15 September 2003

TO THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE EAST-ASIA-OCEANIA

YOUTH MINISTRY ENCOUNTER (Melbourne, August 2003)

Dear confreres,

Before anything else, we wish to thank you once again for your presence in Lysterfield, your work, your fellowship, and your enthusiasm. Those were intense days of sharing and going deeper into your varied realities, with their own richness and difficulties. We are sure that this encounter will bear fruit in the animation of youth ministry in the provinces of your region.

As mentioned earlier in our encounter at Lysterfield, I want to share with you some central points of our reflections during those days. Coming back to Rome, I carefully read once again the materials given out and the notes I had made, just as each of you, I believe, had also done, and I tried to take note of the main ideas that were more significant and more repeatedly mentioned.

Now I share them with you as a way of recalling those days and as a stimulus so that you may commit yourselves to guarantee continuity to the conclusions which you made, and which you will no doubt share and discuss with your Youth Ministry Team. As proposed to you in the Encounter, I shall be very happy to receive from you these conclusions by the 15th of October.

1. Regarding the animation of youth ministry on the local and provincial levels

(In particular, the experiences of China, Northern and Southern Philippines)

Let me mark out three aspects that you mentioned repeatedly.

1.1. To promote in the community a change of mentality according to the Congregation’s model of Salesian youth ministry today.

This model of youth ministry is what you find in the books on Salesian Youth Ministry (Frame of Reference, 2000, and Made Simple, 2003), and which in the Encounter was presented to you with the four fundamental characteristics: educative-pastoral community, style of animation, integral youth ministry, strategic management mentality.

This implies promoting in the local communities a gradual and constant process of animation that helps them:

• To share a common “vision and mission” of Salesian youth ministry

• To draw up together the Salesian Educative-Pastoral Project (SEPP)

• To promote an ever more abundant and punctual exchange and communication of information

• To actualize positive experiences of collaboration and teamwork.

The Provincial Youth Ministry Team should give special attention to the formation and guidance of the key persons in the communities, such as the rectors, parish priests, persons in charge of local centers.

1.2. To assist the communities in drawing up the SEPP, not so much as a document but rather as a process or journey of sharing and unity of vision and action by everyone around the Salesian mission and style.

In the Encounter, concrete experiences of this journey were presented with well-defined steps and an appropriate methodology. Among the materials presented in the Encounter, you find one model or framework for the process:

• Of drawing up together a “vision-mission,” shared by all the community;

• Of drawing up the corresponding educative-pastoral plan, that is, the choice of priority objectives and appropriate strategies to realize the “vision-mission” in the concrete situations of every Salesian setting;

• Of drawing up the concrete annual programme.

(cf. SEPP Workbook)

This journey implies creating and fostering in the communities and in the Province:

• The desire to share and a climate that would foster this;

• Personal and community moments of reflection and deeper study on the fundamental lines of Salesian youth ministry (frame of reference);

• Communication and sharing of each one’s idea and way of understanding and carrying out the ministry;

• The desire to come to a consensus and an appropriate methodology for this.

1.3. To animate Salesian youth ministry on the province level.

In this aspect, let me identify these main ideas:

1.3.1. The importance of the animating function of the Delegate and his team.

(cf. the book on Youth Ministry, chapter 5)

To the Delegate corresponds the responsibility not only of organizing activities for the young and preparing materials for educators, but above all, of assisting and guiding the local SDB-communities and educative-pastoral communities (EPCs), of ensuring the unity and integrality of the entire Salesian youth ministry in all the settings, and of promoting and directing the formation of those principally responsible in the ministry.

In carrying out his function, the delegate should maintain a systematic and tight rapport with the Provincial and his council. Hence, it is convenient that he is a member of the council.

1.3.2. The importance of having a team to assist the Delegate in his function.

The team should be capable of meeting regularly to reflect and go deeper into the actual situations and challenges in order to ensure the unity and integrality of Salesian youth ministry in all the settings.

1.3.3. Assistance to the local communities in their effort to actualize the model of Salesian youth ministry.

In a special way the Delegate should accompany the local communities in the drawing up the SEPPs of each Salesian setting. Also important are the visits and frequent communication, participation in some central moments of the community as facilitator of the process of planning, encounters with the animators and those mainly responsible of the different settings.

1.3.4. An annual plan of animation.

To carry out all these, it is convenient that the delegate and his team prepare each year a plan of animating Salesian youth ministry in the Province, with precise objectives and strategies.

2. Regarding the animation of Salesian youth ministry in the specific setting of the Salesian school.

(In particular, the experiences of Korea and Thailand, and the visits to the three schools of Australia)

In the light of these experiences and of the identity of the Salesian school, we insisted on some points. Let me mark out some that I believe are more important.

2.1. The importance of the school in all your provinces, not only because of the number of schools and the quantity of SDBs and lay persons involved in them, but above all because in many of your countries the Catholic school is an important presence and service of the Church in society and in human culture.

