SUMMARY
The text presents a renewed vision on the Salesian Missions with a threefold purpose: motivate the
confreres to respond to the missionary invitation of the Rector Major, improve the processes of
discernment, formation and integration and harmonise operational guidelines that are still relevant.
There are five pivotal points to this text:
1. A Renewed Vision: We collaborate with the Church’s mission, especially by evangelising the young.
Our founder passed on us and to the entire Salesian Family the missionary spirit, the heart of
pastoral charity, as an essential feature of his charism. Thus, the missions interest all Salesians in
different ways. Some Salesians feel called to offer themselves with total availability to be sent ad
exteros, ad gentes, ad vitam. The missionary, above all, receives, learns, keeps alive his ardour for
holiness through the ‘grace of unity’. He integrates within the local church and in the life and
educative and pastoral plan of the Province. Today ‘the missions’ cannot be understood merely in
geographical terms like in the past (go to ‘mission lands’), but are also in sociological, cultural terms
and even in terms of our presence in the digital continent. All Provinces send and receive
missionaries. It is the missionary impetus that invigorates faith, gives new vocational enthusiasm
and revitalises the charismatic identity of the confreres both in the sending and receiving Provinces.
2. Missionary Discernment: All those in the different phases of initial formation are encouraged to
keep the missionary spirit alive as an essential element of our charism. The post-novitiate is the
most suitable phase of formation for serious missionary discernment. Those who show interest in
becoming missionaries are accompanied through a gradual and progressive process of discernment
with the help of the spiritual guide, the Rector and the formation team. There is no age limit for
leaving as a missionary but inculturation and language learning are easier at a young age.
3. The Selection and Sending of Missionaries: After undergoing a careful process of discernment
(spiritual guide, Rector, Provincial) the confrere presents his missionary availability directly to the
Rector Major; the Councillor for the Missions dialogues with the candidate and the candidate’s
Provincial; Having received the favourable opinion of the Provincial and his Council, the Councillor
for the Missions dialogues with the Rector Major and the General Council for the missionary
candidate’s destination; The candidate participates in the five-week Orientation Course in
preparation to receive the missionary cross in Rome-Turin. After the missionary send-off, he
returns to his Province of origin where he prepares his documents and waits for his visa. In the
meantime, he begins his study of the language of his destination, according to local possibilities.
4. Requesting Missionaries: To receive missionaries in the Province, the Provincial, with the consent
of his Council, presents a concrete missionary project to the Rector Major who will evaluate it with
his Council. The approval of the project will be the condition for sending missionaries to that
Province. Once approved, the Provincial presents to the Councillor for Missions the Reception and
Integration Plan for new missionaries where a specific confrere is identified to accompany the new
arrivals and a formal language course of at least six months, or more, is assured. If a missionary, for
serious reasons, returns to his Province of origin, the Rector Major’s consent is needed.
5. Missionary Experience: The possibility to work temporarily in another Province in order to
respond to a specific or urgent need is a positive experience. For this missionary experience, an
agreement is signed between two Provincials for three or five years. It may be renewed but not
longer than a total period of ten years. A copy is sent to the Councillor for the Missions, the Regional
Councillor and the Secretary General. The missionary experience may be an opportunity for some
confreres to discern and mature their missionary vocation. In this case, the confrere concerned will
present his total availability to the Rector Major for the missionary projects of the Congregation.
FOR REFLECTION AND SHARING
▪ How can we help our Province move from the old to the new paradigm of missions?
▪ How can the missionary commitment of our Province invigorate faith, give new vocational
enthusiasm and revitalise the charismatic identity of our confreres?
