1. Life too busy, no time for community reflection – Mission over community life: GIA, KOR; Difficulty in accepting need for planning mentality –FIS; how to help confreres plan together – THA; individualism – VIE

2. Animating role of Rectors in community: THA

3. Demands of poverty and chastity: CIN, FIN, THA; influence of consumerist and materialistic society VIE, ITM

4. Collaboration with laity: ITM

5. Formation of conscience: IT;

6. Vocation promotion especially for Brothers: FIS, AUL

7. Political situation: VIE

More important options of PC01, PC04 (related to growth in community life)

1. Revision of EPP in all provinces but no province has yet finished drawing up OPP

2. Revitalising community life AUL

3. Redimensioning of province: CIN, GIA; Through Preventive System AUL

4. Primacy of God and spiritual life: THA, FIN, VIE

5. Formation and preparation of Rectors: ITM, VIE

6. Fundamental option for poor youth: THA, CIN; and finding new ways to be present to them AUL; drug-addicted, HIV-affected VIE

Main issue of the Community renewal of GC 25

“PLANNING MENTALITY”

• Planning mentality, working together vs. individualism: all Provinces

• Too busy life, no time for community reflection, mission over community life

• Difficulty to work out the Organic Provincial Plan; some Provinces difficulty with the EPP

2. A PLANNING MENTALITY: Towards working together& animation style

1. Scripture reading

“Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. Thus he chose us in Christ before the world was made to be holy… And it is in Him that we have received our heritage, marked out beforehand as we were, under the plan of the One who guides all things as he decides by his own will.” (Eph 1,1.11)

2. Some stories collected from around the Region

Br. Jim was appointed Delegate of Youth Ministry by his Provincial. One of his first tasks was to accompany in all 50 settings of his Province the process of drafting the Salesian Educative Pastoral Plan (SEPP) with all the EPC core group members. Fr. Jim was well trained by a veteran YM Delegate; he was clear about where to arrive. But after visiting a few communities he realized that the attitude and rate of comprehension was very different. So he learnt what patience is. In some vocational training centres he even spent 4 full days with the lay collaborators just for motivating or drafting the first step – the Vision Mission of their work. Now, after almost three years of his provincial service, he was able to accompany almost all the 50 settings during their planning, in some houses he was returning often, in order to finish slowly, but motivating all the Salesian and staff members of the EPC during the SEPP drafting.

After his first Extraordinary Visitation a Regional Councilor realized the necessity of helping the confreres with their personal plan of Salesian life. During his first Council Retreat he was able to draft his own simple plan of life according to the guide prepared by Fr. Cereda. But going around the communities, talking about the need for doing the same, trying to motivate them, the response was not very enthusiastic. Later on he realized, the easiest way would be to offer to the confreres his own personal plan of life. Translated into English, Japanese, Korean and other languages it provided him with simple material to be shared during his Good night talk or community conference. Sharing his own personal experience he was surprised by the reaction of many confreres: ‘I never thought it was so simple and helpful’. As a fruit of this personal sharing you can now find on the www.sdb.org in the EAO Region area – documents - a file with three different and original examples of a personal plan of life (AUL, FIN, GIA).

Fr. Anthony, newly appointed Rector in a larger community was facing his confreres during his first community assembly at the beginning of the school year, when he suggested they work out a community plan for 2004-2005. Some of the reactions: “Still another plan? When we are going to end this mania for plans? Why complicate life with things of this kind? It is nice, but certainly not practical! We have other more important things to do than spend one full day with planning! Why do we have to start something new, our community is going well? Look – we are too busy to be killing time with another plan! The right solution to our problems is to put our heart into it, not just to plan! It would be useless; just another plan with no evaluation! “ So, he listened to this feedback, then the following week sat down with his Council and started to point out some advantages of this simple tool, the ‘SDB community plan’, sharing what they could gain from this new experience.

3. The issue

Planning does not come easily in the Houses and Provinces of our Region. In the first place, there is sometimes a confusion as to what a plan is all about. A typical example is the Provincial (Organic) Plan that was asked of all the provinces recently for their provincial chapters: not everyone had a clear idea of what it was meant to be. Sometimes the confusion extends to other things connected with planning, such as the EPP, the EPC, etc.

