The phenomenon of globalization, with the corresponding phenomenon of localization, underlines the necessity of a balance between the unity of the charism and the plurality of its expressions.

It is necessary that greater weight be given to the value of brotherhood than to differences of race, language etc., in such a way that our communities, open to different cultures, become a true gift to the Church and to society. Our presence in all the continents, in 128 countries, helps us to have a world view of our charism, and to observe the developing life of the Church and of vocations throughout the world. While it is becoming old in some traditional places, it is growing and coming to birth in other countries and continents.

The Holy Father says in his Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata at n. 51:

“Placed as they are within the world’s different societies – societies frequently marked by conflicting passions and interests, seeking unity but uncertain about the ways to attain it – communities of consecrated life, where persons of different ages, languages and cultures meet as brothers and sisters, are signs that dialogue is always possible and that communion can bring differences into harmony. Consecrated men and women are sent forth to proclaim, by the witness of their lives, the value of Christian fraternity and the transfiguring power of the Good News, which makes it possible to see all people as sons and daughters of God, and inspires a self-giving love towards everyone, especially the least of our brothers and sisters. In an age characterized by the globalization of problems and the return of the idols of nationalism, international institutes especially are called to uphold and to bear witness to the sense of communion between peoples, races and cultures. In a climate of fraternity, an openness to the global dimension of problems will not detract from the richness of particular gifts, nor will the affirmation of a particular gift conflict with other gifts or with unity itself. International institutes can achieve this effectively, inasmuch as they have to face in a creative way the challenge of inculturation, while at the same time preserving their identity.”

Involvement in the world of culture requires a serious commitment to the qualification of people and of works. The effective significance of our activity depends mainly on our ability to combine a professional approach and the spirit of our charism.

Speaking of the role of the salesian community as the animating nucleus, Fr Vecchi indicated the path to follow. We have to make the effort to become:

• persons who live our own lives with confidence and joy, with an attitude of understanding and dialogue with the young and their world, with attention to culture, and with the ability to involve ourselves in the local area;

• educators who are competent, who know how to combine education and evangelization, and to prepare people to transform society in a Christian manner;

• animators willing to share the formative process with lay collaborators in every day life and on important community occasions, such as the drawing up of the SEPP, the verification of the EPC and discernment in particular circumstances;

• leaders who have made their own the value of participation and of sharing responsibility, and are able to animate by creating and revitalizing suitable opportunities;

• Salesians who, working with others in partnership, show a particular sensitivity towards the education of those who are poorest, and become promoters of a culture of solidarity and peace.

(Experts, witnesses and craftsmen of communion. The Salesian community – animating nucleus, in AGC 363, p. 40)

To achieve this quality both in the communities and in the confreres, during the last six year period, the Congregation has made a notable effort to rethink and bring up to date its formation practice, appropriately adapting its role of formation to the challenges and the requirements of the present time. The Ratio, promulgated in December 2000, is a compendium of norms and guidelines for the Congregation in the area of formation. It considers the whole of formation from the standpoint of ongoing formation, attributing to everyday life and work an effective formative role.

For this reason it is necessary that in every community there is:

an atmosphere that fosters the growth of the confreres as individuals and as community (the family spirit that creates a mentality of searching and discerning together, drawing on everyone’s experience, a climate of faith and prayer that strengthens the inner motivations, disposing each one to live them in the radical way of the Gospel and with apostolic generosity…);

good use made of all the occasions and means that can promote ongoing formation;

a yearly program of ongoing formation;

communication with the provincial community and with the Congregation and the acceptance of the encouragement and the guidance that come from them… (cf. Ratio n. 543)

3. Some pointers for the future

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The task given to us by Christ – to be salt of the earth and light of the world – leads us to look at the current situation in which we want to continually rethink our specific charism, ascertaining whether the salt still retains its taste and whether we have put the light in the right place.

The Jubilee Year invited us to raise the level of our lives and with the watchword Duc in altum the Holy Father encouraged us to head for the open sea and out into the deep – as Fr Vecchi repeated in his Strenna for this year.

For this first General Chapter of the new millennium, “Duc in altum” means relaunching the Congregation in one of those most fundamental aspects which bear witness to its religious and charismatic vigour. The community in fact is the key to the renewal and to the growth of the Congregation in its mission to youth , in its vocation ministry and in its evangelical and charismatic impact on the world.

In this fraternal gathering which is the General Chapter, we want, in the first place, to “live” our communion, as a sign of the unity of the Congregation. We want to undertake a shared reflection on the community to re-discover and to re-express the heart of the evangelical inspiration of Don Bosco’s charism, sensitive to the needs of time and place. (cf. C 146) It is a question of giving fresh life and a foundation to our gospel and charismatic witness as communities in order to become prophets for the new millennium. We want to identify and to share the ways ahead for the whole Congregation for the next six years.

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In this regard I want to indicate immediately some lines or perspectives for our communities, aiming at a significant witness for the future that is capable of re-founding or redesigning our presence in the world of today.

Above all, as witnesses to poverty, our communities are involved in society participating in many forms of poverty, material and spiritual, committing themselves to justice, and to human dignity. It is in fact the vocational choice of their members that gives them this sort of sensitivity which is a mark of the Church. The Pope reminded us that:

“The option for the poor is inherent in the very structure of love lived in Christ. All of Christ’s disciples are therefore held to this option…For each institute, according to its charism, this involves adopting a simple and austere way of life, both as individuals and as a community,” (VC 82)

The communities will ensure that they reconsider their way of living and of working, giving preference to a presence among the less fortunate youngsters and developing in their members and in those for whom they work a culture of solidarity that is an expression of the gospel of charity.

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In the second place, as witnesses to faith the communities need to respond to the thirst for spirituality shown by young people.

I quote the words of Fr Vecchi:

“Young people… need witnesses, persons and environments that can show by example the possibility of living a life according to the Gospel in our society. This evangelical witness which is at one and the same time a communion between brothers, a radical following of Christ, and an active presence which stimulates and brings life to the young, constitutes the first educative service we offer them, the first word of the proclamation of the Gospel. From a vocational point of view they feel attracted to join communities with a purpose rather than merely engage in a particular kind of work.” (Towards the 25^th General Chapter, in AGC 372 p. 16)

. In the exhortation the Pope invites religious to:

“inspire in all the faithful a true longing for holiness, a deep desire for conversion and personal renewal in a context of ever more intense prayer and of solidarity with one’s neighbour, especially the most needy.” (VC. 39)

The evangelical witness of our communities to fraternal life and charity towards those in need will be a strong invitation and an encouragement to others to share the salesian charism. In this way they will fulfil what our Constitutions say:

“…the discovery and guidance of vocations…[is] the crown of all our educational and pastoral activity. (C. 37)

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Thirdly: as witnesses to communion our communities ought to try to extend, to strengthen and to create communion by becoming as the Pope says, “true experts of communion” (VC 46).

