Chennai, 3 February 2006

(The following is a slightly edited version of the transcription of the recording of the Rector Major’s talk to some 250 Salesians who had gathered at SIGA, Chennai, on 3 February 2006. The Rector Major spoke without a prepared text.)

My dear confreres,

Talking to the confreres in UPS, I told them: in India there are many vocations – not merely because there are many boys there, nor because there is much poverty (in spite of the development hat we see everywhere), but because confreres in India continue to work for the poor, for the abandoned, and there is apostolic passion, apostolic zeal. It is important to maintain these elements; vocations will then continue to increase.

What do we need to do? First of all, continue to work for the poorest. I was struck by what I heard in Kolkata last year -- the Provincial told me that when Fr Viganò visited Kolkata, seeing so many children in the streets, in the slums, he asked the Salesians, “what are you doing for these?” The work of the Ashalayam was started after that remark of Fr Viganò.

It is nice to see Salesians being very sensitive to the needs of the youngsters and faithful to the aspirations and the expectations of the most needy. We need to be very open to the needs of the youngsters. It is not only social poverty that is increasing, but also affective poverty, and spiritual poverty. So we need to be very sensitive to the new forms of poverty of the youngsters. At the same time we need to consolidate our communities. We know that in the future India will play a major role in the world. In 2020, India will be one of the greatest nations in the world at the economic and social level. At this moment it is the biggest democracy in the world. Even at the Congregational level, India is going to play a bigger role. In Europe where there are more than 7,000salesians, vocations are decreasing. For example, for more than 25 years there have been no vocations in some provinces.

And so, India will play a very meaningful role in the Congregation. It is a historic responsibility. In Europe when there were many vocations, missionaries went all over the world. In the Netherlands, there are no vocations for more than 25 years. But you can find Dutch Salesians in many parts of the world, working for the poorest. In Columbia for example, they work for lepers. Fr Schlooz worked here in India. They work in Haiti, the poorest country. I was in the Netherlands in September and was struck when I saw that though there were very few, just a handful of confreres, they were working there for the immigrants. In Amsterdam on an abandoned parking lot, Salesians are running an Oratory, but it is managed by a Protestant pastor. He is very proud of it and he feels like a Salesian.

For that reason, I say you have a historic responsibility -- we need Indian missionaries in all parts of the world. Fr Biju (an Indian conferee in Holland) sent me a letter recently: ‘Father please try to give us at least three confreres’, he wrote. I want Indian Salesians all over the world. For that, continue to increase in vocations. We need to continue dividing the provinces. Everyone should be a vocation promoter. It is a beautiful gift. You know why we need to do much more? Because the needs of the country are getting bigger and bigger every day.

The second thing I want to you to do is to know Don Bosco much better. We need to study Don Bosco to communicate faithfully Don Bosco’s charism and mission. That was the secret of the Italian confreres. Thanks to them, there is everywhere a sense of unity, a sense of belonging to a single Congregation. We need to study Don Bosco. It is not enough to know from hearsay. Provincials and Rectors, read every year the Memoirs of the Oratory. Don Bosco wrote the Memoirs of the Oratory not just as a chronicle of the past. It is also the book of the future. We can find in it the answer to the needs of the region. We need to know Don Bosco much better to communicate his charism.

What else shall I say? We need to have a very strong spirituality because we are very faithful and working very hard. But is it true? What is actually happening? Instead of becoming contemplatives in action, we are getting more and more burnt out in action. There are some symptoms that we are becoming burnouts -- for example, when we lose our motivation, when we lose our spiritual life, when we want to be just social workers and not apostles. The greatness of Don Bosco was first of all his faith. At the same time he was in the vanguard of social charity. He always had the grace of unity. He was completely consecrated to God and completely devoted to the youngsters. The greatness of Don Bosco was in this: he had one single cause to live for. His mind was not divided. He had just one single thought: the salvation of youth. Indeed we need a strong spirituality in order to maintain our capacity to work.

May be you have heard of the most fruitful single Province of the Congregation. It is Vietnam. Most of the population is Buddhist, with a communist government. Do you know how many aspirants Vietnam has? Guess! Four hundred aspirants! All of them university students! Do you know how many newly professed? Thirty-five. How many missionaries they send out every year? Ten.

I am happy with the Indian provinces. Thanks to the Indian Provinces, we continue to be the second largest Congregation in the world. We have the highest number of novices among all the Congregations: 560. India has 130 novices; 70 newly ordained priests almost every year. After India, the future is Africa. Just after 25 years, we are today present in 42 countries of Africa. And there are more than 1500 Salesians. Most of these are locals. And that means in the future also there will be a lot of vocations. But in the meanwhile, you are the number one.

I wanted to do two things; first, to share my personal feelings and to invite you to pay attention to spiritual things; secondly, to express my gratitude to God, and to the Indian provinces for the work you are doing. At present you are working well, but you need to do better. This province has been the mother of many provinces. I hope the visit of the Rector Major will lead to a re-launching of the Salesian presence. We are concluding one centenary and beginning another. We have centuries ahead of us. It is up to you to write on golden pages what you have done till now.

Don Pascual Chavez V.

Chennai, 3 February 2006