DUBLIN: July 25, 2014 --Perhaps more of a reflection than a guide, Fr
Jack Finnegan, Irish Delegate to General Chapter 27, sums up
the best of GC27 in 11 pages which he entitles 'Rooted in the
Gospel'. These pages are worth reading. You might call them
'Not the GC27 Document', as a positive rather than parody
reference, because the author did not feel bound to either the
original or translated language of the document. Other than
Don Bosco's mottoes (W&T, DMA) and the more recent 'Grace
of unity', you will find the language refreshingly different..
'Rooted in the Gospel' is informed by the chronology of the
Chapter. After providing us with a raft of facts (204 reps for
15,000 men in 132 countries looking to provide a 6 year
programme, using three official languages and three other
translated ones) the author offers us the four pivotal
questions which the Chapter was about. Already here you sense
that he is unpacking the experience, his personal experience
of the Chapter, by putting the questions in different terms.
The pilgrimage around Don Bosco Land reminded him - as he
reminds us - that lean-tos (sheds), be they at Colle or
Valdocco, are part of our origins.
The core reflection is on what it means, and what the Chapter
meant, to be 'radical', especially in reference to the
Salesian community. Are we 'cold fortresses' or 'warm oases',
or something else? He offers the 'parable' of the Green,
eco-sensitive tree-hugging, recycling (they also pray)
religious community, locked away from the dodgy and deceitful,
then shifts the image slightly to the way we tend to mimic the
bourgeois gated communities - no 'peripheries' there! He warms
to that theme, then: "bourgeois lives dancing to and mimicking
the rhythms of middleclass existences" but tells us that GC27
really did try to come up with responses to this situation,
especially reminding us of 'God's vast Dynamic Mystery' (not
GC27 language, precisely, but the intent of the language it
did employ, 'la trama di Dio', the weave and weft of God's
involvement in human affairs). The Chapter, he feels, has
given us an alignment ('radical Gospel way' in Chapter
language) for leadership at every level for the next six
years, and a way to tackle the 'functional atheism' (strong
term? But a Chapter one, he says) among religious.
A section entitled 'Some personal reflections' follows,
drawing on the experience of the Retreat and discussion on the
lights and shadows of the Congregation as revealed in the RM's
Report (with an interesting footnote on Don Bosco's choice of
nomenclature which he borrowed, the author suggests, from the
railways. The final sentence of that footnote is intriguing:
"In this part of the world the General is still referred to as
the Rector Major and is considered to be in direct succession
to Don Bosco.")
There is an illuminating (almost literally, given the 'fire'
image) paragraph or three on 'radical'. "With Don Bosco we are
invited to become tongues of fire for the world" and not just
"lanterns because we are afraid of the fire".
Mystics, Prophets and Servants: "In the grace of unity the
mystic, the prophet and the servant become the aroma of Christ
in the world...The result is a growing capacity to live from
the heart, to live wisely yet passionately, to be alive to the
creative concerns of Spirit, and to put aside the distorting
ambitions of grandeur and power. At such moments the door to
paradox opens". This is a challenging passage and deserves
contemplating at length. He is drawing very much from
the material and ideas that were presented by Fr Bartolomé
during the retreat.
The reflection concludes with a brief run-through on the
process, which he treats more kindly than some I have heard
from, the elections ('I remember one scintillating comment
from Padre Cristo Rey: “Sometimes passports prove more
important than charisms!”'), but quickly adds that "Padre
Cristo Rey’s approach and wisdom and the discerning
cooperation of the chapter members kept politics at
bay". A para. or two on the papal audience, and his
conclusion: "Let the work begin in the grace of unity!"
You will enjoy this 'unpacking' of the Chapter, but will need
to sit with it a while. What a wonderful thing it would be if
we had 204 such reflections!