They will become effectively significant in a local area through their involvement, according to their own charism, both in the pastoral work of the local Church and in working on behalf of poor young people and in collaboration with other bodies and agencies. They will try to promote evangelical values, by their words and even more by their example, and by being present in those places where educational criteria are determined and policies regarding young people are decided. Not only this: the vocation as educators and consecrated persons and the priestly ministry will lead communities to set in motion organized action for the guidance and the formation of collaborators and of the educative communities. To enable them to live their own lives with maturity and joy, to understand and to live salesian spirituality and to carry out their educative and pastoral mission competently and in a professional manner, the communities will work at their cultural and professional development but also and especially at the growth of their human, Christian and salesian vocation.

They will establish relationships of collaboration and co-responsibility in the shared mission, and will become actively involved in the Church and in society, especially in areas of education, of the evangelization of culture, and in social communication.

Fourthly as witnesses to a deep spiritual life the communities need to commit themselves particularly to revitalizing their own salesian spirituality, recognizing that the community owes its existence and mission to the Holy Spirit, and therefore it cannot possibly reinvent itself or carry out its role fruitfully without a deep spiritual experience. They will seek therefore to start afresh from Christ (NMI 29) recognizing that “a religious community is, above all else, a mystery which must be contemplated and welcomed with a heart full of gratitude in the clear context of faith.” (Fraternal life in community, n. 12)

At the beginning of the new millennium we were insistently reminded of the importance of being authentic Christians and competent and credible witnesses. Today – it has been said – without passion and mysticism no one can be a Christian, mush less a religious and a Salesian. May the General Chapter know how to rekindle this flame in every salesian community.

Conclusion

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We entrust ourselves to the help of Mary, “ model of prayer and pastoral love, the teacher of wisdom and guide of our Family” (C. 92) and to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, with a docility like that of Don Bosco, in order to be enlightened in every step that we take and on every decision that we make in this Chapter. We also know that every renewal carried out under the inspiration of the Spirit and in harmony with the charism of Don Bosco will be accompanied by their creative power. It is in this way that we can take up our work with complete confidence that we are doing the Lord’s will.

This is what we wish for ourselves, certain of the Lord’s presence among us.

Rome, 25 February 2002

APPENDIX 4.

Most Holy Father,

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We are full of joy and gratitude for this fatherly meeting that you have graciously granted us in your house close to St Peter’s chair. We feel that this is also our house, because of his lively sense of the Church and love for the Vicar of Christ at the service of the Church that Don Bosco has handed down to us.

We are 231 participants at the 25^th General Chapter of the Salesian Society, members by right and those invited, coming from 94 Salesian Provinces spread across the five continents and where today the Salesians are living the charism and the mission of Don Bosco, committed, in very different contexts, especially to the education of young people and the new evangelization, often in situations on the frontiers.

In the name of the chapter members and of the whole Salesian Family, I want above all to express the most lively sentiments of gratitude for this special meeting and for the very many signs of affection, of trust and esteem shown to our Family. The brotherly closeness and encouraging words of Your Holiness, on the most important occasions – happy and sorrowful – of our Congregation, as on the recent bereavement that we suffered with the death of Fr Juan Vecchi, have shed light on our way and have led us with renewed fidelity to the Spirit into the new Millennium.

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We are about to conclude, Most Holy Father, the work of the 25^th General Chapter, in which we have been engaged, in family communion and with a sense of responsibility, during these last weeks. For us, in developing the chapter theme, focused on The Salesian community today, the message of Your Holiness given to us at the beginning of the Chapter has been a stimulus and an encouragement. You told us “it is important for you that you clearly determine the special identity of your communities; that they may be, as Don Bosco wished, communities gathered around the Eucharist and animated by a profound love for Mary Most Holy, ready to work together, sharing a single educative and pastoral project. Communities capable of animating and co-involving others, especially by their example.”

We have reflected on this in our Chapter, as we look towards the future. Aware of the new contexts in which today consecrated life finds itself, in a globalized and pluralistic world, marked by signs of dramatic situations of poverty and oppression, in search of new motives and models for life, we want to be capable of offering to young people a new model of humanity, through communities which are “of one heart and one soul”, significant and visible, that with their life and words bear witness to the Risen Lord. As You Yourself, Holiness, pointed out in Novo Millennio Ineunte, we want our communities to be “houses and schools of communion.”

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And particularly in reference to the same Apostolic Letter, with which Your Holiness has launched the Church into the Third Millennium, I want to say that our work in the chapter has been guided by the invitation that You Yourself have repeated in the name of the Lord Jesus: Duc in altum! The invitation was already taken up by our beloved deceased Rector Major, Fr Juan Edmundo Vecchi who left us almost as a last testament in his final “Strenna”: Duc in altum: Put out into the high seas and cast your nets wide and deep, encouraging us to renew our mission as educators and evangelizers in the “open seas” of today’s world, responding to the challenge of the young and together to set our activity in the depth of the spiritual life.

You Yourself Holiness, in your message at the beginning of the Chapter said to us: “Diligent educators and skilled spiritual guides as you are, you will know how to meet with young people who long to “see Jesus”. You will know how to lead them with gentle firmness along the demanding paths of Christian fidelity. “Duc in altum!“

In the young people of today, we want to recognize – as you yourself Your Holiness told us - the way of the Church. With them, “called to be the heralds of the morning” we want to discover, ever new, the true Light, that which enlightens everyone. And in their company, we want to spread it with evangelical courage.

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In the Chapter we have kept this horizon before us: fraternal life and evangelical witness lived in the community can lead to an ever more vital animating presence among the young, helping them to grow towards that holiness that, as our Constitutions say – is the most beautiful gift that we can make to young people.

For this I want to thank You Most Holy Father, for the gift of three new Blesseds that you will make to our Family: the priest Luigi Variara, the Brother Artemide Zatti and Sister Maria Romero Meneses: three splendid models of the holiness that we want to live in our communities and to offer to the young people of today.

So that we may reach these demanding goals we ask the Apostolic Blessing of Your Holiness, that it may bring the gifts of the Spirit on the members of the chapter here present, on the members of the new General Council and the whole Salesian Family.

On our part, together with the fervent prayers according to your intentions, we pledge our commitment to be in the Church as you wished us to be, “diligent educators and skilled spiritual guides “ of the young.

APPENDIX 5.

My Dear Brothers,

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1. I am happy to welcome you on the occasion of the 25^th General Chapter of your Congregation. Through you I want the thoughts in my heart to reach all the Salesians working in various parts of the world.

With affection I greet the new Rector Major, Fr Pascual Chavez Villanueva, and the General Council that will work beside him for the next few years. I pray that they may guide your religious Family with enthusiasm and docility to the action of the Holy Spirit, keeping alive the charism of your holy Founder that is always relevant.

