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THE SALESIAN MISSION AND HUMAN RIGHTS
ESPECIALLY CHILDREN RIGHTS
Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva
Major Rector
Dear participants
at the International Congress on
“Preventive system and human rights”
I am especially happy to greet you and at the same time address an encouraging and
challenging word to you on a topic that is especially close to my heart during this 60th
anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Pope Benedict XVI spoke thus last December: “Sixty years ago, on 10 December, The United
Nations General Assembly, meeting in Paris, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, which is still today the highest point of reference for intercultural dialogue on the
freedom and rights of the human being. The dignity of each person is truly guaranteed only
when all his or her fundamental rights are recognised, protected and promoted. The Church
has always insisted that basic human rights, beyond the different formulations and importance
they can take on within various cultural settings, are a universal given, because they come
from the very nature of the human being”1. As Salesians we are aware and convinced of this,
which is why we are committed to education and to fostering a culture of education.
So I thank Prof. Vernor Muñoz for what he has said about the importance of promoting
education as a fundamental right, especially the education of children/juveniles, in order to
raise up active, inclusive, responsible and autonomous citizens. He has realistically presented
the causes which hinder the education of millions of children throughout the world, thus
continuing serious situations of exclusion and discrimination. As a Salesian I resonate with his
words and I am convinced that the transformation of this culture which generates exclusion
and marginalisation is the most urgent of challenges. I am also aware that today, education is
the most important and precious tool for building a more just and supportive society where
everyone, especially the young, the weakest and most needy, can look forward with hope to a
human future which is dignified and happy.
1. The educational emergency in our society
Our times demonstrate that they have faith in education; there is an effort to extend it to
everyone; there is a constant effort to adjust it to the challenges which arise in the area of
work, the sciences and social organisation; it is more and more entrusted to specialist
1
BENEDICT XVI, The Holy Father's address for the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights,
Rome 10 December 2008.
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institutions. Education has become a recognised right and the aspiration of every individual.
Despite this faith in education, we have the impression however that there is an ever-growing
gap between aspirations and possibilities in its regard, between declarations and their
fulfilment, between intentions and their being carried out. It becomes an effort to define
education in a culture marked by pluralism of beliefs and behaviour, ephemeral things, the
rapid substitution of knowledge, the socialisation of cultural goods, schooling which is over-
generalised, the university of the masses, the dominant role of media in modern culture, the
development of the fourth sector which favours constant innovation and research. Societies
and institutions of every kind appear as fragile and disoriented faced with the question of
meaning posed by the young.
So Pope Benedict XVI's reminder of the educational emergency was timely. In his Letter to the
Diocese and City of Rome he says: “It has never been easy to educate, and today it seems to
have become even more difficult. Parents, teachers, priests and all who have direct
educational responsibility know this well. We can speak then of a great “educational
emergency”, confirmed by the lack of success our efforts often encounter in forming supportive
human beings, capable of cooperating with others and giving meaning to their own lives. ...
There is a widespread climate abroad, a mentality and kind of culture leading to doubts about
the value of the human person, about the very meaning of truth and good, and ultimately the
goodness of life. It becomes difficult, then, to hand on from one generation to the next
something valid and certain, rules of behaviour, credible objectives around which to build one's
own existence”2.
This emergency becomes tragic when the universally recognised right to education is not
guaranteed, especially in some contexts and developing nations. How can one speak of the
right to education when there are huge masses of children and adolescents dying of hunger in
Africa or Asia, children being sold or sexually exploited? Where is the right to education for
children forced into heavy labour in mines at five years of age, or breathing toxic substances in
footware factories, or having to repeat mindless gestures over long working days on assembly
lines learning nothing, but functioning simply as pieces along with the entire production
process?
We note that it is economic interests which establish the priorities of materialistic society and
that advertising, the incitement to consumerism, is the magic board employed by the insatiable
greed of the multinationals. Only aggressive and competitive societies survive and this same
style has also become part of educational bodies and associations. So what do we do?
