Formation_Guides


Formation_Guides

1 Pages 1-10

▲back to top

1.1 Page 1

▲back to top
2. GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES
2.1 FORMATION OF FORMATION GUIDES
Fr Ivo COELHO
General Courucillor for Formation
"Formation," said St John Paul II inVita Consecrata, "is a
sharing in the work of the Father who, through the Spirit, fashions
the inner attitudes of the Son in the hearts of young men and
women." (VC 66) While the Father is "the educator par excel-
lence," and while the prime responsibility for the response falls on
the one who is called, it has pleased the Father, in the work of for-
mation, to make use of human instruments, "placing more mature
brothers and sisters at the side of those whom he calis." CYC 66)
The present guidelines would like to focus not so much on the
formees as on the persons of the formation guides, in the light of
the journey of the congregation since the Second Vatican Council:
the awareness of the mission as setting the tenor of our life, of for-
mation as a lifelong process, of the educative-pastoral community
as the subject of the mission that we share with so many lay people
and members of the Salesian Family, and of the role of the religious
community within it; and, in recent General Chapters, the atten-
tion to our identity as Salesian consecrated persons living out our
vocation in two forms, lay and clerical.
1. Freparing formation guides and not just teachers
The recognition of the need for formation of formation guides
is not absent from the magisterium of the Congregation, begin-
ning from R 78 which reads: "formation communities must have a
rector and a team of formation personnel who are specially pre-
pared, above all as regards spiritual direction...." In the wake of
Potissimum institutioni (1990), Pastores dabo uobis (1992), I)irec-

1.2 Page 2

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 33
tiues on the preparation of educators in seminaries (1993), Vita
consecrata (1996), and perhaps also Inter-institute collaboration
for formation, (1998), the third edition of our Ratio (2000) takes
up the theme of formation of formators and repeats it in various
ways.' As the Directiues of 1993 say, common sense alone is not
enough: what is needed is a capacity for discernment that has been
sharpened and refined by a good knowledge of the human sciences
so as to be able to go beyond appearances and "to help the semi-
narian to know himself in depth, accept himself with serenity and
to correct himself and to mature...."' The same document distin-
guished helpfully between an initial phase and a successiue phase
in the formation of formation guides (48-71), andVita consecrata
insisted on "appropriate structures for the training of those re-
sponsible for formation," with the note that these be "preferably
in places where they can be in contact with the culture in which
their pastoral service will later be carried out." (VC 66)
In a significant letter of 2009 entitled "Formation of formation
guides in initial formation," the councillor for formation, Fr
Francesco Cereda, spoke ofthe need fbr careful selection and for-
mation of formators, described the tasks of formators (helping
transformation, accompanying, fbstering primacy of' the spiritual
life, communicating Don Bosco's charism, working as a team), and
listed the various occasions for such formation at the personal,
local, provincial, regional and world level.' The same guidelines
were repeated in the Assessment and Guidelines concerning InteL-
lectual Formatton during Initial Formation.n
' See Formation of the Salesians of Don Bosco (online edition 20lO ## 237-239,246,
284-286,4L6,489, 547-548,571. Stiil, there is no section of o.ur Ratio dedicated entirely to
the formation of flormation guides, and this is significant.
'Congregatiou for Catholic Education, Directiues concerning the preparation of
seminary educators (1993) 57 (see Origins.' CNS Documentary Seruice 23132 127 January
19941 558-571, at http:i/www.usccb.org/beiiefs-and-teachings/vocations/priesthood/priestly-
formationiupload/preparation.pdf as of 11 February 2017. See FSDB (2016) 237.
3 E Cereda, "Formation of formation guides in initial formation," AGC 404 (.2,009) 77 -
81 (section 4).
oValutazione e orientamenti circa la form.azione intellettuale nella form,azione iniziale.
Valutazione e orientamenti approuati dal Rettor Maggiore e dal Consiglio generale,Roma2l
luglio 2012.

