austraLasia 1686

When an adjective becomes a noun: true significance of Cooperator name change

ROME: 13th November 2006 --  The point needs to be laboured in English: at the recent World Congress of Salesian Cooperators, a change of nomenclature occurred which is immediately dramatic in Italian, but seemingly not at all so in English - and yet the underlying change is dramatic!  In Italian, from the beginning, Salesian Cooperators used the traditional shape of an Italian nominative phrase, that is, Cooperatori salesiani.  Put simply, Italian adjectives for the most part follow the noun they describe.  Now the decision has been made to reverse this in Italian to Salesiani cooperatori, but it is more than a reversal, it is a different grammatical phrase altogether: it now becomes two nouns in apposition: effectively then it is salesiani, cooperatori.
    English had always rendered Cooperatori salesiani as Salesian Cooperators.  A translation which is fully accurate, now that the Italian phrase structure has altered, possibly demands that English highlight the apposition, and this would not occur if we remain with Salesian Cooperators. In initial reflections on the name change amongst the English-speaking group present at the Congress, there was no great concern felt over the change - mainly because (in this writer's humble opinion), people had not really understood the implications of an altered phrase structure. The general feeling was that we should simply stay with Salesian Cooperators.  Possibly the only way to represent the change, then, in English, would be to write Salesians, Cooperators, or Salesians ASC.
    In all of this we need to listen carefully to what the Rector Major has said about the change, because he has closely followed and approved all the steps that have led to it. On Saturday afternoon, 11th November, he said this: "The change from an adjective to a noun is not an indifferent one. It expresses Don Bosco's idea concerning his 'extern Salesian'. It better expresses your identity and meaning. (The first word in the phrase) 'Salesian' indicates a strong charismatic identity. It is about making Don Bosco's mission your own. The notion that you are now the 'external Salesian' expresses your lay dimension. It means being a citizen of God, of heaven but deeply involved in social realities. The notion that you are 'Cooperators' means being co-operators of salvation. Cooperators of God. Hence the change is more than a change of words. It requires a real life change".
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