BARCELONA: 9th February 2010 -- A man with many years of
experience in the publishing industry, and who has published Salesian
material from outstanding Salesian authors writing in English rather
than
Italian or other languages (Murdoch, Winstanley, O'Malley to name just
three), put it all very neatly at the European Salesian Publishers'
meeting which has just concluded in Barcelona: "Every new book is a
new Salesian", Fr Tony Bailey of the UK said, and went on to explain
how Salesians can reach out to corners of today's society that a
Salesian
might never get to.
He was simply expressing in his own words what Don
Bosco had said so poetically when writing of the spreading of good
books:
It
can even enter homes
where the priest cannot.
The dubious will
take it as a gift
or remembrance.
There is no blush in the offering of it.
Neglected, it does not feel troubled.
Read, it calmly teaches truth.
Scorned, it does not lament the fact,
but leaves a lingering regret,
sparks desire to know the truth
which it is disposed, always, to teach.....
And so on.
In what has been a watershed for Salesian
Publishing,
certainly in Europe, but possibly for others parts of the world too, 19
out of 20 Salesian Publishers came together in Barcelona from 4-7
February. Apart from the very positive result for individual publishers
who were able to get to know one another, in many cases for the first
time, and establish some formal arrangements together, the most
positive
element was the immediate recognition of a potential corporate image
and
the first steps to establish that more firmly and visibly. In fact the
Publishers took the lead from the SC Department and have organised
themselves to meet annually. The department need only concern itself
with
bringing them together every three years to evaluate progress and
keeping
them informed of interim developments. The big players (and there are
those with a turnover of around 11 million euro a year) are prepared to
help the little players.
What happened at Barcelona will be of interest to
Salesians Publishers, of which there are several, in our own
region. Who knows, future growth in this corporate sense may well
benefit Salesian Publishers in other regions. Latin America is
already implicated because of the tie up between Edebé
(Barcelona, the
largest player of all in the Salesian world) and Argentina, Mexico and
Bolivia. Whoever wishes to follow this scene
can
find useful information at this link.
One of the most enlightening addresses at the
Conference came from Fr Sergio Giordani, who manages the SEI in Turin,
the longest-existing Salesian Publisher in the world. He drew on
aspects of Salesian tradition, not only Don Bosco but also Don Rua who
was effectively responsible for founding SEI in 1908, to demonstrate
that
had Bosco and Rua not been writers, publishers or utterly convinced of
the need for this sector, the Salesian Congregation today would be a
very
different Congregation.
The conference considered some of the thorny
fundamental issues (it did not deal with the economic aspects so much
as
the basic motivation for ensuring that Salesian Publishing can survive
in
the 21st century) firstly by tackling the view held by some that
running
a good business is incompatible with Salesian work for the poor. The
most
effective response to this has in fact come from Pope Benedict XVI who
in
his most recent encyclical addressed precisely that issue, saying that
good business has a social dimension and is essential for human
development and for dealing with poverty. It also directly
addressed the question of an adequate vision-mission for a Salesian
Publisher in the 21st century. Finally, it offered a way forward
for publishers who struggle to know how best to create a niche for
themselves in a demanding digital environment, by offering regular
(annual) updating courses which will treat of this and other challenges
facing our publishing houses.
_________________
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