GC26

Rome

23 February - 12 April 2008

N. 401

year LXXXIX

May 2008

« Da mihi animas,

cetera tolle »

DOCUMENTS OF THE GENERAL CHAPTER XXVI

OF THE SOCIETY OF SAINT FRANCIS OF SALES

Rome, 23 February – 12 April 2008

Numberspages

General Index5

INTRODUCTION 19

My Dear Confreres,

I am happy to present to you the Acts of the 26^th General Chapter which was brought to a happy conclusion on Saturday 12 April 2008. This concluding date has a symbolic significance for us: it recalls the day when Don Bosco entered Valdocco on Easter Sunday 1846. If that day meant for him the beginning of a new stage in his mission, for us the 12 April 2008 represents the launch of a six-year period that will bring us to the celebration of the bi-centenary of the birth of our beloved Founder and Father.

During the unfolding of the Chapter you have had the opportunity of being promptly informed about the intense Salesian experience that was lived, the methodology of the work undertaken, the various issues examined. In addition you will have certainly heard about their experience from those who took part in this great Chapter event: Provincials, Delegates and invited guests. Now the promulgation of the deliberations of the Chapter invites us to put them into practice (cf. C. 148).

The publication of the Acts, with the documents that form part of them, makes the decisions taken official policy, and marks the starting point of the six-year period 2008 - 2014. I hope that the personal reading, the study by the community and the putting into practice of the guidelines will bring as their precious fruit the inflaming of the heart of each one of you with the spiritual and apostolic passion of Don Bosco himself. May the Lord Jesus, through His Spirit “open your heart” (cf. Acts 16, 14).

In this presentation of mine I want to describe for you the theme, the method of discernment, the people involved, the spirit of the Chapter and its deliberations. Taken together these will serve as a guide in reading the document, and above all in its implementation.

The theme of the GC26 is a single one even though it is set out in key issues. At first sight it might seem that the GC26 dealt with five different questions; in realty it is just the one theme: Don Bosco’s programme of spiritual and apostolic life.

The motto “Da mihi animas, cetera tolle” can be fully understood from a knowledge of the life and work of our beloved Father and Founder Don Bosco. In fact it is a question of his personal plan of life, expressed as a personal prayer. It needs to be interpreted in the light of his apostolic dedication, pastoral creativity, untiring work, in a word of Don Bosco’s apostolic mystica, but also of the self sacrifices made, of the many difficulties overcome, of the commitments undertaken by Don Bosco, of his ascetica. The implicit subject of this motto is Don Bosco; the first key issue “starting afresh from Don Bosco” makes it a manifesto and establishes it as the foundation of all the rest.

The “da mihi animas” is translated into the commitment to evangelise the young, especially the poorest ones. In fact the apostolic passion of Don Bosco and of the Salesian is at once expressed in the ability to recognise the urgent needs for evangelisation and to act in such a way that Jesus Christ and his gospel become a gift to everyone. In evangelising activity we also transmit this apostolic passion to lay people, to families and especially to the young; it is particularly to them that we have the courage to propose Salesian consecrated life as the following of Jesus in the steps of Don Bosco, not as one possible way among others of personal fulfilment, but as a call from God.

The “cetera tolle” makes us ready to leave everything that might prevent us from going to where the most serious needs of the young are to be found: the new frontiers of the Salesian mission. The gospel is good news for the poor and needs to be proclaimed by poor people. The most compelling needs of the young are their material forms of poverty but also those that are affective, cultural, spiritual; these call us to a radical availability and to put to one side everything else. The different forms of poverty of the young require us also to be at one with them, to share with them a simple and poor life, to put at their disposal the resources we have.

The challenges of post-modernity call us to overcome the fragmentation of our life and of our culture. For this reason the theme of the GC26 ought to help us to live the “grace of unity,” in other words, to accept the gift of the unification of out lives, to take on board Don Bosco’s programme of spiritual and pastoral life as the criterion of unity, to translate it in practical terms in our personal and community choices and in those of the Province, the Region and the Congregation.

As had already happened at the GC25, for the study of the key issues GC26 adopted the method of discernment. Making use of a method already tried, one that is also used for the personal plan of life and the community plan of life, facilitated the work, but above all helped in the appreciation of the potential of discernment itself. This enabled us to follow a sure path and to offer a development of the Chapter theme that was forward-planning and not only doctrinal.

In God’s call, by means of a process of discernment, in each key issue, the urgent appeals and the priorities were identified. Therefore, the call does not describe exhaustively all the demands linked to an issue, but only the priority ones; the process of discernment led us to make choices. To discern is precisely to distinguish what is fundamental from what is secondary at a certain time, and consequently to make choices.

For example, in order to start afresh from Don Bosco the GC26 identified and proposed three main pathways: returning to him, returning to the young, strengthening charismatic identity and revitalising apostolic passion. Similarly, in order to respond to the urgent need for evangelisation, the Chapter chose these priorities: taking care of the Salesian community in such a way that it is evangelised and evangelising, making the proposal of Jesus Christ central, giving depth to the relationship between education and evangelisation, paying attention to the regional contexts. The same method was then followed in the other key issues.

In the analysis of the situation the process of discernment leads us to identify the positive aspects, the signs of hope, the resources, but also the difficulties, the hesitations, the challenges, with regard to the fundamental choices identified in the call. From this there arises an overview of the issues that concentrates on the identification of priorities; in this way a picture emerges of light and shade, which immediately leads us look for the most appropriate things to be done.

In the guidelines for action, for each key issue we find something new: at the beginning, the processes required for change are indicated. That is, the situations to be dealt with are listed and the goal towards which the guidelines for actions should lead; it is a matter of passing from a state of weakness to a new approach to life. They are processes for a conversion in ways of thinking and a change of structures; they are indications of our exodus and our passover.

Seventeen guidelines for action are presented; but in realty these form five major themes with an indication of the practical ways of implementing them. In fact, basically, it is a question of undertaking the following tasks: starting afresh from Don Bosco, responding to the urgent need for evangelisation, having the courage to propose to young people the Salesian consecrated vocation, giving a credible witness of evangelical poverty and a simple life, venturing out onto the new frontiers of the Salesian mission.

The guidelines for action are made more specific through particular interventions. These are given to different subjects. It should be noted that each one does not have to do everything, specific contributions are requested from the different subjects. With everyone’s contribution, the guidelines for action can become something practical; each one is invited to play his part. This is the importance of different subjects being involved.

The GC26 will be able to bring about the desired changes in the life of the Congregation so that they become reality therefore, only if there are people who take on the mentality and guidelines with generosity and in a responsible manner. The fact that there are a number of subjects involved ensures effective action.

The GC26 addresses first of all the Salesian. After the 23rd, 24^th and 25th General Chapters which focused on the local Salesian community, the GC26 intends to put at the centre of attention the individual confrere. It is he who has received from God the gift of the Salesian vocation; it is he who is called to respond to that gift with creative fidelity and to take up Don Bosco’s spiritual and pastoral programme of “da mihi animas, cetera tolle”.

The GC26 intends to revitalise in the heart of each confrere the apostolic passion and to offer him a role characterised by charismatic identity; in this way he can be Don Bosco for the young people of today. He is called to have an intense and profound spiritual life, to live in a joyful family spirit, to be with the young, to be daring in evangelisation, to go out to the frontiers of our mission, to live in the way of the poor, to involve the laity, families and the young people themselves in pastoral zeal, to propose to young people Salesian consecrated life, to love Don Bosco and make him known.

GC26 then directly issues a challenge to each community. In fact in the guidelines for action there are almost always interventions proposed to the community, for it to take up. In particular, the community takes the initiative for evangelisation, takes care of vocations to Salesian consecrated life and gives its witness to evangelical poverty. The evangelised community is called to be evangelising; the witness it gives is the first vocational invitation; its life lived in simplicity and austerity shows its love for poverty; it goes out among poor young people with daring; in the place where it lives it reproduces with the young the Valdocco experience.

In this way the GC26 asks the Salesian community to continue those processes that the GC25 set in motion, once again inviting it to focus on consistency in quantity and quality. In the community the confrere grows in his following of Christ and makes the gift of himself to God for the young. He is called to assume personally the new demands of his vocation; at the same time the community by living its own life to the full fosters his ongoing formation.

The GC26 also indicates other subjects: the Province, the Region, the Rector Major with the General Council. Giving due weight to subsidiarity, each one carries out his tasks and all cooperate in the responding to the same call and putting into practice the same guidelines for action. Without question action cannot be limited to these subjects. At once there comes into play the co-involvement and the active role of the young, the laity and families, and hence of the educative pastoral community. Likewise it is unthinkable to live and to act without reference to the Salesian Family and without links with the surrounding area and with the local Church.

The General Chapter was an unforgettable event, one that will soon become a chronicle to be narrated especially by those who lived it. It has also been translated into a fine document, which, however, would run the risk of remaining a “dead letter” without a spirit to animate it. The GC26 therefore is also a spirit; thus we need to recognise what the spirit of GC26 is.

Just as the “spirit of the Second Vatican Council” is alive and active, we can also say that there is a “spirit of the GC26” that needs to be welcomed. It is made up of the passion that burned in the heart of Don Bosco and drove him to seek the glory of God and the salvation of souls. It guided the Assembly in the process of discernment and in the drawing up of the document and it will see to it that the text of the Chapter is transformed into life, vitality and vivacity for each confrere, for the communities, the Provinces, the Regions and the whole Congregation.

It is the Spirit of Christ who animates and vivifies. The spirit of the GC26 is a gift of the Spirit of the Risen Lord to our Congregation. He has poured out his gifts abundantly on all of us with a renewed Pentecost. He opens the mind of each confrere and warms his heart; in this way He inflames him with a renewed passion that will give abundant fruits. In this way the GC26 is not only an event of historical record nor just a document, but becomes part of the life story of each one of us and of the Congregation.

The General Chapter also produced some deliberations regarding the Constitutions and the General Regulations and the government of the Congregation. Some of them refer to central government and to the Regions, others to the relationship between the Salesian community and the work, and to the local economer, others again to our institutions of higher education.

In particular I mention the guideline regarding the so-called “Departments for the Salesian mission”. The Chapter expressed the need for greater collaboration and for unification in the organisation and the implementation of the Salesian mission. I encourage the Provinces to bear in mind this sensitivity and to draw inspiration from it in the animation of the Province.

To me it seems important also to draw attention to the guideline regarding the three Regions of Europe. Taking into consideration the cultural processes of the unification of Europe, the experiences of collaboration in progress and the re-structuring of the Provinces, it is necessary to intensify the forms of coordination, to encourage synergy, to overcome a view from the perspective of a single Region, and therefore have a European outlook.

I also consider of interest the deliberation expressed concerning the relationship between the Salesian community and the work. The guideline offered will help in understanding better, also from the institutional and juridical points of view, the action taken by the GC25 which asked that the Salesian community and the educative pastoral community should be considered two genuine subjects.

The General Chapter is now handed over to the whole Congregation. Through the Provincial Chapters, the Provinces and Vice Provinces had already produced their guidelines for courses of action, identifying objectives, procedures and interventions. Now with the deliberations of the GC26 they are called upon to integrate the work already done, with reference to the individual Salesian, to the local communities and to the community of the Province.

We entrust ourselves to Mary Help of Christians. Through her motherly intervention, to contribute to the salvation of youth, the Holy Spirit raised up Don Bosco (cf. C. 1). She was his guide in the carrying out of his mission to youth. «She has done everything ». She is our Mother and Teacher. From her we learn docility to the Holy Spirit and the depth of the spiritual life, that is the root of the fruitfulness of our mission. To her we recommend the challenges of evangelisation, vocations to Salesian consecrated life, and poor young people. May Mary Our Help intercede for us.

Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva

INTRODUCTION

I have promised God that I will give of myself to my last breath

for my poor boys

(Biographical Memoirs XVIII, 216)

Don Bosco's passion for the salvation of youth is our most precious heritage. The 26th General Chapter set itself the task of reviving it in each Salesian by putting the famous motto of our Father and Founder, Da mihi animas cetera tolle, at the centre of reflection of the communities and provinces. Thus began a process of interior renewal and reflection which emerged through the contributions which came to the Chapter Assembly as a point of departure for its work.

Pilgrims to the places of Don Bosco, we have seen from the beginning that the Da mihi animas cetera tolle gathers up the charismatic experience of our origins and the witness of so many confrères of yesterday and today. It questions our capacity to be Don Bosco in our time and invites us to be enthusiasts for his project of holiness, joyful and credible witnesses of the Salesian spirit, enamoured of God and consecrated to the young “until our last breath”. Thus we find ourselves at the source of consecrated life and at the heart of the mission, because the mystical and ascetic nature which marks out the Salesian vocation is found concentrated in this motto. This all means for us that we return to Don Bosco and begin afresh with him in order to go out to meet today’s young people.

They were with us as principal interlocutors throughout the Chapter, with our lively desire to reveal God's love to them. The youth frontier today is more than ever full of challenges and opportunities; it is there as both attractive and difficult. It is essential that we understand the expectations and needs of the young, appreciate the values they are more sensitive to, and recognise their own potential. We must take account of the threats and obstacles they need to cope with and overcome in their search for life, the way of freedom, in their experience of love. It is a responsibility which comes from our vocation to accept the challenge of this emergency, and not desert a frontier that belongs to us. Education and evangelisation are the greatest contribution we can offer the young, the Church and society today in the spirit and with the methods and contents of the preventive system.

Accepting the invitation of the Rector Major in his letter of convocation, we have spelled out “starting afresh from Don Bosco” following four themes: the urgency of evangelisation, the need for vocation ministry, evangelical poverty and the new frontiers. It is not a case of separate themes, but of elements built into our Father and Founder's programme of spiritual and apostolic life. They are elements of great relevance for today, from which come concrete and demanding tasks of renewal. They are our priorities for this time.

