The Past Pupil of Don Bosco

and the commitment in today’s Society and Church

Speech by the Rector Major

Centenary of the Confederation of the Past Pupils of Don Bosco

Turin, April 29, 2012

Dear brothers and sisters!

I am happy to be here with you in the city of Turin, a place so significant for all of us: Valdocco is in fact the cradle of the charisma and the Salesian mission. There couldn’t have been any better place to celebrate this Centenary of the Confederation of the Past Pupils of Don Bosco. I offer to each and everyone a cordial greeting by the Lord. I thank the association’s president, Dr. Francesco Muceo, for his kind welcoming words addressed to me on behalf of all of you. I thank the World Association’s presidency and all of you, who have contributed to the realization of this congress.

This Centenary is – should be – a new stage in the history of the association. In a way it is a privileged occasion to contemplate in admiration and gratitude the past, for the wonders the Lord has done in each past pupil of Don Bosco, in the local groups, in the national federations, in the World Confederation. On the other hand it is an invitation to face the present with clarity and courage, both exciting and challenging, with great economic, social, political, cultural and religious challenges. After all, the Centenary of the confederation is an opportunity to dream with forward-looking eyes and conviction the future of the association.

It is not irrelevant that you have chosen Turin, and more specifically Valdocco, as seat of the celebration. This return to the origins cannot only be a simple expression of nostalgia, but a commitment to find the originality and identity of the association and its mission, the role its been called to play in the transformation of the world, in the construction of the Lord’s Reign, in the life of the Church.

In fact, the title you have chosen for my theme “The Past Pupil of Don Bosco and the commitment in Society and Church” is a clear reference to the identity of the association’s mission.

This dual and inseparable aspect is even more important today, in a moment, where the Salesian Family has adopted its reality through the Identity Card. With this document, while ensuring a respectful autonomy to all groups, we are being reminded of the elements that accompany us, starting with the “originating” charisma of Founder Don Bosco and his Trinitarian and ecclesial roots, the Salesian humanism, the specific mission of the young, popular, educative and his daily spirituality.

It is therefor important that the Association of the Past Pupils of Don Bosco today reflects on its identity and mission.

1. Identity

I would like to start with remembering that the Past Pupils’ Associations have neither been founded by Don Bosco nor the Salesians. They were born out of a sense of lived and sheared gratitude. Gratitude is the first fruit of a good education, because it continues to be “something from the heart”. A spontaneous answer to God, who hadn’t even spared his won Son to save us; to the heart of Don Bosco, who had promised his children that until his last breath of life he would be theirs.

To clearly identify the code of the association we therefor need to evoke the moment of birth of the Past Pupils’ Movement: that June 24, 1870, the day of the feast of Don Bosco, when a dozen of past pupils arranged to meet at the Oratory, which they considered a second family. And after having commentated with Don Bosco their past and their present they pledged to involve the largest possible number of their friends in this manifestation of affection and in this experience of spiritual recharge.

The past pupils belong to the Salesian Family by virtue of the education received, namely, that they regard as positive the Salesian education and continue to feel it valid throughout their lives. Real past pupils are those, who have succeeded in being

“the honest citizens and good Christians” as Don Bosco wanted it. Hence it is natural that the Past Pupils have to convert in the first apostles of this education in all of its dimensions, working for the safeguarding of the created, for the defense of life and family, for the promotion and education of the young, for the protection of human rights and peace, open to intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

1. Past Pupils of Don Bosco are persons, who, because they attended an oratory, a school or any other Salesian setting, received a preparation for life, based on the principles of Don Bosco’s Preventive System¹.

2. The Past Pupil of Don Bosco shows multiple faces, which seem to be irreducible to one single identikit. In parts this is also due to the education received, which has tried to form persons developing the uniqueness of each one;

3. The Association and the Confederation declare their ecclesial belonging, but they are members of it, fully and straightly, persons of different Christian confessions, of various levels regarding the acceptance and practice of the faith and also belonging to other religions.

4. The Past Pupils unite and constitute the Association because they feel the bond of gratitude and think that together with the Salesians they could live according to the “education received”, update it and bring it to bear fruit.

5. Talking today of the “education received” to indicate a title of belonging of the Past Puils of Don Bosco to the Salesian Family means to commemorate the charisma lived at the origins and consider its extension and homogenous development of these now more than one hundred years. We therefor find ourselves in the presence of a title of belonging, which makes genuinely part of the Founder’s charisma. To better understand the nature and to clarify operational and organizational requirements in the current cultural and ecclesial change we need to revert to the Preventive System.