1.3 Page 3

▲back to top
34 A)TS oF THE GENERAL C?UNCIL
The letter candidly admitted that "nowadays in the Congrega-
tion most of the formation guides have not received and currently
are not receiving any or scarcely any specific preparation for
formation. Often the Provinces prepare formation guides by get-
ting them to obtain a degree in some particular field of study; this
sort of qualification is necessary for the culture of the formation
guide and as preparation for his teaching role, but it is not suffi-
cient for his formation task."u Some ten years down the line, the
situation remains largely unchanged. In "Vocation and Forma-
tion," Fr Pascual Chdvez noted that the congregation needs "to
prepare formation personnel and not just teachers."u We might say
that the preparation of guides for formation has not yet become a
systematic reality in the congregation.
2. The model of formation
The goal sets the path, and so the formation of formation
guides depends very much on the goal, on the kind of formation
for which we want to prepare guides. The goal of formationto con-
secrated life proposed in Vita consecrata is neither mere external
conformity, nor even a set of attitudes and competences, but
rather the high one of "putting on the sentiments (phronein) of
Christ" (Phil 2,5) - or configuration to Christ, putting on Christ
(Rom 13,14), letting Christ be formed in us (Gal 4,19), sharing the
Son's total self-giving to the Father and to his brothers and sis-
ters, becoming a living memorial of him to the point of sharing
even his concrete life choices (yC 66,22).
The goal of Salesian formation, we could add, is configuration
to Christ the Good Shepherd in the footsteps of Don Bosco.
Now an authentic educational goal must be capable of trans-
forming itself into a method. What are the operative consequences
of the goal of "putting on the sentiments of Christ"?
u Cereda, AGC 404:75-76 (section 3).
uP Ch6vez, "Vocation and Formation," AGC 416 (2013) 10.

1.4 Page 4

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 35
We insist again that formation is first and foremost the work of
God. It is the Father who calls and who, through the Spirit, forms
the inner attitudes of the Son in the heart of young people. But
since God is utterly respectful of our freedom, formation, far from
being a "one way" affair, involves our responding to the call of
God. Formation therefore involves a dynamic of call and response,
a dialectic of two freedoms and two loves. It is a divine work in
which we are called to collaborate. This, in fact, is how our Con-
stitutions see formation: as response to vocation. (C 96)
Formation guides take their place within the dynamic of call
and response that is the formation process.
A first point that follows from this is that formation involves o
dynamic of freedom. "If we must form the 'heart' in the biblical
and full sense of the term, so that the young person might have
the attitudes of Christ and discover the beauty of the sequela, the
process of education has to be a formation to freedom (VC 66)."'
Grace influences our freedom but never takes it away - not even
the most powerful grace. Because grace is love, and freedom is a
constitutive element of love: without freedom there is no loving
and no possibility of a loving response to love.
If the goal of formation were preparation for a certain kind of
apostolate or a certain style oflife, or the possession ofcertain
virtuous qualities in view of the ministry, the pedagogical
methodology could be different (e.g., the strengthening of the
will, the capacity for ascesis and renunciation, preparation for
the apostolate), but if it is formation of the heart so that the
young person has the attitudes of the Son, the only possible
way is the way of freedom. The heart of man can and must be
educated and evangelized, purified and liberated with all the
suffering that this involves, to the point of experiencing those
attitudes always more naturally and almost connaturally,
thanks to a wise discipline. There is no authentic education to
7 A. Cencini, "La formazione oggi: Ministero e mistero," at http:/iwww.ofmconvors/x/
CENCINI.htm#N 13- (as of 11 February 2017).