We have identified them by putting ourselves in harmony with the Church and by listening to the Congregation, paying attention to the different regional contexts, noting the more lively and prophetic testimonies, facing up to new forms of poverty and the challenges which evangelisation poses for the entire Church, both in countries of ancient Christian tradition and in mission countries. Our own time in discussion together has helped us a great deal, both the debates in the aula and the work in commissions; but more helpful still has been the atmosphere of prayer and fellowship which has marked our time together, and, especially, the authoritative word of the Holy Father Benedict XVI.

Thus we have arrived at drawing up the text which we present now, as a reminder of our experience and a sharing of the effort we made to decipher and interpret the signs of the times. In it you will find the core themes divided into:

• God's call: looking at both Don Bosco and the young, we have carried out a work of discernment to discover what God wants from us today;

• Situation: we have taken what the confrères offered as the fruit of their research and the telling of their experience, and we have identified both the positive and the problematic elements, aware that God speaks to us through history;

• Guidelines for action: introduced by some points which encourage a change of mentality and structures, these identify in summary fashion the main priorities the Congregation intends to deal with over the next six years; they are divided into actions which touch the individual Salesian, the community, the province, the region and central government, offering pointers to be taken up and made concrete in the various contexts.

The fruit of our work now comes into the confrères' hands and becomes an invitation to renewal and to fidelity to Don Bosco and, through him, to God and the young. We have as stimulus and encouragement our confrères, the young, the laity and other members of the Salesian Family who have given witness through their holiness to the beauty of our project of life, the fruitfulness of the Salesian spirit and the spiritual strength of the Da mihi animas cetera tolle.

The years to come will be a time of grace for us Salesians. The 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Congregation in 2009, the centenary of the death of Blessed Michael Rua in 2010 and the bicentenary of Don Bosco's birth in 2015 make the coming years an extraordinary time. We will have a chance to recall to mind and more deeply understand the history of our charismatic experience, in order to identify ourselves with it and live it with the passion and radical nature of the Da mihi animas cetera tolle, and to offer and share it joyfully and with prophetic capacity. We have before us a favourable time for returning to Don Bosco and starting afresh with him and like him, passionate for God and the young, docile and attentive to the Spirit, trusting in the presence of the Help of Christians. It is a journey and grace we would like to share with all members of the Salesian Family.

The Confrères

of the 26th General Chapter

STARTING AFRESH FROM DON BOSCO

“Keep doing all the things that you learnt from me and have been taught by me and have heard or seen that I do” (Phil 4:9)

GOD'S CALL

“The Lord has given us Don Bosco as father and teacher. We study and imitate him, admiring in him a splendid blending of nature and grace. He was deeply human, rich in the qualities of his people, open to the realities of this earth; and he was just as deeply the man of God, filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and living "as seeing him who was invisible". These two aspects combined to create a closely-knit life project, the service of the young. He realized his aim with firmness, constancy and the sensitivity of a generous heart, in the midst of difficulties and fatigue. "He took no step, he said no word, he took up no task that was not directed to the saving of the young. Truly the only concern of his heart was for souls."”. (C. 21)

[1] Return to Don Bosco

Listening to the Spirit we feel called to return to Don Bosco as our sure guide in following Christ with a burning passion for God and for the young, especially the poorest of them.

To return to Don Bosco means loving him, studying him, imitating him, invoking him and making him known. It also means applying oneself to getting to know his story and to a study of the origins of the Congregation, constantly listening to the expectations of the young and the challenges of today's culture. The wealth of sources and Salesian studies now available to us allow us to more deeply understand the motivations which led him to certain choices. These also help us to appreciate the goals and projects which gradually became clearer through his activity, the original synthesis of pedagogy and pastoral ministry which he achieved by taking St Francis de Sales as his inspiration. These opportunities challenge us particularly to discover the rich humanity that immediately made him a friend to the young, and the profound spirituality which motivated him daily to dedicate his life to the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.

To return to Don Bosco also entails grasping more deeply the many ways of conveying the charism in the cultural contexts of various countries and availing of the contribution of the vital experience of so many generations of Salesians, among whom some luminous examples of holiness stand out. This enables confrères in every Region to rediscover the wealth of the tradition they have received and to draw inspiration from it for an authentic inculturation of the charism.

[2] Return to the young

To return to Don Bosco means "being in the playground", that is being present with the young, especially the poorest of them, in order to discover the presence of God in them and invite them to be open to his mystery of love. Don Bosco returns among the youth of today through the witness and action of a community which lives his spirit, and which is animated by the same apostolic passion. He recommends that each Salesian joyfully encounters the young in their daily lives, pledging himself to listen to their pleas, to know their world, encourage them to take the lead, to reawaken their sense of God and offer them ways to holiness found in Salesian spirituality. It is Don Bosco who asks us once again to face up bravely to the challenges of the young and give a courageous response to the crisis of education in our time, rallying a vast movement of forces on behalf of youth.

In his dream at nine years of age Don Bosco received Mary as his mother and teacher. He let himself be guided by her in his mission to the young. This is why we too feel that she is present in our Houses and propose her to the young as a spiritual model and help as they grow up.

[3] Charismatic identity and apostolic passion

By studying Don Bosco's spiritual journey and re-living his apostolic passion today, we feel called to let the fascination of his charism shine forth, show its beauty and communicate the power of its attraction. This urges us to developing a visible and credible witness to our vocation, a radical following of Christ, a strong sense of belonging to the Church, the Congregation and the Salesian Family, a clear perception of our spiritual and pastoral identity. Without such a charismatic, riveting and all-involving proposal, the process of vocational identification is difficult.

Each Salesian is called to contemplate the heart of Christ, the Good Shepherd and Apostle of the Father, and to follow him, according to Don Bosco's example, in an obedient, poor and chaste style of life. In this manner he will dedicate himself generously to the young, live his vocation in the community joyfully and thus find his way to holiness.

Don Bosco, who handed over the Constitutions to Fr John Cagliero before the latter's departure for Patagonia, indicated to us the way we should make a “fair copy” of the Congregation for today: by being faithful to him through a convinced observance of our Rule of life. Furthermore, the cross which is given to us at our perpetual profession invites us, through the images it bears, to spend our lives with the young and for the young until our dying breath, taking up Don Bosco's invitation: work out how to make yourself loved.

SITUATION

[4] Return to Don Bosco

The figure of Don Bosco is ever attractive and relevant. Many confrères desire to know him better and imitate him in their lives. One sign of this is the growing readiness to take part in formation opportunities which call to mind the origins of the charism. The young and lay people as well are involved in this renewed interest.

The publication of new Salesian studies and critical editions of historical sources has offered a support for a deeper understanding of our spiritual and apostolic experience. In order to avoid a merely affective or nostalgic understanding, we recognise the need to throw more light on Don Bosco's mystical experience and to study the spiritual and pedagogical wealth of our tradition, paying particular attention to putting the Preventive System into practice and inculturating it.

There are numerous well-qualified expressions of esteem for and recognition of the educative service we carry out in difficult contexts and for young people at risk. The unavoidable life-questions of so many youngsters compel us to find adequate responses. They convince us of the effectiveness and relevance of the Salesian charism in today's world.

[5] Return to the young

Confrères and communities are generously dedicated to educative and pastoral service. They carry out intensive work for disadvantaged young people, the poor, the working classes through a variety of works and initiatives. Faced with situations of an educative emergency, we accept the challenge and are often able to discover the resources and ways to offer an adequate response.

The passion of some confrères is contagious, and enthuses many adults who not only collaborate, but share the responsibility, making the life and activity of our educative and pastoral communities possible. We also appreciate the readiness of many young people to be protagonists and to become apostles amongst their own companions, even to the point where vocations to special consecration mature. At times however, the style of management of our works hinders a more direct presence of confrères amongst the young and with the laity. It absorbs all their energies in tasks that could be entrusted to others.

But it must be admitted that for not a few confrères the world of the young is something difficult and distant, arousing in them fear and the feeling that they are not adequately prepared. A difficulty in understanding language accentuates the cultural alienation that can then result in physical and affective distance.

[6] Charismatic identity and apostolic passion

Many confrères are committed to the renewal of spiritual life. This shows itself in the joyful atmosphere of many communities, in the pastoral energy which animates them and in the depth of their prayer life. Many have found the personal and community plan of life helpful for their personal growth. Nor can we overlook the serenity and spirit of faith of so many elderly and sick confrères who offer up their illness for the salvation of the young, and support the community through prayer. Where all this is found one recognizes a happy involvement of adults and young people in the one mission, especially when they have been offered a process of formation.

It is painful to acknowledge, nonetheless, other patterns entering into community life: patterns marked by individualism, ease, a tendency to adopt bourgeois values, rigid approaches, denial of visible indicators of consecrated life. Don Bosco had already put his early Salesians on guard against these dangers.

Activism and over-focusing on efficiency, the lack of a community project, individualism, an insufficient or unbalanced distribution of tasks are all obstacles to prayer, make interior life fragile, bring a chill to our fraternal relationships, and diminish the attention owed to each individual confrère. By weakening the ascetic aspect of the cetera tolle we prejudice the apostolic passion which finds its inspiration and expression in the da mihi animas.

These lights and shadows in our communities clearly demonstrate the difficulty we experience in our consecrated life combining, as Vatican Council II requested, the sequela Christi, the Founder's charism, and the adaptation to the changing conditions of our times (PC 2).

GUIDELINES FOR ACTION

[7] Processes required for change

In order to face up to the demands of the call and the challenges which arise from the situation, and in order to carry out the guidelines for action which follow, we need to change our mentality and modify our structures, moving from:

- a superficial knowledge of Don Bosco to a serious and committed study of the history, pedagogy, ministry and spirituality of our Father and Founder, and of the reflection of the Congregation;

- a ministry focused on activities to be carried out to a ministry more attentive to encountering the young where they are to be found;

- a routine practice in our spiritual life and pastoral work to living the “da mihi animas cetera tolle” as daily prayer and passion.

Guideline 1

Return to Don Bosco

[8] Be committed to loving, studying, imitating, praying to Don Bosco and making him known in order to start afresh from him.

[9] Let each Salesian

- re-awaken in his heart a renewed interest in a deeper, more systematic knowledge of Don Bosco through a serious and persevering study of the Salesian history, spirituality, pedagogy and pastoral ministry, and of the Preventive System to put it into action;

- read and meditate frequently on the Constitutions - “Don Bosco's will and testament” (C. 196);

- renew his personal devotion to Don Bosco in order to share his passion for God and for the young.

[10] Let each community

- make reference to the Constitutions in daily life: use them regularly in community meetings, especially at times of discernment; choose appropriate moments for reading and commenting on them; offer occasions for the review of life;

- practise lectio divina with Salesian sensitivity, e.g. by making reference to texts belonging to our tradition and the situation of those for whom we work;

- include specific occasions within the community plan for the formation and updating in Salesianity of confrères as well as of lay people who share responsibility for the mission;

-update the Salesian section in the House library;

[11] Let each province

- encourage the updating of confrères, lay people who share responsibility with us, and members of the Salesian Family, in Salesian studies; promote Retreats which refer to sources of the charism in addition to the Word of God; occasionally offer pilgrimages to the Salesian places of origin;

- take advantage of the proximate preparation for perpetual profession as a privileged occasion for a deeper understanding of themes in Salesianity and for a re-reading of the Constitutions;

- take care to send some confrères to attend specialist courses in Salesianity at the UPS or at other Centres, in view of the animation of the Province and the requirements of formation;

- commit itself to making Don Bosco known through the use of media;

- study and deepen its understanding of the history of the Salesian charism in its own cultural context.

[12] Let the Rector Major with his Council

- invest adequate personnel resources in the UPS, the Salesian Historical Institute and other Centres dedicated to the study and the spreading of Salesianity;

- coordinate and organise collaboration among these Centres with a view to a better theological understanding of Don Bosco's spiritual experience to develop his pedagogical and pastoral intuitions and to study the gradual inculturation of the charism in different contexts;

- study the possibility of specific experiences of ongoing formation in the fundamentals of Salesian spirituality, with special attention given to Rectors, in preparation for the bi-centenary of Don Bosco's birth;

- set up an international team of confrères to provide for the animation of the places of origin of the Salesian charism;

- make the most important Salesian texts accessible and available in various languages, as well as in digital form;

- see to the publication and translation of a collection of the principal Salesian sources.

Guideline 2

Return to the young

[13] Return to the young, especially the poorest of them, with the heart of Don Bosco.

[14] Let each Salesian

- learn to encounter God through the young to whom he is sent (Cf. C. 95);

- find the time to be present with the young as a friend, educator and witness to God, whatever his role in the community may be;

- when age, health or other reasons prevent a physical presence among the young, cooperate in the mission to them, through prayer, by showing interest, by offering up his own life.

[15] Let each community

- renew its understanding and practice of Salesian assistance (cf. (C. 39), by involving lay people who share the responsibility;

- plan some formation meetings as part of the annual community programme, which have a thorough study of the youth situation as a topic;

- welcome young people both for occasions of sharing our life and for meetings which reflect on their situation;

- plan initiatives for going out to meet the young where they live their lives.

[16] Let each province

- cultivate a constant and more focused attention on how the circumstances of young people are evolving in their own area, in dialogue with civil and ecclesial institutions;

- study the possibility of setting up spirituality centres which offer young people opportunities for prayer, days of recollection and retreats, education in listening to the Word, and sacramental life;

[17] Let each region

- encourage collaboration between provinces in establishing criteria and norms for behaviour to be followed by confrères and lay people who share responsibility for the Salesian mission in order to guarantee the safety of minors in our centres and to prevent any kind of abuse, in fulfilment of what was said in GC 25, 36.

[18] Let the Rector Major with his Council

• enhance the Congregation's presence in international institutions which are concerned with youth policies.

Guideline 3

Charismatic identity and apostolic passion

[19] Rediscover the significance of the Da mihi animas cetera tolle as a programme of spiritual and pastoral life.

