Consecrated Secular Life: the EAO story with
reference to CDB and VDB
ROME: 3rd January 2005 -- The Volunteers With Don Bosco,
or CDB (Con Don Bosco) as their initials indicate, are just bringing
their Third General Assembly to a close in Rome. Who are
they? What are they about? Do they have anything to do with
life in our Region? What is their connection with the VDB or
Volunteers of Don Bosco?
Both VDB (women) and CDB (men) are, broadly
speaking, Secular Institutes, though the latter are still on the way to
that formal juridical recognition, their story being much shorter than
the VDB's who could take their history back to about 1917, though 1964
and 1978 are the two most recent prominent dates of foundation and
formal recognition. CDB's go back to 1994. Both share
another common characteristic in that their foundation is tied closely
to a Rector Major - Rinaldi in the frist instance and Viganò in the
second. VDB's number 1300 plus, over five continents, CDB perhaps
around 70, in the Americas, Europe, Asia. Both groups, in style
fully Salesian and fully ecclesial, throw a particular light on the
nature of Salesian consecrated life, perhaps making the famous 'grace
of unity' a starker reality still, with the balance they need to place
on being fully immersed in the world and fully immersed in God. 'It
'aint easy'!
That's the general overall story - you could go to
either Bosconet (especially past austraLasias) or the Rome portal site
to fossick out a little more information of a general kind or, if you
have that excellent 200 page 'The Salesian Family of Don Bosco' in your
community library, find all the founding details of both groups.
In EAO the CDB story begins in Korea, Autumn 1999,
when a Salesian Brother offered the possibility of this style of
consecrated life to two young men. There, as elsewhere, there is
a Salesian Ecclesiastical Assistant. They remain just a small
group of three, two in temporary profession, one in his third
year of formation.
Perhaps the story of the VDB is especially
illuminating for the region, though the VDB (and CDB) have slightly
different ways of naming their circumscriptions. The VDB story in
the region begins with a zealous Sicilian missionary in China, Don
Gaetano Nicosia, in Macau. In 1978 a Philippines 'zone' was set
up, and this includes an Australian VDB. Some comparative numbers
are interesting, especially if one considers them in terms of scale:
there are 52 VDBs in the Philippines zone (they call it Asia Region 1)
- and 300 SDBs in the same zone. There is an Asia Region 2 also
(Korea, HK, Macau, Thailand, Vietnam) with 64 VDB. All up, in
East Asia-Oceania there are 120 VDBs and 1300 SDBs. Contrast this
with India where there are 10 VDBs and 2,600 SDBs. You see what
we mean by scale - there is something happening here.
The growth of the Salesian consecrated secular
vocation in certain areas is tied to many factors. Zealous and
well-chosen assistants, the availability of formation materials in a
common language (English for our region), strong reciprocal
relationships with the Salesian Family. There are wider ecclesial
factors in play too: 'new evangelisation' from Pope JPII and 'Church as
a creative minority in the world' from Ben.XVI. There is also the
new 'inter gentes' mentality pressing all Christians to be missionary
and perhaps stronger in Asia than in Europe. And one could add,
in the light of a recent coming together of consecrated persons from
all over the world to discover the 'passion' for God, the 'passion' for
humanity, that where the Salesian vocation has demonstrated such
intense passion....enthusiasm, zeal, fire in the belly (as in the case
of some great missionaries, but not only), the Salesian vocation in its
many forms has flourished.
Yesterday the 3rd General CDB Assembly elected its
World Moderator (or Moderator General - they have yet to settle on
English terminology) and other Council members. There was one
change in Council membership. Terms are for four years. It
will be an intense four years as they seek to grow and to obtain the
desirable formal ecclesial recognition of 'Secular Institute',
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