Education must be increasingly a window thrown wide open on the world and an engine to
raise the consciousness of and transform humankind. This is why, without ideologising or
manipulating them, we need to hear the voices of those who have no voice, feel their hunger
and thirst, see the nakedness of so many forgotten peoples; we must consistently make known
the efforts of so many people involved in great causes like the dignity of women, peace,
respect for creation, … Luckily, various groups and occasions (NGOs, Volunteer
movements…) are beginning to converge around the defence of life, the human being,
peoples, the planet and people's rights.
Faced with this educational emergency we Salesians are bearers of an educational charism
which is more necessary and topical than ever before: Don Bosco's Preventive System. This is
our treasure, the contribution we are called to give the young and society today, our form of
prophecy. I would like now to draw your attention to the need to renew Don Bosco's Preventive
System in strict connection with the promotion and defence of Human Rights, especially the
2
BENEDICT XVI, Letter to the Diocese and City of Rome on the urgent task of education, Rome 21
January 2008.
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rights of children, as an educational proposal which is capable of generating culture and
bringing society into a state of education.
2. Don Bosco's experience
Faced with the situation of the young of his time Don Bosco made the choice of education: a
kind of education which pre-empted evil through faith in what was good in the heart of each
youngster, and which developed his potential through perseverance and patience, built up
each one's sense of personal identity. We are talking about an education which formed
supportive individuals, active and responsible citizens, people who were open to the values of
life and faith, men and women capable of living with meaning, joy, responsibility and
competence. This way of educating becomes a true spiritaul experience, one that draws from
the “love of a God who provides in advance for all his creatures, is ever present at their side
and freely gives his life to save them” (C. SDB 20).
When he came into contact with the boys in Turin's prisons, Don Bosco was disturbed. He
writes: “Seeing crowds of youngsters of 12 to 18 years of age, all healthy, strong, intelligent,
but reduced to doing nothing, flea-bitten, without sufficient bread, spiritual or temporal - this
horrified me”. 3
Don Bosco sees how society is, appreciates what that means and draws consequences from
it. The experience aroused in him great compassion for those dispossessed and exploited
youngsters; a personal existential choice grew in his heart: “to do something to look after
abandoned youngsters”, as he told the Marchioness Barolo who gave him the alternative of
leaving his work for his boys or working at the Refuge4. This choice of his was based on a
deep faith in the merciful fatherliness of God and his Providence; it was also based on the
belief that in each young person, even the most unfortunate or wayward, there is a spot which
is accessible to the good which, if encouraged and supported, will lead him away from evil and
to choosing ways which are life-giving and good. “It was then that I became aware of how few
were brought back to that state because they had been abandoned to themselves. "Who
knows", I said to myself, "If these young people had a friend outside, someone who took care
of them, helped them and instructed them in religion on feast days, who knows but they might
be held back from ruin or at least the number who find themselves back in prision might be
reduced? I spoke to Don Cafasso about this idea and with his advice and insight I set to
working out a way to go about it”.5
Through imagination and generosity Don Bosco created a setting which was welcoming, full of
human and Christian qualities, where educators were with the young people in an effective and
affectionate closeness. The Valdocco Oratory became his ideal setup and a point of reference
for the future, an authentic pedagogical workshop for the Preventive System.
In this setting Don Bosco put an educative proposal into effect with which he sought to prevent
the negative experiences of boys arriving in Turin in search of work, orphans, or those whose
parents could not or did not want to take care of them, urchins who were not as yet too unruly.
This proposal offered young people an education that developed their best resources, gave
them faith in themselves and a sense of their own dignity, created a positive climate of joy and
friendship where in an almost contagious manner they picked up moral and religious values,
3
G. BOSCO, Memorie dell'Oratorio di San Francesco di Sales, a cura di A. Ferreira Da Silva, LAS Roma
1992, p. 104.
4
Idem, p. 151.
5
Idem, p. 104.