[20] Let each Salesian

- ask God each day for the grace of unity between contemplation and apostolic activity and commit himself to realising it, thus avoiding the risk of fragmented and superficial activity;

- take personal responsibility for his own spiritual and pastoral formation in order to mature authentically in his vocation;

- renew or strengthen the practice of being accompanied by a spiritual director, looking at Don Bosco's experience;

- be ready to share his own faith journey, richness of Salesian spirituality and apostolic activity with his confrères, with lay people who share responsibility with us, with the members of the Salesian Family and with the young.

[21] Let each community

- organise its daily rhythms of life in such a way as to enable each confrère to take part in community occasions as well as to be truly present among the young;

- care for the quality of community prayer and liturgical celebrations (cf. Cost 86);

- highlight Salesian feasts as occasions for community formation and transmission of the charism;

- value the service that the Rector, as first in order of responsibility for formation, exercises through the Good Night, conferences, the personal talk, fraternal animation.

[22] Let each province

- prepare confrères to carry out the role of spiritual guides for the community, giving particular attention to initial formation communities;

- accompany communities in drawing up the community project so as to ensure ongoing formation opportunities for confrères of every age;

- plan formation initiatives to help confrères live a life of resplendent chastity which conveys God's love for each young person and prevents any kind of counter witness and abuse in their regard.

THE URGENT NEED FOR EVANGELISATION

“If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast; it is a duty for me. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16)

GOD'S CALL

“’This Society had its beginning in a simple catechism lesson’. For us too evangelising and catechising are the fundamental characteristics of our mission. Like Don Bosco we are called to be educators to the faith at every opportunity. Our highest knowledge therefore is to know Jesus Christ, and our greatest delight is to reveal to all people the unfathomable riches of his mystery. We walk side by side with the young so as to lead them to the risen Lord, and so discover in him and in his Gospel the deepest meaning of their own existence, and thus grow into new men” (C. 34).

[23] An evangelised and evangelising community

“The word 'evangelisation' has a very rich meaning. In the broad sense it sums up the Church's entire mission: her whole life in fact consists in accomplishing … the proclamation and handing on of the Gospel which is 'the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes' (Rm 1:16) and which, in the final analysis, is identified with Christ himself (cf. 1 Cor 1: 24). …In any case, 'to evangelise' does not simply mean to teach a doctrine but to proclaim Jesus Christ by one's words and actions, that is, to make oneself an instrument of his presence and action in the world” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal note on certain aspects of evangelisation, n.2). We work within the Church, and guided by the Spirit, for the coming of God's Kingdom, “bringing to men the message of the Gospel, which is closely tied in with the development of the temporal order” (C. 31).

The source of all the work of evangelisation lies in a personal encounter with Christ. This experience is a daily event for us, one which is renewed in our listening to the Word, our participation in the Paschal mystery through the liturgy and the sacraments, in our fraternal sharing and our service of the young.

Mary, the first to welcome and carry the message of salvation, teaches us to create evangelised and evangelising communities. From her we learn that a profound experience of God is at the root of our mission and that the first and principal way to evangelise is our witness of faith. This witness becomes more convincing when we approach the young as friends and accompany them as fathers and teachers, radiating joy and hope. In this manner we pass on what we believe and demonstrate what we proclaim through our lives.

[24] Centrality of the proposal of Jesus Christ

We perceive evangelisation as the principal requirement of our mission, aware that the young have a right to have Jesus proclaimed to them as the source of life and promise of happiness now and in eternity. Our “fundamental purpose is that of proposing that everyone should live their human life as Jesus lived it. ...At the centre should be the proclamation of Jesus Christ and of his Gospel, together with the call to conversion, the acceptance of the faith, their taking their place in the Church; then from this will come faith journeys and forms of catechesis, liturgical life and the witness of charitable work” (Benedict XVI, Letter to Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva, Rector Major of the Salesians, on the occasion of the General Chapter XXVI, 1 March 2008, n. 4).

Through the Church the Lord Jesus calls us to carry out a new evangelisation: “new in its zeal, its methods and its expressions” (John Paul II, Speech to the CELAM Assembly, 9 March 1983). This entails that we creatively and courageously prepare various appropriate ways of bringing the young to a personal encounter with Christ, so they may grow in the desire to follow him and become apostles of the Gospel and builders of a new world. This emphasis at the heart of every educative intervention of ours is one which we must also communicate to lay people, involving them more and more in pastoral work.

[25] Evangelisation and Education

Evangelisation demands that we safeguard both the proclamation in its entirety and the gradual way in which it is offered. Don Bosco gave his attention to both of these so he could offer all young people a deep experience of God, bearing in mind their real circumstances.

In the Salesian tradition we have expressed this relationship in various ways: e.g. “upright citizens and good Christians” or “evangelising by educating and educating by evangelising”. We note the need to continue to reflect on this delicate relationship. In any case we are convinced that evangelisation offers education a model of fully developed humanity and that education, when it succeeds in touching the heart of the young and developing the religious meaning of existence, encourages and accompanies the process of evangelisation: "Without education, in fact, there is no deep and lasting evangelisation; there is no growth or process of maturity; there is no change of mentality or culture" (Benedict XVI, Letter to Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva, Rector Major of the Salesians, on the occasion of the General Chapter XXVI , 1 March 2008 n. 4).

This is why, right from the outset, education must draw its inspiration from the Gospel and evangelisation must adapt itself to the evolving circumstances of the young person. Only thus can the young person discover in Christ his or her true identity and grow to full maturity; only thus can the Gospel deeply touch his or her heart, heal it from evil and open it up to a free and personal faith.

Aware that we are called to educate and evangelise also in ways of thinking, languages, customs and institutions, we commit ourselves to fostering dialogue between faith, culture and religions. This helps the Gospel throw light on the great challenges which human beings and society face from epoch-making changes, and transform the world through the leaven of the Kingdom.

[26] Evangelisation in various contexts

The urgent need for proclaiming the Risen Lord impels us to confront situations that resonate in us as both an appeal and a concern: peoples not yet evangelised, the secularism which threatens lands which are of ancient Christian tradition, the phenomenon of migration, new and dramatic forms of poverty and violence, the spread of movements and sects. We also feel called to respond to certain opportunities such as ecumenical, inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue, the new sensitivity for peace, safeguarding human rights and protecting the environment and all creation, the many expressions of solidarity and voluntary movements that are becoming more widespread throughout the world.

These elements, recognised in the Apostolic Exhortations which followed the Continental Synods, are challenges for the entire Church and require us to find new ways for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ while respecting and appreciating local cultures. From this comes the need for each of our Regions and Provinces to make the effort to identify the most suitable ways to carry out our common mission in the specific circumstances of each context.

SITUATION

[27] An evangelised and evangelising community

Many confrères intensely live their passion for God and the young. This is shown through a desire for a more prophetic life of consecration, marked by spiritual depth, sincere fraternal community life, and apostolic courage. In this manner, living and working together, they feel they can give an authentic and joyful witness of the charism and attract the young to seriously consider the Christian way of life being offered them and consecrated life itself.

On the other hand we come across spiritual superficiality, frenetic activity, a bourgeois life style, weak evangelical witness, a half-hearted approach to the mission. This translates into awkwardness in bringing out our proper identity as consecrated persons, and into apostolic timidity. The complexity of certain works sometimes risks absorbing confrères' energies in managerial tasks, weakening their primary role as educators and evangelisers.

[28] The centrality of proposing Jesus Christ

The education of the young to faith, re-launched by GC 23, sees the generous commitment of many confrères who offer experiences and differentiated courses adapted to the age, the various circumstances of the young and cultural situations. Despite this we note that the invitation to draw up programmes and processes for young people to encounter the Lord Jesus has not been fully taken up.

Our initiatives are not always clearly directed to education to the faith. Processes of catechesis are weak and in many cases do not engender in young people a convinced and regular sacramental life, a true sense of belonging to the Church and courageous apostolic involvement. The lack of structure and continuity, the result of insufficient reflection and study, has sometimes led to a ministry more of initiatives and events than of processes. In other cases what we have offered has not been sufficiently part of the programmes of the local Church.

In many contexts a certain difficulty is felt due to the distance of young people from the faith, resistance brought about by a secularist mentality widespread amongst families, a misconceived respect for non-Christian religious traditions, a lack of courage on the part of educators.

[29] Evangelisation and education

We perceive that the Salesian charism is a lively part of local Churches and esteemed by them. Don Bosco's Preventive System is more relevant than it ever was and people everywhere find it very attractive. Many young people are open to the search for meaning in life and ready for a serious and courageous educative and Christian proposal. There is no shortage of young people ready to be involved personally in evangelising their peers, especially by belonging to groups. Others on the other hand, victims of the lack of attention today's society has given to education, need our help to achieve an awareness of the deep questions they carry within.

We note the growing number of lay people and members of the Salesian Family who share responsibility not only in organisational matters, but also take up pastoral activity in our works and where they live. We are often not adequately concerned about offering them a systematic formation.

We are heirs to a strong tradition in the field of research and of publishing, in the area of catechetics and youth ministry. We note nevertheless the danger of blunting our efforts given the difficulty of finding and preparing specialised personnel and coordinating our initiatives. We also perceive the difficulty in being present in a significant way in the dialogue between faith, culture and religions which is a fundamental challenge for our mission today.

We have improved our institutes of higher education in their response to the needs of the young for academic and professional preparation. These centres are attended by students of diverse nationality, culture and creed. This brings with it the duty of ensuring not only the quality of teaching and research, but also that of the Salesian identity and the proposal of evangelisation.

[30] Evangelisation in different contexts

We encounter settings open to the Gospel in areas recently evangelised. The location of our centres among the people allows contact with many people and offers the possibility of working in the service of the faith in many ways. Missio ad gentes, an essential part of our charism, continues to engender enthusiasm in many confrères who offer themselves for the mission and to involve many young people in volunteer projects. We are committed to getting to know and understand the cultures, languages, religions and local traditions in order to inculturate the Gospel. In some developing countries there are communities exercising a prophetic role in the field of social justice.

In countries of ancient Christian tradition there are expressions of popular religiosity which are a treasure for transmitting the faith and which deserve to be better fostered, promoted and where necessary purified. In the western world we see a widespread crisis of the culture inspired by Christian values, to the point where the Church is no longer an authoritative point of reference for many people and institutions. This gives rise to a particular difficulty in proposing the Gospel and educating to the faith.

Many of our works find themselves operating in a multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural context which poses new challenges to and offers new opportunities for evangelisation. Among these, our relationship with Islam is of particular note, since it demands that we set out adequate strategies for dialogue and proclamation. Where an explicit or immediate proclamation of Jesus Christ is not possible, our presence as Christian educators is a prophetic sign and plants a precious seed of evangelisation.

GUIDELINES FOR ACTION

[31] Processes required for change

In order to face up to the demands of the call and the challenges which arise from the situation and to carry out the guidelines for action which follow, we need to change our mentality and modify our structures, moving from:

- a mentality that favours roles of direct management to one that favours an evangelising presence among the young;

- an evangelisation made up of events lacking continuity to a systematic and integrated evangelisation programme;

- an individualist mentality to a communal style which involves the young, families and lay people in proclaiming Jesus Christ;

- an attitude of pastoral self-sufficiency to one of sharing in planning by local Churches;

- considering the effectiveness of our presence in terms of the esteem of others, to understanding it in terms of fidelity to the Gospel;

- a mentality of cultural superiority to one of positive acceptance of cultures different from our own;

- considering the Salesian Family only as a chance to meet, get to know, and exchange experiences, to a commitment to making it a true apostolic movement on behalf of the young;

- a model of evangelisation aimed only at transformation of the person to an evangelisation which also looks to transforming social and political structures.

Guideline 4

An evangelised and evangelising community

[32] Put encounter with Christ in the Word and the Eucharist at the centre of our communities, in order to be authentic disciples and credible apostles.

[33] Let the Salesian

- make a personal plan of life which offers the necessary time for individual and community prayer, give attention to meditation on God's Word, make good use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and give pride of place to the daily Eucharist.

[34] Let the community

- make a community plan of life which provides opportune initiatives to encourage the centrality of the Word of God and Eucharist;

- involve elderly confrères in the work of evangelisation, where they can, so as to contribute through their experience and wisdom, also as spiritual directors and confessors.

[35] Let the province

- offer good renewal programmes and appropriate materials, seeing to the quality of Retreats, Monthly Recollections and lectio divina;

- ensure adequate formation accompaniment for those in practical training and confrères in their quinquennium.

Guideline 5

Centrality of the proposal of Jesus Christ

[36] Propose to the young with courage and joy that they live their lives in the way Jesus Christ lived his.

[37] Let the Salesian

- apply himself to a systematic and spiritual study of the Word of God in order to assimilate it and make Jesus the inspiration, criterion and purpose of every educative and pastoral activity;

- give witness to his own faith, saying what effect the meeting with Christ has had in his life;

- see to his own updating in areas of study which permit a critical interpretation of our times and an effective way of proposing the faith.

[38] Let the community

- put into its pastoral and educative plan programmes for proclamation, catechesis and education to the faith which are appropriate for those to whom they are addressed and for their contexts;

- offer lay people in the pastoral and educative community who have made an option for Christ, a formation which helps them be educators of the faith;

- educate the young to personal prayer and encourage a style of celebration which communicates an authentic experience of joyful and lively encounter with the Lord;

- frequently offer the Sacrament of Reconciliation as an essential step along the road to conversion, and the Eucharist as the source and summit of Christian life;

- foster youth groups as a place where the young can feel that they are active agents in their own journey of faith and service to their brothers and sisters.

[39] Let the province

- review its pastoral and educative plan with a view to new evangelisation, selecting the most appropriate means for bringing the Gospel to settings and situations which present new challenges;

- strengthen the preparation of confrères and lay people who share responsibility with us, in the area of pastoral disciplines: youth ministry, catechetics, liturgy, missiology and social communication.

[40] Let the Rector Major with his Council

- encourage, through the Formation Department, a more consistent theological and pastoral preparation in curricula for specific formation.

Guideline 6

Evangelisation and education

[41] See to a more effective integration, in each setting, of education and evangelisation, following the logic of the Preventive System.