We should make of our Salesian school:

- a clear sign of the Gospel: the Gospel-filled atmosphere, the centrality of the person of the youth, priority for the poorest and most in need, the active presence of educators among the young, family spirit, responsible participation.

- the transmission of a culture inspired by the Gospel of Jesus: a culture in many way alternative to the culture of present society. (We must reflect often on the type of culture that we live and pass on in our school.)

- an evangelizing invitation offered to all: the development of the spiritual dimension of the person and of education (openness to God as a fundamental dimension of the person), the concept of life as gift and service, education to spiritual values.

- a possibility offered to all, but above all to Christians, to realize a journey of education to the faith integrated into the life of the school.

2.2. In connection with this, evangelization as a big challenge for the Salesian school in your provinces.

As indicated in the previous point, it is not enough that there are some specifically religious moments in the school. How does the Salesian school become an invitation to live the Gospel in an environment that is secularized and where Christians are a minority?

2.3. The Salesian formation of educators.

This is a concern that is more urgent than what is actually perceived. It implies formation in the daily life, through the witness of SDBs and a plan of systematic Salesian formation.

2.4. The educative-pastoral community of the Salesian school.

The school-community develops as everyone shares common values, the one Salesian mission, and the common educative-pastoral project. It is fundamental to help and guide the communities in the process of participation and convergence around the identity of the Salesian school and the objectives and strategies of the SEPP.

The experience of Australia presented us with a process of evaluation with concrete indicators related to the Salesian identity of the school.

You also did deeper reflection and came in contact with some experiences that showed different concrete forms of actualizing the relationship between the Rector of the SDB-community and the person responsible for the school (“Principal”), in order to guarantee the identity of the Salesian school and the specific function of animation of the SDB-community within the school, in accordance with GC 24 and GC 25.

3. Regarding Vocation-Ministry

(In particular, the experiences of Vietnam and Northern Philippines)

3.1. Vocation-ministry is the crown or summit of youth ministry.

The goal of every process of education-evangelization is the enable the youth to discover their own vocation and respond to it with generosity and responsibility. We must therefore do away with the mentality that considers vocation-ministry simply as the “recruitment of youth for Salesian religious life.”

Vocation-ministry therefore demands:

- promoting in all our educative-pastoral action a culture of vocation: a vision of life as gift and as service;

- involving in vocation-ministry the entire SDB community and also the lay collaborators: the life-witness of one’s vocation, prayer, depth of Christian formation, moments of explicit invitation, personal guidance. In this aspect, the Rector has a special responsibility;

- ensuring that the person in charge of vocation-ministry in the province is part of the Youth Ministry Team and in fact should be the No. 1 collaborator of the Delegate.

3.2. Every province should have a plan of vocation-animation solidly integrated in the Province SEPP.

The Plan identifies the phases and strategies for the vocation-orientation of all youth, and in a special way of Christian youth, and still more specifically, of those who show the qualities and availability for the Salesian life and mission.

3.3. The aspirantate is an important instrument in the process of vocation-orientation of young Christians and of those who show openness to the Salesian life and mission.

We should consider the aspirantate as a community ready to offer young Christians a special environment of Christian and Salesian formation, in which they can discern their own Christian calling and commitment in the Church and in a particular way the vocation to the Salesian life and mission.

There are different ways of actualizing this, and in the Encounter, some were presented:

• a community in which the young actually live;

• a Salesian community open to youth who can undergo in it an experience of Salesian life and collaboration in the mission;

• regular and frequent contacts with an SDB or a community, with a plan of formation and vocation-guidance.

3.4. Special attention to the vocation of the Salesian brother.

In the vocation-ministry, we must present the Salesian vocation not only as or with preference to the priestly vocation, but as a vocation to the religious life. We should also present Christian marriage as a vocation.

4. Regarding the Regional Coordination of Salesian youth ministry

Some concrete proposals were presented on the last day, while discussing the theme of regional coordination, with the aim of:

- fostering continuity in the process of assimilation and practice of the model of Salesian youth ministry in your different situations and environments;

- assisting and accompanying the province delegates and team in their task of animation.

For example,

- communication and sharing among the Province Delegates and Teams: contact through e-mail, a possible website, exchange of materials and initiatives.

- a plan of common animation through concrete points to be developed every year in the provinces. In this instance, animation on province and local levels, animation of the Salesian school, vocation-ministry.

- an annual Encounter of delegates and selected members of the team to reflect and go deeper into some fundamental aspects of Salesian youth ministry in the region, to evaluate the journey unfolding in the provinces, and to identify some points to give attention to in the provinces for the following year.

Dear confreres, here then are some aspects that I consider important. I hope that this reminder will help you to share with all the member of your team the ideas that emerged in our recent Encounter, and in a special way, the aspects that you consider more urgent and important in order to promote in your province this journey of benchmarking and enrichment in favor of actual Salesian youth ministry in the local communities.

Be assured of our availability and assistance here in the Department. In particular, let me assure you of a fraternal remembrance in prayer, that the Lord and our mother Mary, Help of Christians, help and accompany you in your responsibility of animating our Salesian youth ministry.

With brotherly greetings to all…