ROME: 19 March 2014 -- Did you instinctively get the
right answer as to who is who?
St Joseph has been a feature of the Roman Church's
liturgical celebrations since the mid-15th century (before,
really) - and that happens to be about the time another
individual was born, in Tuscany: Michelangelo.
This year is the 450th anniversary of Michelangelo's death,
so, after the celebration of the Solemnity of St Joseph with
Mass at the Pisana, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone presiding
(11.30 a.m.), and after a good lunch, some opportunity for a
brief 'pisolino' (catnap) and any commission that wants to
do some work (who would?), everyone heads for the Sistine
chapel, M's great work of art, followed by a concerto by the
Sistine Choir.
It is a much-needed break from a fairly torrid Tuesday, so
this Wednesday break and celebration is very welcome ... Tuesday was pretty torrid it would seem, but let's take
a step back to Monday, when the RM, as is customary at the
beginning of a Chapter week, makes a resumé of what has
been, offers some pointers (in fact what he says is called 'facendo il punto', making
the point) regarding what must be achieved. He saw this week
as a crucial one for resolving some of the debate over
structures of animation and government, getting to at least a
first draft of the Chapter document, and not overlooking the
real task: "Be more
trenchant and courageous in the grand directions for the
Congregation's future, especially in identifying the road we
must take". So inevitably there is much to do this
week!
Another 'background' detail that might help put this week into
perspective too: at least 80 of the Chapter members are brand
new, first-timers. Some of them don't take too easily or
kindly (and you might argue, nor should they) to
long-established ways of doing things, such as the
docucentric, process-oriented dynamics of our General
Chapters. Perhaps that was coming through in some written (5
min) and oral (3 min) interventions at times. That puts
pressure on a commission like the juridical commission, who
end up looking like the fly in the ointment, or thorn in the
side or however you want to put it.
So the debate has gone on - especially on the composition of
the General Council. One very clear intervention, though, put
things into an interesting perspective. He reminded the
assembly that while everyone seemed to be focusing on
Missions, Social Communications (Salesian Family is already
clearly out of the General Council and into a secretariat by
every possible indication so far), what GC26 asked for was a
good hard look at ALL the animation and government at Central
level - so why was Formation and Youth Ministry escaping a
certain degree of scrutiny? What about the Juridical
office, also part of animation and government?
Others have been asking why this very important discussion is
being handled largely within a certain commission and not by
all commissions. Some wanted the YM Framework document
discussed - but the Moderator reminded them that it is not
something at the level of, say a Ratio, and it is not up to
the Chapter to be dealing with this document.
IUXTA MODUM
Recall that term from yesterday? It had it's day on Tuesday!
The juridical commission reworked its proposals on a range of
issues and following the first round of straw votes (The RM
had reminded everyone that if there are decisions that affect
the C&R these have to come up for decision pretty soon,
since they mean going to the Holy See for approval, and other
things like elections could be affected, so - get a hurry on!)
So Tuesday was largely about getting a bit of a hurry on in
that sense - moving to the next and 'iuxta modum' stage. It
happens like this - the juridical commission puts forward its
reworked proposal, that is voted on (straw vote still) and
then there are opportunities to take some aspects of this
proposal and 'modify' what needs to be modified, if people
think it needs to be modified - then they vote (straw) on
those. It begins to form up what any final and definitive vote
will look like.
But to bring it all down to real life, this is what happened:
- Length of terms:
this was never in much doubt even in the earlier discussions
and straw voting, so it did not cause much difficulty at this
either. Essentially, C. 128 and 142 are confirmed at this
stage. No change. Similarly for the 'only a second consecutive
term' clause.
- Composition of the
General Council: the reworked proposal took into
account the majority straw vote last time. Effectively C. 133
para. 1 looks like being confirmed, but since the Salesian
Family looks like moving to a secretariat directly responsible
to the RM, the second part of C. 133 (the newer version since
GC26, in case you still have the old one!) will suppress the
reference to the Vicar having responsibility for the SF (so
there's one that has to get Holy See approval).
- Regional Councillors:
C. 140 gets pretty strong support to remain unchanged.
Then the juridical commission put forward a raft of 'new'
proposals, most of them along 'status quo' lines, such as:
- R. 104 and the extraordinary visitation. Keep as is.
- Team visit (NOT a C&R term or issue, but it is part of
animation and government praxis): confirmed as a valid and
flexible tool
- elections: no change for RM, Vicar, procedures and Regionals
- as described in the relevant C&R articles. BUT - and
keep an eye on this one: Sector Councillor election procedures
slated for change: suggested that assembly break into region
groups and regions (voting secretly) study challenges and
profile for a candidate, then put up one name internal to the
Region and one name from outside the Region.
This latter group of proposals will be up for further
discussion and straw voting.
In the meantime it is not beyond possibility that there could
be other proposals now, relating to how the General Council
functions internally - since this has been very much an issue
in all the discussion.
THEME
Also in the meantime, the Drafting Group has arrived at the
'Way forward' (or ahead, as it was put in the pre-Chapter
document), and the first of these (core topic one, Mystics) is
due to go to the assembly - it is only a page.
Perhaps just one comment on this from an 'English' language
point of view. The Italian language is a marvellous language
for what they call 'sintesi' (synthesis, summary). It can make
grammatical and lexical choices that don't work quite so well
in English, so for example, it can make use of nominalisations
and non-finite grammatical forms (like infinitives and
gerunds) and abstract nouns which help 'sum up' a multitude of
thoughts! All of that can result in a lot of meaning being
implicit - and that doesn't make for good concrete ways
forward at times. Of course it works both ways. Imagine if the
Chapter was being held all in English! Then languages like
Italian would be feeling the opposite problem!
Another good reason for continuing to pray to the Holy Spirit
- and also St Joseph, Patron of the Salesian Society (C. 9),
who probably knew a lot about 'hitting the nail on the head'.
And 'hitting the nail on the head' is a way of making the
point - it lacks a subject if used as a title. You only
understand it when it is in a clear context.
