AGC431_Livng_the_priesthood


AGC431_Livng_the_priesthood

1 Pages 1-10

▲back to top

1.1 Page 1

▲back to top
2.  GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES
2.1  LIVING THE PRIESTHOOD AS SALESIANS
Fr Ivo COELHO
General Councillor for Formation
After having dedicated a letter to the topic of the Salesian
Brother – “Renewed Attention to the Salesian Brother” (AGC
424) – it is only right to give attention also to the Salesian Priest.
We have not forgotten that the very first area of attention in
the formation section of the plan of the Rector Major and his
council for 2014-2020 was “to promote in the Congregation a
better understanding of the Salesian consecrated vocation in its
two forms” by “examining more deeply topics such as: the con-
secrated life, the Salesian priest, and the Salesian Brother.”
(AGC 419 52) This was a way of responding to the fact that GC27
invited us to explore our charismatic identity more deeply and to
become aware of our vocation to faithfully live out Don Bosco’s
apostolic project, by focusing attention on four thematic areas:
“living our Salesian consecrated vocation in the grace of unity
and joy since this vocation is God’s gift and a personal project of
life; having a strong spiritual experience, taking on the way of
being and acting of the obedient, poor and chaste Jesus and be-
coming seekers of God; building fraternity in our communities of
life and action; dedicating ourselves generously to the mission,
walking with the young to give hope to the world.” (GC27 p. 89)
GC26 itself had called Salesians “to give priority and visibility to
the unity of our apostolic consecration, even though it takes two
different forms,” and to “understand more deeply the original
Salesian contribution to the ordained ministry and to make
greater efforts to further promote the vocation of the Salesian
brother.” (GC26 55)
We present these reflections and orientations on the Salesian
Priest on the eve of GC28, in the hope that they might be a con-
tribution to the process of reflection on the great question of

1.2 Page 2

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 55
the Chapter: “What kind of Salesians for the young people of
today?”
1. Some general considerations
Our Salesian consecrated vocation is a gift
We begin by recognizing that our vocation is a gift of God.
Fr Juan Vecchi, 8th successor of Don Bosco, reminded us that ‘gift’
is a fundamental category for understanding the true nature of
consecrated life. This is a word that occurs very frequently in Vita
Consecrata “with reference to the totality of the consecrated life,
to each of its historic manifestations or charisms, and to many of
its components or particular aspects: the vows, the community,
and the service of charity.” (AGC 357 8-9) The many saints who
have lived their religious consecration as priests, or who were
priest-founders of religious families, are themselves wonderful
gifts to the Church: Basil, Benedict, Dominic, Ignatius, Francis
Xavier, John of the Cross, Joseph Vaz, Francis de Sales, Vincent
de Paul, Don Bosco, Joseph Cottolengo, to name a few. In our own
day we have been blessed with Pope Francis who brings the gift of
his religious priesthood to the Church.
Our Salesian consecrated vocation is a gift from God to us, to
young people, to the Church, to the world. We give thanks for it
and rejoice in its beauty.
Our religious consecration is our core identity in the Church
Our religious consecration is our basic identity in the Church.
Canon Law presents the People of God as consisting of the Chris-
tian Faithful, the Hierarchy, and the Institutes of Consecrated
Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. As religious, all of us, Salesian
Priests and Salesian Brothers, are consecrated persons among the
People of God. Belonging to the Institutes of Consecrated Life is

