幼會承襲多年來的傳統，一直恆心地進行「慈幼世界地圖」的製作，這地圖可於鮑思高網絡網頁中瀏覽，地圖分為兩個版本：
太平洋中心版本：128x91cm, 256x182cm, 384x273cm
歐洲中心版本：128x91cm, 256x182cm, 384x273cm
柏拉圖在他的一則「對話」中，把地球描述為上升至超越境界的的靈魂，展現著「我們從未所見的繽紛色彩」。後來又有著名的世界地圖（其中最大的一張，可追溯到公元13世紀，現藏於英國赫里福德座堂）。地圖尺寸為1.59 米x 1.34米，繪於一整張牛皮上。
在基督徒的角度來說，耶路撒冷當然是中心，東方是在上面。太陽從東方升起，象徵著中世紀基督徒所期待的，第二次降臨的基督 ─ 所有地理描述都不適用！因此世界地圖中的慈幼會，是存在於這兩點之間，承受了前者一些美好之處，同時又保存了後者的重要性 ─ 「你們也可以成聖」，清楚提醒我們注意地圖的上方。
慈幼會世界地圖是米勒投影圖，可以說是現今成功的投影地圖，避免了麥卡托投影法的極端情況。（南北極顯得過於巨大，因此不會在我們的地圖上出現！）地圖包括了很有價值的資訊，包括小型的年報（以2019年年報第二冊為基礎），有助迅速找出慈幼會在國家、會省及會院層面，不同方面的統計資料，資料以兩種方式顯示，以省會院或是中心所在的城市標示出來。地圖資料也用透過QR code收看。
請即下載吧！如有查詢，可電郵eao@bosco.link致鮑思高網絡負責人。
Somewhere between Plato and the “Mappa Mundi”. Salesian Map 2019
(ANS – Rome–RMG, 05 April 2019) –“We know how much Don Bosco loved maps of the world. He would pore over them and refer to them, especially at a time when his horizons had gone well beyond Piedmont, and what was coming together as ‘Italy’ in the second half of the 19th century, to the wider world of souls to be saved, young, old, indifferent, and especially souls as yet unenlightened by faith in Jesus”.
By Fr Filiberto González, SDB
General Councillor for Social Communications
Such is the Salesian tradition in which, over a good many years now, the patient work of producing a “Salesians in the World” map has continued, offering us, via the website www.bosco.link, a map of the Salesian world in two versions:
Pacific focused: 128x91cm, 256x182cm, 384x273cm
Eurocentric: 128x91cm, 256x182cm, 384x273cm
It was Plato, who in one of his “Dialogues”, described the sphere of the world as something that a soul, ascending in a moment of supreme transcendence, might behold as fashioned “of colours more numerous and beautiful than any we have ever seen”. Then we have the famous Mappa Mundi (the largest of which, dating back to some time in the 1300s, is preserved at Hereford Cathedral in England). Measuring 1.59 x 1.34 metres, the map is constructed on a single sheet of vellum (calf skin).
Clearly within a Christian context, Jerusalem is at the centre, East is at the top. East, where the sun rises, was where medieval Christians looked for the second coming of Christ – when all geography would cease to be relevant! So, the Salesians in the World map fits somewhere between these two notions, borrowing something of the beauty of the former and the saving significance of the latter — ‘Holiness for you too’ is featured prominently as a reminder at the top.
The Salesians in the World map is a Miller projection map, regarded these days as a successful compromise avoiding the extremes of the Mercator projection (though, interestingly enough, these showed up largely in the Arctic and Antarctic, neither of which appear in our map for obvious reasons!). It contains a wealth of information, a kind of mini ‘Annuario’ or Yearbook (it is based on Vol. 2 of the 2109 edition of the latter), enabling one to find a quick statistical summary of nations, provinces, houses, Salesians in their various categories, presented in at least two ways, one of which indicates the city where the provincial house or centre is located. There is even the ubiquitous QR code.
Download your own personal copy today! For further information on availability, contact the bosco.link webmaster via eao@bosco.link.