''austraLasia' #542
GC25: A MODEL OF THE SALESIAN
COMMUNITY?
Several comments are coming through about the
gathering of 231 confreres in the Chapter with all their differences of culture,
language, experience...
As one correspondent puts it:
"Nevertheless, there is one thing that impresses me
very much. It is the family spirit in the chapter. We come from over 90
Provinces and different nationalities with different languages. Many of us are
not good in Italian but we manage to understand one another and to share our
ideas with one another. A lot of courtesy and friendliness is found among us. We
chat, eat and have fun together. We pray together and listen to the sharing of
different provinces of their hope and worries. If the salesian communities all
over the world live like this chapter community, it will be the greatest
blessing and gift from our Lord. In this context, I would say that
there is still a lot of hope in our congregation and God's blessing is still
with us. " Nevertheless, there is not a little frustration being
experienced by a few members who come from provinces where matters of great
moment are able to be shared with the help of other models of corporate
process.
COMMISSIONS BEGINNING TO SHAPE UP THEIR
PROPOSALS
At this stage, much of the interest is focussed on
the commission dealing with structures. But another commission that is
likely to provide some challenging material is that dealing with 'New forms of
community'. Even from the earliest moments of this commission, the notion
of Salesian Community as wider than just SDBs had taken firm hold. As one
correspondent writes: The formation and collaboration of Laity is being taken up
into a new level of understanding. The SDB community is certainly seen at
the animating nucleus and as having responsibility for keep all true to the
charism of Don Bosco". Then there was the Goodnight already reported where
a new form of community has been tried in Belgium.
But back to Commission #2 and structures!
There are a number of models being proposed, most of them presenting a
stripped-down version of the present council with much less emphasis on rigid
structures and more on a group who can plan and envision the future of the
Congregation with the Rector Major. For example, one model would have the RM,
Vicar and Economer at the core, along with three others: one overviewing
Salesian Mission (in all its forms), another the Salesian charism, and the
third, formation. Regional councillors there would be, and resident in
Rome for close contact with the RM, but not necessarily part of the regular
Council. Having said that there is another proposal which would have much
the same numbers on the Council as at present but with re-arrangement of
portfolios. It won't be long before we get a feel of which direction
carries the day - I think it is easy to see that one of these has a fairly
anglo-saxon feel about it!
Regions and regionals have been under discussion
from one of the sub-groups, with some sensible (from this writer's point of
view!) ideas coming up re the way regionals carry out their role, viz., keep
mainly to animation of groups and roles in the Province and less to the
interviewing of individual confreres.
By the way, there is a suggestion that the
Australia-Asia region be reconfigured. Let's see where that one
goes.