And then I cannot but recall the previous Rector Major, Fr Juan Vecchi, recently deceased, at the end of an illness accepted with resignation and abandonment to the Lord’s will. May his testimony be a stimulus for every Salesian to make his own life a total offering to God and to his brothers.

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2. At this time of Easter, after the days of the passion and the crucifixion of the Son of God, the Church invites believers to contemplate the shining face of the risen divine Master. In fact, as I recalled in the Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte, “Our witness would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated his face.” (n. 16) Only in Christ can we find the response to the most intimate expectations of our heart. This means that every effort must be directed towards Jesus “who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history” (ibid 29).

Dear Salesians, if you are constant in fidelity to this commitment, if you make every effort to impress on your work the mark of evangelical love, you will be able to fulfil your whole mission with joy and effectiveness. Be saints! As you well know, holiness is your principal task, as indeed it is for all Christians.

The Salesian Family is eagerly preparing to live with joy the imminent beatification of her three children: the priest Fr Luigi Variara, the Brother Artemide Zatti and the religious Sister Maria Romero Meneses. Holiness is the best guarantee of an efficacious evangelization, because in it is to be found the most important testimony to offer to young people the ones for whom you carry out your various activities.

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3 May the Most Holy Virgin whom you venerate under the title of Mary Help of Christians, guide your steps and protect you everywhere. May St John Bosco, together with the numerous Saints and Blesseds who make up the heavenly host of your protectors accompany you in the not easy task of putting into action the projects that the work of the Chapter has produced for the benefit of the whole Institute.

With this wish I bless you my dear Brothers, assuring you of my prayers for each one of you and for all those you meet in your daily apostolic and missionary ministry.

APPENDIX 6.

The “Good-night” of Fr Pascual Chávez

in the evening of his election as Rector Major

I hope the fact that we are in the Easter season did not influence my election, given that my name occurs often during this liturgical time (paschal candle, paschal time); it could have been seen as a subliminal message!

1.  Thanks

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Well then, I'll start by expressing my warmest thanks, firstly to the Lord God whose desire it has been to give to the congregation and to the Salesian Family a new pastor in Don Bosco's footsteps.  Thank you to Fr. Luc Van Looy who for almost two years, since Fr. Vecchi's illness began, has guided the congregation with true dedication and love.  Thank you to Fr. Anthony McSweeney, who has accompanied the process of discernment so wisely and with such love for the Salesians.  I must say that the fact that the number of preferences in the first straw vote was not made public in the Assembly allowed me to sleep well to the point where right now I am much more at ease than I was yesterday.

2.  A surprise

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Of course, this election is a surprise for me and I accept it as an expression of the will of God, as I said when I was asked if I would accept.  It states the loving will of God that urges me further in the service of the confreres and the young, with Him as the one and only Lord of my life. Nevertheless, that acceptance expresses my inadequacy to undertake the grand task and honour of being the successor of Don Bosco. 

3.  The profile

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Reading through the list many times of the qualities required of the Rector Major's role which were given to help the Assembly in its discernment, I must confess that I didn't see myself in them and I didn't feel that I was the right person, and so I was sure another would have been elected.  I say that sincerely.  Now I understand that through this profile you have set out not only your expectations of the Rector Major, but also his personal life program.  Thank you very much.  That too is a gift from God.

4.  Program for the next six years.

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The description of the problems which you presented in your questions to the Rector Major's vicar after his 'state of the congregation' report 1996-2002 completes the overview of the situation (as described by Fr. Luc Van Looy in that report). Together with the priorities indicated and at the conclusion of GC25, it will become part of the planning of the Rector Major and his Council for the next six years.

5.  A fast ride!

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Perhaps you will ask me how it is I have arrived at this particular responsibility.  In my opinion it's been an especially short, fast ride!  In 1995, at the end of my mandate as Provincial of Mexico-Guadalajara, I was called by Fr Viganò who sent me to finish off my formative journey with a doctorate in biblical theology.  I remember very well his words: "The Congregation needs this doctorate".  When I asked him what my future would be, he said "I don't know yet.  You could be a professor at the UPS, or help out in the Formation Department, or you could,,,you could also be Provincial!"  I had a year and a half to finish it.  You probably remember how I came to be called onto the General Council six years ago.  I was preaching a retreat to  a group of confreres from the Madrid province when I received a phone call from Fr. Vecchi telling me that the Chapter Assembly had elected me as regional for the Inter-America region - and asking me for an answer.  It was the 2nd April 1995.  That means that this new nomination has come my way six years later, plus a day!  When he asked me to become provincial, Fr. Viganò invited me to allow myself to be guided by the Holy Spirit and to put aside personal projects and take on those that God would give me as a life plan.

Fr. Vecchi, for his part, in his introduction to the workings of the new General Council, invited us all to live the task as a grace, as an opportunity to make progress on the path to holiness by letting the light of Don Bosco, his charism, his mission as we find it in the Rule enlighten our situation and that of others.  Even if I feel that I have grown as a Salesian over those years, I must confess that there's still a way to go, but I depend on the Lord and His grace and also on yourselves and each member of your province.

6.  In continuity with previous Rector Majors

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I know that I am called to continue the splendid work of animation and government carried out by Frs. Viganò and Vecchi; the achievement of the former being his renewal of the salesian identity according to indications of Vatican II and his situating the congregation in harmony with the needs of young people today.  This has been a contribution that we cannot avoid responding to adequately and making a part of who we are.  It was Fr. Vecchi's contribution to create a pastoral model appropriate to society as it is today, with its new understandings of education, evangelization and pastoral work for young people.  Above all he strove to make our work meaningful for young people.  The robust theological formation of Fr. Viganò and his closeness to the charism of Don Bosco flow together into an original contemporary interpretation of our founder and father.  The pedagogical competence and anthropological vision of Fr. Vecchi have enriched the congregation giving it more certainty in what to do today to be more truly meaningful as communities and as individuals.

7.  My wish

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I would like to have the theological preparation of Don Viganò; the pedagogical and cultural sensitivity of Don Vecchi, but above all the loving fatherliness of Don Rinaldi and the fidelity of Don Rua, of whom Paul VI affirmed that his beatification was owed to the fact that he had made of Don Bosco a school, and of his sanctity a model and of his Rule a spirit.  Knowing my limits and weaknesses, I invite you and through you all the confreres of the congregation young and old, priests and brothers, sick and in the fullness of health,  together to reproduce the image of Don Bosco.

