'austraLasia' #556
FR. LUC IS BACK, ALBEIT 'GENTLY', IN
BUSINESS
Fr. Luc Van Looy is now to be seen around the
Generalate and in the Chapter hall again, and that's good news. He has to
take it gently and has not as yet resumed his full role as president - but he is
there!
FR. MARACCANI'S MOTHER HAS DIED -
R.I.P.
MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL AT THE HALFWAY
MARK!
The comments on the floor of the assembly are
coming thick and fast and certainly the 'anglofoni' who correspond in this
direction are bemused and bewildered by the very heavy process in place - but
still ready to marvel at the cameraderie, and to hope in the ability of the
Spirit to make sense of it all. 'nuf sed on that!
THE RECTOR AND THE COMMUNITY (COMMISSION
#4)
This seems pretty much at the heart of our everyday
experience - how we function in community vis-a-vis that person designated as
'direttore' - so again, here's a smorgasboard of reflections from all over the
Congregation as the Assembly tries to sort the matter through:
* The Rector must be seen as part of all the commissions. To have a
separate commission just working on this role would neither benefit the
community nor the person of the Rector.
* Every confrere in the community has the responsibility of animation. The
Rector'srole is to make that animation visible.
* The role of the Rctor has changed in the past number of years. Greater
autonomy is given to the confreres, the problems of the sick and the elderly,
the complexity of the work, and the integration of the laity in the work are
responsibilities placed on the shoulder of one man, and this fact is impossible
for one man alone to handle.
* Iin many communities in GBR the Rector is the youngest member of the
community. Rather than talking about a "father" figure, there needs to be talk
of a real friend, one who is kind, optimistic, and available to the confreres.
This is a very Salesian concept according to the spirituality of Francis de
Sales.
* The Rector needs to be a man who communicates, and who facilitates
communication in his community. One of the greatest duties of the Rector is the
"goodnight" in which he can share with the community in a privileged moment of
on-going formation a spiritual thought or an interpretation of the day’s events.
* To the commission’s recommendation that the manual for Rectors be
revised, Fr. Joaquim D’Souza noted that the Ratio and the deliberations of GC 25
would be enough, and that time should not be wasted in a new manual which would
probably be obsolete by the time it is
printed.
And perhaps by way of summary (From Fr.
Luigi Testa, Turin): the Rector must be attentive to the needs of the confreres.
He must be a human person who cares for people. He noted that Don Bosco was
always concerned about the health of the Rectors of his time and even encouraged
them to get at least 7 hours of sleep because their work was so
demanding.