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and included a religious practice offered and experienced in such a way that the youngsters
found themselves spontaneously caught up in it.
Aware of the importance of the education of youth and the people for transforming society, Don
Bosco became the promoter of new social and preventive projects; he thought about the
relationship between work and the world, about contracts, leisure time, fostering popular
culture and education. Don Bosco knew that it was not enough to cushion the situation of
hardship and abandonment the boys were living in (palliative action); he set out to bring about
cultural change (transformative action) through a setting and educative proposal involving very
many people who identified with him and his mission.
3. The constitutive elements of Don Bosco's Preventive System
How are we to live out this same spiritual and educative experience that Don Bosco reached
with the youngsters in Valdocco and how do we inculturate it into the ever more varied places
where the Salesian mission is carried out? The way to do it is to deepen our understanding of
and put into practice its basic elements, which we call “the oratorian criteria” in today's
language.
3.1. The centrality and active involvement of the young, especially the poorest of them
Education which is inspired by Don Bosco's pedagogy puts the young person at the heart of
the educative and pastoral project and action It listens to their voice, identifying what their
expectations are, their desires, delusions and hopes; it accompanies them on the way to an
awareness of their own abilities, helping them to be more trusting in their possibilities for
developing them and of their becoming active participants in their own project of life.
Putting young people at the centre of apostolic and educative attention “is one of the more
specific elements of the rich spiritual heritage left us by Don Bosco. And the task entrusted to
us is to bring it to every culture we go to and work amongst and where, very often, young
people don't count for much.”6
We need especially to make this choice on behalf of young people who are more at risk and
poor, identifying their situations of hardship either visible or hidden, counting on the positive
resources they have, even for those most frazzled by life's experiences, dedicating himself
completely to their education and evangelisation.
The more I get to know the Congregation, spread through five continents, the more I become
aware that we Salesians have tried to be faithful to this basic criterion, to be close to and
supportive that is, of the most needy and to see the situations of the young that society does
not want to see: for example, street children, child soldiers, child labourers, children exploited
by that accursed sexual tourism, etc. We have grown in our sensitivity towards the poorest; the
work of our pioneers, who at times worked like “free-wheeling outfielders”, was then taken up
by the institution; everyone is especially gaining a mentality which helps us locate ourselves
anywhere, with this particular key to reading the situation.
6
Fr. CHAVEZ VILLANUEVA, GC 26: a navigation chart towards the Jubilee 2015. Under the banner of “Da
mihi animas, cetera tolle, Final address of the Rector Major at the closing of CG26, in “Da mihi animas cetera
tolle”. Chapter Documents, Rome 2008, p. 138.
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3.2. A Preventive culture
The urgency for prevention, its advantages and its implications, is established with ever more
alarming data, but taking it on as a principle and putting it effectively in place cannot be taken
for granted in many contexts. Preventive culture is not the prevalent culture. On the contrary!
But prevention costs less and achieves more than simply containing deviancy or by an act of
recovery that comes too late. In fact it allows most young people to be freed from the weight of
negative experiences which are a risk to physical health, psychological maturity, development
of one's potential, eternal happiness. It allows them to develop their best strengths, profit better
from the best and most supportive educational courses, and start afresh from the basics
instead of collapsing under the weight of it all.
This pedagogy “tends towards education in trust, trust in today's young people and trust in the
future, just when it is becoming essential to accept the challenges of modernity”. In today's
societies, strongly competitive and only guided with difficulty to invest in trust, the young
people condemned to be left on the margins risk becoming more numerous, youngsters left to
survive without being able to benefit from what is recognised as being theirs by right: health,
education, work, etc… This is why, following Don Bosco's teaching and focusing on the
recognised rights of juveniles, we want to dedicate ourselves to fostering the culture of
prevention.
Don Bosco was convinced that the heart of the young, of every young person, is good, that
even in the most unfortunate of them there are seeds of good and that it is the wise educator's
task to discover these and develop them. We need, then, to create a positive climate in our
educational works, with proposals that encourage the recognition of these positive reosurces,
foster their development and open up to a sense of life and a taste for what is good.