1.3 Page 3

▲back to top
56 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
the source of our vocation and mission. It is where the Church
places us and where it wants us to flourish.
Strangely, there has not been sufficient attention in the
Church to the theme of the religious priesthood. Fr Egidio Vi-
ganò, 7th successor of Don Bosco, twice comments on this fact, the
first time in his 1991 letter, “The Priest of the year 2000: A theme
we have very much at heart” (AGC 335) after the Synod on For-
mation to the Priesthood, and then again in 1995, in “The Synod
on Consecrated Life” (AGC 351). “It is unfortunate,” he says,
“that no mention was made in the Synod of the delicate and com-
plex problems associated with the religious-priest. Maybe the
time is not yet ripe, and there is need for prior doctrinal research
at a deeper level.”1 The situation does not seem to have changed
today. The new Ratio of the Church, The Gift of the Priestly Voca-
tion (2016) does not contain any special consideration of the reli-
gious priest – despite the fact that in 2016 there were 134,495 re-
ligious priests, making up 32.3% or almost one-third of the total
number of priests in the Catholic Church.
For us, however, it is urgent to reflect on the identity of the
Salesian who is a priest. A healthy and robust identity brings joy
and unity to life and gives a sound direction to apostolic work. In
this letter we will try to highlight the roots of the Salesian priest-
hood in our one consecrated vocation, drawing on a renewed un-
derstanding of the religious life as well as of the priesthood. Fra-
ternal life, the evangelical counsels and the mission are not ele-
ments that exist alongside the ministry of Salesian Priests. They
are rather the fundamental matrix and the vital root of our voca-
tion. In the words of our Ratio: “The Salesian priest [or deacon]
combines in himself the gifts of Salesian consecration and those
of the pastoral ministry, but in such a way that his particular
manner of being a priest and exercising his ministry stems from
his Salesian consecration.” (FSDB 39)
1 AGC 351 20.

1.4 Page 4

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 57
Priests and Brothers all share in the priesthood of Christ
Theological reflection in the post-conciliar period is marked
by an intense awareness of the link between the ministerial
priesthood and the common priesthood of the faithful. As C 2 re-
minds us, we are a community of the baptized. All of us, Priests
and Brothers, share in the priesthood of Christ.
The priesthood of Christ is unique and absolutely original. In
the other religions, and even in Judaism, the priest belongs to the
sphere of the sacred. In the New Testament, instead, far from be-
ing a distinct religious expression of the sacred, the priesthood of
Jesus stems directly from his life and the saving events of his
Passover, and so touches the whole of human reality. Jesus’ sacri-
fice is a sacrifice of obedience: it consists in offering himself com-
pletely and entirely to the Father, up to the final surrender on the
cross. His life and death transform our resistance and the evil we
carry within, opening the way to repentance and pardon, to the
new life of Zacchaeus, Peter and Mary of Magdala, to the life of
the resurrection. “For by a single offering he has perfected for all
time those who are sanctified.” (Heb 10:14)
Thus, for us, there is only one priest and one sacrifice – de-
spite the fact that, from the Jewish point of view, Jesus was a lay-
man, and that his sacrifice took place not in the Temple but on
Calvary and in a context that was not ‘sacred.’ “Such a way of be-
ing high priest is diametrically opposed to the old concept: instead
of ritual separation, we find an existential solidarity; instead of
being raised up above others, we find an extreme abasement; in-
stead of a prohibition of every contact with death, we find the call
to accept suffering and death.”2
All those baptized into Christ are, in fact, called to unite
themselves with him in offering their bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God. (Rom 12:1) This is the ‘common
2 ALBERT VANHOYE, “La novità del sacerdozio di Cristo,” La Civiltà Cattolica
no. 3541, no. 1 (1998) 16-27.

1.5 Page 5

▲back to top
58 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
priesthood’ of the faithful, and all of us, Priests and Brothers,
share in this priesthood. This common priesthood based on our
baptism is “the highest expression of human dignity... the histor-
ical way which makes it possible to feel involved in redemption
and salvation.” (AGC 335 19) There is no dignity higher than that
conferred on us by baptism. For those of us who are accustomed to
speak of the priest as an alter Christus, these words of St John
Paul II might be a salutary surprise:
It was usual to say, as early as the era of the Fathers, “Christianus alter
Christus” (“The Christian is another Christ”), meaning by this to
emphasize the dignity of the baptized and his vocation, through Christ,
to holiness... Saint Augustine... often repeated: “Vobis sum episcopus,
vobiscum christianus” (“For you I am a bishop, with you I am a Christ-
ian”). On further reflection, christianus has far greater significance
than episcopus, even if the subject is the Bishop of Rome.3
The ministerial priest is ordained to serve
The ministerial priesthood is totally at the service of the com-
mon priesthood of the faithful. Its only aim is to help the disciples
of Christ share in his priesthood, overcome evil by love and for-
giveness, and offer themselves totally to the Father. (AGC 335
18-23) The priest is called to have the heart of the Good Shep-
herd, and to have “an awareness and internal feeling that bind
him inseparably” to those to whom he is sent. Pastoral charity
leads to a constant immersion in the life of the people of God in
the ongoing self-donation of service.4
“This pastoral charity,” Vatican Council II reminds us, “flows
mainly from the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is thus the centre
and root of the whole priestly life.” (PO 14) If in the Eucharist all
3 JOHN PAUL II, “‘The Pope’: A Scandal and a Mystery,” Crossing the Thresh-
old of Hope, (Rome 1994). See http: //serony.com/ken/books-papers/crossing-the-
threshold-of-hope/ (31.10.2019).
4 S. DIANICH, Teología del ministerio ordenado. Una interpretación eclesiológ-
ica (Madrid: Ed. Paulinas, 1988) 324.

