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GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 65

2.4 RENEWED ATTENTION TO THE SALESIAN BROTHER

Fr Ivo COELHO

General Councillor for Formation

The publication of Identity and Mission of the Religious

Brother in the Church by the Congregation for Institutes of

Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life at the end of

the Year of Consecrated Life is a good occasion to give renewed

attention to the vocation of the Salesian Brother. GC27 asks us

to "continue to reflect both on the aspect ofconsecrated life and

on the specific nature of the Brothers with regard to fraternal

life and the mision."' fnterestingly, as we will see below, reflec-

tion on the Salesian Brother opens up, in fact.

1. The journey made so far

While almost all our general chapters have taken up the

theme of the vocation of the Salesian Brother, let us begin with

the signifrcant document of GC2L (1978), "The Salesian Brother:

A lay religious vocation at the service of the Salesian mission."

Fr Vigand's famous letter, "The lay dimension of the Salesian

community" (AGC 298, 1980) was an authoritative comment on

this document of GC2l.In 1984 GC22 gave us the defrnitive text

of the Constitutions, and in 1986 there followed The Project of

Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco.In 1989 we have another fruit

of the decisions of GC22: The Salesian Brother: History, Identity,

Vocation Ministry and Formation'.In 2001, Fr Vecchi wrote

"The Beatification of Salesian Brother Artemide Zatti: A Star-

tling Precedent" (AGC 376), and accompanying this was a letter

of Frs Nicolussi and Domenech, 'A renewed and extraordinary

'GC27 69.7, and also 28.

'? Dicastero per la Formazione, The Salesian Brothen History, Identity, Vocational

Apostolate and Formalion (Rome: Editrice SDB, 1989).

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66 AcIs oF THE GENERALCOUNCIL

commitment to the vocation of the Salesian Brother." In 2003,

Fr Cereda published "Care and Promotion of the Vocation of the

Salesian Brother: A concrete commitment for the whole Sexen-

nium" (AGC 382). GC26 presented a vision of our same conse-

crated vocation in its two forms, ministerial and lay, highlighting

what is common along with the specificity and the reciprocity of

the two forms. Finally, in 2013, the Rector Major with his

council approved the revision of certain parts of the Ratio refer-

ring to the formation of the Salesian Brother3. From this journey

of reflection on the Salesian Brother, certain themes can be seen

to emerge: community, mission, consecrated identity.

7.7 Community

GC?L situated the Salesian Brother and the Salesian Priest

squarely within the Salesian community: "it will not be so

much the individuals who will perpetuate his [Don Bosco's]

ideals as his communities, 'formed of priests and laymen,'

closely united to each other by deep brotherly ties." For this

reason, the chapter went on, "the clear precise dimension of

each Salesian can only be studied and evaluated adequately in

the context of a brotherly and apostolic community." (GC21,

171) The chapter speaks, in fact, of the "Essential mutual rela-

tionship between the Salesian brother and the Salesian priest."

(GC21, 194-196)

This great intuition of GC21 was corroborated and deepened

by subsequent developments in the ecclesiastical magisterium.

Thus Chrlstifideles Laici places the different states of life within

"the Church that is Communion," and notes that they "are

linked among themselves in such a way that they are ordered to

one another," different yet complementary each with its unmis-

takable character and yet related to one another and placed at

each other's service (CL 55). In the three documents on the

states of life within the church - Pastores Dabo Vobis, Christifi-

' Available at www.sdb.org

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GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 67

deles Laicl, and Vita Consecrata - we have an emergent "the-

olory of sign." What is specific to each state really belongs to all,

but is embodied in that state so as to serve as a sign and a

prophecy to the other states. Thus, for example, service is not

the mark of the deacon in an exclusive way. The whole church is

called to serve; the deacon is an icon of service, a reminder to all

in the church of our common vocation. In like manner, the lay

state bears witness to the sacredness ofcreated realities, and the

religious state is a sign of the eschatological character of the

whole church, reminding us all of our vocation to be so united

one day with God that there will be neither marrying nor giving

in marriage. (CL 55)

