ROME: 27 March 2014 -- The election of Councillors for
each of the main sectors is an exhaustive process now that
the new process is in place - yesterday's meetings in
Regions produced a list of names and today a series of straw
votes takes place for each sector.
First up was Formation. The
rest of the Sector Councillors will be elected in the course
of the day.
The new Vicar of the new Rector Major gave the
Goodnight last night.
Tonight (27th) the Facilitator, Fr Jose Cristo Rey Paredes
cmf gives the Goodnight ---------------------- And
the
man for Formation is ... Fr Ivo Coelho. a former Provincial in
Mumbai Province he is currently the Rector at Ratisbonne in
Jerusalem. He is not at the Chapter and had to accept by
phone. Ivo is 55 years of age.
More details once we have the others later in the day.
Vicar's Goodnight
Dear
Confreres,
Thank you for the serenity and communion with which you have
carried out this process of discernment and election to choose
the Vicar of the Rector Major, as well as what you have done
earlier in electing the Rector Major. Thank you also for the
trust you have put in me with this election.
Having got to know the life of the Congregation over these
twelve years, the Provinces, the confreres, especially the
many young confreres around the world, and having been part of
the General Council, I am available to offer my service to you
all, especially to the Rector Major, Fr Angel, given the
experience I have gained, my abilities and my limitations.
Radical obedience is precisely the obedience to be able to
live not by our own plans, but by the circumstances that God
has us encounter.
1. Legacy
I would like to look, firstly, at the legacy left us, and me,
by Fr Pascual, his Vicar Fr Adrian and the entire General
Council I have spent this last twelve years with. It is a
valuable legacy that finds its roots in the Special General
Chapter and in people such as Fr Egidio Viganò and Fr
Juan Vecchi, Rector Majors who along with Fr Pascual came from
the Americas. It is a legacy we must reflect on, draw from,
accept and ultimately allow to flourish.
I esepcially thank Fr Pascual for always having involved me in
so many experiences and initiaves amd precisely, because of
this, allowing me to love Don Bosco; I thank him above all for
his great charismatic insight on approaches to the young, on
Consecrated Life, the Salesian Family and the Congregation.
Let us continue to gaze upon the “rock from which we have all
been hewn” and the place, Valdocco, “where we were all born”.
I have to say that amongst the Councillors, as well as
fellowship I have found true friends.
2. Listening and vision
Personally I feel in tune with what the Rector Major, Fr
Angel, told us in the homily this morning and what the GC27
points out to us as a point of departure for our understanding
of situations and all our decisions: listening. At the same time I find myself
also in tune with what Pope Francis says: “let us learn how to
see with Jesus' eyes”, because “he who sees, believes”. I feel
I still have to learn, with your help, how to be supportive,
how to cooperate, listen and see.
3. Charismatic guide
Today at various levels we are called to the ability to be
charismatic guides, exercise a leadership that is both
mystical and prophetic in service of the young. It is
difficult to find the ways to exercise this new kind of
leadership; it is a leadership that is the responsibility
above all of the Rectotr Major, Fr Angel. As I have already
said this morning, my fundamental task is to be a sincere and
honest help to him, a loyal and faithful collaborator of the
Rector Major, Fr Angel, along with the whole Council.
Blessed Michael Rua is someone who can enlighten me in this
role. It was not for nothing that Fr Adrian put the painting
of Don Rua at the beginning of the corridor that led to his
office, so he could be inspired by him. I am grateful to Fr
Pascual for having reminded us in 2010 of the centenary of Fr
Rua's death and that we must get to know him. It will help me
in my task of recalling what Fr Rua did beside Don Bosco when
he was his first collaborator.
4. Being Jesus' disciples
Don Rua will also help me to keep in mind the help I must give
to the vocational growth of every confrere. I would like to
recall here what Fr Pascual wrote in his letter for the
centenary year of Don Rua's death: “Following Don Rua's
example as a faithful disciple of Jesus in Don Bosco's
footsteps, every confrere is called to rediscover the ways to
preserve his fidelitty to his consecrated vocation. Our
vocation is a precious gift, but it is “like a treasure in
earthenware vessels”. The greatness of the gift received is
often threatend by the fragility of our response … In fact, by
embracing consecrated Salesian life we undertake to follow
Jesus and we become his authentic disciples and zealous
apostles. This all demands of us a convinced vocational
fidelity".
Fr Pascual goes on:“When Don Rua was sent to Mirabello to
found a new house, he summed up the advice he had received
from Don Bosco in just one statement: “At Mirabello I will try
to be Don Bosco”. How important it is that each of us take on
this same attitude! This is also our project of life, as
expressed in our Constitutions, to be Don Bosco today, where
we live and work. Becoming Don Bosco, day by day, is exactly
what the Constitutions point out to us. We know that after the
approval of the Constitutions on 3 April 1874, Don Rua was
called the living rule because
of his exemplary life."
I conclude by calling to mind and thanking the confreres and
rectors of the communities of the General House and the
Vatican, for whome I have a sspecial responsibility as Vicar.
I especially thank the collaborators I have had over these
years in the formation sector here in Rome: Frs Bernard
Grogan, Chrys Saldanha, Santo Dal Ben and Horacio Lopez, as
well as the regional coordinators, Provincial Formation
Delegates, formators and those in formation. I thank the
confreres at the UPS and the international communities. Thanks
to you all. Good night.
Fr José Cristo Rey
García Paredes cmf - Goodnight
His work almost done, thisevening Fr José gives a
Goodnight to the assembled Chapter members - he is no
stranger, really, to Salesian tradition, and his Goodnight is
an example of that. Simple, brief (almost within the 3
minutes, but what the heck!) - and interesting!
He speaks of the ministry of fidelity while 'surfing in the
liquid society'! What a great image. We are 'the
faithful' and the one thing that is not liquid in the whole
surfing scene is the 'paltform' we choose to get our balance
on - our faith.
Next time round perhaps we can give the full contents of this
little gem.