1.5 Page 5

▲back to top
36 ACIS OF THE GENEHALCOUNCIL
consecration to the kingdom that does not pass through the
phases, negative and positive, ascetical and mystical, of a for-
mation to freedom, to freedorn - in concrete - as awareness of
one's own internal conditioning, even unconscious, and the
ability to be ever less dependent (freedom 'from'); freedom as
a gift received from God in Christ and continually revitalized
by the gift of the sacraments and of the new life in Christ (free-
dom'in') and freedom as the richness of the interior life and of
iove for God, as the consequent quality of desires and the
strength to pursue them ("freedom 'for').u
The climate of true freedom enables the young Salesian in for-
mation to overcome inner resistance and fear, become aware of the
many levels of his own deep motivations, and find the courage to ex-
press them to himself and to his guides. The external acts marking
- the journey of Salesian life - first profession and renewal of vows
will thus be ever more in harmony with the interiority of the person.
Education to freedom should therefore be "the" method of the
process of formation to consecration. In fact, if the Preventive Sys-
tem can be described as a pedagory of freedom, we could say that
the Preventive System is, in fact, "the" method of formation.n In
this context we can recall the now famous conversation of Pope
Francis with the Superiors General in 2013:
Problems are not solved simply by forbidding doing this or
that. Dialogue as weil as confrontation are needed. To avoid
probiems, in some houses of formation, young people grit their
teeth, try not to make mistakes, follow the rules smiling a lot,
just waiting for the day when they are told: 'Good. You have
finished formation.' This is hypocrisy that is the result of cler-
icalism, which is one of the worst evils.... I summarize by some
advice that I once received as a young man: 'If you want to ad-
'Cencini.
'C 104 asks that formation guides be capable, among other things, "ofgenuine dialogue
with the young confreres." C 112 speaks of the director of novices as one who is "able to
relate to other people, to engage in dialogue, and to inspire confidence in the novices by his
kindness."

1.6 Page 6

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 37
vance, think clearly and speak obscurely.' That was a clear in-
vitation to hypocrisy. We need to avoid that at all costs.'o
Second, formation involves a dynamic of attention to experi-
ence. Our Constitutions teach us that formation is a question of
"learning by experience the meaning of the Salesian vocation." (C
98) If God is at work in us forming in our hearts the attitudes of
the Son, the more attentive we are to this work, the better we can
respond to it and collaborate with it. A good guide knows how to
direct the attention of the formee to the working of God in his life,
helping him to learn a permanent attitude of discernment (doci-
bilitas) that allows him to see every experience as an opportunity
for growth and for formation. This is the basis of all that our Con-
stitutions have to say about formation - but since we already have
a substantial reflection in AGC 425 on formation as lifelong, we
will not dwell further on this point."
Third comes the dynamic of beauty, the uia pulchritudinis.
(EG 15, 167) The situating of formation in the bosom of the Trin-
ity makes consecrated life participate in the beauty of God himself.
In the Apostolic Exhortation of 1996, beauty becomes a key to the
reading of consecrated life. Vocation ministry and formation must
know how to communicate the beauty of the sequela. (VC 64, 66)
The young person must be formed to see and taste the beautiful
(and not merely the holy and the dutiful) - the beauty, attractive-
ness and splendour of the Lord who calls and of the life to which
he calls. And then it is by the beauty of their own lives that for-
mation guides radiate their influence. This is the whole dynamic
of example, witness, testimony. As the young Don Bosco learnt at
the school of Don Cafasso, fire can be lit only by fire." The beauty
of our lives communicates the joy of the gospel: this is a great ele-
ment in the teaching of Pope Francis, and with him we recall that
'o Pope Francis with Antonio Spadaro, "Wake up the World. Conversation with Pope
Francis about the Religious Life," 8, at http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/Collaborative
MinistrylPopeFrancis/Wake_up-the-world-2.pdf (see Lq, Ciuiltd. Cattolica 2014 | 3-17).
" See I. Coelho, "Formation is lifelong," AGC 425 (20t7) 25-37.
" Giuseppe Cafasso, Esercizi spirituali al clero. I: Meditazioni, 64I-642.

1.7 Page 7

▲back to top
38 ACIS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
this must be especially true of consecrated persons, and even more
so of those entrusted with the ministry of formation.
So the goal of Salesian formation - configuration to Christ the
Good Shepherd - transforms itself into a method, a method that
involves a dynamic of freedom, learning by experience, and beau-
ty. And it is this goal and this method that will guide the prepara-
tion of formation personnel.
Two other points. We must avoid the assumption - so natural
to modernity with its culture of the atomic individual - that for-
mation is an exclusively one-to-one process. The subject of forma-
tion is the community, and this is absolutely as it should be, for us
who believe that God is a communion of persons, and that forma-
tion is a profoundly Trinitarian process in which we are called to
collaborate. It is very significant that all the recent church docu-
ments insist on the unity of the formation team,'3 and this is per-
haps the intention behind the insistence of Fr Cereda that the cru-
cial role of personal spiritual guidance should not in any way min-
imize the need for a team of formation guides.'n It is within the
context of the community and a harmonious formation team that
the indispensable moment of the friendly chat and personal spiri-
tual accompaniment takes its place. In the context of formation to
priesthood, in fact, the new Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis
Sacerdotalis insists that the journey "has an eminently communi-
tarian character from the outset."'5
For us Salesian religious, the community is anessential part of
our identity (C 3).
The mission is entrusted to the community and not to individ-
uals (C 44), and this holds true also for the most delicate task of
formation. Without a healthy formative environment, the work of
even the most brilliant individual formation guide is ruined. This
calls to be translated into much attention to the formation of the
" See, for example, OT 5; PI 32; PDV 66; Directiues (1993) 29-32.
" Cereda, AGC 404 67.
'u CongTegation for the Clergy, The Gift ofthe PriestlyVocation: Ratio Fundamentalis
Institutionis Sacerdotalis (Rome 2016) Introduction section 3.

