APPENDIX 5

Address of His Holiness JOHN PAUL II

to the members of the General Chapter

during his visit of 1 May 1990

My dear members of the General Chapter of the Salesians of St John Bosco!

1. It gives me great pleasure to be able to meet you in such significant circumstances, against the festive background of the raising to the honours of the altars of your confrere Fr Philip Rinaldi, whom I had the joy of proclaim­ing Blessed the day before yesterday.

I greet you affectionately and thank each and every one of you, who represent the whole Salesian Family, for your cordial welcome. My thoughts go in particular to Fr Egidio Vigan•, who has been confirmed in office once again as your Rector Major, and through him I greet your whole religious institute. To the confidence you have shown in him by entrusting him anew with the guidance of your Congregation, I heartily unite my own best wishes that, in collaboration with the new General Council, also elected by this capitular assembly, he may be able to continue efficaciously the very valuable work he has already carried out in the past.

2. I wanted in particular to meet you here in your own house to express to you in con­crete terms my personal encouragement and the warm gratitude of the Church, to whom you give such active service.

Everyone in fact is aware of the many kinds of salesian activity carried out all over the world. A whole variety of works with modern structures support your apostolate; but the spirit that underlies them is always the same, that particular charism which is your distin­guishing mark and which you received as a legacy from Don John Bosco, the Saint of Youth.

Your attention therefore must always be centred on the young, the hope of the Church and the world, towards whom everyone looks with faith and trepidation. In the richer countries, as in the poorer ones, you must be always at their service, with special attention to those who are weaker and on the fringe of society. Take to each of them the hope of the Gospel, so as to help them to face life courageously, re­sisting temptations to selfishness and discouragement. To them you must be fathers and brothers, as Don Bosco has taught you.

Take care that the whole process of edu­cation be directed towards its ultimate purpose, religious salvation. This "realistic pedagogy of holiness", so characteristic of your Founder - "Master of youth spirituality", implies a con­stant commitment to helping the youngsters en­trusted to your care to open their hearts to absolute values and interpret life and history "in accordance with the depth and riches of the Mys­tery" (Iuvenum Patris, n.15).

Vast is the mission indeed and arduous your task, but the Church looks to your Insti­tute with confidence and encourages you to con­tinue on the same path. Be educators of the faith and, trusting in God's help, examine with care the signs of the times in this particular period of history through which we are living.

3. I rejoice at the fact, for which I thank the good Lord, that it is precisely on these complex and delicate matters that you have been reflecting in your General Chapter, seeking opportune criteria for enlightenment and the necessary practical guidelines. You have chosen well: the education of the young is one of the key issues of the new evangelization, and it is right that at the present day you should look for suitable ways and appropriate language, in complete fidelity to your charisma and all the Church's teaching.

I take advantage of this welcome meeting with you to highlight some fundamental values that I consider particularly relevant for anyone who, like yourselves, takes part in the educa­tive mission of the Church towards youth.

First of all I want to emphasize as a fundamental point the strength of a unifying synthesis that stems from pastoral charity. It is the fruit of the power of the Holy Spirit which ensures the vital inseparability between union with God and dedication to one's neighbour, between depth of interior evangelical meditation and apostolic activity, between a praying heart and busy hands. Those two great Saints, Francis de Sales and John Bosco, have borne witness to this wonderful "grace of unity" and brought to fruition in the Church. Any deterioration on this point opens up a dangerous path to activism or intimism, both of which are insidious temptations for Institutes of Apostol­ic Life. On the other hand the hidden riches accompanying this "grace of unity" provide clear confirmation, as amply demonstrated by the lives of these two Saints, that union with God is the true source of the practical love of one's neighbour; the more a Salesian reflects on the mystery of the Father, who is infinitely merciful, of the Son who so generously became our brother, and of the Holy Spirit, who powerfully renews the world by his presence, so much the more does he feel impelled by this unfathomable mystery to dedicate himself to the young for their maturing as human beings and for their salvation.

4. Another important aspect is the sin­gular pedagogical option of your Founder which consists in evangelizing youth through education. In this sense he was indeed a "genius of the heart". In fact this ability to concentrate initiatives of pastoral charity in the cultural area of education is no simple matter: it implies attitudes and aptitudes with their own specific characteristics and practical require­ments even at a professional pedagogical level.

It is a case of an attractive and even fascinating mission which needs continual revi­sion and comparison with Christ, the New Man, through a deep and limpid faith, nourished daily by the Eucharist and manifested in the simplici­ty and sacrifice of daily life.

5. And at once there emerges another priceless value to which we have already re­ferred: the development among youth of an authentic "spirituality".

Spirituality means a living participation in the power of the Holy Spirit received in the Sacrament of Baptism and fully developed in that of Confirmation. The young must be aware of the new life given to them in these Sacraments and know that from it proceeds that strength of personal synthesis between faith and life that is possible to those who foster in themselves the gift of the Spirit.

What a great need there is in the Church at the present day for young people to be edu­cated to friendship with Christ and Mary, to en­thusiasm for life, to generous commitment, to the service of others or, in other words, to a practical "spirituality" which makes of them leaders in the work of evangelization and archi­tects of social renewal!

6. Dear Salesians of Don Bosco, keep your eyes always on your holy Founder, and on the evangelical brilliance of his educational method, and relaunch this precious legacy among youth! His method "needs to be studied at still greater depth, to be adapted and renewed with intelligence and courage, precisely because of changed social, cultural, ecclesial and pastoral contexts" (Iuvenum Patris, n.13).

On all of you I invoke the continual pro­tection of Mary Help of Christians, Mother of the Church. May she be for you, as she was for Don Bosco, both Teacher and Guide, the Star of the new evangelization.

To you, to your confreres and to all the members of the great Salesian Family I impart from my heart the Apostolic Benediction.