But, a second and more fundamental problem is the lack of motivation for planning. Many confreres simply do not feel the need of a plan for the EPC, for their own Salesian community or for their own personal growth. They feel things are going well in their communities and in their personal lives, and therefore have no need or desire to “rock the boat” by introducing something new. They feel they are already quite busy and overburdened, and are not inclined to assume the additional burden of more meetings and more work which, after all, seems to them to be just a passing fad in the Congregation. Planning is not considered an important and necessary activity that warrants their spending time on it. Far from being seen as something practical, planning is considered to be more of a complication.

When planning is done (as in the case of a province which draws up its provincial educative-pastoral plan or its formation plan), this generally happens because it has been asked to do so by a General Chapter or by the Superiors, not because the plan corresponds to a deeply felt need on the part of the Province.

As a specific difficulty of our Region is the uneasiness of many confreres with how to proceed in concrete terms in drafting the plan. There is a need to help the local communities, for them to be accompanied, to learn the know-how of the project, plan, program. Even during the evaluation of the OPP prepared during past PC (Provincial Chapter) 2004, not one draft of the OPP from the EAO Region was passed during the General Council session.

The upshot of all this is that, for lack of a community plan, our communities engage in too little reflection together and do not always succeed in overcoming the tendency to activism and individualism in the apostolate (“each one doing his own thing”); the consistency of our educative and pastoral work is low, the continuity and efficiency of our apostolic work is very weak. And for lack of a personal plan, individual Salesians tend towards mediocrity because they are not willing to confront their lives at a deeper level.

4. Deeper reflection – discussion

We are in a process of transition, and we have not yet fully understood and absorbed the dynamics of change that are under way in the Congregation and in the Church, and for that matter, in the world in which we live.

For what concerns our topic, for instance, there has been a tremendous shift in the style of community living over the past fifty years or so. There was a time in the Congregation when everything concerning life in the community was highly regimented and centralized, even to the point of the General Regulations laying down the menu to be followed in all Salesian houses around the world! The stress was on unity and uniformity, and there was little room for dialogue, differences and initiative.

Today there is a much greater acceptance of the need to incarnate the charism in a diversity of socio-cultural situations. There is a greater acknowledgement of the need for communities and individuals to enjoy a certain measure of autonomy to organize and run their own lives; not everything can and ought to be determined from above or from outside.

And so, communities and individuals are called upon to assume their own responsibility for themselves and for the mission entrusted to them. A plan – any plan, for that matter – is nothing but the assumption of responsibility on the part of a group (a province, a local community of Salesians, and educative and pastoral community) or an individual.

Our planning process starts out from the fundamental conviction that God has a design for each community and for each individual. It is the responsibility of the community and of the individual to discern what God wants from the community and from himself.

But, here lies the rub: assuming responsibility, discerning God’s will is not an easy thing. It requires a lot of hard work and asceticism: meetings, sharing, reflection, openness to others’ ideas, readiness to confront himself and to change. It can be a painful process sometimes. This is why planning is not always an attractive proposition. And yet, it is one of the foremost ways we can begin to live as adult religious and not remain perpetual adolescents.

The alternative to planning is unpleasant to contemplate. In the case of community planning, when there exists no more (as in the past) a structure to determine all the details of our community and individual lives; when there does not exist (in the present) a system by which a group of persons can freely and willingly choose their way forward together in response to God’s inspirations; there remains only a rugged individualism, with each one determining everything for himself. And in the case of individual planning, when there is no effort on the part of the person to work on himself in depth, there remains only a mediocrity or superficiality to which he falls victim.

In conclusion, therefore: what needs to be realized today is that:

• the style of functioning in authority today has changed: no more the top-down manner of telling people what to do but the more difficult but also more rewarding approach of persuading, motivating, inspiring, giving people a vision and getting them to work together;

• the concept of community has changed: no more the passive dependence on others, waiting for instructions and suggestions, but an active involvement of all the members together to discern and chart their way forward; no more the mistaken notion that the Salesian community alone carries out the mission but the correct acknowledgment of responsibility on the part of the wider educative and pastoral community, and therefore the necessity of its taking an active part in establishing its own goals and activities;

• the practice of obedience has changed: no more the predominance of the executive aspect, but a better emphasis and living out of the participative aspect (Fr. Vecchi, AGC 375, 23); no more a concentration only on “I obey” but a growing awareness that in community “we all obey” by trying to discover and carry out God’s will together;

• the style of formation has changed: no more a focus on “assimilation” or a conformity to certain attitudes and behaviours typical of our charism but an embrace of “personalization” by which each individual assumes his own responsibility for changing his attitudes and behaviour in line with the charism;

no more a reduction of formation to the completion of a curriculum but the creation of a mentality that always seeks to learn more, to grow, to strive towards holiness.