[42] Let the Salesian

- appreciate that a direct and warm relationship with each young person is a privileged form of witness and proclamation.

[43] Let the community

- examine its pastoral activity in order to check that it is safeguarding both the proclamation in its entirety and the gradual way in which it is offered, following the logic of its contents and processes;

- see to the renewal of catechesis and be open to new forms of accompaniment of children, older youth and adults in the process of Christian Initiation;

- see to the formation of a moral conscience and educate young people to social and political involvement following the inspiration of the social teaching of the Church;

- encourage opportune reflection on the relationship between culture, faith and religions so that the Gospel may resonate as part of the great questions which impinge all areas of human awareness today.

[44] Let the province

- ensure that all its works, through educative activity, carry out a real work of evangelisation;

- prepare personnel and foster formation initiatives which help in making good use of social communication for education and evangelisation;

- accompany and assess the quality of teaching of religion and catechetics in our settings.

[45] Let the Rector Major with his Council

- encourage, through the competent Departments, a deeper understanding of the relationship between evangelisation and education in order to put the Preventive System into practice, and adapt the frame of reference for youth ministry to changing cultural circumstances;

- encourage reflection, through the Youth Ministry Department, on the contribution which the oratory criterion (cf. C. 40) can offer to the renewal of catechesis which is happening in the Church.

Guideline 7

Evangelisation in various contexts

[46] Inculturate the process of evangelisation in order to give a response to challenges in regional contexts

[47] Let the Salesian

- learn the languages of the people with whom he works with a view to guaranteeing a truly inculturated evangelisation.

[48] Let the community

- study and plan interventions, methods and strategies for the evangelisation of the young in their own context, in relationship to culture and the choices made by local Churches;

- form Christian young people and adults in a multi-religious context to be disciple missionaries while respecting other religious traditions.

[49] Let each province

• accompany each community in planning specific responses to challenges in the context in which it is operating;

• offer formation initiatives to confrères and lay people on the theme of inculturation of the faith;

• foster the missionary spirit, generously place at the Rector Major's disposal Salesian personnel for missio ad gentes, and encourage missionary vocations among lay people and families;

• educate confrères in initial formation to a missionary sensitivity and to dialogue with different cultural and religious traditions.

[50] Let the region

- animate the provinces so they can effectively promote contextualised evangelisation, following the directions of Episcopal Conferences and Continental Synods and by sharing the more significant experiences.

[51] Let the Rector Major with his Council

- foster experiences of inter cultural communities as a sign of communion and fraternal life and as a help to evangelisation in multi-cultural and multi-ethnic contexts;

- accompany evangelising and educational activity on behalf of the young and families of other religions, by offering appropriate directions provided by the Departments for the Salesian mission.

NEED FOR VOCATION MINISTRY

“Look around you, look at the fields. Already they are white, ready for harvest” (Jn 4:35)

GOD'S CALL

“To meet the needs of his people the Lord continually calls some to follow him, and enriches them with a variety of gifts in the service of the Kingdom. We are convinced that many young people are rich in spiritual potential and give indications of an apostolic vocation. We help them to discover, accept and develop the gift of a lay, consecrated or priestly vocation, for the benefit of the whole Church and of the Salesian Family. With equal zeal we nurture adult vocations” (C. 28).

[52] Witness as the first vocational invitation

We gratefully recognise that the Salesian vocation is a grace we have received from God. He has called us to live by following the obedient, poor and chaste Christ, in a fraternal community with a mission to the young, based on Don Bosco's example. The generosity of confrères and the example of communities who live the primacy of God, the family spirit and dedication to the mission, are the first and most beautiful vocational invitation we can offer the young.

We know that a young person discovers the call to consecrated Salesian life when he encounters a community that is significant to him, or a model with which to identify, an experience of spiritual life and apostolic commitment, the help of a guide who accompanies him in his choice of Christ and gift of himself.

The lack of vocations experienced by some provinces, while it obliges us to duly assess the situation, challenges us to grow in the authenticity of our life and in our ability to invite. We are in fact convinced that God continues to call many young people to service of the Kingdom and that there are various factors which can encourage their response.

[53] Apostolic vocations

Today we feel more strongly than ever the challenge of creating a vocational culture in every setting, such that young people may discover life as a call and that all Salesian ministry may be truly vocational. This requires that we help young people overcome an individualist mindset and the culture of self-fulfilment which urges them to plan their future without heeding God; it also requires us to involve and form families and lay people.

There has to be a particular effort put into engendering apostolic passion amongst the young. Like Don Bosco we are called to encourage them to be apostles among their own companions, taking on various kinds of ecclesial and social service, being involved in missionary projects. To encourage a vocational option for apostolic commitment, these young people should be offered a more intensive spiritual life and a more personal and systematic accompaniment.

This is fertile ground where families capable of authentic witness can flourish, as well as committed lay people at every level of Church and society. Vocations to consecrated life and to ministry can also flourish.

[54] Accompaniment of candidates to Salesian consecrated life

Don Bosco, while working with tireless generosity in fostering many kinds of vocation in the Church, also called young men to stay with him permanently. For us too, proposing the Salesian consecrated vocation to young people is part of our fidelity to God for the gift we have received. It is what drives our desire to share the joy of following the Lord Jesus, staying with Don Bosco, in order to give hope to many other young people of the whole world.

Fostering consecrated vocations demands certain fundamental choices: constant prayer, explicit proclamation, courageous invitation, careful discernment, personalised accompaniment. We should be committed to daily prayer in our communities and involve young people, families, lay people, Salesian Family groups. Proclamation entails making good use of the many opportunities which present themselves over the course of the liturgical year. Inviting and discerning require a warm closeness which gives rise to confidence and allows us to recognise the signs of a vocation which a young person can show. Accompaniment requires us to help the young intensify their spiritual life, take part in suitable forms of apostolate, have an experience of community, get to know the Congregation, assess their motivations and take the necessary steps which lead to a decision.

We recognise the need for each province to have vocational communities or aspirantates which can welcome and accompany the young people who are interested in looking at the possibility of Salesian consecrated life. Then, in vocation ministry the essential contribution of families should be taken into account in various ways.

[55] The two forms of the Salesian consecrated vocation

Don Bosco wanted the Congregation to be distinguished for the complementary presence of lay Salesians and ordained Salesian ministers. We are therefore called to give priority and visibility to the unity of our apostolic consecration, even though it takes two different forms. We can do this by strengthening the primacy of God and the radical following of Christ as the basis of our life.

Salesian apostolic consecration lends a particular educative flavour to our way of living the ordained ministry, putting proclamation of the Word, liturgical celebration and guidance of the community at the service of the growth of young people; this is the specific contribution we should offer pastoral and educative communities and local Churches.

The same consecration marks out the Salesian Brother, making him a full time educator and evangeliser, capable of bringing, in all educative and pastoral areas, the values of his lay state and his being close to the young and the realities of work. (cf. C. 45)

Aware that the Congregation would put its identity at risk if it did not preserve this complementarity, we are called to more deeply understand the original Salesian contribution to the ordained ministry and to make greater efforts to foster the vocation of the Salesian Brother.

SITUATION

[56] Witness as the first vocational invitation

Numerous confrères live their vocation joyfully and are involved in creating an atmosphere which encourages the emergence of vocations. The attitude of many Salesians who welcome young people with simple, meaningful gestures such as a warm greeting, dealing with them in a friendly way, offering an animating presence, becomes a vocational witness. The example of a confrère who is serene and active in old age and the patient contribution of confrères who are sick, who know how to give their lives “new apostolic significance” (C. 53), can communicate to the young the beauty of a life that is dedicated and still fruitful.

The lack of vocations has sensitised communities and confrères to reflect on the ways of carrying out vocation ministry today. Many communities pray for vocations, invite in the young, lay people, families, using various forms of prayer and celebration.

The example of our lives, on the other hand, does not always manifest the centrality of God and a life style inspired by the Beatitudes. We are not ready, sometimes, to welcome young people into our communities. We also find difficulty in guaranteeing an educative and spiritual accompaniment. Pastoral individualism weakens the value of living and working together and renders less credible the invitation to be a part of our fraternal life. Ways of behaving which are not consistent with consecrated life, particularly with the vow of chastity, and those who leave the Congregation, impact negatively on the choices young people make. The widespread culture of the media, too, which often trivialises affectivity and offers a distorted image of the consecrated person, is an obstacle to identifying with the consecrated vocation.

[57] Apostolic vocations

Numerous communities are committed to giving importance to the vocational dimension of youth ministry. Despite this, we are aware of the risk of efforts that are improvised and sporadic; we often offer meaningful but isolated experiences, the result of activities which lack coordination between youth and vocation ministry.

The crisis of the family, a widespread relativist and consumerist mentality, the negative influence of media on consciences and behaviour are a strong obstacle to a vocational culture. We have not always sensitised our pastoral and educative communities, at the right moment, to the apostolic and vocational dimension, nor have we always shown that we appreciate shared responsibility with the laity and collaboration with groups in the Salesian Family.

The presence of so many youngsters in our centres is an opportunity for cultivating an educative dialogue, entering into their confidence, helping them to discover God's plan for their life and inviting them to offer the gift of themselves. We do not always know, however, how to enthuse them to be apostles among their own companions, and offer them diversified spiritual paths and service opportunities. As a result we risk levelling out our invitations and not knowing how to engender apostolic vocations, thus undermining the natural context where vocations to special consecration can mature.

[58] Accompaniment of candidates to Salesian consecrated life

There are provinces with a well-structured vocation ministry which is shared by the communities. They have set up discernment groups, retreats with a vocational dimension and experiences of voluntary service, communities of invitation and new forms of aspirantate/candidacy. They also use social communication media to facilitate a knowledge of Don Bosco's charism.

The practice of meetings between young confrères and young people discerning a vocation is fairly widespread; this is particularly useful since, through witness of this kind, young people can discover consecrated life as an attractive form of Christian living.

Adolescents and older youth are generous, but they experience difficulty in taking on long-term commitments. The recruitment mentality at times leads to having young candidates to consecrated life whose motivation is fragile. Unfortunately some young men are brought into the formation stages without being sufficiently suitable. Others have a difficult family situation behind them which needs to be understood and integrated in such a way as not to compromise the process of maturing. Vocation ministry is almost exclusively aimed at students, while we overlook young workers.

There are also sometimes difficulties of spiritual accompaniment because of the lack of preparation of Salesians. We still see weaknesses in the organisation of initiatives and proposals either at province or local level. When there is a lack of planned continuity, a change of confrères responsible for vocation ministry can be especially delicate. In some provinces there are no communities for vocational accompaniment.

[59] The two forms of the Salesian consecrated vocation

Many Salesian priests live their ministry at the service of the young and with an educative style which is faithful to Don Bosco's intuitions. In some cases, however, we encounter an unspecific pastoral approach and only a half-hearted taking on of our charismatic identity. This invites us to better distinguish the specific formation paths that can be followed.

The Salesian Brother vocation is often not understood, since it is less visible and poorly presented. Among other things, this is the result of it being tied mainly to managerial roles and not directly to youth activities. His role and purpose is not always presented with adequate emphasis in aspirantates, pre-novitiates and novitiates. In certain contexts the prejudice persists that the Salesian priestly vocation is more important than that of the Brother. The reduction of our presence amongst young workers has impacted negatively on proposing this vocation.

Where, on the contrary, we find a significant number of Salesian Brothers who are culturally and professionally qualified and placed in roles of responsibility, this heightens the visibility of the vocation and arouses in young people a desire to follow it. A positive factor has been the introduction in all regions of a specific formation phase for the Salesian Brother.

GUIDELINES FOR ACTION

[60] Processes required for change

In order to face up to the requirements of the call and the challenges which arise from the situation, and in order to carry out the following guidelines, we need to change our mentality and modify our structures, moving from:

- thinking that we are the ones who take the lead in vocation ministry to humbly recognising that we are but mediators of God's action in this regard;

- a vague and occasional vocational invitation to one of focused and attentive planning that creates a vocational culture;

- a vocation ministry which we conduct alone, to projects shared with groups in the Salesian Family and with the local Church;

- setting up vocation ministry as a response to the problem of a lack of vocations to one where we rediscover the joy of helping young people find out God's plan for them;

- a mentality where we delegate vocation ministry to a few people, to one where we involve every confrère, community and the laity;

- a vocation ministry which is separate from youth ministry to one understood and experienced as the very crowning of youth ministry.

Guideline 8

Our witness as the first vocational invitation

[61] Witness with courage and joy to the beauty of a consecrated life dedicated totally to God in the mission to the young.

[62] Let the Salesian

- keep alive an awareness of the gift of his own vocation, assuming an attitude of thanksgiving to God;

- be committed to witnessing to a joyful life and sharing the story of his own vocation when opportunity presents itself;

- strengthen fidelity to his vocation by constant recourse to spiritual guidance; let him also, in difficult moments, value the help that can be given by the human sciences;

- pray daily for vocations;

- transform the patience demanded by discomfort and suffering at the time of old age or illness, into a trusting offering of himself on behalf of vocations.

[63] Let the community

- open its house to the young, especially those who are discerning their vocation, inviting them to share in key moments of community life;

- support confrères in their affective maturing, helping them especially in moments of difficulty;

- carry out a scrutinium each year on its witness of life;

- involve young people in occasions of prayer for vocations.

[64] Let the province

- foster, amongst confrères, a strong sense of belonging in order to witness to the value of living and working together.

Guideline 9

Apostolic vocations

[65] Instil in young people an apostolic involvement on behalf of the Kingdom of God, with the passion of the da mihi animas cetera tolle, and encourage their formation.

[66] Let the Salesian

- be convinced that each young person has a God-given mission, and accompany him or her in discovering it

[67] Let the community

- draw up a proposal for vocation ministry which is appropriate for the context, working with the educative and pastoral community and the Salesian Family, bearing in mind the decisions of the local Church and ensuring adequate financial resources;

- see to a ministry to families which uses encounters, reflection and prayer so that parents may be open to their children's vocation;

- avail of the apostolic and vocational resources found in groups, voluntary work and missionary animation;

- make use of the opportunities the liturgical year offers for vocation ministry;

- present the idea of the Salesian Cooperator in a convincing way, as an invitation to the lay apostolic vocation.

