Brothers, in EAO and elsewhere - two important ports
of call
ROME: 19th January 2006 -- If you are a frequent
visitor to the Salesian Web Portal site (you should be), you will have
noted the 'Focus' for this month. It is in view of the Brothers'
Seminar for the EAO Region to be held in Cambodia in August. That
focus, available from the homepage of www.sdb.org will then lead you to
Bosconet, and more particularly to the page dedicated to the
Brother. On this page alone you will find all that is available
in English, and it amounts to hundreds of items in fact. There
simply is nowhere else that you will be able to access a collection of
this kind. You may also find it of interest to read the updated
analysis of the responses that came in to a broad ranging questionnaire
on the Brother in community, in the Province, in the Region. This
analysis takes time, and it now includes the second part of a three
part set of responses.
Of course, while the focus is the Brother, in real
terms this material is a substantial set of reflections on Salesian
life in its twin charismatic concept, lay and priestly. You will
find texts there going right back to Don Bosco himself and tracing the
reflections of various Rectors Major since. All that aside, there
is no doubt that having the reflections of most of the 200 Brothers in
the EAO region in one place is a powerful insight into Salesian life in
the region at the moment.
There are some 1300 Salesian confreres in the EAO
Region, 200 of them Brothers and about 50 of these still in temporary
formation. In some parts of the Region it is a flourishing
reality, this lay consecrated component of the Salesian vocation.
In other parts it struggles. There are plans now well under
development for a regional formation centre devoted to Brother
formation.
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