5. Magisterium

For twenty-five years now we have been flooded with documents of all kinds, the General Chapters, the Letters of the Rectors Major, the directives and guidelines in the various issues of the Acts of the General Council - that have consistently recommended planning to Salesians. Perhaps one of the most significant contributions is the letter of Fr. Vecchi on obedience, “I have come to do your will” (AGC 375) in which he shows how planning is consonant with a newer and better understanding of obedience today.

Nuovo Millenio Ineunte (John Paul II; n.30-31)

First of all, I have no hesitation in saying that all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness. We know that stressing holiness remains more than ever an urgent pastoral task.

At first glance, it might seem almost impractical to recall this elementary truth as the foundation of the pastoral planning in which we are involved at the start of the new millennium. Can holiness ever be “planned”? What might the word “holiness” mean in the context of a pastoral plan?

Salesian Constitutions, (n.31)

We educate and evangelize according to a plan for the total well-being of man directed to Christ, the perfect Man (cfr. Gaudium et Spes,41). Faithful to the intentions of our Founder, our purpose is to form “upright citizens and good Christians”(cfr. Plan of Regulations of the Oratory,1854, MB II,46).

General Chapter 25, (n.73)

The community becomes accustomed to working according to a planning mentality: Living the project as a community process that starts from the daily experience of the confreres. The objective is not only the final design of the project, but especially the giving of effect to continued assessments of aims, values and expectations which lead the confreres to a practical living and working together.

Project of Animation and Government of the Rector Major and his Council

(ACG, 380 p.12)

In our case, having a six-year plan, means that we recognize our vocation as part of God’s plan to be realized in time and in down-to-earth contexts, always for the benefit of the young. After all this, I would like to share with you the advantages I find in having a Project. We can see how enriching this experience is, how involving, how demanding it can be, because it is not just something technical. In effect we are seeking the growth of persons and the renewal of communities.

Drawing up a Project, means developing communion (looking together at reality; sharing the values, choices, motivations), the more everyone is involved, the more will the project become a common one. The realization of a Project is also animation, because in drawing is up we have to decide not only on the main priorities but on the people with whom we shall be directly dealing.

The drawing up of a Project is even a way of evaluation, because projects do not arise spontaneously but form one phase of a long process, which begins with an assessment of what has been done already and what still remains to be done.

Reflection of Fr. Antoni Domenech, General Councillor for Youth Ministry)

1. Importance and urgency of a planning mentality

We are living within a process of social change which is both rapid and profound; the reality is progressively more complex and pluralist in nature :

. we could think of the different socio-cultural contexts which we and our young people are part of, contexts which so often confront us with different or contradictory life models and ideas;

. we can also look at our different settings and the many groups which we are part of and which have considerable influence on the formation of our mind-set and and behaviour.

How do we overcome the risk of fragmentation or of simply dissipating our educational efforts, or how overcome individualism or even opposition beween the people involved?

How do we guarantee continuity and consistency of educational endeavour in a world of rapidly increasing change?

The educational processes involved are lengthy ones and so many people play an active part; just think:

. of the variety of people and groups comprising the educative community,

. of the slow maturing rate of people and the slow transformation of situations today…

How do we create a sense of common mission, giving rise to educative communities and sharing a vision and mission?

How do we encourage shared responsibility and a convergence of effort, sharing of resources in the serivce of a common goal?

Two items are necessary to give a response to these challenges: they are like the body and soul:

. a planning mentality which helps to better organise and benefit from existing resources,

. an apostolic passion (pastoral charity with youthful energy) which offers an inner energy, the fundamental motivation, the strength to go forward and overcome obstacles.

Without a planning mentality apostolic passion is just like a volcano, with lots of energy but un-controlled; on the other hand a planning mentality without apostolic passion becomes a kind of monument, well organised but lacking soul and human warmth.

2. Planning mentality

A planning mentality is a way of thinking and of carrying through ones pastoral and educational activity:

• as something holistic and unified: a set of items coordinated in themselves and directed to a common end.

• as a path to tread which, by means of a gradual set of linked actions (people, activities, resources, structures), transforms reality according to practical objectives.