[68] Let the province

- draw up a plan for vocation ministry as part of the province's pastoral and educative project;

- ensure the right conditions for the Rector to carry out his role as the primary animator of vocations and strengthen the role of the pastoral coordinator in each work;

- offer experiences of apostolic service to young people, of belonging to groups and volunteer work;

- work with groups in the Salesian Family and the local Church and other institutes of consecrated life in the area of vocation ministry;

- encourage the updating of Salesians and lay people who share responsibility with us in discernment and accompaniment;

- invest adequate financial resources and personnel in vocation promotion initiatives.

Guideline 10

Accompaniment of candidates to the Salesian consecrated life

[69] Make explicit the invitation to Salesian consecrated life and foster new forms of vocational accompaniment and aspirantate/candidacy.

[70] Let the Salesian

- learn to recognise the signs of a vocation that young people manifest and have at heart inviting them to Salesian consecrated life;

- be available for spiritual accompaniment and see to his preparation for the task.

[71] Let the community

- organise vocational groups and gatherings which have a process of discernment and accompaniment;

- invite well-disposed young people to be part of the projects at Province level regarding vocation discernment for Salesian consecrated life;

- make good use of feast days and regular celebrations of our Saints and anniversaries of professions and ordinations as opportunities for vocation ministry;

- encourage sharing of experiences on ways to accompany young people along their vocational journey.

[72] Let the province

- study possibilities for new forms of aspirantate/candidacy in order to have one or more communities where vocational accompaniment of young candidates can take place;

- encourage reflection and cooperation between youth ministry and formation;

- offer initiatives for vocation ministry at every level of a person's life, paying attention to affective maturity;

- work with consecrated groups in the Salesian Family to offer vocational invitations to young women as well;

- plan for specific vocation ministry to young migrants belonging to Catholic families or ethnic minorities, and indigenous young people;

- take greater note of the criteria indicated in the Ratio regarding vocation discernment;

- involve young confrères in vocation ministry at local and province level.

[73] Let the Rector Major with his Council

- encourage, through the Departments for Youth Ministry and Formation, reflection on new forms of aspirantate/candidacy and on spiritual accompaniment, and offer opportune directions to provinces;

- study, through the Departments of Formation, Youth Ministry and Missions, problems regarding the age of candidates, specific courses for indigenous vocations, the criteria for accepting those who come from other vocational programmes/experiences.

Guideline 11

The two forms of the Salesian consecrated vocation

[74] Encourage the complementarity and specific nature of the two forms of the one Salesian vocation and take up a renewed commitment on behalf of the Salesian Brother vocation.

[75] Let the Salesian

- value and foster the uniqueness of the Salesian consecrated vocation in its complementary forms.

[76] Let the community

• accompany ordained confrères in highlighting their priestly ministry through our educative charism, giving preference to pastoral activities which are aimed directly at the young;

• encourage the presence of Brothers among young people in educative and pastoral roles and not just as organisers and administrators;

• make known the Salesian Brother vocation, by presenting the more significant models of this vocation.

[77] Let the province

- make the Perpetual Profession ceremony an occasion for understanding better and proposing the complementarity of both forms of the Salesian vocation;

- involve Salesian Brothers, where possible, in the various services of province animation, especially in vocation ministry and in the provincial formation commission;

- strengthen the specific formation of the Salesian Brother, something which is happening at regional or inter-regional level.

[78] Let the Rector Major with his Council

- encourage a serious and up-to-date reflection on the complementary and specific nature of the two forms of the Salesian consecrated vocation in the Congregation.

EVANGELICAL POVERTY

“If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me” (Mt 19:21)

GOD'S CALL

“Don Bosco lived his poverty in detachment of heart and generous service of others; his manner was marked by austerity, hard work and much initiative. Following his example we too live detached from all earthly goods; we participate with a spirit of enterprise in the mission of the Church and in her struggle for justice and peace, especially by educating those in need. The witness of our poverty, lived in a common sharing of our goods, helps the young to overcome their selfish possessive instinct and opens them to the Christian sense of sharing” (C. 73).

[79] Personal and community witness

Taking on our human condition, the Lord Jesus chose to be born and to live poorly, entrusted himself totally to the Father and shared the circumstances of life of the poor, proclaiming them to be blessed in that they had benefited from the Good News and were heirs to the Kingdom. He asked some to leave everything to follow him more closely, proclaiming by their lives that God is their true wealth. From this call comes the poverty of the Salesian who expresses his trusting abandonment to the Father, his closeness to and service of the poor, the blessedness of a life filled with love for God and our brothers.

From being a young boy Don Bosco, a man of humble origins, experienced the discomforts but also the values of a poor life. With Mamma Margaret as his teacher he gained a taste for work and a simple life style, serenity in trials and solidarity with those in need. Placing his total trust in Providence, he decided to live poorly and to spend all his energies for the young to whom God had sent him: “ For you I study, for you I work, for you I live, for you I am ready even to give my life” (C. 14). The detachment from everything that makes us insensitive to God and hinders the mission is the deep significance of the cetera tolle and is the criterion for evaluating our way of living poverty.

The first manifestation of poverty is the total giving of oneself to God in availability to the needs of the young; this brings with it self-renunciation and putting aside individual projects in order to share those of the community. Aware of Don Bosco's warning about comfort and ease, we are called to live an austere life style, to work tirelessly without giving in to activism, keeping our heart free from attachment to goods and material things. The community in particular feels itself called to seek institutional forms of witness which express a credible and prophetic poverty.

[80] Solidarity with the poor

By dint of our vocation, we are called to cultivate an attentive listening to the cry of the poor and announce the Kingdom to them as the basis of true hope and leaven for a new world. This requires the preferential choice for the most needy young people, attention to their needs, sharing their situation, overcoming a paternalistic, welfare mentality, a commitment to making them active agents in their own development.

Faithful to our charism, we are not content with offering them immediate help, but aim to condemn and fight against the causes of injustice, contributing to the creation of a culture of solidarity, educating to moral awareness, active citizenship, respect for the environment, proposing initiatives and projects of intervention, working with other organisations and institutes who promote life. This commitment requires that we renew our communities and, in our educative settings, our sensitivity to these matters, and that we overcome the tendency to bourgeois values which results in indifference to the global tragedy of poverty.

[81] Responsible management of resources in a spirit of solidarity

Don Bosco reminds us that “what we have is not ours; it belongs to the poor; woe to us if we do not use it well” (C. 79). The practice of poverty demands a management of the resources entrusted to us which is consistent with the purposes of the mission, responsible, transparent and carried out in a spirit of solidarity. This means, among other things, a clear and complete accountability, a rational and optimal use of our property, initiative in finding the necessary resources to guarantee the sustainability of our works, respect for legal work contracts, attention to the social setting where we are located, rediscovering the value of generosity in offering hospitality and some of the things we do, solidarity amongst our communities, provinces and the Congregation.

The challenges of widespread lawlessness, global injustice and the hoarding of goods on the part of some, call us to condemn these scandals and develop a culture of what is essential, equitable distribution of resources, sustainable development. This way poverty takes on a powerful educative value: it affirms the primacy of being over having, bringing about an authentic Christian solidarity with the poor, and challenges a consumer lifestyle.

SITUATION

[82] Personal and community witness

In general, confrères give witness to generous work and freely give of themselves until old age, putting what they are and what they have at the service of the poor; despite decrease in numbers, communities carry out many initiatives in a wide range of areas.

Sometimes we risk reducing the exercise of poverty to dependence on the superior; irregular management of money and personal accounts is noted. Poverty is not always expressed through simplicity in food, dwellings, journeys, media, organising our free time, looking after our health. In some contexts there is an exaggerated attachment to and support for our family of origin which is not consistent with the vow of poverty.

In many communities goods are shared and families in difficulties are helped. There are confrères who lend a hand in the care and maintenance of the House, but the widespread use of paid staff risks a weakening of our shared responsibility for common services. Lack of involvement in financial management of the community and insufficient information lead some to be unaware of the difficulties of the House, the cost of living, and problems which the poor face on a daily basis. The scrutinium paupertatis does not always result in modifying incorrect practices.

Sometimes, in initial formation, there is a lack of attention given to evangelical poverty expressed concretely in day-to-day living: they know of the implications of the vow of poverty, but do not learn in real terms to think and live as poor people.

[83] Solidarity with the poor

We undertake various initiatives in response to the most serious forms of poverty, such as taking in migrants, projects supporting development, help for victims of war and natural disasters, human development in mission territories. Important too is the work carried out in schools to educate to the demands of justice and in the cause of peace; we offer a culture of solidarity with initiatives on behalf of the most needy and excluded. We work for the poor, but sometimes not alongside and with them: in fact we are not always careful to foster their sense of involvement in development projects. We note a resistance in some confrères to going out to needy youth, and offering themselves for new presences in areas of poverty affecting the young.

Imposing buildings which are sometimes no longer meaningful in relation to the social context, costly and ostentatious materials, incorrect use of money, risk not giving witness to community and institutional poverty. Some works which started out on behalf of the poor have gradually ended up being aimed at the middle class.

[84] Responsible management of resources in a spirit of solidarity

Many efforts have been made to show greater transparency in administration, especially by a more careful drawing up of financial statements, better use of buildings, growing respect for the laws which currently apply, a practical solidarity at provincial level. We are encouraged by the fact that private benefactors, civil and ecclesiastical institutions continue to show trust in our work and lavish funds to sustain our works.

We do not always have the necessary competence for the management of financial resources; despite the effort to prepare economers/bursars, they do not all have the necessary preparation. Budgeting is not a widespread practice. We note, in the relationship with those who work for us, an ownership style which does not respect their dignity; we need to always remind ourselves to be more attentive to social justice in their regard. There is a difficulty, too, in sharing responsibility with lay people in management decisions.

The growing needs and complexity of certain activities risk transforming Salesian work into a business enterprise, with the danger of being excessively functional and efficient, especially when this weakens our pastoral intent. When carrying out big projects relating to new structures or re-structuring, there is the risk of wasting energy, time, money.

GUIDELINES FOR ACTION

[85] Processes required for change

In order to face up to the demands of the call and the challenges which come from the situation, and to carry out the following guidelines, we need to change our mentality and modify our structures, moving from:

- a half-hearted apostolic commitment, to the unconditional gift of ourselves for the needs of the mission;

- a theoretical esteem and formal observance of poverty, to effective practice and true inner freedom in the spirit of the Beatitudes;

- a vague understanding detached from the circumstances of poverty, to one of concrete solidarity with the poor and a greater commitment to social justice;

- a local mindset which is closed in on itself, to a provincial and global spirit of solidarity;

- inadequate skills, to a more professional approach in administration;

- management of resources from a proprietary mindset, to an awareness that we are stewards of the goods entrusted to us.

Guideline 12

Personal and community witness

[86] Give credible and courageous witness to evangelical poverty, lived personally and as a community in the spirit of Da mihi animas cetera tolle

[87] Let the Salesian

- dedicate his whole life to God and the young with inner detachment, recalling what Don Bosco once said: “we need to have poverty in our hearts to practise it”;

- express his poverty through tireless self-sacrificing work, fleeing laziness or frenetic activity, also by giving a hand in work and service around the House;

- take care of his health and in agreement with the community plan appropriate periods of rest;

- live the temperance that Don Bosco wanted of us through a simple lifestyle with regard to food, clothing, journeys, furniture, use of work materials, media and time, maturely accepting any discomfort when something useful or necessary is lacking;

- rediscover the requirements of dependency on the superior and the community (cf. 75) and the sharing of goods as required by the Constitutions (cf. C. 76) and give an account of what he receives and whatever comes to him from any source.

[88] Let the community

- ensure that confrères know and put into practice what is indicated in the Provincial Directory's poverty and administration section, especially in reference to personal use of goods and technological tools;

- diligently make the annual scrutinium paupertatis in view of a more credible witness;

- prepare the annual budget, present the financial statement, regularly inform confrères of the financial situation and sensitise them to the cost of living; punctually hand over to the province any monies left over (cf. R. 197).

[89] Let the province

• draw up a plan of financial solidarity which guarantees equitable distribution of resources and lays down the criteria to ensure a tenor of life which is common for all communities;

• ensure that directions concerning poverty, as proposed to confrères in initial formation are consistent with the effective practice of individuals and communities.

Guideline 13

Solidarity with the poor

[90] Develop a culture of solidarity with the poor in the local context

[91] Let the community

- express its solidarity with the poor not only through 'charity', but also through choices that have an impact on the tenor of our lives;

- educate, in collaboration with the educative and pastoral community, to a culture of solidarity, helping young people to bring a critical spirit to their interpretation of the economic and social phenomena of our time, involving them in initiatives and projects of development, and encouraging their taking part in similarly ordered activities of solidarity;

- educate to a respect for ethnic and religious difference and encourage a spirit of brotherly concern.

[92] Let the province

- plan experiences at the service of the most disadvantaged young people for confrères in formation;

- choose areas of greatest poverty when opening new works.

[93] Let the Rector Major with his Council

- help the provinces grow in their commitment on behalf of social justice;

- support institutions fostering the rights of the young and, when possible and opportune, take a stand in the name of the Congregation against their violation.

Guideline 14

Responsible management of resources in a spirit of solidarity

[94] Manage resources in a responsible, transparent way, consistent with the purposes of the mission, putting the necessary checks and balances in place at local, provincial, world level.

[95] Let the community

- periodically assess the objectives and strategies of the work to avoid it being simply a business venture rather than a service of education and evangelisation;

- ensure that the financial transactions of all sectors of the work are referred to the administrative office (R. 198), the inventory kept up to date, and that all the necessary information is made available to assist the administrative personnel in carrying out their work;

- guarantee good planning and management with regard to personnel we employ, respecting the rights and duties laid down in law and seeing that they are respected;

- be responsible for the planning, execution and monitoring of building and maintenance works, in understanding with the Provincial Economer (R. 195);

- study its own financial situation to ensure the sustainability of the work and, if dependent on external help, set up a plan for financial self-sufficiency;

- give attention to the correct use of funds which come from other bodies or institutions;

- respect the intentions of benefactors.