1.8 Page 8

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 39
formation teams at all levels, from the world and provincial to the
local.
This might be the place to draw attention again to the ex-
panding meaning of community for us. The Salesian religious
community is part of the animating nucleus of the educatiue-
pastoral community and of all those who share the mission of Don
Bosco, members of the Salesian Family as well as lay mission
partners. This conviction and the associated praxis has not en-
tered in the same way in different parts of the congregation - and
so it becomes even more urgent to work out and integrate it into
the praxis of formation, building up convictions, processing pas-
toral-educative experiences of collaboration, and programming
moments of formation together with our lay mission partners.
We might insist here also on the specificity that consecrated
life brings to our vocation. Too long we have been content to think
of formation to priesthood and to religious life as "quite similar."
Instead, the diocesan priesthood and the religious priesthood are
two different states of life within the Church. "Unlike the or-
dained ministry that has an institutional consistency that tran-
scends the person of the minister, so that it remains valid even if
the minister is unworthy, consecrated life consists entirely in the
quality of the loving response of those who iive it."'6 This differ-
ence has a decisive impact on how the process of conformation to
Christ and growth in holiness are realized in each vocation."
Neglect of what is typical of our primary identity as religious leads
to a genericism in formation and in the living out of our consecra-
tion that is, unfortunately, all too common. One of the great tasks
before us is to work out in practical terms how to be formation
guides for Salesian religious who are also priests.
'" Andrea Bozzolo, "Salesiano prete e salesiano coadiutore. Spunti per un'interpretazione
teologica," Sapientiam dedit illi. Studi su don Bosco e sul carisma salesiano (Rome, 2015)
335.

1.9 Page 9

▲back to top
40 ACTS oF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
3. Fractical considerations regarding the formation of
formation guides
u) At the very outset, we need to acknowledge the great diversi-
ty, as far as initial formation is concerned, in the different regions of
the Congregation. We have, for example, many "classical" formation
houses, but there is also a growingnumber of smaller houses that of-
ten bring together different phases of formation under one roof.
With shrinking numbers and resources, several regions are, at the
present moment, engaged in a serious if difficult re-organization of
their formation houses. In this context, there is often the fear, on the
part of provinces, of "being left with no formation houses." This last
is, of course, not quite true, because almost every province has its
own prenovitiate, and then all provinces have the phase of practical
training - a most important formation phase that cannot be forgot-
ten or overlooked. Besides, since formation is something that lasts
all our lives, every local director is a formator and custodian of the
charism. No province, therefore, can absolve itself of the need to pre-
pare formators. It is in this light that we have recently asked all
provinces to draw up a qualification plan to prepare confreres in the
key areas touching our charism and for the task of formation.
b) There is need to prornote a conviction regarding the forma-
tion of formation guides. Such formation has to become a mental-
ity, a culture, if it is to become systernatic. Certainly provincials
and formation delegates have a key role to play. But not less im-
portant is the conviction on the part of those entrusted with the
work of formation - and here, as we have said before, we must not
forget directors of comrnunities with practical trainees and, in-
deed, all directors of local communities.
c) Basic components. If formation guides are to help forrnees
put on Christ, they themselves need to become true images of
Christ. And if our specific vocation in the Church is to follow
Christ as Salesian consecrated priests and brothers, guides will
need to take care of their own growth as human beings into
Christ, in the way of Don Bosco, and as consecrated persons.

