Salesian Missionary Vocation - ENG - booklet


Salesian Missionary Vocation - ENG - booklet

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The text presents a renewed vision on the Salesian Missions because we are in a
different context to that of the missionary projects that spread the Congregation to the
Americas (1875), Asia (1906) and Africa (1980).
Threefold Purpose
It has a threefold purpose: motivate the confreres to respond with missionary courage
and generosity to the missionary invitation of the Rector Major, improve the processes
of discernment, formation and integration and harmonise operational guidelines that
are still relevant.
▀ We collaborate with the Church in
fulfilling its mission to evangelise.
Proclaiming the Gospel especially to the
young is our primary missionary task.
NOT LIKE ONCE UPON A TIME
▀ Today ‘missions’ cannot be understood
merely in geographical terms as movements
towards the ‘mission lands’ like once upon a
time, but are also to be understood in
sociological, cultural terms and even in
terms of our presence in the digital
continent.
A PARADIGM SHIFT
Today, missionaries come from the five continents and are sent to the five
continents. For us Salesians it was ‘Project Europe’ which brought us face to face
with this change of missionary paradigm, which still requires many confreres to
undertake a journey of conversion of mind and heart in order to appropriate it.

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INITIAL PROCLAMATION
Our initiatives for human advancement, motivated by a deep faith, are an Initial
Proclamation. In contexts where we cannot even mention the name of Jesus, we
proclaim him through the testimony of our personal and community life.
Having clear intentions to foster Initial Proclamation can help us overcome the danger
of being seen as social services providers or social workers rather than witnesses to the
primacy of God and proclaimers of the Gospel.
Don Bosco’s Missionary Spirit
▀ The Missionary Spirit – summed up in the Da mihi animas – is typical of every Salesian because
its roots are in the Salesian charism itself.
▀ As Salesians – we are, everywhere true missionaries of the young and youth is our mission land.
▀ Don Bosco’s Missionary Spirit – as the heart of pastoral charity manifests itself in the oratorian
heart, in the passion for evangelisation and the willingness to be sent wherever there is a
need.
▀ It is the Missionary Spirit that makes us live the Salesian consecrated life “permanently in a
state of mission”.
The missionary spirit is kept alive in every community and Province through:
❖ The summer missionary experience for the young confreres, for the formators and for the
teachers of the study centres
❖ The experience in the international formation communities
❖ The missionary prayer every 11th of the month
❖ The yearly Salesian Mission Day
❖ other missionary animation initiatives
The Salesian Missionary Vocation
▀ It is a call from the Lord, within our common Salesian vocation.
▀ As an essential feature of Don Bosco’s charism (Const 30), it is a more radical expression of
pastoral charity.
▀ The Salesian Missionary Vocation is a gift from the Lord that needs to be invoked in prayer,
awakened in the confreres, verified in their discernment, and accompanied in their growth.
▀ The Salesian Missionary does not belong to an elite group of privileged confreres. He is
someone who wants to express in a more generous and radical way the common Salesian
vocation of all confreres.
FR. ÁNGEL FERNÁNDEZ ARTIME: No Provincial can hinder a confrere who has made a journey of
discernment of his own missionary vocation with the help of his Rector, spiritual guide and the
Provincial himself, just because of a lack of personnel, or because the Province needs him.
For reflection and sharing
• Have I moved from the old to the new paradigm of missions?
• What are the implications of this new missionary paradigm for me? For my Province?

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The Missions Interest All Salesians
The Salesian missions are part of the one Salesian mission. Therefore, “the
missions are of interest to the whole Congregation; Hence, all the confreres are
involved in them in different ways” (GC20, 480).
The Provincials share in the missionary solicitude of the Rector Major through
their missionary concern for the whole Congregation. Every Salesian Province,
whether rich or poor in personnel or resources, shares responsibility for the
missionary projects of the whole Congregation.
Elderly and sick confreres also provide valuable support with their prayers and
sacrifices.
There are no longer Provinces that are only ‘recipients’ or ‘senders’ or
‘missionary Provinces’. All Provinces send and receive missionaries. This
missionary reciprocity makes us available for the mutual sharing of means,
personnel and spiritual assistance.
Missionary generosity
“Missionary generosity has been one of the reasons for the good health and
expansion of the Congregation during its first century and a half of life.”
(Fr. VECCHI, AGC 362, 8).
It frees us “from the dangers of a middle-
class lifestyle, spiritual superficiality
and generecism” and is “leading us
forward into the future with hope”
(Fr. VIGANÒ, AGC 336, 12).
It is the missionary impetus of the
Congregation that invigorates faith, gives
new vocational enthusiasm and
revitalises the charismatic identity of the
confreres both in the Province that sends
and in the Province that receives missionaries.