Thus when GC21 tells us the lay dimension is the specific

characteristic of the Salesian Brothera, it is clear that this must

be understood in relation to the community and to the Salesian

priest. Fr Vigand understood this very well: in his letter soon

after the chapter, he pointed out that the Salesian Brother is an

embodiment of the lay dimension and "secular slant" that char-

acterizes the congregation as a whole, and that the clarification

of the vocation of the Brother is a test for the clarification of the

lay element in our Societfi. The Salesian Brother, we might say,

is an icon of the lay dimension of the congregation. In the words

of GC24: "To his consecrated brethren he recalls the values of

creation and of secular realities," inviting them to collaborate

with the laity and reminding them that the apostolate goes

beyond strictly priestly and catechetical activity; "to the laity he

recalls the values of total dedication to God for the cause of the

Kingdom. To all he offers a particular sensitivity to the world of

work, attention to the local environment, and the demands of

the professional approach associated with his educative and pas-

n "The lay dimension is the concrete form in which the Brother lives and operates as

a Salesian Religious." (GC21, 178)

5 Egidio Vtcero, "The Lay Element in the Salesian Community," AGC 298 (1980),

section 5. See also section 4 where Vigand distinguishes three meanings of "laiciti" and

notes that the Salesian Brother is not "secular" in the sense in which laypeople within

the church are, but that his vocation has nonetheless a rea.l connection and a certain con-

gruence of thought and activity with the first two levels of "laiciti."

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68 ACTS OF THE GENERALCOUNCIL

toral activity."'To the religions of the world, we might add, he is

a prophecy ofthe beauty and sacredness ofcreated realities.

But the Salesian Brother is an icon also of communion and

fraternity, as suggestedby Identity and Mission of the Religious

Brother in the Church. This document has occasioned surprise

because of the way it focuses rather exclusively on the religious

brother as a sign of communion and fraternity. Fraternity, how-

ever, cannot be a marginal point for us who believe that God is a

mystery of communion and of love. For Pope Francis, the central

question before the church today is communion. The conse-

crated life is confessio trinitatis, and in his letter introducing the

Year of Consecrated Life the pope reminded us that consecrated

life is not meant to be shut up within itself: its vocation is to ex-

pand communion in ever-widening circles, in an expansion that

knows no limits.

So the Salesian Brother has a very special place within the

Salesian community, the educative and pastoral community, the

ecclesial community, and the human community: always and

everywhere he is an icon of fraternity. As GC21 had said: "He

[the Brother] lives in constant fidelity to his specific vocation

and becomes, together with his confreres, a sign of that new and

permanent brotherhood established by Christ" (GC21, 176).

7.2 Mission

A second point that emerges in the reflection of the congre-

gation is the charismatic centrality of mission. GC22 (1984), in

its elaboration of the defrnitive text of our Constitutions, chose

to centre all the elements of Salesian life and work explicitly

around mission. This may be seen not only in the contents of the

articles but also in the structure: "Sent to the young in commu-

nities following Christ." So it is in the light of mission that we

u See GC24 154, and Pascual CnAvez, "Il Salesiano Coadiutore," San Benigrro

Canavese, 19 March 2005 (unpublished) Gttp://www.Coadiutoresalesiano.net/index.

phpl2002-L4-chavez).

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GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 69

have to ask about the identity of the Salesian Brother and the

Salesian priest.

A study of the Index of our Constitutions reveals that we

have only two articles on the specific identity of the Brother and

the Priest: C 45 and C 116 (and, interestingly, 6 articles on the

priest that regard authority). Unfortunately, the Index does not

mention an article of great importance, one that indicates to us,

clearly and synthetically, the identity of the Salesian, whether

Brother or Priest: C 98, th.e formation experience:

Enlightened by the person of Christ and by his Gospel, lived

according to Don Bosco's spirit, the Salesian commits himself to

a formation process which will last all his life and will keep pace

with his maturing in other ways. He learns by experience the

meaning of the Salesian vocation at the various moments of his

life and accepts the ascetical demands it makes on him.

With the help of Mary his Mother and Teacher, he gradually

becomes a pastor and educator of the young in the lay or priestly

state which he has embraced.

Pastor and educator of the young: this is our fundamental

identity, the supreme genus, that which is common to every

Salesian vocation. Only after this comes distinction: "in the lay

or priestly state which he has embraced," and this identity-

in-difference becomes concrete, in the initial stages of Salesian

life, through a formation that is basically equivalent (C 106), and

always through the effort to learn by experience the meaning of

the Salesian vocation (C 98), to discern the voice of the Spirit in

the events of daily life (C 119). It is within the educative pastoral

community that we manifest our common identity as educators

and pastors, along with the specifrcity and reciprocity of the two

forms of our vocation. Within this community, it is important

today to ensure greater visibility to the Salesian Brother.

