Message from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone_,

Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church_,

to the 27th General Chapter of the Salesians of Don Bosco

Amongst the thousands of Salesians who dot and light up the map of the world is a small group of pastoral workers who, besides shouldering many a cross, have one more or less emblazoned on their chest: these are the some 122 Salesian Bishops and Cardinals.

Having grown up in families of strong Christian faith, and been educated in colleges and oratories run by attractive and outstanding characters, we followed the call to the Salesian vocation, working dedicatedly in various responsibilities in the Lord’s vineyard, where, at the wish of the Roman Pontiffs, we have been entrusted with a more demanding pastoral task in particular Dioceses or in the service of the Bishop of Rome and the Universal Church. Each of us can testify to our unswerving attachment to the Salesian charism, even our physical affinity with so many Salesian works around the world and our fraternal passion for the joys and anxieties of the apostolate to the young in our various countries.

The “pastoral journey” which Don Bosco’s Casket made across five continents demonstrated how broad is the esteem and devotion for our Founder and for his sons. We too, in our respective competencies and areas of work, have sought to respond to the challenges and provocations of the younger generations, to the new requests for help and renewal tumbling forth from society, through exchange of information and collaboration that, other than in interpersonal relationships, has been constantly channelled through the Letters of the Rector Major and the Acts of the General Council, as also the multi-lingual “Salesian Bulletin” which we read with great interest and to our spiritual and pastoral advantage.

Here I would like to extend a greeting and my affectionate thanks to Fr Pascual Chávez for the extraordinary and tireless service he has rendered over these 12 years to the entire Salesian Family and the Church. And along with him I also greet and thank all the Salesian communities with which we have had a close and fruitful relationship.

In our specific task, the sharing of the very same basic inspirations guiding our life, putting together our gifts, material and intellectual resources with the exercising of a ministry of unity which is properly that of the Bishop, has allowed us to offer young people ideals and horizons for life, and to be able to say again with Don Bosco: “for you I study, for you I work, for you I live, for you I am even ready to give my life” (C. 14).

It is ours to communicate to young people not our moments of discouragement, our crises but the beauty of the Gospel, the joy of the Gospel, as recent Popes have encouraged us to do, from Pope Benedict XVI to Pope Francis; the joy of encountering Christ, becoming disciples of a God who is a passionate friend of humanity.

It is ours to be educators by vocation, through constant attention to all-embracing growth, to each individual’s life project, to the quality reserves each has which are “sensitive to what is good” (as Don Bosco assures us), from whence even today a response of real and attractive holiness can flow.

The firmament of Saints and Blesseds in the Salesian Family, amongst whom there are many young people, is testament to faith and charity sometimes to the point of martyrdom, a divine seal on the goodness and generosity of the universal apostolate of Don Bosco’s disciples. This is a holiness with many faces, determined by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and a variety of historical circumstances.

Be it in decadent or complex Western societies or in the developing and promising societies of other continents, Salesians are called to propose desirable goals and positive figures of reference to young people. To achieve such objectives it is not enough to be a teacher of some subject or experts in our pupils’ cognitive processes, but we need to be their brothers, responsible for developing judgement, values, people who are witnesses of life. Faced with the frailty and alienation of current generations let us recall Pope Francis’ appeal to consecrated individuals to be “witnesses of faith and of the love of the Risen Christ, witnesses of the Kingdom and witnesses of the radical approach of the Gospel”. Let us recall his advice: “Wake up the world. Be witnesses to a different way of doing things, of acting, of living. We are speaking of an eschatological outlook, of values of the Kingdom embodied here on this earth”.

We wish you a good and fruitful General Chapter and await the choices you make with anticipation, united as we are in prayer and trusting in the maternal protection of Mary Help of Christians.

Rome, 3 March 2014