8.  A new phase

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I am the first non-Italian Rector Major (Fr. Vecchi was Argentinian but of Italian parentage).  This is the most evident sign of the multicultural nature of the Congregation now spread around the world.  I take this occasion to thank all of Salesian Italy which to this point has known how to exercise its responsibility to faithfully hand on the charism of Don Bosco.  Thank you my dear Italian Salesians here present, or working in the various communities of the Peninsula or as missionaries around the world.  Now this historical responsibility is passed on to all of us since all of us are called to incarnate Don Bosco.  We have a need to deepen our knowledge of Don Bosco especially because we have a need of a charismatic identity in order not to be lost in this ocean which we have been called to plunge ourselves into....as indicated in my predecessor's recent Strenna.  We need to know Don Bosco so that he becomes our mens (our way of thinking), our point of view, our action towards the needs of young people.  I invite you to love him.  He is the most beautiful gift that God has given us: Don Bosco, a sure road to human completeness and above all the following of Christ.  This is my exhortation for you:  know him, love him, imitate him, because we are all heirs of his spirit and it is for us to spread it around.

9.  My attitude today

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What attitude do I have as I take up this responsibility?  That of Moses and Don Bosco.  In effect, when I was ordained priest on 8th December 1973, I took as a motto something that had struck me while I was studying the Letter to the Hebrews: "He held to his purpose like a man who could see the Invisible".  It is the text with which the author of the letter recovers the spiritual experience of Moses, the Easter man.  In order to make the long and perilous journey together with the people of God whom he, as leader, was guiding out of Egypt,  he had need of courage, of 'parresia'.  But this had been shown to be inadequate above all when he knew he was being sought for killing a man, and took refuge in the desert; it was there that his choice to renounce all his own projects matured.  So when he was called anew by God, Moses knew he had to renounce his projects and himself and trust himself to God, to believe in Him and walk as if he were seeing the invisible.  I can assure you that I felt great emotion when I read this same expression years later in the renewed text of the Constitutions as referring to Don Bosco in article 21 - where the saint is presented as father and teacher.  He was a man who lived to bring about a single dream:  the salvation of the young especially those most in need and in danger.  He was a priest educator 'consecrated' totally to the mission which God had entrusted to him.  He brought all his qualities of nature and grace to bear on this mission.  His being one so unified, the perfect incarnation of apostolic interiority, is at the root of his marvelous courage, his fantastic creativity, his tireless capacity for work, his rich sensitivity, his generous love.

10. Entrustment to the Madonna

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I conclude by inviting you to entrust me and the Congregation to Mary.  She was the precious legacy left by Jesus so that she could be our Mother and teach us to be believers and disciples of her son.  And from the time of the dream of 9 years, she was the Mother and teacher of Don Bosco.  Today she is the 'Stella Maris' (Star of the Sea) who will guide and accompany us in our adventure of putting out into the deep as Fr. Vecchi urged us to do in order to put the Congregation and the Salesian Family in harmony with the pastoral plan of the Church at this beginning of the third millennium.

Thank you.

Good Night!

APPENDIX 7.

Address of the Rector Major

Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva

at the closing of the GC25

Dear Confreres and Members of the Chapter,

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We have come to the end of our experience of the GC25, which we have lived as a gift of the Holy Spirit for ourselves and for our Congregation. The Spirit of Christ has poured out on us the rich variety of his gifts, which have filled us with joy and pointed to the way we must travel in the future. Our first thought therefore is humbly and gratefully addressed to God, who through his Spirit has animated our assembly to live in the unity of communion and to seek to respond to what he is asking of us.

At this concluding moment there are many people I want to thank: in the first place the Vicar of the Rector Major Fr Luc Van Looy, the Moderator of the Chapter Fr Antonio Domenech, Fr Antonio Martinelli, the members of the precapitular commission, the chairmen and secretaries of the Assembly, Bishop Alois Kothgasser, Fr Anthony Mc Sweeney, who with various degrees of responsibility have guided the Assembly’s life and work.

I thank also the capitular Assembly itself, which was always readily available and willing at every stage of the Chapter’s development, helped by its Commissions and internal arrangements. I thank too the secretaries of the Chapter, the translators, ANS and its team, the confreres of the Generalate and the auxiliary personnel, who by their discreet and assiduous work made the carrying out of this important event possible.

Finally I thank the members of the outgoing General Council, who have carried out their task with true competence and dedication, and in particular those who have now finished their mandate; and I offer my sincere good wishes to the Vicar and General Councillors who have accepted the indication of the capitular assembly to be my collaborators for the coming six-year period.

Prominent in our minds throughout the Chapter has been our concern for the Holy Land. The drama of the war has never been far from our thoughts; we have followed the rapid sequence of news items; we have united our prayers with the worried appeal of John Paul II. The carnage, the acts of retaliation, the occupations and acts of destruction have opened up a wide gulf between the inhabitants. We have been seriously worried about the fate of our confreres and sisters in Bethlehem and Cremisan, and we are still keenly following the situation as it continues to develop with our prayers and our close support.

We have also been badly affected by the scandal widely echoed by the mass media concerning priests and religious of the Church of the USA accused of the abuse of juveniles. All this calls for particular care on the part of us who are educators. And similarly we have not failed to follow the situations of wars and social conflicts which are afflicting countries in which we are working.

Following the example of the apostolic community, sent out by Jesus first to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom and then make disciples of all nations, “in the joy of the Holy Spirit” our assembly is now ready to go out into all the world, so that each one may continue to follow the pathways of history, to live with young people, to animate communities, to walk with the Church.

1. The salesian community at the present day

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The GC25 has developed the main theme of the “salesian community today” and the secondary theme of the “verification of the functioning of the structures of central government”. The greater part of its time has been dedicated to reflection on the theme of the community, which had already been begun by the two preceding General Chapters; they had shown the local community to be the strategic place for the education of young people to the faith and for the involvement of the laity.

The GC23 had tackled the challenge of the education of the young to the faith. This was becoming an ever more complex undertaking, because of an emerging culture which made a rethinking of both method and content necessary. Starting from the challenges posed by the youth situation in its various contexts, the capitulars drew up a process for the education of young people to the faith, by offering them a suggested form of meaningful Christian life and of salesian youth spirituality.

What was needed was a renewal of the quality of our educative and pastoral approach. It was not a matter of creating new works, but of starting up a new presence, a new way of being present in those places where we are already working. Once again the Congregation felt itself called upon to relaunch the attitude of “da mihi animas”, by converting the community into a “sign and school of faith and a centre of communion”.

The GC24 centred its reflections on the challenge of creating a new synergy between SDBs and laity, in other words on the challenge of increasing the number of people who want to live their baptism in the educational field, bringing Salesians and lay people together in a new paradigm of relationships, of bringing the Salesians face to face with their priority task of pastoral and pedagogical animation.

The conviction became ever more deeply rooted that the new evangelization and the new education could not be realized without the organized and competent collaboration of the laity. And the salesian communities would need to be ever better adapted for becoming animators of the educative and pastoral communities and of the Salesian Family.

These two last General Chapters developed a new pastoral model, in which the salesian community has an animating task, as the charismatic point of reference for all who share Don Bosco’s spirit and mission. The quality of its consecrated life, the depth of its spiritual experience, the effectiveness of its witness and the impact of its suggestions, are all indispensable factors for giving evangelical life and strength to the animation of the EPC and of the Salesian Family.