It requires:

. seeing things as a whole, and seeing the different things working harmoniously within it, with their specific and complementary roles;

. a shared vision on the part of the entire educative community, of the basic values and aims which have been offered;

. a sense of what is both possible and takes place gradually: selecting possibilities and resources which the situation offers and organising them such that their development is encouraged;

. the capacity and will to bring together and connect all the elements of educative and pastoral activity according to the objectives already worked out.

Through a planning mentality:

• we create a common mindset and action and multiply strengths:

• we connect all our activities such that they complement each other and their value and effectiveness is enhanced for achieving our objectives;

• we adapt the project to the attainable results, to the difficulties we confront and to new needs which emerge, by means of an ongoing evaluation;

• and this way we encourage a positive transformation of people and situations..

3. Pastoral planning

• A project, even before it is something written, is a communal and mental process of involvement, clarification and identification (cf. GC25, 73) tending towards:

• generating in a community responsible for the project, a practical bringing together of criteria, aims and common action, avoiding dissipation of our action;

• the creation and deeper awareness in the community of our common mission and shared mentality;

• becoming a shared point of reference for pastoral quality to be constantly evaluated.

Therefore it implies:

Dreaming (sharing ideals and values) (“vision – mission”)

Thinking (thinking things through in order to turn them into shared practical options) (“project”)

Putting into practice (creating convergence of intentions, abilities, resources) (planning)

• A project is also a working instrument which takes different situations and times, principles and purposes in Salesian life and mission, and at every level makes these concrete and factual:

• it suggests the steps needed for achieving them,

• it determines the actions,

• it coordinates the means used,

• it offers criteria and ways of evaluating to be carried out along the way.

2. Different planning levels and various provincial plans/projects

1. The Salesian Province (Cf. Const. 58)

The Province is a unified whole (a community), not simply communities and works juxtaposed, and it makes the integral, uniqe Salesian mission present and active in an actual neighbourhood.

This demands that a Province:

. direct and develop the fundamental values and actions of the charism and Salesian mission in the social, cultural and ecclesial context where it is;

. provide for the sustainable growth and continuity of the mission by means of formation of its people (SDB e laity) and continuity of its works and services;

. encourage working together and networking between communities, confreres, SF groups and laity involved in the same mission.

2. Projects and levels

The three levels are different, but strictly tied to one another: they are mutually enriching and complementary. Clearly the PROVINCIAL PLAN (OPP), which is already an overview, is the basic guide which directs and inspires the other two levels which complete and develop the governing aspect of the PROVINCIAL PLAN. All over:

• at the provincial level (3 projects – plans: OPP, SEPP, Formation plan)

• at the local community level (2 plans – SEPP, SDB Community plan)

• at the personal level (1 plan – Personal plan of life)

3. General structure of a project

. Reading reality in the light of the Institution's Vision and Mission (SWOT method - strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) is something useful and good;Does mean to determine the most important challenges and needs arising from this reality.

• Practical planning

. Clear, concrete and verifiable aims: as gradual steps to be taken to arrive at the options in mind

. Strategies: Criteria or actions, paths to take or aspects to give priority to in bringing about the desired aims

. Actions; indicate for each: objectives, contents to be carried out, interrelationships between other activities at the service of continuity and overall effectiveness, people involved etc…

. Determine roles and functions, appropriate responsibilities and organisation to facilitate the realisation of objectives in mind.

• Evaluation

Some fundamental things to evaluate:

. Whether or not a real process of transformation is occurring on the basis of the objectives chosen and the various activities (continuity, complementary nature, new resources and possibilities, initiative on the part of the group responsible, etc.);

. The degree to which aims have been achieved; for this reason it is essential to choose some precise and relatively measurable indicators, in the light of which the results can then be evaluated;

. Analysis of personal, structural, organisational causes, etc. which have helped or hindered the process to allow the objectives to meet new situations or possibilities.

. Drawing up a new project to continue and improve on the current one

6. Discussion questions for the mixed groups (EAO 9 Provinces)

As Salesians of Don Bosco in the EAO Region what can we do?

* What can we learn from the success stories of planning in our EAO Provinces (Organic Provincial Plan, 6 year plan of the Province, Salesian Educative Pastoral Plan, SDB Community plan, Personal Plan of Life) in recent years?

* Why is it that our communities find it hard to sit down and plan together?

* What is difficult about planning in our educative and pastoral communities?

* What are the things that need to be done to bring about a change in outlook and practice?

* Why are individuals reluctant to draw up their own personal plan of life?