1.10 Page 10

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 41
In such formation of formation guides we could distinguish
three areas: contents, skills, and the person ofthe guide.
As far as contents are concerned, we could presume that most
formation guides have a sound basic philosophical and theological
formation, but we will need to insist on a good grounding in the
Salesian charism. Further, the UPS offers various possibilities for
a sound theoretical and methodological basis along with the learn-
ing of useful methods and skills, both in the Faculty of the Sci-
ences of Education and of Theology.
As far as skills and capacities are concerned, we have good
courses, both in our own University and elsewhere. Courses that
help develop and hone skills in listening, feedback, accompani-
ment, etc. are precious for a formation guide.
d) But above all we need attention to tt,e person of the forma-
tion guide. The Directiues of 1993 calls for a time "of prolonged
formation and of radical review of formational topics" and adds:
The scope of such periods of formation is /o fauor an accurate
examination of the uery personality of the educator, his minis-
terial commitment, and his way of understanding and living
his own mission of formation.
Periods of formation of this kind should include well chosen
and appropriately planned courses, be it in the field of ecclesi-
astical or of the human sciences, joined with practical exercis-
es carried out with the help of a superuisor and submitted to
him for attentiue criti.cal reuiew. In this way the educator will
be able to become more actively conscious of his own capacities
and attitudes, accept more serenely his own limits, and update
and improve the criteria which inspire his action.
In programs of continuing formation of this magnittde, pro-
longed periods of spiritual renewal should be planned (Ignat-
ian months, spiritual exercises, times of solitude) to allow the
educator to review his own mission in its most profound spiri-
tual and theological connections and roots.'?
" Congregation for Catholic Education, Directiues concerning the Preparation of
Sem.inary Educators (1993) 70-77.

2 Pages 11-20

▲back to top

2.1 Page 11

▲back to top
42 ACT'S OF HE GENERAL COUNCIL
We have several precious elements here: a processing of the
experience of the personal, pastoral and formation experience of
the formation guide; supervised practical exercises; periods of spir-
itual renewal.
We might insist especially on the area of emotional and psy-
chological growth. Formation guides need to learn to recognize
and handle their emotions, by working through their own prob-
lems, inconsistencies, self-defeating behaviours and immature sex-
ual tendencies, while at the same time enhancing their strengths
and competencies.
There are few things so life-giving as contact with a forma-
tion guide who is healthy and free. Once again here we have the
dynamic of beauty: "Modern man listens more willingly to wit-
nesses than to teachers, and ifhe does listen to teachers, it is be-
cause they are witnesses," said Blessed Paul VI (EN 41). On the
other hand, a guide who is not well integrated can do immense
harm to formees. Favouritism, possessiveness, rivalry, taking re-
venge, seeking sexual favours can leave scars in formees that can
last a iifetime.ls It might be a good exercise for formation guides
to monitor themselves against the fifteen illnesses listed by Pope
Francis to the Roman Curia in his Christmas Message of 20L4."
As guides become healthy, integrated and free persons, they will
become "bridges not obstacles" (PDV 43) for formees on their
journey to God.
Our own tradition has always insisted upon adequale pastoral
experience (C 104), and this is wonderful, provided the formation
guide has been helped to process these experiences, to "learn by
experience the meaning of the Salesian vocation." (C 98) Mission,
as Fr Chavez said, is the "casa" and the "causa" of formation.
's See Synod of Bishops, XV Ordinary General Assembly, Young People, the Faith and
Vocational Discernment: Preparatory Document (2017) IIl.2: People of Reference.
" Francis, "The Roman Curia and the Body of Christ," Presentation of the Christmas
Greetings to the Roman C:uria, 22 December 2014, at https://w2.vatican.valcontent/
francesco/en/soeeches/2014/december/documents/papa-francesco-20141222-curia-romana.
html (19.06.17).