It would be enough to think of the story of Mickey Magone, the “General at recreation” at the
Carmagnola railway station, to whom Don Bosco first offered his friendship, then an educative
micro-climate at the Valdocco Oratory, then his own competent guidance (“Dear Magone, I'd
like you to do me a favour, … let me be master of your heart for a while”), to the point where he
found meaning for his life and the source of true happiness in God (“Oh how happy I am!”) and
became a model for the youngsters of yesterday and today.
Prevention, then, must become the intrinsic and basic quality of education and in this way
anticipate negative habits, spiritual or material, and situations which will arise, and at the same
time multiply initiatives which will direct the person's resources still healthy resources towards
attractive and valid projects.
3.3. Community experience
Don Bosco at the Oratory created a community, that is, a family where he was present, a
setting for encounter, familiarity, where there were human and Christian values that went as far
as making the proposal of holiness a desirable one. For Don Bosco each Salesian work must
be a “home”, that is a family for young people without a family; a setting where personal
relationships, presence and dialogue between educators and young people are privileged,
along with youthful involvement, group activity as places for fostering personal growth.
Don Bosco made the group a special choice for his pedagogy: the group as a place where
young people experience the search for meaning and build their own sense of identity; a place
for creativity and active involvement; a school where they learn to fit responsibly into the
society where they live; a privileged medium for experiencing Church. In this way the group
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also becomes a setting for sharing and dialogue between young people and adults, in mutual
accompaniment and a constant exchange of gifts.
This community experience develops a new style of educational relationship marked by loving-
kindness which is a love shown and experienced according to the needs of the individual,
especially those who are poorest; a love expressed through familiar gestures which show a
taste and desire for being there amongst the young and taking part in their life and initiatives; a
friendship which opens the heart of the young to confidence and makes possible an educative
communication which speaks to the heart, touches the depths of conscience, instils a sense of
inward security in the young and supports the effort to grow as human beings and Christians.
For the Salesian educator the fundamental “locus of education” where such a community
experience is felt is the playground, the setting for youthful creativity and initiative, spontaneity
and involvement. Educators/teachers have the task of being part of this, fostering youthful
creativity and involvement, offering a word of encouragement and motivation, encouraging
group activity and meaningful cultural, social and religious initiatives.
3.4. An integral educative project
Don Bosco wanted to give an integral response to the needs and expectations of his
youngsters; he offered them a home where they were welcome and could experience the
warmth of a family which some of them lacked; he gave them room, a playground, where they
could spontaneously give reign to their energy for life and their desire for happiness and
friendship; he looked after their cultural formation and their preparation for work, so they could
look with trust to the future and become a responsible part of society; he proposed a Christian
formation and appropriate experience of faith that made Christian living meaningful and
attractive for them. This educative proposal became a true path of evangelisation and led
young people to experience the joy of Christian living to the point of holiness7 .
The Salesians, following this same path, take up education as their specific field of
evangelisation, that is they proclaim Jesus Christ and lead young people to a full Christian life
along the path to integral human development which starts from where young people are at,
banks on their inner resources and assures them of patient accompaniment in their human and
Christian development. So education and evangelisation, experienced in strict relationship to
one another, are a single path to integral development and mutually enrich one another, as
Pope Benedict XVI put it: “Without education, in effect, there is no lasting and deep
evangelisation, no growth and maturity, no change of mentality and culture”8.
This proposal of integral education is ever more difficult to achieve in a secular society which
offers a reductionist and instrumentalist view of the human person. It requires, then, that the
entire pastoral and educative community courageously takes it on and is dedicated to giving
special attention to the development of human and social values in society, decisively
overcoming the imbalance we find between freedom and truth, freedom and an ethical sense,
power and conscience, technological progress and social progress. It is called to dialogue with
the different cultural universes young people live in and to appreciate the great energies for
humanisation which the Christian faith offers for the personal and social growth of the young
and for the transformation of society.
