THE QUALITY OF GOVERNANCE

In his most recent Letter (AGC 382 July‑September 2003) the Rector Major, Fr Pascual Chavez, states: "…already in my first letter I expressed the desire to make holiness a programme of life, a choice of government, a plan of education" (para 2, pg. 6). "A programme of life" refers to the way we live our charism and identity as consecrated religious in the footsteps of Don Bosco; "a plan of education" indicates the manner in which we carry out the mission of Don Bosco to young people. It is to the third phrase, “a choice of government' that I would like to focus my attention in this reflection. It concerns the quality of governance we are called to exercise, and it is a matter of the utmost importance to us who have been entrusted with the ministry of leadership and guidance of communities and of the confreres.

The GC 25 urged the renewal of the style of leadership at all levels of government in the Congregation, and both the General Plan of Animation of the Rector Major and his Council, and the South Asian Regional Plan for the sessennium 2002‑2008 take it up as one of their objectives. The Rector Major has set for himself, and by implication, for all who exercise leadership roles in the Congregation, a high standard and quality of governance ‑ holiness! It is important therefore for us to understand what we mean by holiness as a choice of government.

In the first place I should think that it means that we should see the particular ministry of leadership we have been entrusted with as a very special call to holiness, an opportunity to grow in holiness and a path that leads to holiness. It is a personal invitation by Christ to an ever greater love. "Peter, do you love me more than these?" Of course, we would never presume to declare that we, love the Lord more than our confreres do. But, like Peter, painfully aware of our repeated denials, we too humbly profess: "Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you". To which, the Lord replies, "Then, feed my sheep... feed my lambs". Thus, the commission to pasture his flock and our exercising the role of shepherds in response, become for us opportunity and path to holiness. It is in the exercise of this particular mission of love that we find our way to holiness.

Secondly, I believe it is in a particular style of governance that holiness is manifested and expressed. For us Salesians that style has the distinctive trait of fatherliness, so characteristic of Don Bosco. To the young Fr Michael Rua whom he was sending out as the first Rector of Mirabello, Don Bosco gave this confidential advice, "Strive to make yourself loved rather than feared". It has been often said that among us the Superior is everything. No doubt, Don Bosco wanted it so, and carefully cultivated that attitude in his first sons. But the way he went about it was by himself becoming a true father to them. In fact, the central role he appropriated to himself as Rector, and wanted that it be a feature of every Salesian house, would be excessive, overbearing and oppressive, and would result in keeping the confreres in a state of perpetual infantile dependency, were it not for his exquisitely gentle yet strong fatherliness.

True fatherliness, as seen in Don Bosco, is altogether different from every trace of paternalism. Paternalism dispenses favours to buy and retain the devotion and loyalty of others. It bestows or withholds affection or esteem in order to instrumentalize others in view of a job to be done. It grants or denies special permissions according as they fulfill or disappoint one's expectations. As a result, the confreres are held captive to the whims and fancies of the Superior or to his ambition for success and accomplishment. They never grow to the maturity they are called to attain as human persons and to the spiritual freedom as Sons of God. They remain, perhaps forever, stunted, blighted, broken.

True fatherliness is primarily attentive to the growth of the persons entrusted to one's care, respectful of the pace and space each one needs. It encourages, challenges and when necessary confronts. It is gentle and tough, pliable and firm. It is strong without being harsh or arrogant, caring without being overbearing, affectionate without being sentimental, concerned without being curious. It takes time to listen, slow to jump to conclusions, hears all sides of a question before arriving at a decision, makes efforts to understand in depth before formulating a judgment. It is always ready to take the first step, to try a different approach, to forgive slights and insults and offer trust and restore confidence. All in all, Salesian holiness in a Superior is fatherliness after the heart of Don Bosco.

In the third place it seems to me that holiness as a choice of government has to do with the style of exercising authority, setting priorities, drawing up plans and lines of action, f6llowing them through to their completion, fixing criteria, offering guidelines and orientations and engaging in precise and timely interventions that generate growth and change. The aim in all this is to set up conditions, remove blocks and further processes that enable communities and institutions to grow. There are certain situations that call for timely and decisive action by the Superior, failing which, stagnation and a sense of frustration in confreres and communities set in, with dangerous consequences for all in terms of a falling off of the apostolic zeal and loss of the sense of the Salesian vocation. However, it is not merely fire‑fighting that the Superior is called to engage in. He needs also to plan wisely for the future with far‑sightedness and perceptiveness, and lay the groundwork in the present for a rich and promising development in the years to come.

