Rector Major of the Salesians - 9th Successor to Father John Bosco
Could you kindly give us a short profile of yourself prior to your assumption of the post of Rector Major, which is the highest position of the Salesian Order?
I was a pupil of the Salesian school at Saltillo, in the north of Mexico. I completed my formation at Guadalajara, but soon after my ordination to the priesthood I was sent to study for a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Subsequently I was a Bible professor and Rector of the Salesian Theological Studentate at Tlaquepaque, Mexico for a good nine years, and Provincial of the Province of Guadalajara for the next six years. When I finished this service, I was able to obtain a Doctorate in Biblical Theology at the Pontifical University of Salamanca. I was just at the end of my doctoral studies when I was elected a member of the General Council and Regional Superior for the Interamerican region which comprises 18 countries and stretches from Canada to Bolivia. In the last General Chapter I was elected Rector Major of the Salesians.
When did the Salesian Mission first get started? Or was there any particular event that indicated the beginning of the Salesian Mission for the youths?
At the age of nine, little Johnny Bosco had a “dream” in which he felt a call to work for the good of poor youth by educating them. He himself narrates that in his dream he found himself in a large playing field where a crowd of children were having fun. “Some were laughing, others were playing and not a few were cursing. I was so shocked at their language that I jumped into their midst, swinging wildly and shouting at them to stop.” At that moment a Man appeared, “nobly attired, with a manly bearing”, clad in a white mantle; that was Jesus Christ. The man clad in the mantle called me to place myself as leader of those boys, adding the words: “You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows, but with gentleness and kindness.” Then there appeared a Lady, wearing a beautiful mantle glowing as if bedecked with stars; she was Mary, the mother of Jesus. The scene changed: the boys disappeared and in their place there appeared goats, dogs, cats, bears and other animals. The Lady told me: “This is your field of work.” And she added: “Make yourself humble, steadfast and strong. And what you will now see happen to these animals you will have to do for my children.” In the place of the ferocious beasts there appeared lambs, playfully jumping around “that Man and that Lady”. However, I must add that the Salesian mission began on the 8th of December 1841, at Turin, when Don Bosco began his work with a poor boy he found in the sacristy of the Church of St. Francis, and the dream began to become a reality. The following Sunday other boys came along, and little by little the Oratory established by Don Bosco grew to such an extent that he felt the need of founding a Congregation of persons who would share his mission.
There are many and various Catholic Orders of missionaries nowadays. Could you give us an estimated number of Salesian priests and nuns working throughout the world at present, and the number of countries they are working in? How do they rank in terms of numbers, compared with other missionaries?
The Salesian Congregation has grown so much that it is presently the second biggest Congregation in the Church, after the Jesuits. We are close to 17,000, and you will find us in 127 countries; we have a truly worldwide presence in the economic, social, cultural, political and religious fields.
How did the ‘Preventive System’ concept – the Salesians’ key process in the education of youths – come about?
And how should it be successfully put to practice?
Don Bosco found in the Preventive System the focal point of his pedagogy; it can quite rightly be called a “pedagogy of prevention”. He was convinced that it is always better to prevent than to cure. Consider, for instance, the problem of drugs, AIDS or street children: the situation would be very different if there were to be created at the social and political level a “culture of prevention” instead of simply tackling great evils, and almost always with poor results. The Preventive System effects a relationship between educators and young people, one that is loving, guided by reason, and open to the Transcendent. It is based above all on a positive anthropological vision because it is recognizes that in each person there are inner resources: if these are cared for, they release forces which enable him to avoid harmful negative experiences that can even expose his life to danger, and launch him instead in the pursuit of lofty ideals.
What is the administrative structure of the Salesian Order like, in terms of hierarchical supervision?
The Congregation is organized in juridical circumscriptions called Provinces. They are 96 in all, and each of them comprises local communities. The administrative setup therefore has three levels of animation and government. At the local level, there is a Rector of a community and of a “work”, and he is assisted in his decision-making by a Council. At the provincial level, there is a Provincial with his Council. And this structure, in turn, reflects the General Council, which is made up of the Rector Major and 14 Councillors who take care of every area of Salesian life (the Salesian Family, formation, youth pastoral work, social communication and finances) or look after a Region of Europe, America, Africa and Asia. I might add that there is still an organ of higher government, the General Chapter, which is held once every six years, and includes the Provincials and Provincial Delegates: it has the task of electing the Rector Major and his Council and chalking the future of the Congregation in broad terms.
Present societies and those in St. John Bosco’s days are greatly different in all respects. What is the core factor or principle that leads to the successful application of the Salesian system in the education of the children and youths? Please give us some examples or proofs that although times change, the Salesian educative principles are always up to date.