7
Cf. GC 26 n. 25
8
BENEDICT XVI, Letter to Fr Pascual Chavez Villanueva, Rector Major of the SDBs, on the occasion of
General Chapter 26, in “Da mihi animas, cetera tolle” Chapter Documents, p. 91.
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3.5. Christian vision of person and life
The situation of indifference to religion is well known, one in which the majority of young people
in Europe grow up. This indifference has extraordinary cultural relevance. Religious experience
is presented in negative tones, as an infantile phenomenon, something which only generates
guilt, an obstacle to the full development of the person, scientific progress and social peace;
this is why religious experience is reduced to the private sphere.
It is enough to look at the world of contemporary literature or cinema. It is difficult to find, over
the past decades or in the more representative or successful works, productions where the
chief characters receive their inspiration for life, or their dignity for living, from Christianity.
This mindset is spreading to other social and cultural contexts where the public presence of
religion is viewed with increasing diffidence, especially Christianity as a social factor or
Christian faith as an expression of life.
The irrelevance of faith to culture and life makes the young indifferent and strangers to the
religious world, makes the question of God meaningless, empties religious language of
meaning and puts at risk the absolute value of human rights themselves, letting them often
become subordinate to economic interests or political power.
The educator, according to Don Bosco's heart, is aware that the Preventive System's
education is based on a Christian view of person and life; he or she is convinced that the
deepest and most meaningful wealth of person resides in the human being's openness to God
and the call to be a child of God. Therefore the educator seeks to reawaken or get young
people to more deeply appreciate openness to the religious meaning of life, to develop a
capacity to discover in daily existence the signs of God's presence and action, to communicate
a conviction about the profound coherence there is between faith and human values like
solidarity, freedom, truth, justice and peace. The educator believes that the Gospel involves
their most authentic expression, regenerates their weaker aspects and enriches them by
opening them up to the horizons of God.
3.6. Social projection of educational activity
Looking after the young people who came to the Oratory was important for Don Bosco, but
equally important for him too was his concern for going out in search of others beyond. He was
concerned about the development of the human person to full human and Christian maturity,
but he was also concerned about the transformation of society, through the education of the
young.
Aware of the importance of the education of youth and the people for transforming society, Don
Bosco became the promoter of new social and preventive projects; he thought about the
relationship between work and the world, about contracts, leisure time, fostering popular
culture and education by means of the Press.
The society which Don Bosco had in mind was a Christian society, built on a foundation of
morals and religion. Today this vision of society has been transformed: we are in a secular
society, built on principles of equality, freedom, participation; but the Salesian educational
proposal still retains its capacity to form a citizen who is aware of his or her social,
professional, political responsibilities, able to dedicate him or herself to justice and to promote
the common good, with special sensitivity and concern for the weakest and most marginalised
groups. We have to work, then, at changing the criteria and view of life, to promote an altruistic
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culture, a modest lifestyle, a constant attitude of giving freely, the struggle for justice and
dignity of each human being's existence.
To bring this project into reality Don Bosco involved a broad circle of people, dreamt of a
movement as expansive as the world through the collaboration and complementary of people
of good will interested in the education of the young and the future of society.
This is why each Salesian work must always think of itself as a centre for receiving and calling
together the widest possible number of people, and become more and more the animating
core spreading outwards, involving, in various shapes and ways, everyone who wants to be
involved in promoting and saving the young.
This social quality of Salesian education could still gain greater understanding and realisation
by commitment to promoting human rights, especially those of children, as a privileged way of
achieving prevention in various contexts, integral human development, building up a more
equitable world and gradually introducing our pedagogy into the world's cultures.