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With the GC25 the salesian community takes centre stage and is seen in all its dynamic characteristics. It is not so much the community dimension that has been considered, but the local community as the subject, or in other words as regards its ability for planning and involving numerous other forces, for evangelical prophecy, for communion and for effective evangelization. In this way the GC25 delves more deeply into what the Congregation has already done and gives new importance to the realization of the full “personal involvement” of the community. The model that emerges from the GC25 is one linked with our apostolic consecration as expressed in art. 3 of the Constitutions. The community lives the grace of unity, which brings about a vital synthesis between fraternal life, the radical following of Christ, spiritual experience and dedication to the mission to the young.

The capitular text concerning the community appears as a collection of five working guidelines or schemes of work, and is directed to the salesian community as the principal subject. By taking it on, the latter is invited to give willing acceptance to the call of God that comes through historical and ecclesial events, the indications of the Word of God and of our Rule of life, the appeals of young people and the needs of the laity and of the Salesian Family. The community then examines more deeply its own situation and discovers its own availability and resistances, its resources and lack of them, its possibilities and limitations. It learns moreover to recognize fundamental challenges and face them with hope and courage; it can put to itself appropriate questions that demand a reply. Finally, the community considers the practical guidelines that have been given, and decides on the conditions needed for putting them into effect.

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The fundamental content concerns fraternal life, evangelical witness and the animating presence among the young. The fraternal life of the community aims at fostering processes of the human and vocational growth of the confreres, at overcoming the inertia of formal or functional relationships, at strengthening the sense of belonging and the fraternal atmosphere, at facilitating communication, and at helping in the building of a shared vision. Useful for this purpose can be a personal plan of life, the practice of community discernment, the good use of the occasions for community meetings, and the project of the salesian community.

Evangelical witness requires us to make visibly perceptible the primacy of God in the community’s life, to live the grace of unity in spiritual experience and its community expressions, to make our community witness to the following of Christ radically prophetic and attractive, and to share the motivations and commitments of our vocations. The central place given to the Word of God, fostered by the practice of the “lectio divina”, the quality of community prayer, the daily Eucharist, communication and the sharing of life help to deepen our spiritual experience and the manifestation of the primacy of God. The witness of the community is rendered more transparent by concentration on joyful obedience in the mission, the practical application of an austere poverty of solidarity, and the splendour of a serene and watchful chastity.

Wherever there is a salesian community, there is an experience of faith, a network of relationships is built up and many forms of service for the young are made available. The community makes visibly perceptible the salesian presence among the young, to which it gives animation and growth. A first requirement is to get back among the young and be not only a community for young people but also with young people. To this end the salesian community builds up a presence of communion and participation, it gets the laity and the Salesian Family involved and becomes inserted in the local neighbourhood. It becomes a presence that educates and evangelizes, creating environments with a strong spiritual ethos, working with full awareness in situations of poverty, and realizing projects and processes of growth for the young. Finally, it promotes the vocational choice every young person must make, it animates the educative and pastoral community so that the latter may be a place of vocational growth through a method of personal follow-up and vocational suggestion.

To be a community that makes fraternity come alive, that provides a strong gospel witness and is an animating presence among the young, the community itself needs to be animated, updated, motivated, encouraged, directed and guided. Animation of the community takes place mainly through ongoing formation. It can provide moments for spiritual renewal, for discussion, for educative and pastoral updating; but the evaluation and quality of daily life are the first resource for formation in the community. The Rector has a fundamental role to play in the animation process, but with the involvement and shared responsibility of all the confreres; his attention is concentrated on the charism, on the mission and on fraternity. Together with the confreres he animates the community.

Finally the GC25 suggests some conditions which make it possible to be a salesian community at the present day; it is a matter of helping the community to work in line with a common project, of ensuring that the community be made up of the right number of confreres with the necessary qualities, of deepening the rapport between the community and the work, and of giving effect to the organic provincial project. Some of these conditions apply to the local level, but for the most part they require the responsibility and decisions of the provincial community.

To every community the Chapter consigns these five processes for study, deeper analysis and practical application, with a view to its becoming an effective charismatic community.

2. Verification of the functioning of the central structures of government

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The second element in the theme for the Chapter’s reflection concerned the verification of the functioning of the structures of central government. This was a point specifically requested by the GC24; it was begun by the General Council and the results were passed on to this GC25. The General Council began the work of review through contributions from external consulters, and the study by a group of Provincials led by the Vicar of the Rector Major. Questions were then addressed to the Provincial Chapters concerning the Departmental Councillors, the Regional Councillors and the Extraordinary Visitations. The GC25, finally, has considered all this work and developed its own reflections for the purpose of making the functioning of the structures of central government more smooth running and effective.

The verification has led the GC25 to make certain modifications to the Constitutions; they concern the temporary nature of the period in office of the Rector Major and members of the General Council, the entrusting of the animation of the Salesian Family to the Vicar of the Rector Major and the consequent assignment to one of the Councillors of the social communications sector by itself. This has enabled an internal change to be made in the General Council which has been under study for some time and offers a new possibility for the animation of the Salesian Family, and the giving of greater importance to social communication in the service of education and evangelization.

The group of Provinces formerly known as Australia–Asia has been divided into two distinct groups named South Asia and East Asia–Oceania respectively. This decision will permit a better animation of the two new Regions on the part of the respective Councillors; more suitable forms of coordination will need to be found within the Regions themselves.

The need is felt to study a different manner of realization of the working of the General Chapter, to enable it to better respond to the needs of planning and clarity of expression. We are all aware that the General Chapters dedicated to a re-reading of the charism have now ended, and we are back to ‘ordinary’ General Chapters. Analogous reflections can be applied to the functioning of the provincial chapters.

The point is emphasized that the Rector Major with the General Council should work in a more organic and coordinated way, starting from the six-year programming, but also in the subsequent implementation. In particular it is hoped that sectorialism may be overcome and especially that the so-called sectors of the “salesian mission”, i.e. youth pastoral work, social communication and missions, can work together in a more coordinated way. The urgent need is recognized for working by way of projects and of fostering an animation that can initiate processes. Also noted is the importance of exploiting the resources existing in the Regions, Conferences and Provinces, and linking them together in a network. In this connection too the Generalate can make its specific contribution to improving the manner of working with the whole Congregation.

With the growth of the Provinces, the contribution made by the realization of decentralization and subsidiarity has been appreciable; but there is still need for a solidarity extending beyond the province or the region, and the need for much greater interprovincial coordination. At a time of globalization moderation is needed to balance global effects and local initiatives; it will be well to reflect on what Provinces can do through their own resources and what they can more usefully do together. There are in fact certain urgent needs and priorities that extend beyond the capacity of the Regions. Mission frontiers require a combination of subsidiarity and solidarity.

