MELBOURNE: 7th May 2005 --  In view of a regional workshop on the vocation of the Salesian Brother, slated for 2006, Fr Klement, EAO Regional Councillor, has sent a message to all provincials in the region urging them to follow up a decision already agreed upon at the recent Hua Hin Team Visit meeting in March.  He writes, from Melbourne where he was accompanying the discernment process for a new AUL provincial, "the issue is not only a concern about shrinking numbers of Brothers but to keep alive the charismatic identity of the Congregation".

    The Salesian Brother has been very much part of the wider Congregation's agenda for some time and has culminated in a reflection by Fr Cereda in AGC 382.  In that reflection Fr Cereda places the problem squarely in the arena of a true awareness of our vocational identity as Salesians, and our awareness of the way we express our apostolic consecration in mission.  "The stronger the visibility of the SDB community (in the educative and pastoral community)", he says, "the easier it is to strengthen the visibility of the Salesian Brother".

    Fr Klement points to the wide availability of materials in the Congregation, which include the results of EAO Congresses on the theme as well.  He asks, however, that Provinces look back over the past 10 years to identify useful materials on the topic, particularly materials that have been translated into local languages

    As part of a wider questionnaire on the issue he asks that an effort be made to verbalise "eternal unanswered questions" about the Salesian Brother and to assess what has happened since Fr Cereda published his reflection and guidelines in 2003.