4. The promotion of human rights, especially those of children
We are heirs and bearers of an educative charism which tends to promoting a culture of life
and change of structures. This is why we have the duty to promote human rights. The history
of the Salesian Family and its rapid expansion even in cultural and religious situations so
different and distant from where it began, is witness to how Don Bosco's Preventive System is
one gateway for guaranteeing access for the education of young people in any context, and as
a platform for dialogue for a new culture of rights and solidarity. As Salesians, education to
human rights, especially those of children, is a privileged way of bringing about, in various
contexts, a commitment to prevention, integral human development, building up a more
equitable world, a more just and healthy world. the language of human rights also allows for
dialogue about and introduction of our pedagogy in the different cultures around the world9.
4.1. Promoting human rights as educators
Faced with so many problematic situations experienced by the young in every part of the
world, we are called, following Don Bosco's example, to be with them to defend their dignity
and assure them a positive and dignified future.
In promoting human rights, especially those of children, our commitment must go beyond pure
social welfare, even if often we are forced to plug up emergency situations, without limiting
ourselves to defending their rights, when they have been violated or ignored. We need to take
on the commitment of the educator who seeks the personal growth of the boy or girl concerned
and their integral development, in full awareness of their dignity and responsibility.
“Don Bosco felt he was sent by God to respond to the cry of poor young people and
understood, that if it was important to give an immediate response to their difficulties, it was
even more important to prevent their causes. Following his example, we want to meet up with
9
Economic, social and cultural rights were ratified in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” by the
UNO in 1948. In the years that followed, we have seenthe approval of peoples' rights to self-determination, peace,
development, ecological balance, control over natural resources, defence of the environment. There are rights
tied to respect of the human being, in relation to genetic manipulation, bioethics and new communication
technologies. There is also the “UN Convention on the rights of children and adolescents”, adopted by the
General Assembly of the United Natiions on the 20 November 1989 and currently ratified by 192 States.
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them, convinced that the best way to respond to their poverty is, in fact, through preventive
action”.10
In a few of my addresses11 I have tried to show that education is the privileged way for this
preventive and renewing activity in many circumstances of hardship and marginalisation
affecting boys, girls and youth throughout the world. I have especially presented the Preventive
System of Don Bosco from the point of view of a conscious taking up of responsibility on the
part of those being educated, who change from being those who are to be protected, because
they are needy, to those who take on responsibility, because they have rights and recognise
the rights of others, thus preparing tomorrow's citizen in today's youngster.
The Preventive System seeks to prevent evil through education, but at the same time helps the
young to build up their own personal identity, give new life to values they had not succeeded in
developing because of their marginalised circumstances, nor discover or draw up reasons for
living with meaning, joy, responsibility and competence. Such a System also believes
decisively that the person's religious dimension is his deepest and most meaningful treasure;
therefore it seeks, as the most ultimate purpose in all its proposals, to guide each youngster
towards the realisation of his or her calling to be a child of God.
Faithful, then, to this precious inheritance, we must commit ours selves as educators to the
promotion and defence of human rights and the rights of juveniles, concerned especially for the
integral personal development of the young. It is worth recalling the insistent call that I and
Salesians from around the world with me at the 25th General Chapter in 2002, addressed to
those responsible for and interested in the future of humanity and especially the young: “We
are on the side of the young, because have confidence in them, in their willingness to learn, to
study, to escape from poverty, to take their future into their own hands. ... We are on the side
of the young because we believe in the worth of the individual, in the possibility of a different
kind of world and above all in the great value of education. ... Educating the young is the only
way to prepare a better future for the whole world. We want to respond to economic
globalisation with a globalisation of an educational character!”.12
4.2. Fostering a culture of rights
Education also offers the aim of building a culture of human rights, open to dialogue,
persuasion, and ultimately preventing violations of those same rights, rather than punishing
and repressing them.
Poverty and marginalisation are not a purely economic factor, but something that touches
people's conscience and challenges society's thinking, that is, culture; we need to move from a
culture of having, appearances, dominating, to one of being, gratuity and sharing. At this point I
would like to go back to the word of Pope Benedict XVI in his address at the opening of the 5th
General Conference of CELAM at Aparecida (Brazil). The Pope said:
10
GC 26, 98
11
Cf. Fr. CHAVEZ, Before it is too late let us save the children, the future of the world, address at the
Campidoglio, Rome 27 November 2002,on the occasion of the commemoration of the foundation of Borgo
Ragazzi Don Bosco.