The process of discernment for the election of the Rector Major and the General Councillors was an occasion for living and experiencing a procedure, a method and a spiritual experience which still need further study but are already giving appreciable results. Discernment carried out in common in important matters (C 66) is a way open to us to use in moments of government and pastoral life at different levels. The exercise of such a practice will help us to reach a unity of outlook.

The need for the verification of the structures of central government remains open to the effective realization of better methods of functioning and requires an analogous commitment at different levels in the Congregation. A better method of working will lead to working together, and to a work which is not only good but more effective.

3. The era through which we are living

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We are living through exciting and dramatic times; they both provide new opportunities and impose certain restrictions; they open up possibilities previously unthought of and arduous new and challenging perspectives. The practical guidelines of the GC25 are placed in broader frames of reference we do well to keep in mind. The communities in fact operate within situations of society and culture, of the Church and of religious life. The implementation of the GC25 requires us to know our own particular contexts, but also to be able to situate them in the great changes now taking place.

3.1 The social and cultural context of secularization, globalization and fragmentation

Deep and rapid transformations are taking place in society and culture which challenge the commitment to education and evangelization, the testimony of religious life, and the model of man and woman that we put forward.

There exists an accentuated ethnic, cultural and religious pluralism, fostered also by mass emigration. Tolerance and cultural integration often become difficult; various forms of religious syncretism arise; sometimes tensions, conflicts and wars break out for ethnic, nationalistic and religious motives. In the religious field the process of secularization is very strong; it is aimed prevalently at the Christian faith but involves other religions as well. Greater prominence is also given to movements that seek spiritual experiences, interior well-being and deep emotions.

Globalization, moreover, is a reality that becomes ever more prominent and is manifested especially in economic planning on a worldwide scale, in the growing awareness of solidarity, in the protection of the environment, in the need for a more just sharing and distribution of goods, in social communication and in the development of information technology. But it can also produce social exclusion and injustice to the detriment of weaker populations. Economic well-being, which takes on ever more arrogant aspects in the privileged classes of humanity, leads to consumerism and hedonism in them. At the same time the challenges of hunger, poverty, sickness and social exclusion, which affect millions of persons, are becoming ever more acute.

Complexity and fragmentation finally create instability and diversity between points of reference, values and interests. Together with a healthy pluralism and the seeking of new criteria, challenges are multiplied and relativism and pragmatism become widespread. While on the one hand emphasis is laid on the value of the individual and his rights, the dignity of women is progressively recognized in practice, and there is a more objective view of the body, the affections and sexuality, on the other hand new forms of exploitation of the individual and especially of juveniles have arisen, and there has been an accelerated flight from firm commitment. The post-modern era accentuates attention to interpersonal relationships and the cultivation of the affections, but also individualism and subjectivism.

The GC25 encourages the communities to face the challenges presented by the present culture to education and evangelization; to live fraternity with special attention to the vocational maturing of every confrere and the fostering of interpersonal relationships; to provide an evangelical witness that is positive and an alternative to the prevailing climate. In this way every community will seek to deepen its knowledge of the context in which it is living and acting, and will provide effective responses.

3.2 The ecclesial context of “Novo Millennio Ineunte”

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At the end of the Jubilee Year and the beginning of the new millennium John Paul II urged the Church to “launch out into the deep”,¹ to “keep its eyes on the Lord Jesus”,² to “begin again from Christ”,³ and to be “witnesses of love”⁴ by building communion.

The first standpoint from which we must identify pastoral approaches suited to every community is that of “starting again from Christ”. “I have no hesitation in saying that all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness”:⁵ the time has come to put forward again to all this high standard of the Christian life which is holiness and to adopt a pedagogy of sanctity. “This training in holiness calls for a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer”:⁶ our communities are urged to become authentic schools of prayer; education to prayer must become an essential requirement in any pastoral program. “There is no doubt that this primacy of holiness and prayer is inconceivable without a renewed listening to the word of God”.⁷ Holiness, prayer and listening to God’s word are the fundamental paths for pastoral work after the Jubilee.

The second standpoint from which a decisive commitment must be made when programming is that of communion. “To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God's plan and respond to the world's deepest yearnings”.⁸ The prophetic nature of communion presupposes the cultivation of its spirituality, which is expressed in fostering the different types of vocation, promoting the commitment to ecumenism, basing everything on charity, encouraging interreligious dialogue and the mission “ad gentes”, and facing up to the challenges of modern culture.

With the GC25 the Congregation intends to respond to the appeal of John Paul II to work in the outposts of the new evangelization and exploit the gifts and results of the Jubilee: “Duc in altum”. Every community is called upon to begin again from Christ and build communion. This will lead to new fruits of spiritual life and evangelization.

3.3 The religious context of the charismatic re-foundation

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In these years that have followed Vatican II consecrated life has been strongly urged to renew itself, and become eloquent and meaningful; in particular the Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata gathers together the elements of re-foundation which have been realized in the past thirty years and constitute the point of reference for “a great history still to be accomplished”.⁹

To the delicate process of renewal desired by the Church, our Congregation has dedicated three “extraordinary” General Chapters, which have specified the salesian identity. It is useful to recall the path we have followed. While the GC19, which took place during the Council, “took note of the situation and made preparations”, the Special GC20 “put the process into the Council’s orbit”, the GC21 “revised, rectified, confirmed and made some points more explicit”, the GC22 was called to “reexamine, make more precise, complete, perfect and conclude”.¹⁰

The Special GC20 carried out the revision and acceptable renewal of the Congregation according to the spirit of the Founder and in line with the indications of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium and the Decree Perfectae Caritatis. The Chapter set out not only to implement the guidelines and directives of Vatican II in a merely formal manner, but took the opportunity to make a better response to God and to the young. For this reason it was preceded by a very careful preparation with the involvement of all the Provinces, and sought to reformulate a global project. The fundamental point at issue was how to make visible and relevant in the Church the particular testimony of salesian religious life. It was also a matter of writing a renewed text of the Constitutions and Regulations. In brief, the identity of the Congregation had to be re-founded.

After seven months of work the Chapter produced 22 documents of doctrinal and practical guidance. A more charismatic reformulation of the text of the Constitutions was then made, and the Regulations were written to provide a universal method for the practice of the Constitutions, leaving it to the Provinces to legislate on specifically local matters through the Provincial Directories.

The GC21 aimed at verifying whether and to what extent the renewal had been achieved. The rapidity and depth of change after Vatican II led the Church and the Congregation to a state of unease, which needed clarity of formulation and wisdom in solutions. The deep renewal brought about in the Congregation by the Special General Chapter needed revision, rectification in places, still deeper study and reconfirmation.