* What steps need to be taken to draw to this practice at personal, at local, at provincial level?

GROUP 1

I. What are the steps to promote personal, community and provincial planning?

1.The first step is first of all to meditate where we want to go ..discern what is God’s will. Individually and later as a community or as a province. Hopefully in two years we can achieve this goal. (Japan).

2. Initially, we did not have a clear grasp of the concept. What we did was take the model of Australia as basis for the making of their Personal Project of Life(PPL). Later during the annual retreat they dealt with the making of the PPL.

Regarding the Community Project, the rectors were tasked of leading the members in making the plan. There was some initial resistance but some houses were able make it especially the formation communities. Later we worked on this in the Provincial Chapter but we have not yet completed the process.(Korea)

3.On the understanding of the concept (The question was brought to out to the group)

17. Is the process of making the Personal Project of Life the same as making of the EPP? (Thailand)

18. The Personal Project of Life is dealt with GC 25.- personal growth

Personal Level: PPL

Community level: EPP & CPL

Province Level: OPP/Formation Plan/EPP

Q, Is there a document(short) that has been written to have a better understanding of

the OPP/Personal Project of Life or the EPP?

4. The making of the OPP brought about a change of mentality in terms of the kind of work in the province including change in the use of financial resources.. It also affected human resources as well…which made it difficult to introduce it to the confreres, nevertheless the province has began with the making of the PPL(China).

5. In our province we have not gone immediately to making the Personal Project of Life. Instead we began from the standpoint of our understanding of ourselves as a religious and as salesians, not simply as an individuals. We began with readings of the document(GC 25) and from their made their personal study without using models except the document of

Starting point: Vision of the Province before making a personal project of life. Emphasis is given to the personal initial and on-going formation. Until now, there has been no step to come up with personal project of life among the confreres. Focus is on the vision of the province. But the whole process was never impose on the confreres. Hopefully in two years we will come up the personal project of life.(Japan)

6. The making of the PPL touches the problem of culture. The participative method is more effective in our situation because of the resistance of others. The resistance is due mainly to the kind of apostolate our confreres are engaged which leaves much room for their own initiatives at the expenses of the community or province thrust.

Major decisions – like closing a school, it is better to involve the confreres in such a decision-making process to avoid conflicts(internal).

Starting with identifying 5 core values, needs discernment, person-models, present commitment)mission for the young, community life, vows & prayer, personal vision statement then having identified these five core values….leading them to the making of personal project of life.(China)

7. We have done little about this. There has been efforts done mainly because it has been out of fulfillment of a command rather than a personal conviction or need such as EPP, PPL, etc. but has not been practically implemented. This planning mentality is still lacking in many of the confreres. Our people are farmers who live by the day, who live mainly on the level of survival. Confreres who have studied abroad and are familiar with these documents later find it difficult to implement it when they come back to the province, overwhelmed by the situation and culture of the place. This is a slow process that needs to be continuous. There is a need to understand the Personal Project as aligned to that to the province. (Indonesia)

The step taken is still in creating the mentality among the confreres.

8. If we were wanting to accompany a group of people towards a goal.. We have to start where the confreres are. Australia being the province farthest from the center faces a very big problem. The challenge for the provincial is creating a sense of being part of provincial community among the confreres. To have a senses of belonging not just to a community but a province. Again he next problem is belonging to an international community (region) or a sense of the congregation. To belong to a world community. How to keep this going is the hard part. (Australia)

9. We took three steps in coming up with the Personal Project of life

: a. Knowledge – know what it is

b Change of Mentality –

c.Ask the community if they feel the need. (Vietnam)

10. What has been done is still in the area of awareness in the province. In the annual retreat…this was taken as one of the objective. Coming up with the personal plan of life.

(Thailand)

11. Quite a number of confreres can hold a number of posts in the school. The community is regulated by the school demands. But then only three are working in the school the other 5 are working outside of the community. This creates a problem of schedule of prayers….resulting in different schedules of masses..to detriment of community life. How can you have harmony? (China)

GROUP 2

There is clear evidence of a planning mentality but not necessarily according to the structural format provided by the center.

Difficulty arises in the process of planning in the various cultures that exist in our region, especially in relation to a general Eastern mentality

The concept of Decentralization is appreciated and evidenced in the way planning undertaken in the various centers of each province of our region.

Questions

1. Have we to follow rigidly the format of OPP?

2. Could the OPP with all it processes include the EPP?

3. How is our salesianity filtered into our planning as undertaken in the centers of our region?

GROUP 3

Why do our communities find it hard to sit down and plan together?

