ROME: 8 March 2014 -- March 8 sees a final summary, approved by the
assembly, of discussion of the Rector Major's Report.
There are 4 'regular' Commissions, a Juridical Commission and
a Drafting Commission. They meet as a commission, there are
then times in Assembly, and finally the drafting group (3
members) presents what it believes is a summary which is then
approved by the Assembly and becomes material for eventual
inclusion in a final Chapter document or if not there, is
handed on to the Rector Major and his Council for the
2014-2020 period. Sounds easy? Not really....
Study of the Rector Major's
Report Let's
go back to 5 March, the day the Assembly approved the GC27
Regulations - a set of guidelines for conduct of the Chapter
itself. An 18 page document that covers the following kinds of
things:
A history of this set of Regulations - convocation of the
Chapter - who the members are - the Chapter opening - the main
entities, groups, roles - regulations on work processes at the
Chapter (e.g. drafting, commissions, general dynamics ...) -
discussion and voting rules - elections - closing the Chapter.
Amongst these regulations is the following regarding study of
the RM's Report, recalling that GC25 first brought this in to
Chapter proceedings:
"Study of the report has the
purpose of discerning what are the priority challenges for
the Congregation and identifying the process and fundamental
interventions which need to mark the 2014-2020 six year
period. This study foresees time spent in commissions and
time spent in general assembly. An 'ad hoc' drafting group
will summarise the different contributions from the
commissions and the assembly...".
It goes on to point out that items from this summary, once
approved, could then be incorporated into any eventual Chapter
document or decisions that might be formulated (e.g. by the
Juridical Commission) for the life of the Congregation. What
is not taken up from the summary in those forums will then be
passed on to the new Rector Major and his Council for
consideration in their planning procedures.
The Commissions have already met, things have been tossed
around, too, in the Assembly - and of course the Drafting
Group has gone into action with its first attempt to sum it
all up. This is where it does not get easy and at every
General Chapter, the DG members (let's call them that) have to
have thick skin and wear comments like "Too much repetition",
"Tone is peremptory - doesn't seem to admit of exceptions
which work!", "A bit too formal - prune it!".
What kind of emphases are coming through? Here's a glimpse: Fraternal life:
- role and figure of the Salesian Brother
- the rector is the guarantor of ongoing formation in the
community, so needs adequate formation himself Working with the laity
- GC24 should be studied in formation houses to start with
- it's not clear who is responsible for formation of laity The mission
- missing any reference to the digital playground as a place
of encounter and accompaniment today for young people
- taking another look at GC23 will help us recover the primacy
of God Animation and Governance
- rethink the Regional's role: more power, encourage sharing
of resources in region, educate to sense of belonging to the
region
- let there be less input sent out to everyone but diversify
it according to regions
- transparency is an essential feature of any financial
management
It's not difficult to see then (and these are mere glimpses of
a more extensive summary, obviously, that will result from
today's final discussions on the report) that some of this
material will be picked up later by the Chapter for ultimate
formulation in documentary form as guidelines, directions etc.
"Rasunuma...
Religiön ...Vorumsi ben"
At one point someone commented that the various points under
the heading of 'Mission', coming out of discussion of this
Report, "are all facets of the Preventive System".
Well, then, here are
some ideas that were NOT part of any Chapter discussion
- a confrere who is Piedmontese, and who comes from a village
not all that far, 'as the crow flies', from the Becchi was
reflecting last night over a glass of - well, it wasn't
Barbera, Barolo or Freisa - in fact it went under the title of
Wirra Wirra (an Australian aboriginal name) a blend of
Cabernet and Petit Verdot.
Anyhow, wines apart, he was reflecting on the way we employ Reason, Religion and Loving
Kindness today and wondered if things might be
different were we to plumb Don Bosco's Piedmontese
understanding of these terms. To explain what he meant, he put
it this way:
"I heard these three terms
as a kid in the village, from my grandfather and
grandmother, but not in Italian (we spoke Piedmontese at
home always). When things needed to be worked out amongst
people, maybe something had gone wrong, grandpa used say 'Rasunuma 'n
poc' = 'Let's have
a chat about this'. It was very practical reasoning, nothing
cerebral about it. On the other hand, grandma's
comment on things was 'Un poc 'd religiön 'l
rangia tüt' =
'a bit of religion (a sense of God) will fix things up', and
'Vorumsi
ben' = 'Let's get
on together'. Here 'religiön' has little to do with
cult, rules and regulations and a lot to do with the primacy
of God. And where 'amorevolezza' in Italian (loving kindness
in English) seems to suggest me showing this to them (so one
way, in a sense), note the communal aspect of 'vorumsi ben'."
That's very interesting indeed! Don Bosco, it seems, used
these three terms in Italian (is there any record of him
actually using their Piedmontese 'equivalent'?) but it would
not be stretching things to suggest that he might well have
had an ingrained Piedmontese mindset nurtured by just those
same ideas expressed above. And if so, it is a whole new
insight into the Preventive System that could be very
appropriate for us today.