[96] Let the province

- accompany the financial management of individual Houses with the help of competent lay people who are trustworthy and share our spirit, and make the necessary checks;

- ensure ethical sensitivity in the management and use of financial means, availing itself of the professional help available in this field;

- act in such a way that the buildings in our works are suitable for carrying out the mission, that the structures are adequately used and properly maintained;

- take account, in asking for financial support, of the planned elements of the Overall Provincial Plan so as to avoid setting up initiatives or structures which will not be sustainable over time;

- rethink initial formation with regard to poverty, helping confrères to make correct use of their time, goods and money; offer essential knowledge of accounting and management; involving them in running the House;

- educate communities to being ecologically sensitive, by supporting initiatives in the local area concerning respect for the environment, use of alternative energy and economical use of resources.

- study the possibility of common contracts to acquire goods and manage expenditures and propose these to the communities as a way to make savings.

[97] Let the Rector Major with his Council

- ask for a more practical solidarity of resources and personnel among provinces and regions, also through twinning arrangements;

- keep an eye on the management of financial resources of the provinces to see that it is carried out in an ethical way and in a spirit of solidarity;

- ensure effective supervision of Provincial Economer operations, at the same time assessing their carrying out of projects financed by the Congregation;

- give directions for the distribution of donations coming in through institutional channels at General Administration and Province levels, being careful to see that there is an equitable distribution of resources and that benefactors' intentions are respected;

- assess the opportuneness of the use of Free/Libre Open Source Software, through the Department for Social Communication, and give pointers to the Provinces.

“The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me.

He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor” (Lk 4:18)

GOD'S CALL

“Our apostolic activity is carried out in a variety of ways, which depend in the first place upon the needs of those to whom we dedicate ourselves. We give effect to the redeeming love of Christ by organising activities and works of an educative and pastoral nature attentive to the needs of the neighbourhood and the Church. Sensitive to the signs of the times and with a spirit of initiative and continual flexibility we evaluate these activities, renew them and create new ones. The education and evangelisation of many young people, especially among the very poor , means that we have to go to them where they are to be found, and provide adequate forms of service in the context of their own life style” (C. 41).

[98] Main priority: poor young people

Don Bosco, going through the streets of Turin, saw the needs of “youth at risk” and responded promptly to their needs, opening up new frontiers of involvement and also acting with “temerity” to “win souls for God”. Going around the streets of the world we too run across young immigrants, children exploited by sexual tourism and child labour, drug addicts, HIV/AIDS sufferers, social misfits, unemployed, victims of violence, war and religious fanaticism, child soldiers, street children, the physically and psychologically disabled, young people at risk. We are struck by some of the marginalised places where young people live, such as the shanty towns and city outskirts, and also by some of the marginalised situations such as those of refugees, indigenous children, Gypsies and other ethnic minorities. We also acknowledge the expectations of young people who are spiritually and culturally poor, and who ask us to be involved: young people who have lost meaning in life, lack affection because of family instability, those left disillusioned and empty by the consumerist mentality, the religiously indifferent, those lacking motivation because of permissiveness, ethical relativism, the widespread culture of death.

Don Bosco felt he was sent by God to respond to the cry of poor young people and understood that if it was important to give an immediate response to their difficulties, it was even more important to prevent their causes. Following his example, we want to meet up with them, convinced that the best way to respond to their poverty is, in fact, through preventive action. Therefore we see the need to study his educative system in order to spell out the tasks involved in overcoming the problems of the young and their marginalisation: education to ethics, fostering the dignity of the human being, social and political involvement, the exercise of active citizenship, the defence of the rights of juveniles, the struggle against injustice and the building of peace. Recognising that we find openness and availability to the Gospel in poor young people, we courageously proclaim Jesus Christ to them and offer them journeys of faith.

[99] Other priorities: family, social communication, Europe

Special attention needs to be given to the current situation of the family, originally responsible for education and the first place for evangelisation. The entire Church has become aware of the serious difficulties the family finds itself in and warns of the need to offer extraordinary assistance for its formation, development and the responsible exercising of its educative role. This is why we are also called to act in such a way that youth ministry is ever more open to family ministry.

We also feel questioned by the new technologies of social communication and the educational challenges they pose. Today's communication opportunities have become an habitual way for young people to meet, exchange ideas, and get involved quickly and with great mobility, but also in an impersonal and virtual way. The culture of personal media can compromise one's ability to mature in personal relationships and exposes young people especially to the danger of very negative encounters and dependencies; this is the “playground” where we need to be present in order to listen, enlighten, guide.

We share the Church's concern for the future of the Gospel in the Western world, and especially in Europe. There is a constant weakening of reference to the Christian roots which have contributed to the identity of the Continent, inspired thought, customs and art, guided the history of its peoples, enriched the Church with splendid figures of holiness, and for centuries nurtured a missionary zeal throughout the world. Given the interdependence of peoples, Europe's destiny involves the entire world and becomes the concern of the universal Church. This opens up a new frontier with respect to the past; for us Salesians it is an invitation to “give greater attention to the training of young people in the faith” (Ecclesia in Europa n. 61).

[100] New models for managing works

Attention to new frontiers involves us in the renewal of our mentality, in cultivating shared responsibility in projects which are never those of the individual but of the Salesian community, the Educative and Pastoral Community. The new needs of the young demand personal detachment from roles, situations and bonds which threaten real readiness to change, and also demand the apostolic courage which disposes us to rethink initiatives and works in order to respond better to their questions.

A new model for managing works requires that we guarantee the consistency in number and quality of the community; real shared responsibility amongst confrères and lay people; availability of the Rector for his primary duty; the fostering of new kinds of more flexible presence; common planning with the Salesian Family and networking with other educative organisations and agencies in harmony with the local Church and society.

This will permit us to give life to “new presences”, that is, to hitherto unknown projects in response to emerging needs, or the renewal of existing works and proposals which can make them “new forms of presences”, that is, more effectively oriented towards the mission.

SITUATION

[101] Main priority: poor young people

There is widespread attention given to so many forms of poverty in today's world especially those which threaten the present and the future of the young. The Congregation is strongly committed to fostering social growth and human development in areas where poverty is most evident. Young people are brought into our Houses without discrimination and our educative and pastoral service is offered to all. The settings where we prepare young people for the world of work are especially effective, offering accompaniment and professionalism.

Positive experiences which respond to emerging forms of poverty have come about in provinces. Networking is developing in collaboration with the Salesian family, educators and volunteers in educative and pastoral communities, people of the Church, society and community groups, non-government organisations. Positive aspects encouraging an openness to new frontiers include the increased capacity to think up and work with projects, the trust and availability of private and political institutions, a commitment to investing in formation which enables Salesians and lay people to give adequate responses.

On the other hand there is a certain resistance to renewal, re-qualification, change in our way of thinking. Formation of Salesians and lay people in knowing how to read the signs of the times and overcome the danger of growing away from the young, is weak. This conjures up the danger that we grow distant from the young. As a result our educative involvement sometimes does not reach those beyond the boundaries of where we are. To respond to new forms of poverty, provinces often trust in the initiative of some confrère who is sensitive to the situation, but have not put planned common initiatives in place.

[102] Other priorities: family, social communication, Europe

The circumstances of the family are a particular concern in almost every context. The family is threatened not only by widespread ethical relativism, but also by the passing of unjust laws which do not support it as an institution. It has come to the point where families fall apart and other kinds of union are recognised, bringing serious consequences at the educational level such as abandoned children, forced cohabitation, violence within families. This is why attention has grown in provinces to the family which is the essential point of reference for education, but the efforts we have made so far are still insufficient.

Sensitivity to and involvement on the part of the Congregation in Social Communications has grown. Signs of this are, for example, the setting up of the Faculty of Communication Sciences at the UPS, the putting into place of various projects of education to critical use of media, the growing presence of our websites on the internet, the greater familiarity we have with computer networks whether for personal exchanges or for distance education, and the new arrangements for the Department of Social Communication. We are nevertheless aware that there are very many virtual worlds inhabited by the young and that we are not always capable of sharing and animating them because of our lack of formation, time and sensitivity.

In recent decades we have witnessed a gradual weakening of the Salesian presence in some nations in Europe. The worrying decrease in vocations has meant confrères are doing their best to maintain presences and activities by involving lay people in the management and animation of these works, redefining boundaries of provinces in order to set up joint projects to respond better to the challenges of education and evangelisation. We see the un-sustainability of this kind of effort without a courageous project on the part of the whole Congregation.

[103] New models for managing works

In our work on behalf of poor young people, some provinces have achieved good results by forming, involving and sharing responsibility with the laity. Here we are speaking of ever wider attention, but one still not adequately taken up in all our presences.

Sometimes we come across an organisational model which has not known how to renew itself according to the needs of the times: a mentality persists which has been inherited from a traditional style of management in our Houses. This shows up, for example, in the rigid way in which activities are set up, in insufficient attention paid to the rhythms of life of young people, in the slowness with which we relocate or reorganise our houses or works, in the difficulty in sharing responsibility with lay people in decision-making roles.

In order to measure up to the changed circumstances of the times we have often adopted the strategy of making the works so big as to be difficult to manage and no longer capable of responding to the new forms of poverty with the ease and urgency they demand.

GUIDELINES FOR ACTION

[104] Processes required for change

In order to face up to the needs of the call and the challenges which come from the situation, and to carry out the consequent guidelines for action, it is necessary to change out mentality and modify our structures, moving from:

• occasional attention to poor young people, to lasting and focused projects in their service;

• a welfare mentality, to involving poor young people in being active agents of their own development and active in the social and political field;

• intervention directed to the victims of injustice, to networking to combat the causes of injustice;

• a youth ministry insufficiently attentive to family contexts, to one of greater investment of energies on behalf of the family;

• a timid attitude and sporadic presence in media, to one of responsible use and a more incisive educative and evangelising animation;

• a situation of progressive weakening of our works in some countries in Europe, to a re-launching of the charism;

• a tendency to focus on management of works already consolidated, to one of courageous and creative flexibility;

• educative activity which is too self-sufficient, to networking with whoever has the needs of the young at heart.

Guideline 15

[106] Let the community

- face up to new forms of poverty experienced by the young in their locality, and keep alive a sensitivity to the most serious kinds;

- express predilection for the poor by planning initiatives along with the educative and pastoral community which are explicitly dedicated to the poorest young people in the area;

- feel particular solidarity with province works which are dedicated to the poorest;

- seek responses to the spiritual forms of poverty of the young, offering them experiences and ways to re-awaken the religious dimension of life and help them discover Jesus as Saviour.

[107] Let the province

- guarantee that in its Overall Provincial Plan there are works explicitly dedicated to the young people who are poorest and most at risk and prepare qualified personnel;

- ensure that in each work's pastoral and educative project there is a proposal of education to the faith which measures up to the situation of the poorest young people;

- take a courageous decision, where necessary, to relocate and re-dimension its works so they may serve poor young people and ordinary folk;

- study the possibility of putting projects into place and creating opportunities to offer young people an alternative to physically and morally dangerous kinds of amusements;

- promote the defence of the rights of juveniles and other young people and condemn violations of these rights with prophetic courage and educative sensitivity.

Guideline 16

Other priorities: family, social communication, Europe

[109] Let the community

- involve and form parents in the educative and evangelising activity they carry out for their children;

- develop curricula for affective education especially during adolescence and accompany young people during their time of engagement for marriage, making good use of the contribution of parents, lay people who share this responsibility and members of the Salesian Family;

- foster new forms of evangelisation and catechesis of families and by means of families;

- plan educative projects to help young people to a critical and responsible use of various kinds of media (mass, folk, personal, convergent etc.) and encourage their active involvement in the social communication field and in youthful and popular forms of expression;

- use the technologies of social communication to give greater visibility to their presence in order to spread the charism.

[110] Let the province

- coordinate and sustain the efforts of educative and pastoral communities in the affective education of the young and in accompaniment of engaged couples;

- lay down a realistic strategy which favours a more incisive presence in the media world, as well as youthful and popular artistic expression, and prepare qualified personnel in this area;

- foster family ministry projects together with lay people and the Salesian Family.

[111] Let the Rector Major with his Council

- offer guidelines, through the Youth Ministry Department, on contents and processes for affective education of the young, in order to support the efforts of provinces and communities;

- reflect, through the Departments for Social Communication, Formation and Youth Ministry, on the new challenges of the culture of personal media for formation of Salesians, the preparation of the laity, and to help the young;

- define the nature and objectives of the Congregation's intervention on behalf of a renewed Salesian presence in Europe.

Guideline 17

New models for managing works

[113] Let the province

- reinforce the consistency in number and quality of the Salesian community and help it to identify what is its main responsibility in animating the work;

- identify the interventions needed to set in motion “new presences” or to renew existing ones so they are better oriented towards the mission;

- rethink the distribution of responsibilities in individual communities, assess the functioning of the councils at various levels so the Rector can carry out his primary duty;

- reflect on the complexity of the works and identify more flexible forms of presence through the Overall Provincial Plan;

- ask for and make good use of the contribution of the Salesian Family in view of common planning of its presence in the neighbourhood;

- encourage networking with members of the Salesian Family, the Church and society.

DELIBERATIONS OF THE GC26

On the basis of the proposals sent in by Provincial Chapters, individual Confreres, and also the General Council and from the Chapter Assembly, after being examined by the Juridical Commission and the Assembly, the General Chapter approved the following deliberations. Some of them concern articles of the Constitutions and General Regulations; others are operative guidelines for the government of the Congregation.