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PROVINCIAL AND CONGREGATIONAL MISSIONARY PROJECT
A Province cannot be generous with regard to the
Congregational missionary project if it is not
seriously concerned with a Provincial missionary
project. And indeed, the missionary commitment
within the Province is a credible sign and stimulus for
the missionary commitment of the Congregation,
and vice versa. Each influences the other, stimulates it
and helps it.
Requests for Missionaries
a. The Provincial, with the consent of his Council, presents a concrete missionary
project to the Rector Major. The approval of the Rector Major, with his Council,
will be the condition for sending missionaries to that Province. Without this
prior condition, the sending of missionaries will not be possible.
b. Once the request is accepted, the Provincial will dialogue with the General
Councillor for the Missions regarding:
• the profile of the new missionary or missionaries;
• nationalities who find it easy to enter the country or to obtain a visa;
• documents to be presented by the missionaries in order to obtain a
residence or missionary visa.
• the Reception and Integration Plan for the new missionaries which
indicates the following:
- A formal language course of at least six months, which can be
extended if the new missionary needs it;
- A specific confrere to accompany new arrivals;
- How to provide for the spiritual needs (confessions, spiritual
direction) of the new missionary;
- The gradual process of introducing the new missionary into the
receiving Province.
MISSIONARY FOR LIFE
Missionary life is a radical and complete gift of self
which, by its very nature, implies total availability
without any time limits (ad vitam).
The Salesian goes on mission to remain there.
If, for serious reasons, he needs to return to his
Province of origin, upon hearing the opinion of the
two Provincials concerned, the Rector Major
shall give his consent or otherwise.

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A renewed vision, a renewed profile
We find ourselves in a different context from the first missionary expedition to America (1875) or from
‘Project Africa' (1980). Salesian missionaries today should have Fr. John Cagliero's audacity and zeal but
with a renewed vision of the missions which implies a renewed profile of the Salesian missionary.
The Profile of the Salesian Missionary Today
▀ The Salesian Missionary is definitively sent to a PROVINCE or a DELEGATION (C. 159).
▀ He contributes to INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE, to the INCULTURATION of the faith and
of the Salesian charism.
▀ He is open to be ENRICHED BY THE LOCAL CULTURE while continuing to deepen his
understanding of it in the light of the Christian faith and the Salesian charism.
▀ He INTEGRATES himself within the LOCAL CHURCH and in the life and educative-
pastoral plan (SEPP) of the PROVINCE.
▀ The Salesian Missionary is not only one who gives but above all one who RECEIVES.
▀ He not only teaches, but above all he LEARNS from the PEOPLE he serves, who are
NOT only PASSIVE RECIPIENTS of his efforts.
▀ As a mediator, he keeps NOTHING FOR HIMSELF, spending himself generously even
until he is consumed.
▀ He takes care to keep alive his ardour for HOLINESS through the ‘GRACE OF UNITY’.
▀ He is committed to COLLABORATION with the LAITY, MISSIONARY VOLUNTEERS and
the members of the SALESIAN FAMILY.
.
▀ The presence of Missionaries strengthens inculturation because they offer a
PERSPECTIVE OF THE CULTURE that local confreres do not have; while local confreres
have a perception of their culture that missionaries do not have.
▀ A Province made up only of CONFRERES OF THE SAME CULTURE risks being less
sensitive to the challenge of INTERCULTURALITY and less able to see beyond the
confines of its own culture.
▀ In OLD AGE he continues his missionary work by sharing his FRIENDSHIP and
WISDOM with PRAYER and EXAMPLE of life: BURIAL in his mission land seals this.
▀ Missionary life is a radical and complete GIFT OF ONESELF that implies total
availability WITHOUT any TIME LIMIT (ad vitam).