6. The assimilation of values has different grades and modalities according to the cultures, religions, the educative quality of the institution and the receiving capacity of the individual².

7. We can identify four types of membership of the Past Pupils of Don Bosco, which can help to define their various levels of identity. In fact, many where the students or those, who have attended a Salesian ambient, who can live this experience as:

• those for whom having been students or having attended a Salesian setting is a fact of live, a simple anecdote, which has not particularly touched their lives

• a grace to have been touched by the appeal of Don Bosco, profoundly man profoundly saint, so that everywhere one feels as past student of Don Bosco;

• a mission: to feel responsible to communicate to society the richness of the education received and desiring that others may want to take advantage of the grace of the Salesian education;

• a plan of live, leading to the need to aggregate in association with a sense of institution, to promote growth, continued education and implement projects for the benefit of society and the Church³.

2.Mission

Before going into the specifics of the mission entrusted to the Association of the Past Pupils of Don Bosco, I feel the need to draw your attention to the liturgical season in which we live, the one of Passover of Jesus our Lord, raised from the dead and become the new Adam, meaning initiator of the new humanity.

The resurrection, despite being a statement of faith of the Christians, indeed the first affirmation, the statement par excellence, from which comes the credo we profess, the liturgy we celebrate, the life we witness, the spirituality we live, meaning all our Christian existence founded at Baptism has a most beautiful and challenging anthropological meaning, because it speaks of the Christian “news”, called to transform the world. Herein lies or Easter joy. Our vocation and our Christian duty consist in cooperating to reach effective fulfillment (in the reality of our daily lives) what the Holy Spirit accomplishes in us with Baptism: we are called to become in fact new women and men in order to be true witnesses of the Resurrected and thus bearers of Christian joy and hope in the world, specifically in the human community in which we live.

More specifically, under the education received, and as a branch of the Salesian Family, the Association of the Past Pupils of Don Bosco:

• contributes to the educational mission of the Congregation and in the environments in which it fits the style that characterizes the lay Salesians;

• is committed to the human development, for the construction of peace and justice;

• promotes respect for human rights and solidarity, tolerance and intercultural dialogue;

• stands as a movement of opinion in dialogue with the socio-cultural reality, validating the process of social communication;

• takes care of the integration, formation and the apostolic commitment of the local centers, basic element of the Federation;

• cooperates with other social institutions and works well in the network with civil and ecclesial bodies;

• handles relations with lay associations and the whole Salesian Family.

In fact:

1. The Christian Past Pupil seriously lives the baptismal constraints of the Confirmation, emphasizing the traditional spirituality of Don Bosco expressed in style of life resulting from apostolic commitment coming from being disciple of Christ. To do this:

• Promotes the activities to involve the service of men, who nobly orientated and animated by good will, work for the global growth of the human being and respect for the family;

• Curs and updated ecumenical sensitivity among Christians and the openness to dialogue with other religions.

2. The past pupils of other religions participate in the ideals of Don Bosco, shares the educational, cultural, spiritual and social values of its system and recognizes them as common heritage of the human family.

3. A past pupil of another religion participates in the ideals of Don Bosco, sharing the cultural, spiritual and social educational values of his Educational System and recognizing them as a natural and universal common heritage of the human family. He/she becomes a dispenser of these goods in his/her life and work settings, and also supports them with whatever his/her own religion and culture suggest⁴.

4. The Association of Past Pupils participates in the mission of Don Bosco and the Salesian Family in various ways:

• by valorizing and looking after the family,

• by undertaking with commitment the education of the young,

• “by advancing the values within the human person ad respect for the dignity of men”

• by increasing the active Communion with all the Salesian Family,

• by looking after the pupils at the end of their educational curriculum⁵,

• by taking care of the “permanent formation” of its members.

5. Moreover, the Past Pupil of Don Bosco, Christian or of any other religion, is called on today to express and develop, as adult, the seeds of his/her “education received”, that is to perform the mission with:

• Professional competence: to be able to speak authoritatively in any field of life (politics, economy, art…) one has to be competent, so as to become an authentic riser in society.

• Moral conscience: that is to say with human qualities, enriched by values which allow the actual person to know how to discern and choose with responsibility, but also to steer others or become a point of reference for them.