1. quite busy

2. Methodology is new (introducing something new)

• We have the Constitutions, directives, etc. (= fruits of planning already)

• “We know what to do already”

3. Lack of understanding on “Planning”

4. Planning mentality is an overlapping of what we have already (constitutions, directives, etc)

5. Individualism

   • We see only our own work and don’t see the work of the others

6. “Individualistic attitude” (a parochial mentality)

7. Planning activity seen as “suspicious activity” by government officials

8. We do not have a Provincial plan, so no community plan

9. The rector gives order without discussion (“cultural” obstacle)

10. Rectors as superiors not seen as Good Leaders

• No leadership role among superiors to enhance team work and planning

11. Financial Costs of planning and meetings. Too costly!

QUESTION 4: WHAT ARE THE DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS FOR DRAWING UP AN ORGANIC PROVINCIAL PLAN?

DIFFICULTIES:

1. difficulty in understanding the distinction between the OPP and the SEPP.

2. its newness as a concept results in a gradual understanding

3. concept is not easily understood, lack of actual sample to serve as a pattern

4. confusion on what OPP is all about,

5. confreres need to develop an openness and appreciate the importance to planning

6. where to start: personal plan? community plan? EPP? OPP?

Top - bottom: Province to the community to the confrere?

Bottom – up: confrere to the community to the province?

7. difficulty in making the community plan: when there are too few confreres (2 or 3);

8. instability of the composition of the community, creates a reservation to plan: “I might

not be here next year” attitude blocks in planning process or “someone else made this

plan last year” attitude

9. what is the relationship between the personal plan, community plan, SEPP and the

OPP.

SUGGESTIONS:

1. a competent person (like fr. Domenech) to visit the provinces to present and to supervise the formulation of the OPP

2. changing mentalities and creating a mentality of planning

3. to present the theoretical explanation and then an example for the provinces to be enlightened and patterned

4. the province starts with mentalizing at the level of the local communities: understand and following how to make a community plan similar to that of the OPP, then follows the OPP and the personal plan.

GROUP 5: PERSONAL PLAN: DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS:

1. DIFFICULTIES:

Some Salesian cannot see why it is necessary to have a personal plan when they have done very well without one so far!

It is difficult to find an effective and easily understood method of making a plan.

Some older confreres are little resistant to the idea while younger ones especially in formation communities find it easy.

As religious perhaps we have a mentality of being work oriented and not to think and plan ahead.

2. SOLUTIONS:

The ratio is an excellent starting point to find a method of developing a personal plan of life. Educate the community by gathering together and working together to produce a personal plan.

Educate the confreres about the Project of Life.

Use the retreat as an opportunity to work on the personal plan.

Perhaps a provincial team could be formed to promote this idea through the province.

3. OTHER COMMENTS:

A financial crises led to serious planning with the help of a consultant in one province. This was very successful.

Some very successful Parish Plans have been developed involving all levels in the Parish.

In some cultures “whatever you decide Father” is the preferred option. This is a challenge for the parish priest.

To dream up a simple timetable or schedule on a weekly basis is very helpful. This encourages focussing our priorities in our day to day life.

Planning together can be more easily achieved in a formation community.

GROUP 6

• Success will come from the will. The ability to sit down together as a community to plan for the mission or the dreaming. Not just from organizing times and dates and endorsing previous activities.

• We are very good at planning activities and in sharing information. We need to improve on sharing our Salesian charism/goals with our community.

• Learn by doing it. Rectors need to be empowered to be the keepers of the charism and of the dream. The provincial and his council must facilitate the rectors formation in this field.

• Planning mentality is alive in some provinces. The rectors outlook and understanding and enthusiasm is pivotal in the success of establishiong and maintaning and planning mentality in a community.

PERSONAL PLAN OF LIFE:

1. Is the difficulty of making a P.P.L. rooted in our subconscious fear that we might have to change?

• Could this difficulty also be for some a pointer to their shallow understanding of Salesianity; Religious State Vs. Project of Life?

2.) In making a P.P.L. the physical well being should be an important element.

GROUP 7: Question 1 – What are the steps to promote personal, community and provincial planning?

1. At the personal level –

2. Thru goodnight talks, conferences and community assemblies, inculcate to the confreres the conviction that God has a design for each one of us and that the discernment and eventual elaboration of this design is what our personal plan consist in.