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THE MISSIONARY VOCATION
Our religious profession is a unique and fruitful deepening of our baptismal
consecration in view of our particular mission in the Church. Hence, the Salesian
missionary vocation is a call from the Lord, within our common Salesian vocation.
There are some Salesians who feel called for being sent out of their own cultural setting
or country to any part of the world whatsoever (AD EXTEROS) to cooperate zealously
and boldly in the new frontiers of our mission of evangelisation, or where the Church
is not yet fully established (AD GENTES), without any time limits (AD VITAM).
MISSIONARY EXPERIENCE
In the Congregation the confreres can offer to work temporarily in another Province,
or to respond to a specific or urgent need.
In the light of a renewed vision of the missions, it is no longer appropriate to speak of
missionaries ad tempus (temporary) but of missionary experience.
The missionary experience may be an opportunity for some confreres to discern and
mature their missionary vocation. In this case, the confrere concerned will present his
total availability to the Rector Major for the missionary projects of the Congregation
For this missionary experience, an agreement is signed between two Provincials for
three or five years. It may be renewed but not longer than a total period of ten years.
A copy is sent to the Councillor for the Missions, the Regional Councillor and the
Secretary General.
▀ The missionary
experience is a positive
experience for many
Provinces and confreres
▪What is MY profile of a Salesian Missionary?
▪What are the implications of this renewed missionary profile for me?

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Discernment of the Missionary Vocation
The missionary vocation needs careful discernment. This is a gradual and progressive
process that is carried out with the help of the spiritual guide, the Rector and the
formation team.
In the different phases of
INITIAL FORMATION, all those
being formed are encouraged
to keep the MISSIONARY
SPIRIT alive as an essential
element of our charism,
through the contents to be
emphasised, the attitudes to be
cultivated and the experiences
to be promoted in each
formation phase. They are formed to be available and to keep an eye open on the life
of the Church and the Congregation by making missionary projects known.
“It is the responsibility of the Provincials, Provincial Delegates for Missionary
Animation (PDMA) and formators to encourage discernment of the life-long
missionary vocation, especially in young confreres.” (AGC 429, p. 50.)
There is no age limit for leaving as a missionary. However, intercultural and inter-
religious dialogue, inculturation and language learning are easier at a young age. The
POST-NOVITIATE is the most suitable phase of formation for serious missionary
discernment.
Postnovices who show interest in becoming missionaries are more closely
ACCOMPANIED, so they can embark on a good discernment path.
The Provincial, in dialogue with the General Councillor for the Missions, may send the
candidate as a post-novice missionary candidate for a year of practical training in a
missionary work in his own Province, or in another one in order to better discern one’s
missionary vocation.

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Selection and Sending of Missionaries
Since Fr Pascual Chávez launched ‘Project Europe’ in 2008 there is a more collegial
process of discerning, choosing and sending missionaries.
Stages of Discernment
a. The Rector Major writes a missionary appeal to all the confreres on 18 December where he
lists the missionary priorities for the year.
b. The confrere writes a letter to the Rector Major presenting his missionary availability.
c. On receiving the letter, the Rector Major forwards it to the Councillor for the Missions.
d. The General Councillor for the Missions begins or continues the dialogue with the candidate.
e. The General Councillor for the Missions dialogues with the candidate’s Provincial asking him
and his Council for a written opinion to verify the candidate’s suitability. If the candidate is
in initial formation, the written opinion of the Rector and the House Council is required.
f. Having received the favourable opinion of the Provincial and his Council (and of the Rector and
the House Councillor) the General Councillor for the Missions makes a study with the Rector
Major on the needs, the missionary priorities for the year and the possible destinations.
g. The General Councillor for the Missions puts a proposal to the General Council regarding the
destinations of the members of the next missionary expedition.
The Missionary Send-Off
It is appropriate that there be a farewell ceremony in the Province for the
missionary confrere. The giving of the missionary cross is reserved to the Rector
Major alone at the time of the missionary send-off.
The missionary candidate participates in Rome in the five-week Orientation
Course in preparation for his missionary posting. During the course, having heard
the candidate personally, the General Councillor for the Missions concludes the
discernment for the new missionary’s final destination.
After the ceremony of the giving of the Missionary Cross, the missionary returns
to his Province of origin where he prepares his documents and waits for his visa. If
he is able to obtain a visa in Italy, he will be temporarily assigned to a Salesian house,
pending the migration procedures, with the prior consent of the Provincial
concerned.
The missionary’s Provincial of origin is
asked to give the departing missionary
who is awaiting migration procedures,
the possibility of beginning his study of
the language of his destination,
according to local possibilities.
For missionaries who leave as practical
trainees, time spent exclusively
studying the language or waiting for
migration procedures is not considered
as being part of their practical
training.
The distinctive
Salesian
missionary cross
is given by the
Rector Major
only to those
who offer
themselves
to be
missionaries.