There is no doubt that the present times are very different from those of Don Bosco. However, I believe that the Preventive system is still valid, today more than ever. By placing the young person at the centre of the work of education, it ensures that he becomes the true author of his human, spiritual and professional advancement. Moreover, it has a concept of integral education in which all the aspects of the young person are fostered and brought to maturity. Still more concretely, in the face of contemporary problems, such as the crisis of social values and the disintegration of the family, the Preventive System teaches us to pay attention to the social climate in which young people live and to offer them a different kind of climate in the Salesian institution; it teaches us to be very respectful of the person and his dignity, to make him part of a supportive group that helps him pursue his decisions, and to avoid situations that can spell danger at all levels, from the physical as well as moral and spiritual points of view. More specifically, the 23rd General Chapter of the Salesian Congregation, which had for its theme “the education of young people to the faith”, opted for an education to love, the formation of conscience, and the social aspect of charity. Without a doubt, such an education has a strong preventive “power” in the positive sense of the word, for it helps the young person to develop his conscience and enables him to discover and develop a taste for what is good.
The Congregation has a monthly magazine, the Salesian Bulletin, which, among its other aims, seeks to broadcast the good that Salesians accomplish everywhere through the application of the Preventive System. Suffice it to mention all the works of formal or non-formal education (schools, centres of professional training, universities, youth centres and oratories) or those that are meant for youth in need or in situations of psycho-social risk, such as street-children, child-soldiers, child labourers and minors exploited by so-called sexual tourism. And in terms of how successful they are with persons, consider, for instance, young saints who are the fruit of the Preventive System, such as St. Dominic Savio, Blessed Laura Vicuna, and the 5 young Polish martyrs. Here you have models that need to be presented and made known everywhere!
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Salesian mission in Thailand, we have learned that you will come and attend the religious ceremony and the celebration. We should like to know if you have ever visited Thailand. And if you have, what is your impression of Thailand on the whole.
No, I have not yet been to Thailand, and so I am not in a position to give you my impressions.
What do you think is the most outstanding character of the Salesian Mission in Thailand? And during the whole 75 years since the beginning of its presence, how have the superiors at the central administration viewed its progress? What urgent priorities are yet to be carried out?
From what I know, in the course of the last 75 years there has been a strong missionary drive in the south of the country and an extension into Cambodia; education has been carried out in big academic and professional schools as well as in schools for specialized education, such as the school for blind children where they are given a professional training to enable them to face life; and there have been other initiatives for the young in the field of non-formal and informal education.
To this I would like to add also the contribution made by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the other branches of the Salesian Family that exist and work in Thailand.
I think that the priorities should be, on the one hand, to continue helping the poorest among the young to find their place in life so that they are not excluded from the current movement of globalization; and on the other hand, to engage in inter-religious dialogue, considering that the overwhelming majority of the population is Buddhist but open to our presence.
Is there anything in particular that you would like to say to both past and present students of Salesian schools throughout Thailand on the occasion of the 75th anniversary celebration?
I would like to tell them that God loves them very much. He loves the young with a very special love precisely because they need someone to be close to them, to listen to them, to believe in them, to inspire confidence in them, to help them develop the gifts they have received from the Lord and to guide them in their growth in all the aspects of their lives.
If there is someone who is committed to their happiness, it is God himself. He gives all young people three gifts, which are like values to be developed and on which, in fact, depend the success or failure of their lives.
In the first place, the gift of life, which is not to be reduced to the mere cycle of existence - being born, growing up, reproducing oneself, and dying. That is not life, even if very many people think and live that way. Life is a dream to be realized, a mission to be accomplished, a vocation to be fostered, an ideal to be followed. Life is vocation, life is mission. I fail to understand a God who created me without knowing why! If he created us to his image and likeness, it means that from all eternity he loved us, called us and sent us.
The second gift is education, which is not to be reduced - as we often think - to schooling. No! Education is everything that helps them to grow and develop all the aspects of their life. Education is family, friends, school, Church and all the social settings which offer values and ideals to make our life more human.
The third gift is faith, for, as Jesus says, “what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his very self?” You know, there are some people who are rich beyond imagination. It is enough to think that the richest man in the world has succeeded in amassing a personal fortune of more than 60 billion dollars because he was able to harness intelligence to technology and market it. Well, this man will die like any other man and like the 2 billion and more persons who live on less than a dollar a day. Till now the only one who has been able to overcome death is Jesus and he did so not with money, power or even science. No! He prevailed with the only force that can triumph over death, viz. love. Here is what Jesus said and did: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” He is the one whom the Father raised and filled with eternal life. This, then, is the third gift that God offers young people: a faith and a love that open us to others and to God.
This is the message Don Bosco would have offered them. It is the message I leave them during my visit.