Fr. CHAVEZ, Give more to those who have less. An educational rethink for cultural change, CISI meeting
on marginalisation and youth difficulties, Frascati 29 December 2004.
P. CHAVEZ, Education and citizenship. Forming the citizen in a Salesian way, ‘Lectio magistralis’ for the
Doctorate “honoris causa” from the University of Genoa. 23 April 2007
Fr. CHAVEZ, Educating with the heart of Don Bosco. Preventive System and human rights, 50th
anniversary of Porto Alegre Province, October 2008.
12
Cf. GC25, n. 140.
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"How should we respond to the great challenge of poverty and need? ... Both Capitalism and
Marxism promised to find a way to create just structures and said that these, once in place,
would work by themselves; they said that not only would there be no need for the personal
morality of former times, but that these structures would foster a common morality. This
ideological promise has been proven false. The facts are there to see. The Marxist system,
where it became government, has not only left a sad record of economic and ecological
destruction, but also the sad oppression of souls. We see the same thing also in the West,
where the gap between rich and poor has grown and where we see a disturbing degradation of
personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and other false mirages of happiness.
Just structures are an essential condition for a just society, but they don't come about nor do
they function without the moral consensus of society concerning fundamental values and the
need to live out these values through essential renunciation, even of one's own interests.
Where God is absent - God with the human face of Jesus Christ - these values do not show up
in all their strength, nor is their consensus about them. I do not want to say that non-believers
cannot live according to high moral standards and example; I am saying only that a society
where God is absent cannot find the necessary consensus on moral values and the strength to
live according to the model for these values, even contrary to one's proper interests".13
Don Bosco's Preventive System and spirit calls us today to a decisive task, collectively as well
as individually, to change the structures of poverty and underdevelopment and, especially, to
foster the moral values which guarantee a renewal of mentality and attitudes which lie at the
basis of unjust situations. Through education we want to foster an altruistic culture, a modest
style of life and consumption, readiness to share freely, justice understood as attention to the
rights of everyone; this is the culture of the dignity of life, commitment to being supportive,
openness to the Transcendent.
4.3. Some requirements
Promoting human rights and the rights of juveniles has to be, in our hands, a tool for educating
and transforming culture. That means looking to some important requirements which will
guarantee the task.
- A Salesian re-reading of rights
Each one of us, as an educator, has chosen a Christian anthropological viewpoint, the same
one that inspired Don Bosco, so he or she must become a defender and promoter of human
and juvenile rights. We can be assisted by a Salesian re-reading of the principles which lie at
the basis of these rights. Herewith some elements of this re-reading, especially in reference to
the rights of children.
The integral nature of the human being and the application of the principle of the indivisibility
and interdependence of all the basic rights of the person: civil, cultural, religious, economic,
political and social.
“I want you to be happy now and in eternity” and the application of the principle of integral
human development, a development which, in the holistic vision of the Convention on the
rights of the child, includes physical, mental, cultural spiritual, moral, social, political aspects. A
social welfare logic does not suffice nor does a guarantee of survival; we must offer children
the essential elements for their appropriate and complete development; this involves us in
giving attention to circumstances which, in fact, limit this holistic viewpoint in the daily dynamic
of the educational process.
“One for one” and the principle of the greater interest of the child. This principle of the
Convention emphasises the need to adequately understand each situation and aspect of the
life of the child and to know how to appreciate the opinions of the children themselves in
13
BENEDICT XVI, Opening address to 5th General Episcopal Conference of Latin America and the
Caribbean, Aparecida,13 May 2007, n. 4.
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choosing and aiming educational interventions at what is truly good for them. Such attention to
the real situation of the child is essential for practising the Preventive System.