In the GC21 some substantial themes of the Congregation were studied: the preventive system, formation to salesian life, the Salesian Brother and the Pontifical Salesian University. This work of clarification of the identity, reinforced by the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi of Paul VI, gave greater depth to the specifically salesian mission. In his closing address to the Chapter the Rector Major Fr Egidio Viganò summarized the three objectives which had been clarified during the Chapter’s work: the priority task of taking the Gospel to the young, which implied an educative and pastoral project; the religious spirit; and the new statute of the salesian community as the animator of the educative and pastoral community. The GC21 certainly marked a radical pastoral renewal.

The GC22, taking place after an intense period of experimentation and in-depth examination of the salesian identity, set about concluding the project of renewal with the definitive revision of the Rule of Life. The final result of the Chapter’s work was, in the words of the Rector Major: “an organic text, improved, profound and permeated by the Gospel, rich in the authentic nature of its origins, universally open and forward-looking, sober and dignified in expression, richly endowed with well-balanced realism and the assimilation of conciliar principles”.¹¹ The definitive text of the Rule of Life, brought with it, among other things, the revision of the Ratio; the central idea was that all salesian formation should be linked with the nature of the vocation and the specific mission of educators and pastors of the young.

In this way our Congregation committed itself to the foundational re-reading of its charisma and to its “re-foundation”. The “extraordinary” General Chapters have been followed by three “ordinary” Chapters, concerned with topics of a practical nature: the education of young people to the faith, involvement of the laity in the salesian spirit and mission, and the salesian community at the present day. The charismatic re-reading of the identity has been concluded, but its translation into practice is still taking place.

4. The goal of the GC25

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The phases of the preparation and the celebration of the GC25 having been completed, the time has come for its implementation. Now is the time, with all the confreres, to assimilate the Chapter, to make it a program for the government of the province, to put it into practice in the communities. To identify the steps that need to be taken, we shall briefly look at the objectives for the future and the goal to be reached.

Looking at the path the Congregation has followed in these last thirty years, it can be seen that changes have not always been along a straight line. I think that the greatest difficulty was not the renewal of the Constitutions or of the structures of government or of pastoral practice, but the spiritual renewal, which involves a deep interior conversion.

In these years of change a new form of salesian religious life has been taking shape. Already we have the “new wineskins”: a new evangelization, a new educational method, a new pastoral model, a new formation. Little by little there has also been the development of the “new wine”: the new evangelizer, the new educator, the new pastoral subject, the new Salesian.

Sometimes we feel ill at ease with the use of the adjective “new” to qualify situations that we think we are already familiar with, especially with regard to the practical consequences that it leads to: the need to renew ourselves spiritually, to update ourselves professionally, to prepare ourselves pedagogically. The novelty comes from the situations, the contexts, the changes in the circumstances, from the way of looking at the human person.

Today the concern about religious life in general and of the Congregation in particular, cannot be about survival, but rather about creating a significant and effective presence. It is a question about prophecy. “That means,” Fr Vecchi wrote, “ giving life to a work that raises questions, gives motives for hope, brings people together, prompts collaborations, and gives rise to an ever more fruitful communion for the realization together of a plan of life and action in line with the Gospel.”¹² What is needed is a form of life that is fascinating and attractive, that puts the prophetic aspect in the first place rather than the organizational, that emphasizes persons rather than structures.

Paraphrasing Karl Rahner in his spiritual testament, we can say that the future of religious life depends on its mystical force, its solid experience and clear witness of God, overcoming every form of “bourgeois attitudes,” vagueness and mediocrity. Religious life arose and only makes sense as a search for God and his primacy. Its mission is that of being sacramental: being “signs and bearers of the love of God” (C 2), especially on behalf of those most in need, so that they may have the experience that God exists and loves them.

When the Superior Generals decided to reflect on the theme of the re-founding of religious life,¹²³ they were moved by the knowledge that there was need for “new wine in new wineskins” (cf. Mt. 2, 22); one source of the novelty is the call to return to the origins of the charism. For us this is a matter of expressing the original character of the Congregation, of going to the essentials, of re-writing the letter from Rome of 1884. Let us return to Don Bosco and let us return to young people!

The images of “light”, of “salt” and of “yeast”, used by Jesus in the Gospel to describe the identity and the mission of the disciples, are revealing and demanding. In simple terms, it is necessary to “be” in order to have significance and relevance; but if the salt loses its savour, or if the light is put under a bushel, or if the yeast does not ferment they are of no use. They have lost the reason for their “being”.

The strength of the religious life is based in its prophetic nature in the face of culture, its subversive nature with regard to “bourgeois attitudes” its alternative approach to progress that is without limit but also without transcendence. The problem is that of identity and of identification; that which marks us out and distinguishes us is a strong experience of God, who changes our life profoundly, and a community in which we begin to live in a new way. “Do not be conformed to this world,” Paul writes to the Romans, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind , that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12, 2).

Along these lines I want to indicate five objectives for the future, which have been the subject of reflection and study by Fr Egidio Viganò and Fr Juan Vecchi in their letters, but which are also areas that still need to be renewed in order to lead us decisively into the new millennium with vigour and clarity of approach.

4.1 The spiritual renewal of every Salesian

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Spiritual renewal implies a return to the foundations of our vocation: God and his Kingdom. God ought to be our primary “occupation”. It is he who invites us and entrusts young people to us, to help them to the maturity of reaching the stature of Christ, the perfect man. For us the recovery of spirituality cannot be separated from the mission, if we do not want to run the risk of compromise. God is waiting for us in the young in order to give us the grace of an encounter with himself (cf. C 95; GC23, 95). Therefore it is inconceivable and unjustifiable to maintain that the “mission” is an obstacle to our meeting God and cultivating an intimate relationship with him.

4.2 The consistency of the community.

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The quality of the life of communion and of educational and pastoral action require that the salesian community be made up of the right number of confreres and those of the necessary quality.

All the proposals to make every-day experience formative, and to improve the quality of the method, the contents and the activities come up against what is actually possible for the community. For us fraternal life in community is an aspect of our apostolic consecration and therefore of our religious profession (cf. C 3 and 24), together with the following of Christ, obedient, poor and chaste, and the mission. It is also the context in which we are called to live the spiritual experience, the mission and the evangelical counsels. We cannot therefore continue with the pretext that we want to solve all the problems at the cost of the charism and of community life.

3. Presence with fresh significance

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The significant effectiveness of the presence is a requirement of both the community and the mission; it is a question of quality in both cases. In the past when one spoke of “reorganization” the emphasis was placed on closing houses or handing them over to lay people. Today, on the other hand, while one continues to insist that reorganization is an unavoidable task if we do not want to weaken the community and overburden the confreres, the emphasis has to be placed on the “significant effectiveness” of the salesian presence in the locality. This cannot be reduced to the work or the activity; it is rather a way of being, of working and of organizing that is concerned not only with efficiency but rather with giving meaning, opening prospects, gathering people together, promoting new responses. It is a question of relocating the province where the needs of young people are most urgent and where our presence is most fruitful. Our consecrated life will not be everywhere, and not always even be socially relevant, but it will continue to be the essential point of reference, in so far as it is a sign of the Kingdom.