1. TRANSFER OF THE VICE PROVINCE OF MYANMAR TO THE EAST ASIA - OCEANIA REGION

The days spent in the Salesian holy places (Saint Francis of Assisi, Valdocco, Colle Don Bosco, the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, the Sanctuary of the Consolata) were splendid, greatly appreciated by everyone for the opportunity to be in direct contact with the cradle – charismatic, spiritual and apostolic – of our Congregation. For some it was the first time that they had the joy of visiting “our Salesian holy places” for others it was the first time they had listened to a presentation of Don Bosco, not so much based on family anecdotes nor on historical curiosities needing clarification but rather as a spiritual and charismatic experience to live through again. Certainly, those days were for everyone a practical way – and I really hope –a first step “to start afresh from Don Bosco”.

The fruits must be very plentiful: the desire to go more deeply into the spiritual inheritance that has been handed on to us, the commitment to make Don Bosco and our Salesian history better known, the desire to prepare formation personnel in Salesianity and, finally, the desire to make better use of these places linked to our charism.

The presentation of the state of the Congregation, by means of the audiovisual Report of the Departments and of the Regions, was an expression of the intention to do more than just distribute a book with the Report of the Rector Major. The specific aim was to provide the Chapter members with precise information about the state of the Congregation, to foster an overall view and a sense of shared responsibility. The Congregation belongs to all of us and we are all co-responsible for its growth, for its resources, for its challenges.

The Retreat was experienced as a real exercise of the Spirit, overcoming the temptation to reduce the spiritual presentation to a collection of study topics or a theological-spiritual updating course. These days of retreat helped to create an atmosphere of faith that is absolutely indispensable for making the Chapter an experience of listening to God, of docility to the Spirit, of fidelity to Christ. To me they seemed to be exemplary – also because it is not usual to find this atmosphere in the experience of other Retreats – the silence, the prolonged personal prayer in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the celebration of the sacrament of Reconciliation. It should also be mentioned that the Retreat talks also gave us elements of important insights for a greater theological understanding of the charism, the mission and Salesian spirituality.

As they were developed the topics offered us significant keys for interpretation so as to learn to be men of hope, playing their part in the marvellous plan of God for the salvation of the world with the mystica of “Da mihi animas”, which makes the love of God the drawing force, and with the ascetica of “cetera tolle”, which leads us to commit our lives even to our last breath. An important element from this perspective was the clarification of the mission, which does not consist so much in doing things as in becoming signs of the love of God. It is precisely this Love that is the only force capable of freeing in each one of us our greatest potentialities. We know that we have to live all this under the banner of selfless giving and of grace. Only in this way does one achieve that special gift of God, the “grace of unity”, by which everything is consecration and everything is mission. As regards those to whom we are sent, we heard how Don Bosco felt himself charismatically “touched” by the danger that could put at risk the happiness of the young, in time and in eternity (“salvation”): the abandonment in which they could find themselves as regards God and others, an abandonment caused by their poverty, sometimes tragic. For all this Don Bosco is our father, teacher and model. At the school of Mary the Immaculate Help of Christians, he wanted his religious identity to reflect the fact that he had put as the foundations of his life the absolute primacy of God, desire for continuous union with Him, in order to correspond fully to his will (obedience), as the expression of a total love (chastity) in stripping himself and giving up all that might impede his complete dedication to the mission (poverty).

Now I should like to go over with you the stages of this journey of Grace that our General Chapter has been.

The first week of the Chapter (3-8 March) was dedicated to the ordinary juridical procedures (presentation and approval of the Regulations of the GC26, the election of the Chairmen), and especially the study of the Report of the Rector Major by the different Regions. These, reflecting on the Report, identified the great challenges that emerge from the state of the Congregation, and, subsequently, the guidelines for the future to be offered to the Rector Major and his Council in view of the planning of the animation and government for the six-year period 2008 – 2014.

The study of the Report was a fundamental element in examining further the theme of the Chapter, taking into account the fact that more than ever this Chapter set for itself the task not so much of the drawing up of a document, as the renewal of the life of the Congregation with the pressing appeal to “start afresh from Don Bosco”. Taking into account just where we are enables us to discover better the path for “a return to Don Bosco”, the elements to be recovered in order to start from him with renewed vigour.

The second week (10-15 March) was totally given over to the study of the first three key issues. The questions considered by the Juridical Commission were also presented, especially those which dealt with the configuration of the General Council. In fact it was necessary to arrive at the elections having replied to the requests of the Provinces or of individual confreres. As regards the study of the key issues, the “Working Document” was particularly appreciated as the starting point for the reflections of the Chapter. This, on the one hand, gives clear proof of the good work carried out by the Pre-capitular Commission, and on the other also underlines the validity of the contribution offered to the GC26 by the various Provincial Chapters. I am happy about that because as I wrote in the letter convoking the Chapter, as a process of reflection the Chapter actually began in the Provinces, with the study of the topics proposed and the start of a process of renewal. Thus the Commissions worked on a text that was now Capitular and no longer Pre-Capitular, a document from which to start and not just an aid. The contributions offered by the Commissions enriched and perfected it. It was a matter of being more precise and making changes that were not merely linguistic but meant especially to respond in a better way to the situation according to the variety of the social, cultural, political and religious context in which the Congregation is operating. This was the task of the Assembly which rightly became the true author of the chapter document.

The third week (17-20 March) concentrated more directly on the work in the Assembly, discussing the work done by the Commissions. It was the time also when there was an opportunity for the expression of the thoughts and concerns of individual Chapter members who wanted to help to throw light on the topic, to put into words the different sensitivities and views, to lead, from various points of view, to a vote on the document that would be more aware, more personal and more responsible. It should be mentioned particularly that often in the contributions made the major preoccupations emerged. Thus for example, speaking about the urgent need to evangelise, it was pointed out that this needed to be understood and practised in the way that we as Salesians evangelise; and this both as regards those who are our priority objective (the young), and as regards reference to the different ways of evangelising. Speaking about the need for vocation ministry, this must be done with the same conviction that Don Bosco had to help the young to discover God’s dream about their lives and encourage them to at least give God a chance. Vocations – as I said myself in the opening address – are not a mission, but the fruit of the mission, when it is done well. If we add to this the fact that there are huge crowds of young people living in extremely precarious situations struggling to survive, or others who, while not experiencing problems of material poverty, are living aimless lives, or even wasting the priceless gift with life choices that are not satisfying or that become paths of self-destruction, we cannot but work to help vocations come to maturity. Speaking about evangelical poverty, we see in it an invitation from the Lord to make our own his beatitude, living free from the preoccupations of earthly goods, overcoming the temptation to become rich, taking on a style of life that is sober, simple, that frees our hearts and minds from so many things that become an obstacle to our total dedication to the mission, making us less credible. Wealth is a real danger: it makes men short-sighted when it comes to values that last (see the rich fool, Lk 12,13-21), hard-hearted with regard to the poor (see the parable of the poor man Lazarus and the rich glutton, Lk 16,19-31), idolaters at the service of Mammon (see the words of Jesus on the use of money, Lk 16,9-13). It is a question of one of the more disconcerting topics, but also of a choice that has a great liberating power for us and for others. And again: in speaking about the new frontiers we need to do so not as activists for human rights, nor as well-intentioned co-workers of NGO, but as consecrated educators, who are trying to respond to the needs of the young, without prejudice to the works we have and which perform a significant service. Therefore I repeat here what I said in the “Overall view and prophetic look ahead” in my initial Report: it is important that the works respond to the needs of the young, with new presences, where they are necessary, or a new form of presence where we are already but need to renew ourselves.⁴³

The fourth week (24-29 March) was spent in an atmosphere of discernment for the election of the Rector Major, his Vicar and the Councillors. It was a matter of one of the principal objectives and at the same time one of the most delicate tasks of the General Chapter. Guided by Father José Maria Arnaiz, as capitulars we managed to enter into that spiritual atmosphere that made us aware, free and responsible in order to express our opinion through a personal vote. In general, all the elections took place with tranquillity even if in the assessment made at the end the need was seen to facilitate a greater knowledge of the expectations regarding each Department or Region and to define better the profile of the Councillor to be elected with more information about the names of possible candidates. There is no doubt that in the composition of the General Council many factors come into play: above all the feelings of those whose names are presented as candidates, and therefore cultural sensitivity in carrying out the process, in addition to the legitimate desire to try to achieve a form of representation of the whole Congregation. Nevertheless, the high level of convergence reached in the election of the Rector Major and of all the Councillors was a sign of the unity of the Congregation in the diversity of the elements that make it up.

This unity in diversity had its special expression in the evening after the election of the Rector Major with a celebration and concert. The sustained applause given to the Councillors who had finished their period of service (Fr Antonio Domenech, Fr Gianni Mazzali, Fr Francis Alencherry, Bishop Tarcisio Scaramussa, Fr Albert Van Hecke, Fr Filiberto Rodríguez, Fr Joaquim D’Souza, as well as the Councillors who had died while carrying out their work, Fr Valentín de Pablo and Fr Helvécio Baruffi) was a sign of gratitude for their service undertaken on behalf of the Congregation, in animating a Sector or a Region. Still with regard to the elections one cannot fail to underline a very significant novelty which was the election of the first Salesian Brother as a member of the General Council.

The fifth week (31 March – 5 April) began with the visit to the Vatican and the Audience with the Holy Father. The visit to St Peter’s Basilica, where we were welcomed by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Archpriest of the Basilica, gave us the grace to renew our profession of faith in front of the urn containing the relics of the Apostle Peter and to pray before the statue of Don Bosco, asking for the courage to be able to cry out with him “Da mihi animas, cetera tolle”. Then the meeting with Pope Benedict XVI was one of the culminating events of the GC26, in harmony with the ecclesial and spiritual vision of Don Bosco. The words of the Holy Father to the Capitulars were received as being enlightening and programmatic guidelines. In the following days the Commissions and the Assembly took up again the study of the first draft produced by the Drafting Group. In this way the work undertaken during Holy Week before the week of the elections was continued, studying the five key issues in commissions and in the assembly. There was also a vote on several issues presented by the Juridical Commission. The week ended with a visit to the Catacombs of Saint Callixtus, where we wanted to go to remember with gratitude the Rector Majors in particular, the last three, Fr Luigi Ricceri, Fr Egidio Viganò and Fr Juan Edmundo Vecchi, stopping in prayer before the place where they are buried, after the celebration of mass and lunch. In my personal prayer I wanted to thank the Lord for the gift to the Congregation of each one of them. Asking the help and the intercession of these predecessors of mine, I also asked for all the Confreres the grace to know how to go to the sources of our own identity (“return to Don Bosco”) to find a path for the future (“starting afresh from Don Bosco”). Our future path of fidelity starts from fidelity to those who have gone before us.

I won’t hide from you that I often asked myself: «But is this really a Pentecostal experience? Is the Spirit really acting through us to renew the Congregation warming the hearts of the confreres?» I believe the answer is yes. The Holy Spirit doesn’t change the external circumstances of life but the inner; He has the power to renew people and to transform the earth. He has acted primarily in each one of us, bringing us together, involving us in a shared project, making us responsible for drawing up all that makes possible a freshness of identity of visibility and of credibility in our life and in our mission.

As regards the work done by the Juridical Commission this examined each of the proposals that arrived from Provincial Chapters, from individual confreres, from the General Council and from Capitulars. All this so as to give a clear presentation to the Assembly which then had to express its opinion. Reading the history of the Congregation, we become aware of the impact the various General Chapters had for the configuration of the structures of animation and government at the various levels (local, province and world). Certainly to arrive at some changes in the structures several General Chapters were needed; and this not because of tardiness or the lack of courage in introducing significant changes, but rather because it was not always possible to have a complete vision of what was entailed in these decisions. A return also in this General Chapter to a reflection on some aspects of the current configuration of the General Chapter means that there is a need for a serious study with alternative solutions, that can present a proposal that is really innovative and valid in its entirety. From all this there emerged a first directive approved by the Chapter Assembly: that of carrying out in the course of the six-year period an assessment of the central Government of the Congregation (its composition and functioning), in such a way that the service it gives can be more effective and closer to the confreres.

2.A ‘prophetic’ reading: towards an “understanding” of what happened

The Chapter has produced a document, with five work schemes, that are interdependent, on the major topics already indicated in the letter of convocation: “the return to Don Bosco so as to start afresh from him”; “the need for evangelisation”, “the need for vocation ministry”, “evangelical poverty” and “the new frontiers”. These work schemes were intended to make the motto “Da mihi animas, cetera tolle” more concrete, applying the outline scheme already known from the GC25 (God’s Call, Situation, Course of action) and enriched with some criteria for assessment, which assist with the goals to be reached: the mentality to be brought to maturity and the structures to be changed.

I think that the final document really is good and constructive, taking account of the variety of contexts and situations in which the Congregation is to be found incarnating the charism of Don Bosco. It is now up to each Region and Province to work on putting into context the major courses of action with the subsequent procedures so that they respond better to the actual situations and concrete challenges.

I am sure that all the Confreres will find stimulating pages that will help to give dynamism to their lives and to carry out well the Salesian mission. Perhaps overall it may not seem very radical; and yet I am convinced that if taken to heart, it will give rise to enthusiasm and above all, enable everyone to renew themselves spiritually and recover their apostolic zeal.

The document presupposes a good knowledge of the situation in society and that of the Congregation and expresses the desire to bring about there a transformation. The Holy Father in his address to the GC26, on 31 March reminded us of this: «Your 26th Chapter is being celebrated in a period of great social, economic and political change, of heightened ethical, cultural and environmental problems and unresolved conflicts between races and nations. Moreover, in our time, communication between peoples is more intense, there are new opportunities for knowledge and dialogue and a livelier exchange on the spiritual values that give meaning to life. In particular, the appeals young people make to us and especially their questions about the fundamental problems are linked to their intense longing for a full life, authentic love and constructive freedom. They are situations that test the Church and her ability to proclaim Christ's Gospel today with its promise full of hope.»⁴⁴.

In fact, one cannot speak about evangelisation or vocations, about simplicity of life and new frontiers without having in mind the scenario of where we are living and working and the challenges that Salesian life and its mission are facing.