1.6 Page 6

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 59
baptized persons are called to unite themselves with the offering
that Jesus made of himself to the Father, with all the more reason
those called to the ministerial priesthood are called to apply to
themselves “the action that takes place on the altar of sacrifice”
(PO 14), taking and offering themselves to the Father, breaking
and giving themselves to their brothers and sisters, turning their
lives into a Eucharist.
Pastoral charity is not a new element that comes in after
ordination, identified with peculiar ‘pastoral activities’ reserved
to the priest, but is, instead, at the very root of the vocation of
Salesians who are priests. Pastoral charity is at the centre of our
spirit, the driving force and motivation behind all we are and do:
Under the inspiration of God, Don Bosco lived and handed on to us an
original style of life and action: the Salesian spirit.
It is summed up and centred in pastoral charity, characterized by that
youthful dynamism which was revealed so strongly in our Founder and
at the beginnings of our Society. It is an apostolic impetus that makes us
seek souls and serve God alone. (C 10)
The Salesian Priest is a man who is driven by charity and
ordained to serve. We can understand, therefore, why clericalism
can have no place in his life. Fr Egidio Viganò anticipates in a
surprising way Pope Francis’ warnings against clericalism:
If in fact there be a real harmful crust to be removed in an ordained
ministry, it is that of a ‘clericalist’ mode of action... which make the
priest act like a boss among the People of God; such an attitude has noth-
ing in common with Christ the Good Shepherd, who is the ‘Servant of
Yahweh.’ A priest behaving in this way would show very clearly that he
had not understood the priesthood of the New Covenant. (AGC 335 21)
We would do well to accept Pope Francis’ beautiful invitation
to meditate on “the incomparable grandeur of the gift” of the
priesthood and our own littleness:
The incomparable grandeur of the gift granted us for the ministry sets
us among the least of men. The priest is the poorest of men – yes, the
poorest of men – unless Jesus enriches him by his poverty, the most
useless of servants unless Jesus calls him his friend, the most ignorant

1.7 Page 7

▲back to top
60 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
of men unless Jesus patiently teaches him as he did Peter, the frailest of
Christians unless the Good Shepherd strengthens him in the midst of
the flock.
Drawing a contrast between the annunciation to Zechariah in
the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple and the annunciation
to Mary in an unknown village of conflict-ridden Galilee, the Pope
makes a fatherly appeal to priests:
None of us was called to an important post, none of us. At times, with-
out wanting it, and with no moral fault, we get used to identifying our
daily activity as priests, religious, consecrated persons, laypersons, cat-
echists, with certain rituals, with meetings and conversations, where
our presence in those meetings, at the table or in the hall is “hierarchi-
cal”. Then we are more like Zechariah than like Mary.
The Pope invites priests to return to Nazareth, “to step away
from important and solemn places, and return to the places from
which we were called, where it was clear that the initiative and
the power was from God.” The secret is to “return to Nazareth”
in order to renew ourselves as pastors who are at the same time
disciples and missionaries. The need is to pray constantly with
the prayer of our Mother: “I am a priest because the Lord has re-
garded my littleness (cf. Lk 1:48).”5
2. The Salesian who is a Priest
We have been speaking about the baptismal priesthood as
our highest dignity (even in the case of the bishop of Rome!), and
how the ministerial priesthood is at the service of that baptismal
priesthood. The Salesian who is a priest assumes completely the
ministerial priesthood and lives it from within his Salesian con-
secration.
5 Pope FRANCIS, Meeting with the bishops, priests, men and women religious,
consecrated persons, seminarians, catechists and animators, Apostolic journey to
Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius, 5 September 2019: see http: //w2.vatican.
va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2019/september/documents/papa-francesco_
20190905_consacrati-mozambico.html (02.11.2019).