2.2 Page 12

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 43
'Immersed in the world and in the cares of the pastoral life,
the Salesian learns to meet God through those to whom he is
sent' (C 95). Formation consists fundamentally and primarily
in this learning process. The goal is to meet God in the life we
are living as we respond to the call.... Wherever an awareness
of our doing in God's sight whatever He has entrusted to us is
lacking, there cannot be any real formation no matter how
much one studies nor however many years are spent in the so-
called 'houses and stages of formation'.'o
It is easy to see that the most difficult and risky component in
the formation of the formator is his own personal growth, and
here formators need to find in themselves the willingness to en-
gage and invest in such growth.
e) Formation guides need to master the Preuentiue System as a
pedagogy of freedom. Especially in cultures where hierarchy and
authority are important, formation teams will need to become
aware of their operative model of formation and take steps to
change, so that formation might truly touch the heart rather than
merely (and often only temporarily) influence behaviour.
In this context, the period of practical training - which, from
the Salesian point of view is the most characteristic phase of initial
formation (FSDB 428) - is equally an extremely significant mo-
ment in the specific if remote preparation of formation guides. One
who has not sufficiently attained the objectives of this phase, espe-
cially in terms of knowledge and practice of the Preventive System
(C 115), will hardly be able to be a good Salesian formation guide.
One of the elements in the formation of formation guides will
therefore be a processing of one's own experience of practical
training, revisiting the ouerall assessment called for by FSDB 444
("At the end of practical training, there should be an ouerall as-
sessment of the whole experience carried out by the Prouincial, the
community and the confrere himself.") It would help, obviously, if
this assessment were to be written and archived - and here is
'o Ch6vez, "Vocation and Formation," AGC 416 27

2.3 Page 13

▲back to top
44 Acrs oF THE GENERAL couNClL
something the various provincial and regional formation commis-
sions can look into. Such an assessment would be the first eiement
to be taken into consideration in the selection of formation guides.
Every attempt to "fast track" practical training - either in the
hurry to "be ordained" or else to "privilege" some particularly
brilliant confrere - is to be strenuousiy resisted.
Clearly, also, the directors of communities blessed with practi-
cal trainees are formation guides of the very first category and all
that we have been saying must be applied without fail to them:
they need to be formation guides who have been prepared for their
task. Provincials have a sacred responsibility in this regard, as al-
so to ensure that the communities receiving practical trainees are
themselves sane and healthy formation environments.
Ail this applies analogously also to the qu.inquennium, both for
priests and for Brothers.
0 In our increasingly multicultural societies and communi-
ties, formation guides need to process their own attitudes to cul-
tural differences, so as to be able to promote formation to inter-
culturality. As Nezo Wine in New Wineskins says: "The goai of con-
secrated life cannot be that of maintaining itself as a permanent
state in the different cultures it encounters, but that of maintain-
ing permanently the evangeiical conversion at the heart of the
progressive construction of a new intercultural human reality-.""
Interprovincial or international structures for the formation of
candidates call for formators who are truly convinced that
'Christianity does not have simply one cultural expression, but
rather, "remaining completely true to itself, with unswerving
fidelity to the proclamation of the Gospel and the tradition of
the Church, it will also reflect the different faces of the cul-
tures and people in which it is received and takes root".' This
involves the capacity and the humility to not impose a single
cultural system but to fecundate every culture with the seed of
" Congregation for Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life, New Wine in
New Wineskins Q0l7) 40.

2.4 Page 14

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECNVES 45
the Gospel and of one's charismatic tradition, carefully avoid-
ing 'a needless hallowing of our own culture.' (New Wine 37)
But the concrete way passes also through the person of the
forrnator: when a formator has a certain inner strength, and if he
has taken the trouble to process his reactions to the different and
to the other, he will be in possession of a bridge to the experience
ofthe other.
g) Given that we - and especially our younger confreres - live
in a new media age, where technology is visibly creating and gen-
erating culture, formation guides need to be able to understand
and relate to formees who are citizens of the digital continent.
h) The "rentote preparation" of Salesian formators, we could
say, consists of the whole of initial formation, especially a good ex-
perience of practical training, and 2-3 years of accompanied pas-
toral experience during the quinquennium. The minimum package
for the "proximate preparation," tnstead, could consist of (1) a
short cowrse touching the person. of the formator; (2) a short course
on Salesian matters, including the processing of one's pastoral-ed-
ucatiue experience during practical training and the quinquenni'
um, and a working hnowledge of the FSDB; and (3) a short course
for the acquisition of basic skills such, as listening, feedback, and
processing. For directors, nouice masters and prenouice directors,
we could add (4) a serious course preparing the person for the min'
istry of spiritual accompaniment.
While the formation of formators does not necessarily involve
licentiate or doctorate, the licentiates in formation of formators in
the Faculties of the Sciences of Education and of Theolog, remain
valid offerings. Highly appreciated by an increasing number of
religious as well as diocesan clerry is the semester-long course at
the UPS for the ongoing formation of formators.
i) As far as Salesianlly is concerned, we have the shorter cours-
es in our various centres for ongoing formation (Quito, Paranaque
- Manila, Berkeley, Bangalore), and the more substantial courses at
the UPS in the Faculty of Theologr.