We have had before our minds the faces and the urgent demands of the most needy youngsters, those to whom our mission is addressed. We have chosen them as “the objects of our predilection”, precisely because predilection for the poor “is implicit in the Christological faith in the God who became poor for us, so as to enrich us with his poverty”⁴⁵. Such faith was that practised by Don Bosco and passed on in Salesian tradition (cf. C. 11).

What therefore are the keys to interpreting the document?

–The first: Warming the heart of the confreres, starting afresh from Christ and from Don Bosco. It is not a question of producing a superficial feeling or passing enthusiasm. What is involved is the laborious and urgent task of a conversion, of a return to the desert – as it was for Israel –, in order to meet there one’s first love, the one who enchanted us and filled our life with a promise and a future (cf. Hos 2,16-25). We need to encounter the Lord who comes to speak to us heart to heart, who helps us to rediscover our best energies, those that flow from the heart; who comes to give joy and enchantment once again to our lives and help us to deepen our motivations, to strengthen our convictions, to spur us on to follow a path marked by fidelity to the covenant, giving order to our personal, community and institutional lives according to the values of the Gospel and according the Don Bosco’s charism.

There comes to mind the story of that “good and dutiful” monk, who went to his Abbot to ask for a piece of advice to improve his life, according to the stories told by the Fathers of the desert:

Once upon a time - it is told - Abbà Lot went to find Abbà Joseph and said to him:

 – Abbà, as far as I can, I follow a little rule, I practise all the small fasts, I pray and meditate a little, I keep myself calm, as far as I can, I keep my thoughts pure. What else should I do?

 Then the old monk stood up, raised his hands to heaven and his fingers became ten torches of fire. And he said:
 – Why don’t you change into fire?.⁴⁶

This is the aim to be reached with this Chapter: transform ourselves into fire! The story takes us straight back to the eloquent and meaningful scene of Pentecost: «Something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit » (Acts 2,3-4a). “Warming the heart” means nothing else but transforming oneself into fire, having lungs full of the Holy Spirit.

All this is in harmony with the motto of the Congress on Consecrated Life (November 2004), in which we wanted to interpret and to live our religious life, starting from a great passion for Christ and a great passion for Humanity.

In the light of these two great passions the main priorities are:

• Spirituality. This means a very special commitment so that the Word of God and the Eucharist may really be the centre of the life of the consecrated person and of his community. We are convinced that the consecrated person ought to be the sign and the living memorial of the transcendent dimension that exists in the heart of every human being.

• The community. We are aware that the witness of communion, open to all those who are in need, is fundamental in our world and becomes not only support for the fidelity of religious, but also the witness to a form of life that is an alternative to the prevailing model, which often tends to leads us towards forms of individualism.

• The mission, to be realised and lived above all on the missionary frontiers such as exclusion, poverty, secularisation, reflection, formation and education at all levels.

It seems to us that these are the “places” where the consecrated ought to be present in order to express the missionary dimension of the Church. However, the mission also includes the “passion” – understood as suffering or confinement to bed – of so many religious who continue to pray for the Church and for the workers in the harvest, and the “passion” as with the martyrdom of so many religious imprisoned and killed because of the Kingdom. They represent the best expression of the Gospel.

If we want to feel our hearts burn and to inflame those of the confreres with passion, we need to follow the same path as the disciples of Emmaus. In the homily I gave the day after my re-election I said “More than a physical road it is a mystagogical process, of a genuine spiritual journey, valid above all today because it shows us our situation: disenchanted people, with a knowledge of Jesus but without an experience of faith, who know the Scriptures but haven’t discovered the Word. Therefore Jerusalem and the apostolic community are left behind and they are back where they started. The road to Emmaus is a pathway that leads from the Scripture to the Word, from the Word to the person of Christ in the Eucharist, and from there back to the community to stay there. There we can see our faith confirmed as we meet the brethren: «Yes it is true. The Lord has risen and appeared to Simon!”

– The second interpretative key is a Missionary spirit or the urgent need to evangelise, not driven by an eagerness to proselytise, but by the passion for the salvation of others, by the joy of sharing the experience of the fullness of life in Jesus.

During the Chapter one of the key issues and at the same time a transversal theme was precisely that of the urgent need to evangelise. The Apostle Paul expressed with a sort of existential imperative: «Woe to me if I did not preach the Gospel!» (1Cor 9,16b). This intense missionary sense embodies perfectly the command that Jesus gave his disciples: “You will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth” (At 1,8). Don Bosco made his own this pressing demand of Jesus and immediately after the approval of the Constitutions (1874), on 11 November 1875, he sent the first missionary expedition to Latin America.

The GC26 invites us to be in harmony with what was the original inspiration of Don Bosco, the missionary dimension of his life, but also of his charism. All this represents a fundamental point of the spiritual testament that he left us. The Chapter just concluded offers us the opportunity to understand better what response we are called upon to give today.

The urgent need for a missionary spirit today is a particularly live issue because in the first place the whole world is once again “mission territory”; in the second place because nowadays, there is a different way of understanding the concept of the missionary spirit, of carrying out the “missio ad gentes”. In fact it is undertaken while respecting the different cultural settings, in dialogue with the other Christians confessions and the different religions, and committing ourselves to human development and being the leaven in culture (cf. EN 19).

But where did Don Bosco’s missionary spirit come from? What were the reasons for his tremendous missionary zeal?

In my opinion there are three major elements that ought to be for all of us a point of reference.

▪ The first is that of being obedient to the command of the Lord Jesus who, at the moment of the Ascension, before leaving this world to ascend to the Father, said to us: «you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth » (Acts 1,8). In this way he gave us the whole world as the field for evangelisation and this until the end of time. For us Salesians, as for all believers in general, the first reason to be evangelisers therefore is in obedience to the mandate of the Lord Jesus.

▪ The second element of the missionary dimension of Don Bosco is the conviction of the value as leaven and its transforming function that the Gospel has, its capacity to ferment all cultures. In the ‘magna carta’ of evangelisation the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi of 1975, Paul VI wrote that the Gospel can be inculturated in all cultures, that is to say, it can be expressed differently according to the cultures, without it becoming identified with any one of them. Not even with the Jewish culture in which Jesus was born, in the sense that no culture conforms fully with the novelty of the Gospel. Therefore all cultures are called upon to let themselves be purified and elevated. No genuine evangelisation exists that does not touch the soul of culture, that collection of values to which a person’s basis for decision-making makes reference. Every culture is important, because it represents the context in which people are born, grow up, learn to establish relationships, to face up to life, but one also has to recognise that every culture has its limitations and needs the light of the Gospel. Then again, nowadays when we speak about the urgent need to evangelise, we are not thinking only of Oceania, of Asia, of Africa, of Latin America but also of Europe, which more than ever needs the Gospel and the Salesian charism.

▪ The third element, one that is very specifically part of Don Bosco’s charism, is his predilection for the young, aware that in the policies of governments and in society in general, in spite of all the declarations, they do not count, and it would appear they need to be resigned to being mere consumers of products, experiences and sensations. But this does not correspond to the Gospel, to the practice and of thinking Jesus, who when asked «Who is the most important?», replied by calling a nearby child to him and put him in the centre. Putting the young at the centre of our missionary focus! This is one of the more specific elements of the rich spiritual patrimony that Don Bosco has left us. And the task that is being entrusted to us is that of taking it to all the cultures where we go and work and where often the young do not count. The greatness of Don Bosco was precisely this: having made the young protagonists, not only in their education, but also in his pedagogical and spiritual experience. Don Bosco, as a priest opening up new paths, believed in the young, and he spent himself totally with his apostolic genius to ensure that they had the opportunity to develop all aspects of their personalities and potential for good, to have their rights respected, to make them responsible (especially the better ones) for the continuation of his work down through history.

In the Chapter, after having re-emphasised the urgent need to evangelise, we have recalled that we Salesians carry out this mission according to the pedagogical charism that is our own. “Don Bosco’s pastoral work can never be reduced to just catechism or liturgy, but covers all forms of practical pedagogical/cultural elements associated with the young. (…) It is a matter of that evangelical charity that takes practical form in freeing and fostering the young who are abandoned or gone astray”⁴⁷.

If an education that does not open up the young person to God and to man’s eternal destiny is not Salesian, neither is an evangelisation that does not focus on the formation of persons mature in all directions, or does not know how to adapt itself to nor respect the evolving condition of the youngster, the adolescent, the young person.

It is true that in some secularised situations the Church encounters particular difficulties in evangelising the new generations. And even though obviously surveys and statistics are not the last word, and there is need to consider different kinds of religious practice, that can also include forms of deep spirituality, one cannot deny that in various countries there are signs of a progressive de-Christianisation. It can be seen that both religious practice and profound convictions are weaker among the young. “It is a question of the strata of the population that is more sensitive to cultural fashions and certainly more effected by the surrounding secularisation”⁴⁸. There seems to be a divorce between the new generations of young people and the Church. Religious ignorance and prejudices that every day are uncritically manifested by some of the media have produced in them the image of a conservative Church-institution, that opposes modern culture, especially in the field of sexual morality. It therefore becomes normal for many of them to undervalue or relativise all the religious ideas that are being offered them.

Another particularly serious dramatic situation is the break that has taken place in the chain in transmitting the faith from one generation to the next. The natural and traditional places (the family, the school, the parish) are seen to be ineffective in the transmission of the faith. Therefore, the religious ignorance of the younger generations grows, and so, among the young, the “silent drifting away from the Church” continues. “Religious beliefs are being tainted by pluralism and less and less follow church teachings: therefore gradually there is a fall in levels of religious practice: the sacraments and prayer”⁴⁹.

It is not easy to determine the image that young people have of God, but certainly the Christian God has lost his central position in comparison with a God of the media that leads to people from the worlds of sport, music and the cinema being divinised. The young person feels a passion for freedom and doesn’t cross the threshold of the church. There are so many young people who think that the Church is an obstacle to their personal freedom.

Faced with this situation we can ask ourselves: what sort of education are church and school institutions offering? Why has the question of religion been eliminated from young peoples’ world? Youngsters, adolescents, young people are by nature generous and become enthusiastic about those causes that are worth the trouble. Why then has Christ ceased to be significant to them?

If she wishes to remain faithful to her mission as the universal sacrament of salvation, the Church needs to learn the languages used by men and women of every time, ethnic background and place. And we Salesians, in a special way need to learn and to use young peoples’ language. There is no doubt that in the Church nowadays, but also within our own institutions there exists a “serious language problem.”. Basically it is a question of a communication problem, of the inculturation of the Gospel in social and cultural situations; a problem of education to the faith for the new generations. Here then a challenge and a task for us today: to be educators capable of communicating with young people and of transmitting to them the great treasure of faith in Jesus Christ.

In the transmission of the faith and of values, Salesian education always starts from the concrete situation of each individual, from his/her human and religious experience, from his/her worries and anxieties, from his/her joys and hopes, giving special attention to experience and witness. It takes care of the pedagogy of Christian initiation, in such a way that Christ is accepted more as a friend who saves and makes us children of God than as a law-maker, who loads us down with dogmas, precepts or rites. The positive and festive aspects of every religious experience are highlighted, faithful to Don Bosco in his dream at nine years of age: “Start right away to teach them the ugliness of sin and the value of virtue”⁵⁰

“Evangelising by educating” means for us knowing how to present the best news (the person of Jesus) adapting ourselves to and respecting the evolving condition of the youngster, the adolescent, the young person. The young person is looking for happiness, the joy of life, and being generous, is capable of making sacrifices to achieve them, if we really manage to show him/her a convincing path and if we offer ourselves as competent companions on the journey. The youngsters were convinced that Don Bosco loved them and wanted their happiness here on earth and for eternity. And so they accepted the pathway that he put before them: friendship with Jesus, the Way the Truth and the Life.

Don Bosco teaches us be at one and the same time educators and evangelisers (“the grace of unity”). As evangelisers we know and seek the aim: to bring the young people to Christ. As educators we have to know how to start from the concrete situation of the young person and succeed in finding the appropriate method to accompany him/her in the process of reaching maturity. If as pastors it would be a disgrace to give up the aim, as educators it would be a failure were we not to succeed in finding the appropriate way to motivate them to undertake the journey and to accompany them in a credible manner.

– The third key to interpretation is the topic of the “New frontiers” as the natural place for consecrated life and as call to become present in those poor places with the greatest needs, from both the religious and the cultural, environmental and social points of view.

Aware that the mission is the reason for our being Salesians and that the needs and the expectations of the young determine our works, in the General Chapter one of the topics that was the subject of considerable discussion was precisely that of the “new frontiers”, where the young are waiting for us. It is a question of frontiers not only geographical but also economic, social, cultural and religious. Here we have to act with the criterion that guided Don Bosco’s decisions, that is to say, “giving more to those who have least.”

I am happy that for a number of years now in the Congregation there has been growing a sensitivity and concern, reflection and commitment for the world of the side-lining and hardship of young people. This situation no longer represents a special sector, identified with some special work or animated by some confrere or other particularly motivated. Attention given to the least, to the poorest, to the most disadvantaged is becoming an “institutional sensitivity” that little by little, involves many works in the Provinces. Social works have multiplied, net-working is beginning and we are operating in synergy with other agencies that work in the same field. It is as though we have begun to “go outside the walls”, going around the city and listening to the cry and the pleading for help from the young. For us all this means renewing our predilection for the poorest, for those most abandoned and for those who find themselves in a situation of psychosocial danger: youngsters who are lost, ill-treated, victims of violence and abuse. With Don Bosco’s own heart we feel that we have to find new ways of opposing the evil that afflicts so many young people. We also feel that we have a duty to stem the present cultural and social trend, especially through what is our specific treasure: having an educational system that is capable of changing the hearts of the young and of transforming society. We cannot give as ‘charity’ what they have a right to as ‘justice’. In this year in which the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights is celebrated, we need to move forward and locate all our educational project in the area of children’s rights as I indicated in the Strenna for 2008.

AT THE 26^th GENERAL CHAPTER