Mission is not, of course, simply work. Our mission as pas-

tors and educators consists in revealing God. We are called to be

epiphany, as was Jesus: signs and bearers of the love of God for

the young, uultus misericordiae.

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70 Acrs oF THE GENERAL couNctL

7.3 Consecrated, id,entity

But the Salesian mission belongs to all the members of the

Salesian Family. We Salesians share in it as religious. As Fr

Cereda notes in his letter of 2003, there is need to talk also

about the dimension of consecrated life. Especially in the light of

the insistence on the sharing of our mission with the laity, the

clarification and appropriation of our consecrated identity is of

vital importance.

Uncertainties in the understanding of consecrated life have

had serious consequences for the living out of our Salesian voca-

tion in its two forms. On the one hand there is the temptation to

reduce the vocation of the Salesian priest to its priestly dimen-

sion alone, and that too very often to a merely functional under-

standing of the priesthood, when not to a clericalist hankering

for power, money and status. On the other hand there is the in-

ability to understand and value the vocation of the Salesian

Brother, with tendencies to either a clericalist compensation or

else a secularist reduction7.

Vita Consecrata (1996) was a great clarification of the place

of consecrated life within the church. But what does it mean to

be a "living memorial" of Jesus (yC 22)? What difference do the

vows make to the way we share in the Salesian mission? What,

we might ask, is the meaning of Jesus' celibacy? As always,

nothing that Jesus does is exhausted on the plane of the func-

tional. Jesus is always revealing to us the Father. He celebrated

the value of marriage and yet chose to be celibate. He pro-

claimed in word and deed the good news that our supreme voca-

tion is communion with God. The celibacy of Jesus is a powerful

anticipation and revelation of the "life of the resurrection,"

where there is neither marrying nor giving in mariage. Conse-

' Abraham M. Arrorv, "On the Sublime Vocation of the Religious Brother," Cozse-

crated Life Today, ed' Paul Vadakumpadan and Jose Varickasseril (Shillong, 2015) 10?;

and Andrea BozzoLo, "Salesiano prete e salesiano coadiutore. Spunti per un'interpre-

tazione teologica," Sapientiam dedit illi. Studi su don Bosco e sul carisma salesiano

(Rome, 2015) 318.

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GIJIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 71

crated persons are called to be precisely living memorials of

Jesus, eschatological signs, in their poverty, chastity and obedi-

ence. In an age that has discovered the beauty ofbody and sexu-

ality, the created world and freedom, and that yet blights all by

exaggeration and overkill and an absolutizing of what is fragile

and relative, consecrated persons are spiritual therapy, sign,

prophecy. And it is our life that is a sign. The ministry of the

priest remains valid even if the priest is unworthy, but the con-

secrated person is a sign only through the limpidity of his life.

There is no chastity in a religious who is not chastes.

In a church that is not only Petrine but also Marian, and

Marian before being Petrine, consecrated life takes its place at

the Marian heart of the church. For the Petrine ministry is des-

tined to pass, but the Marian is the ultimate vocation of the

whole church'. Consecrated persons are a sign and a reminder to

the whole church of its final vocation and destiny. And also here

the Brother is a sign to his priest confreres in the community. His

vocation is the Salesian life in pure form'0, in statu nascendi", a

permanent reminder to his priest confreres of their consecration.

2. The path ahead

Reflection on the figure of the Salesian Brother thus leads us

to a new appreciation of the Salesian consecrated vocation in its

two forms. In the present guidelines, however, as we have said,

we would like to give renewed attention to the lay form of our

'See Bozzor,o 335.

e Catechisrn of the Catholic Church n. 773.

'o Philip RINaloI in ASC 4, cited by Vigand, "The Lay Element in the Salesian Com-

munity," AGC 298 (1980) section 5.

11 "In statu nascendi" (in the state of being born, or just emerging; nascent state)

refers to the state of certain elements at the moment of liberation in a chemical or elec-

trolytic reaction, characterized by a high reactivity. The term is now used analogously in

other fields to indicate the great potentiality of certain experiences/situations at their

origin, with the capacity to influence future developments. See, for example, Francesco

Ar,spnoNI, who uses it of the period in which a group of persons, united by common

hopes, come together to create a new force (e.9., a movement), seeing in these beginnings

dynamics which are very similar to those that we find when two persons fa-ll in love.