The Congregation itself, through the recent General Chapters and the six‑year programme of the Rector Major, is urging every province, community and confrere to draw up its own plans, each at its own level, each drawing inspiration from the one above it, adapting it to its own particular context and environment. Concretely, the Congregation is asking us to draw up the following plans:

• At the provincial level: The Organic Provincial Plan (OPP), the Provincial Directory with a section on Formation, The Provincial Educative and Pastoral Plan (PEPP);

• At the local community level: The Community Project of Formation, the local Educative and Pastoral Plan (EPP);

• At the personal level: The Personal Plan of Formation.

For each of these the General Council through its various Departments have offered guidelines, resource material and training programmes. The literature available on these themes, in the form of aids and animation notes is more than sufficient. It is time now to get into action and initiate a process of reflection, sharing and planning together. These processes are not empty formalities to be got over and done with. As the Rector Major has stated in his Introduction prefacing the Six‑Year Programme of Animation, the process builds up the community, brings about a convergence of hearts and minds on the essential aspects of our charism and mission, and helps acquire a mentality of planning.

It is in the fulfillment of this mission that we find our path to holiness. It is the role of the Superior to help the confreres discover the path to holiness through the fulfillment of the Salesian mission. It is not any type of work and any way of accomplishing it that can be called the fulfilling of the Salesian mission. There are certain conditions to be met, which it is the duty of the Superior to set in place. They may be enumerated as follows:

1. The target group: Youth, especially the poorer among them, ordinary people, adults working for youth, especially the lay members of the Salesian Family;

2. The subject of the mission: the Salesian community, which together with the members of the Salesian Family and the lay members who share in the mission, form the animating nucleus of the educative and pastoral project. The mission is entrusted to the community (Cf C 2);

3. The objective of the mission: the education and evangelization of the young, i.e. bringing the young to Christ and the Christ to the young: education to the faith (Cf C 34);

4. The method: accompanying the young on a journey of faith according to the four dimensions of the educative and pastoral project (PEPS); education and culture, evangelization and catechesis, groups and movements, vocational guidance (Cf GC 23);

In addition, the Superior ensures that in responding to the multiple and pressing needs of the young and the poor, our identity is maintained and upheld for the good of the Church and the people we serve. The essential elements of our apostolic consecration, which delineate our charismatic identity, are our mission to the young, our fraternal community and the evangelical counsels, held together in a fruitful dynamic tension, which we call `the grace of unity' (cf C 3). These elements unfold themselves in the areas of formation, youth pastoral ministry, social communication, missionary animation and the promotion of the Salesian Family, which cover the chief areas of the Salesian life and mission, and cannot be neglected without grave peril to the Salesian identity.

Hence, the Superior ensures that the Salesian community, adequately reinforced numerically and qualitatively, responds to the needs of the young and the poor with a complete pastoral programme, that includes the taking care of its own formation, the engaging in a youth pastoral ministry in the fullness of its dimensions, with all the resources of social communication at its disposal, with ardent missionary zeal, and involving wider circles of persons beginning with the members of the Salesian Family. This is the total Salesian pastoral package that we offer to the young as our Gospel proposal that leads to sanctity. In fact, this total package lived out in daily life is our spirituality, the Preventive System refurbished, the Salesian ecosystem of youthful sanctity, our best gift to the young. At the provincial level the Superior establishes organs of animation and coordination, which are the Provincial Commissions, guides, follows up and evaluates their work together with them, and ensures their working together in synergy to fulfill the Salesian pastoral project. In everyone he fosters though his animation a sense of interdependence, of belonging, a convergence from different aspects on the one Salesian mission.

Thus we see how a Salesian Superior through careful planning, wise choices and timely interventions according to a well thought out and complete educative and pastoral plan, in line with the criteria and priorities, proposed by the Congregation, sets about putting those conditions in place that enable confreres to grow and the communities to become "school of faith, environment of sanctity and centres of radiant spiritual communion". May the Lord and Our Blessed Mother help us to steadfastly pursue these goals, and to dedicate our energy and creativity to bringing them to fruition.

SPCSA Council