The centrality of the child as an active individual and the principal of participation. Listening,
involving, ensuring that children are involved in questions about their life is the way to give
them responsibility as members of the society in which they live, and to enable their social
abilities. In this spirit we need to take another look the kinds of reception and involvement of
children in our educational programmes and activities.
The “it's enough that you are young for me to love you” and the application of the principle of
non-discrimination. This is linked to identifying the privileged beneficiaries of the Salesian
mission: the poorest and most disadvantaged youngsters, those who are at risk of being
marginalised, those with disabilities, refugees, migrants, the abandoned, children who are
victims of abuse, etc. In this sense we should foster participation and active involvement of the
weak in our educational settings, in our proposed activities, in the various groups etc.
- A renewed scheme for community sharing
The communal nature of Salesian pedagogical experience demands that we always work as a
group, as an educative community. It is not possible to do everything by ourselves, like the
pioneers, or in a self-directed way. Only in community can we assure the circumstances for a
truly educative activity and setting. We need to develop a network mentality, both amongst the
various activities and groups of the Congregation, and other people who have the lives and
education of young people at heart.
To transform society from within, by carrying out our educational mission, requires the
reawakening of new social and cultural energies, overcoming situations of blatant injustice,
appealing to everyone's social responsibility. As Salesians, with our many resources and rich
spiritual and pedagogical heritage, we hold an important responsibility. We need to be the
animating core and centre for calling together everyone who is ready to take up in a supportive
way an educational commitment according to Don Bosco's style. Sharing the defence of
human rights and those of children can be a strong motivation for giving solidity to this
cooperation and for sustaining the hard daily task.
- A renewed pastoral intention
To guarantee the effectiveness of human rights in Salesian educative and pastoral activity
there needs to be a growing conviction of the essential relationship between education and
evangelisation. “We need to recall that evangelisation develops along with human
development and authentic Christian freedom. Love of God and love of neighbour have
become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God (Cf.
Deus caritas est 15). For the same reason social catechesis and adequate formation in the
Church's social teaching will also be needed... Christian life is not only expressed through
personal virtues, but also in social and political virtues”.14
Salesian activity also includes a concern for the integral salvation of the individual: knowledge
of God, filial communion with Him by acknowledging Christ, the sacramental mediation of the
Church. Having chosen youth and poor youngsters, Salesians accept the departure points
where young people are to be found and the possibilities they have for a journey of faith. In
every recovery initiative, or initiative of education and human development, salvation is
proclaimed and made possible, a salvation that will become more explicit little by little as those
involved become more capable. Christ is everyone's right. He is to be proclaimed without
forcing the moment, but not letting the occasion pass either.
It is the reference to Christ, the New Man, which can help us to rethink our task of promoting
human rights and educating the young who are most disadvantaged and at risk. It helps us to
understand the goal of the full realisation of human existence. “Coming face to face with Jesus
of Nazareth... does not pose any other alternative or successive threshold than that of those
14
BENEDICT XVI, Address to the opening of the 5th CELAM Conference. 13 May 2007. n. 3.
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who are involved in promoting human rights. Rethinking and reformulating in truth man and
woman in God's plan”15.
By way of conclusion
Allow me to conclude with a short poem by Gabriella Mistral, short but full of prophetic
meaning, and which tells us why today more than ever we should speak of an “educational
emergency” and how today more than ever the way forward can be found in the heart of Don
Bosco:
His Name is “Today”
We are guilty of many errors, of many faults,
But our worst crime is abandoning the children,
Neglecting the fountain of life.
Many of the things we need can wait.
The child cannot.
Right now is the time his bones are being formed,
His blood is being made and his senses are being developed.
To him we cannot answer “Tomorrow”.
His name is “Today”.
Gabriella Mistral
Nobel Prize-winning poet from Chile
Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva
15
R. TONELLI, Una pastorale giovanile attenta ai diritti umani?. Note di Pastorale Giovanile, 37 (2003) 1, p.
5.
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