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72 ACTS oF THE GENEBAL C)UNCIL

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GUIDELINES AND DIBECTIVES 73

vocation. The statistics reveal that the number of Brothers in

initial formation is going down: only 7.907o as comparedto ll.927o

in the congregation as a whole, and even lower in regions with

greater growth in vocations (5.067o as of 31 December 2015). This

cannot be taken to mean that all is well with the large number

of aspirants to the priesthood. The question of the Salesian

religious identity is urgent for both forms of our vocation.

In the last few years, the congregation has exerted itself to

take care of the vocation of the Salesian Brother, as for example

through the revision of the Ratio concerning the initial forma-

tion of the Brother, and the setting up of centres for the specific

formation of Brothers (CRESCO, Guatemala City; Sunyani,

Ghana; Yaound6, Cameroon; Shillong, India; Paraflaque, Philip-

pines; and Turin - though ofthese, Sunyani and Turin are not

functioning any more, while Shillong is temporarily suspended).

In the present letter we would like to propose some more strate-

gies and lines of action at various levels of the congregation.

Study and reflection

on the Salesian

consecrated identity

in its two forms

Vocation animation

Initial formation

Strategies and lines ofaction

Guidelines in theAGC

Formation Sector

Notes on the Salesian consecrated identity and Formation Sector

the specific identity of the Salesian Priest and

Salesian Brother

Clarification of criteria for discernment

of the two forms of our vocation.

Formation Sector

Plans for the animation of the provinces

in the area ofSalesian consecrated identitv

in its two forms

Provincial and

Formation delegate

ofeach province

Taking advantage oftwo imnic figures

ofthe Salesian Brother and

the Salesian Priest

(Bl. Stefan Sandor and Fr Titus Zeman,

to be proclaimed blessed in 2017)

to promote the Salesian vocation

in its two forms

Provincial

Formation Delegate

with Provincial

Youth Ministry Delegate

Eegional courses for those in charge

ofprenovices in 2017

Regional Formation

Coordinators

with Formation Sector

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74 AcTs oF THE GENERALC)UNCIL

Initial formation

ofSalesian Brothers

Specific formation

of Salesian Brothers

Salesian studies

Personalized plan of formation

in line with the 2013 revision of the Ratio

on the Salesiaa Brother

Provincial in dialogue

with the Brother concerned

Presence and adequate preparation ofBrothers Provincial

within formation teams

Strengthening the existing centres

(CRESCO Yaound6, Paranaque) and studying

ways ofmaking other centres available

(Europe; South Asia; English speaking

AIlica-Madagascar)

Formation Sector

with Regional Councillors and

provincials concerned

Study of curriculum and methodologr

Formation Sector

for the specific formation of Brothers by means

of a worldwide Consultation

Online course to facilitate the formation

offormators in Salesian studies

Formation Sector

3. Conclusion

In a church that is communion, the vocation of the Brother

can be understood only in relation to the Salesian Priest, the

community, the mission, and the consecrated life. As Salesian

consecrated persons we are signs and bearers of God's love to

the young, living memorials of Jesus. In his letter at the begin-

ning of the year of consecrated life, Pope Francis insisted pre-

cisely on this:

I am counting on you 'to wake up the world', since the distinc-

tive sign of consecrated Iife is prophecy. As I told the Superiors

General: 'Radical evangelical living is not only for religious: it is

demanded of everyone. But religious follow the Lord in a special

way, in a prophetic way.' This is the priority that is needed right

now: 'to be prophets who witness to how Jesus lived on this

earth....'14

And again:

What in particular do I expect from this Year of grace for

14 FRANCIs, Apostolic Lettur to all Consecrated People on the Occasion of the Year of

Consecrated Life, 21 November 20L4,I1.2.

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GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 75

consecrated life? That what I once said might always be

true: 'Wherever there are religious, there is joy."u

Through the intercession of Bl. ArtemideZatti, Bl. Stefan Sandor

and Ven. Simaan S*gr, Iet us pray for a Salesian consecrated life

that is transparent, visible and above all joyful. Joy is contagious,

and happy Salesians are the best publicity for our vocation. Let

us not forget t}rre uia pulchritudinis! (EG 167)

'5 FRANCIS, Apostolic Letter to all Consecrated People on the Occasion of the Year of

Consecrated Life ll.t.