3. At the local community level –

4. Promote the conviction that the mission is handed to the community and not to the individual.

5. Formulation of Planning process guidelines at province level for use of communities.

6. Training/formation of local community leaders (preferably rectors) as effective animators of planning sessions.

7. Ensure that actual plans formulated be used in the unfolding of the community practices and mission and are periodically revisited for evaluation and adjustment.

8. At Provicial Community Level –

9. Provincial and his council should take the lead.

10. Invite experts that could assist us in data gathering and analysis and even in process facilitation.

11. To ensure acceptability of the plan, various level assemblies (confreres, commissions, rectors) could be consulted at various stages of the formulation.

12. Resulting plan should be referred to in the unfolding of province practices and mission, and is periodically revisited and evaluated.

Question 3 – Why do our communities find it hard to sit down and plan together?

13. Complex works resulting in scheduling problems.

14. Very tight schedule due to volume of work.

15. Numerical consistency problem.

16. Poorly prepared planning sessions making confreres reluctant to sit down in future sessions.

17. Formulated plans not used by the community in the unfolding of its practices and mission. And hence never evaluated and used as input for succeeding plans.

7. Possible Practical Things We Could Do (for the individual EAO provinces)

• We can take advantage from the Day 4 of this Team Visit, when we will draft for the first time the EAO Regional Vision – Mission.

• We can share some success stories from our Provinces on provincial level (Youth Ministry Delegate is animating the EPC in different local settings for the SEPP drafting) or on the community level (Salesian community plan, SEPP).

• Find out some concrete point how to motivate better our confreres regarding the planning, project making, growing and working together

THE AUSTRALIAN PROVINCE

1. When individuals often approach the Provincial with a request for a sabbatical rather than a personal plan; Provincial will then ask them how this fits in with their personal plan of life

2. Some have produced a personal plan; many have not.

3. Need to convince them of the personal and community benefits of doing this.

4. Perhaps structure a retreat process which could enable confrere to see the value, become motivated and act on it. (review of life and dreaming dreams)

5. The language appears to need adapting to suit confrere with different formation backgrounds.

6. Meet them where they are to successfully encourage them to move forward.

7. We need to keep the communities connected with the Statement of Beliefs which emerged from our Province Assembly 2004

8. and connected with each other as what is being done is shared (e.g. through The Link, our province magazine)

9. Where to next? so as not the leave the province behind?

THE CHINA PROVINCE (some Practical Things to do)

1. Situation leadership adopted by Provincial and His Council: sometimes participative planning, sometimes non-participative planning, according to the local situation

2. Local community concentrates on Community Life Plan; local work’s EPP entrusted to local EPC; monitoring is entrusted to the local community if it is able to shoulder it, otherwise it is shouldered by Province

3. Personal Life Plan emphasizes spiritual dimension, while covering basic dimensions: A. core values, B. needs discernment, C. person-models, D. present commitments (1. mission to the young, 2. community life, 3. vows, 4. prayer, 5. formation), E. personal mission statement, F. lines of action

4. Ongoing promotion of planning mentality is shouldered by the Provincial Council who works through the Development Office

5. Drafting of the OPP is entrusted to the Development Office; in the initial stages, we formulate the OPP Vision-Mission statement, trying to obtain as wide a consensus as possible

6. Provincial and his Council give time to confronting the challenges emerging from the last PC’s Three Fundamental Options

THE PHILIPPINE NORTH PROVINCE

1. Though we agree that we have the will and desire to plan, we shall put up a Planning Office (comprising of Salesians, lay consultants) tasked to do and follow up the planning activities of the Province and the local communities.

2. We shall train and form local communities leaders (preferably the Rectors) as effective animators of their planning sessions.

THE PHILIPPINE SOUTH PROVINCE

1. The Provincial and his Council identifies the fundamental options for the next 6 years according to the OPP.

2. Reinforce the implementation of the planning mentality with follow-up activities for personal plan and community plan.

THE JAPAN PROVINCE (A three step process)

1. The first step is a good OPP that has to enlighten the lines we have to follow in view of the basic and concrete goals we want to reach.

2. The second step is a twofold plan that includes first the Provincial EPC (focusing on and enhancing community life) and secondly the EPP (focusing on and enhancing the community apostolic and educative work).

3. The third point is the personal project of life that must be in accordance and in harmony with the OPP, the EPC and the EPP, which has to help the confreres to walk on the path of sanctity in a communitarian and salesian way.