• Social commitment: to work, not thinking only of personal success, but rather of the common good, committed to building a better world because this is possible and therefor he/she is responsible for it.

6. In the social, political and economic commitment we must have at heart and defend at all costs the values, in particular:

• life: it is sacred, from birth until death. We have to help young people find the meaning of life and commit to looking after quality of life, especially that of the poorest and most needy;

• freedom: especially when young people, although appearing democratic, seem to act more and more self-sufficiently, endangering the freedom and common commitment to build a better world, where freedom is guaranteed for all.

• truth: not only the scientific, but also the emotional and spiritual truth, especially when witnessing the passage from a healthy pluralism relativism, to finally burgeon into nihilism, which leads to the loss of any reference picture and the breakdown of society. ⁶

If all the Salesian education is to form honest citizens and good Christians, it means that this combination is the identity and mission of the Past Pupils of Don Bosco.

As citizens you are called to be true citizens of this world to collaborate in its humanization. You know very well how many persons of good will, also non-believers, are fully engaged in the defense of the ecosystems, human rights, in the fight against diseases, poverty etc. The engagement of the Past Pupil is to account as Christians and citizens for public life by bringing a renewed demand for social justice, solidarity, development and peace. We need to equally show solidarity with all those in the world, who are committed in the fight for reducing poverty, creating with them networks for the good. More precisely, as Past Pupils of Don Bosco, there is a specific contribution to make: believe in the young, put the hopes on education, promote the Preventive System, convinced that Don Bosco’s choice to face social problems, the education, is not only the fairer but also the most effective one.

Dear Past Pupils, we live in exciting and challenging times. This is not the time for nostalgia or irresponsibility, we can not reduce ourselves to being consumers ore spectators of history. We have an open sea in front of us: our own family, the fields of work and communication, social and political activities, the youth, the same Salesian Family, the world. You are responsible for bringing into society the Christian and Salesian educative values. “The Past Pupil is, in itself, particularly prepared, precisely by the education received, to assume as responsibility of collaboration according to the true purpose of the Salesian project”⁹. We know how much Don Bosoco loved his pupils, but he said to the past pupils “I love you even more because you show me that your heart is always for Don Bosco… / … you will be the light that shines in the midst of the world, and your example you will teach the others how they should do good and detest and avoid evil. I am certain you will continue to be consolation of Don Bosco”¹⁰.

Your Congress happily and providentially coincides with the 50^th anniversary of the 2^nd Vatican Council, an extraordinary event, rightly regarded as new Pentecost. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit’s breath the Church has become conscious that it needed to reconcile with the world, recognize the autonomy of earthly realities, to become integral with men in their history, enter a cultural dialogue, opt for freedom and human rights of persons and people and to better define its identity and mission, becoming servant of men and incarnation in the world.

The Church and the Past Pupils are therefor called upon to seize this great opportunity and above all be aware of it. Hence our attitude shall never be the one of a regretful quitter in ourselves. Instead, we must keep alive and if possible increase our dynamism, we must trustfully open ourselves to new relationships, not to waste any energy that could contribute to cultural and moral growth of Italy and the other countries in which you live. It’s up to us to give positive and convincing answers to the expectations and interrogations of our people: if we can manage, the Association will render a great service not only to the nations from which you are coming and where you carry out your mission, but also to the entire world. If it is true that today, everywhere, there is a present danger of secularism, universally is also the need to express and witness a lived faith in relation to the challenges of our time.

By way of conclusion

Here, dear Past Pupils, the task of your World Confederation called to make an own contribution in this moment in world history, experiencing and implementing the education you have received. The Salesian education is an education, which helps to become a seed in the world and which teaches us to put “the world affairs” under the light of the Gospel.

In this historic hour our Salesian presence, in all its various forms, is called to make understand and to make the priority of the spirit triumph over matter; the priority of labor over capital; the priority of a just distribution of the goods; the priority of forgiveness over justice; the priority of the common good over personal interests.

Dear friends, I thank you for what you are and for what you represent. Your responsible belonging to the Salesian Family and your life are the best monument of the educative system of Don Bosco. Thank you and courage! Society and Church all over the world need you as “honest citizens and good Christians”.

Hail Mary and Don Bosco bless you and make you tireless apostles of youth, encouraged by the passion of the “Da Mihi Animas…”

Pascual Chávez V., SDB

Turin, April 29, 2012