4.4 The quality of the educative and pastoral proposal

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The course followed so far, at least in many places, has been the multiplication of the works, compromising in not a few cases the quality of our activity. Sometimes the organizational aspects have been emphasized rather than the pastoral ones, or the maintenance and the construction of buildings rather than the clarity and the seriousness of the educative and pastoral project. Today we are required to develop more focused forms of evangelization, to concentrate on fostering human maturity and on the education to the faith of young people, on the formation of the laity, the animation of the educative and pastoral community, and together to draw up a project. This undertaking is itself already the bringing about of significant effectiveness.

4.5 The formation of the Salesian

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The complexity of the current situation nowadays, the challenges of young people, the requirements of the new evangelization, the task of inculturation require a formation that is capable of preparing the Salesian to live his vocation in a dynamic and sound way, to carry out the mission in a professional and competent manner, and to personally assimilate the charismatic identity. For us, Don Bosco is not only a constant point of reference, but a way of life, and formation is nothing else than the personal assimilation on our part of the gift that God gave us when he called us. The document on formation to the Consecrated Life clearly states: “The renewal of religious institutes depends mainly on the formation of the members.”¹⁴ This is the greatest challenge that the Congregation has today, and to which it has wished to respond with the new edition of the Ratio.¹⁵

The Church and the world need people who make it their profession to incarnate their concern for God, who are a reserve source of humanism, who become a power, an eloquent and radical sign of the “sequela Christi”. This is what the Vatican Council II wanted and expected from religious life. This has been the aim of the Congregation during these last 30 years. Now the GC25 has determined to give its specific support to the achievement of this aim, a contribution on the practical level, that as we have seen, aims at strengthening the salesian community in all its facets.

5. The gift of the beatifications

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“Dear Salesians, (…) be saints! As you well know, holiness is your principal task.” With this exhortation, John Paul II addressed the members of the General Chapter as we were received in audience on the morning of 12 April. Holiness is also what this Chapter hands on, when it concluded with the gift of three new beati for the Salesian Family: the priest Luigi Variara, the Brother Artemide Zatti and Sister Maria Romero Meneses.

These Beati, who are joined to the numerous array of holiness in our charismatic Family, are united by the joyful giving of themselves and their generous dedication to the very poor. There is nothing that attracts like the witness of total dedication without reserve, without limit, without condition; there is nothing so fascinating as service to the poorest, to the humblest, to those most in need. The lepers of Fr Variara, the sick of Brother Zatti, the abandoned girls of Sister Romero immediately recall the totally free offering of the lives of these three persons, who are proposed to us as models. Care for the poorest and the total gift of oneself link together the three new beati, in this way bearing witness to their heroic charity.

Holiness is the demanding way that together we want to follow in our communities; it is “the most precious gift we can offer to the young” (C 25); it is the highest goal that, with courage, we can set for all. Only in an atmosphere of holiness that is lived and experienced will the young people have the possibility of making courageous life choices, of discovering God’s plan for their future, of appreciating and welcoming the gift of vocations of special consecration.

In particular the beatification of Brother Artemide Zatti underlines the relevance and the validity of the vocation of the salesian Brother. The salesian charism would not be what it is meant to be without such a figure. His presence in the life of the salesian community is not the addition of a type of person extraneous to it, but is an indispensable part of its very nature. This requires from us a more convinced vocational proposal, and a more visible presence of this figure in the educative and pastoral community.

Running through the whole of Brother Zatti’s life was the following of Jesus, with Don Bosco and in Don Bosco’s manner, always and everywhere¹⁶ This indicates that Don Bosco fascinated and attracted him; following Don Bosco’s example he lived the total donation of himself; like Don Bosco he chose to be an educator: Zatti was an infirmarian educator. To the extent of becoming a reflection of God with the radicality of the Gospel, he lived in profound union a spiritual experience, professional work, joyful brotherhood. The shining figure of this Blessed salesian Brother teaches us the way to help youngsters discover the beauty of this vocation.

6. Launching into the deep at his word

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The episode in the gospel of the miraculous draught of fishes, presented in “Novo Millennio Ineunte” and taken up again in Fr Vecchi’s last Strenna, is a symbol of the return to our journey at the conclusion of the 25^th General Chapter.

We too sometimes may have experienced the fruitless labour of our work. The Lord Jesus is again inviting us today to “launch into the deep” to renew our determination to cast the net, to try once again, if on several occasions we have experienced lack of success. This is the time for courage! We need to go out into the open sea, facing today’s challenges, and we need to go to the deep waters, cultivating an intense spiritual experience and developing the quality of our activity.

What is urging us on to try again is trust in the Lord Jesus: at his word we will once again cast our nets. This is the time for hope! The time we are living in is moving us towards the great responsibilities that await us, towards the joyful adventure of once again lowering the nets for the catch and experiencing the power of the Word of God. We are sure that the Lord Jesus still knows how to amaze us with his fidelity and his surprises.

Where there are great challenges the courage and the hope of the community are needed. The new ways and the difficult tasks of evangelization can be faced by communities that undertake a radical pastoral conversion and live a profound spiritual experience. Courage and hope are the most eloquent expressions of the prophecy of our communities.

It has not escaped us that in the gospel episode the gratuitous gesture of the surprising catch of fish has no other purpose than that of arousing faith and leading to a sequela. Faced with the overgenerous gesture of Jesus and after the invitation: “Do not be afraid: from now on you will be fishers of men”, the first disciples drawing their boat to land, left all and followed him (cf. Lk 5, 1-11). In this way they will be involved in the same mission and in the same destiny as Jesus: the definitive call to everyone to welcome the Kingdom. May the surprising gestures and the abundance of courage and of hope of all our communities provoke a vocational response from the young; may the prophetic witness of the communities be such as will still today be capable of attracting youngsters ready to share Don Bosco’s life project “Da mihi animas; coetera tolle”.

7. With Mary our help.

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As with the apostolic community at the beginning, so in our communities Mary is present. She is at prayer with her Son’s disciples; lives with us who became her sons at the foot of the cross. From that moment Mary is in the Church with a praying presence; she prays that the disciples may overcome the closed-in consequences of fear, be attentive and ready for the breath of the Spirit, go out onto the highways of evangelization.

Don Bosco left us as a precious heritage entrustment to Mary; she is our Help and the Mother of the Church, the help of young people and of the poor; the Mother of all. Like the beloved disciple we too welcome her into our homes, into our communities. She will make us attentive to the needs of the present time. “They have no wine”, and she will make us sensitive to the requirements of the gospel: “Do what he tells you “ (cf. Jn 2, 3-5).

Mary with your maternal intervention

help us to return to Don Bosco and to the young!

Mary our help,

pray for us and for our communities!