2.5 Page 15

▲back to top
46 ACTS oF THE GENERAL coUNcIL
While all formation guides require at least a short course in
Salesianity, we must insist that every province would do well to
prepare one or two experts in Salesianity with a licentiate or doc-
torate from the UPS.
j) The formation of spiritual guides is one of the great tasks
before the congregation, as the Rector Major says in his Strenna
for 2018: "Let us cultivate the art of listening and of accompani-
ment,"22 very much in line with the journey of the Church towards
the synod on "Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discern-
ment." The first and indispensable element in such formation is
the formation guide's own access to spiritual direction." A practi-
cal course on spiritual accompaniment will enhance what one has
already learnt personally in this way. Besides the opportunities
available in various places in the Church, and also some within
the congregation (Spain, Quito, Bangalore), we also intend to set
up a Salesian School of Accompaniment2' as one of the fruits of
the seminar on Salesian spiritual accompaniment jointly conduct-
ed by the sectors of Youth Ministry and Formation.
k) Besides the courses mentioned above, there are also various
initiatives for the ongoing formation of formation guides at the
provincial, regional and world levels. Useful as they are, however,
they cannot be considered to substitute or obviate the need for an
initial formation of formation guides (see PDV 66).
l) I invite provincial and regional formation commissions to
offer us reflections and suggestions on various elements in the
present guidelines, as, for example, (1) how to form Salesian reli-
gious who are also priests, (2) how the pastoral experience ofprac-
tical training and of the quinquennium might become an integral
element in the preparation of formation guides, (3) how to make
the shared mission with the laity and with the Salesian Family,
" rGgel Fern6ndez Artime, "'Sir, give me this water' (Jn 4,15). Let us cultivate the art
oflistening and ofaccompaniment. Presentation ofthe Strenna 2018," Rome, 16 July 2017.
'3 Congregation for the Clerry, Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests (new ed.
2013) 73.
'n See Cereda AGC 404 77-81 (section 4).

2.6 Page 16

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 47
and especially the educative-pastoral community, an integral ele-
ment in initial formation.
m) Finally, we can expect a change of policy: no appointment
of formation guides without prior and specific formation; a modi-
fication of the forms for the appointment of rectors (especially of
formation communities) and novice masters (F19 and F20) in this
sense; and the introduction of a new form for the appointment of
those in charge ofprenovices.
*x*
When the newly ordained John Bosco went to Fr Cafasso to
seek his advice about the options at hand for his priestly ministry
(assistant Parish Priest at Castelnuovo, chaplain at Murialdo, tu-
tor for the children of a noble family in Genoa), Fr Cafasso told
him - but at the end of a set of encounters that I find remarkable
for their attention to inner experience - to set aside these offers
and come to the Convitto for three more years of formation. These
years turned out to be crucial: they made Don Bosco what he was,
they were the ground and basis of all that he did.
To invest in formation for our Congregation is the holiest and
most effective way to invest our resources, and it is deeply imbed-
ded in our charism. This is the message we offer to the world and
to the Church when we dedicate our lives and our resources to
the formation of the young. This is what we do when we invest in
the formation of those who will take care of the new generations
of Salesians.
"The good that we are doing - we will never know how much
good it is doing." These words of our Father become even more
significant when the good in question is the accompaniment of
an aspirant, a prenovice, a novice, a young confrere. An unlimited
potential is here entrusted to us. We cannot but give to it the best
of ourselves as confreres, provinces, congregation.