THE INDONESIA- EAST TIMOR VICE PROVINCE

1. To put aside some days during the summer break to formulate the OPP.

2. To help each confrere in the Vice Province to guide his life with the personal plan of life.

3. To help each salesian community clarify and put into practice its yearly community plan.

KOREAN PROVINCE

1. Personal Plan

   • Include the making of the personal plan in the annual retreat.

   • Encourage the confreres to present their personal plan to the rector.

   • Have each community follow it up in its monthly day of recollection.

2. Community Plan

• In the two-day April seminar of the perpetually professed we shall teach the confreres how to make a community plan and an EPP according to what we have learned in the Hua Hin Meeting.

3. Provincial Plan

• When we return to our province as soon as possible the provincial and his council together will finish the drafting of the provincial plan

THE THAILAND PROVINCE

The problem of our Province is a lack of understanding about Personal Plan of Life (PPL), Community Plan of Life (CPL) and Organic Provincial Plan (OPP). So we decide to put into practice these good intentions:

1. The provincial should motivate the confreres to have planning mentality. He will invite them, encourage them to make PPL through his monthly circular letters and good night talks during the annual retreat,during yearly seminar of the Province.

2. During the quarterly rectors seminar we will study about PPL, CP, OPP.

3. During the yearly seminar of the Province, we will study how to make Personal Plan of Life; we will also study and understand more about Organic Provincial Plan. Every confrere has to make his own Personal Plan of Life during the seminar.

THE VIETNAM PROVINCE

Some think that planning is not needed.

1. The notion of planning is not well understood yet. Others that it causes more complicated, or it is applied only for business. So the first step to do is making the confreres understand thoroughly and happily accept doing it. This will be applied first for Formation Communities.

2. Our province will soonest accomplish OPP and draw up the provincial SEPP. After that the province urges and encourages all communities to set up community plan.

3. By the end of this year, we will try to do our best to urge all the parishes and oratories to draw up SEPP for these works.

The Rector Major: Planning mentality& animation attitude - conclusion

For a proper situationer of the planning mentality, we need to appreciate the present-day powerful challenges:

1. cultural challenge: individualism – nobody wants to be menaced in his freedom – neoliberalism that is complete freedom, no limits, no borders, nevertheless it expresses a very poor anthropology since man is really in relationship with other human beings as well as a very false theology because we, believers, are convinced of a God who is community – in fact everything for us is community. Individualism causes sectorialist inside the world. Everyone wants to be the head – give me my place and role and where I am meant to be king. It causes life-fragmentation because there is a lack of center of unity. Don Bosco was a man with a single cause to live for. And the best men and women of the world are those who have this single cause – one dream. Don Rua said this about Don Bosco: salvation of the young, not falling between two lovers. Confreres seek for their niche in order to know when is their free time when as consecrated we are always full time.

2. personal challenge: activitism. This causes three things – physical tiredness, psychological stress and spiritual emptiness. Confreres are burnt out, stressed and empty. This is because we give primacy to doing rather than to being. This is not mission because our mission is to be signs and bearers for the young not to do. Many of what we do, does not reflect the spiritual backbone of the Salesian charism. This puts at risk also community life – Const.49 is very indicative on this point because it states that in our community we find an answer to our deepest needs.

3. institutional challenge: a resistance or reluctance to look honestly to the reality and situation of the young – for example to the challenges they are putting to us in terms of our presences. St Ignatius Loyola says that the way the demon tempts people is to offer to people so many things to do that leads to self-destruction. If we need to truly respond to needs of the young, we need to do planning since there are great changes around us. To move from a style of doing education to a planning mentality is the challenge because society has changed! 40 years were different. Society was quite unified – family and school fostered similar values and even societies were made to protect those values. Now, no more. Families are split and the categories are very different. Schools are only for a transfer of knowledge because there is no time to truly take care of the spiritual needs of the young. Society is a free market. So how can we bring together the different pieces of the puzzle? That is why we need a planning mentality because we run the risk of doing things but they are no longer meaningful and significant. Thus, if the families are so fragmented we need to create community with the kids, therefore educative-pastoral communities bringing together parents, teachers, administrative personnel and salesians – or else we not truly be helpful for the young.

Thus the planning mentality is not a slogan of the Rector Major or the General Chapter but an urgent need of the times. So we need a planning mentality which point to our choices, interventions. We need then to convince our confreres that this is the only way.