1.8 Page 8

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 61
We find the same basic truth about our identity expressed in
art. 3 of our Constitutions that is like a password for the entire
constitutional text: “Our mission sets the tenor of our whole life;
it specifies the task we have in the Church and our place among
other religious families.” It is not what we do in the great variety
of our works that defines the missionary dimension of our life,
but rather our very existence as consecrated Salesians. Indeed,
“we are a mission.” As Pope Francis says, “[this] is something
I cannot uproot from my being without destroying my very self.
I am a mission on this earth; that is the reason why I am here in
this world. We have to regard ourselves as sealed, even branded,
by this mission of bringing light, blessing, enlivening, raising up,
healing and freeing.” (EG 273) If this is true for every Christian,
it is definitely so for those called to make their baptismal conse-
cration the raison d’être of their life through their religious and
priestly consecration.
If the mission I inherited with Don Bosco’s charism does not
“set the tenor” of my whole life, I am neither a Salesian nor a
priest, because the only priesthood that the Church recognizes in
me when I am chosen to be ordained is the one spelled out in our
Constitutions. Even the rite of ordination gives expression to this:
it is the Congregation represented by the Provincial that guaran-
tees the ‘credentials’ of the one to be ordained, and it is to the
Provincial and Bishop together – to the Church and the Congre-
gation at once – that obedience is promised. It is in fact always and
only in the authority of the Church and the Congregation that the
potestas of a Salesian Priest find its source and justification.6
6 In Canon Law, the term used to express what is conferred in ordination
(diaconal, priestly, episcopal) is potestas, which connects the authority in the
Church to its source, which is ultimately the salvific mission of Christ. The Eng-
lish translation of potestas as power does not convey this important nuance. The
potestas conferred in ordination is not a private power that I can exercise when and
how I want, and that I can freely invest as if it were a personal patrimony, now in
a religious congregation and now in some diocese, when I consider that more con-
venient. It is rather what the Church entrusts to me according to its mind, which
in our case is represented in the Constitutions that the Church itself has approved.

1.9 Page 9

▲back to top
62 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
As we will see, the mission is never generic. It is exercised in
a specific area and in an original manner, with roots coming from
above, as we profess in the first article of the Constitutions:
With a feeling of humble gratitude we believe that the Society of St Fran-
cis de Sales came into being not as a merely human venture but by the
initiative of God. Through the motherly intervention of Mary, the Holy
Spirit raised up St John Bosco to contribute to the salvation of youth,
‘that part of human society which is so exposed and yet so rich in
promise’. The Spirit formed within him the heart of a father and teacher,
capable of total self-giving: ‘I have promised God that I would give of
myself to my last breath for my poor boys’.
Let us therefore put down a few points about the identity-
mission of the Salesian Priest, without pretending to be either
systematic or exhaustive.7
2.1. The community
As the new Ratio of the Church insists, the community is
essential to the life of a priest, both in the stages of his prepara-
tion (discipleship, configuration, vocational synthesis) and in the
ministry lived in an attitude of lifelong formation.8 Fraternal life
in community is essential to human and spiritual maturity, to
growth in love. We grow as human beings only through bonds of
love. Our brothers and sisters grow in their capacity to love and
be loved in the bosom of the family; we, Salesian Priests and Sale-
sian Brothers, do this in the bosom of the religious community
and along with lay people in the educative and pastoral commu-
nity.
7 Many of these points may be found in AGC 335. After noting that the Synod
on Priestly Formation had not dealt with the theme of the religious priesthood,
Fr Viganò went on to say that in the Congregation, instead, we had already elab-
orated some reflections, especially when we reflected on the pastoral quality of our
mission – in a reference probably to GC23 on Education to the Faith (See AGC 335
23-32).
8 CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY, The Gift of the Priestly Vocation (2016) 51.

1.10 Page 10

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 63
As a religious, the ministry of the Salesian Priest is always
mediated by the community. The title of C 44 is explicit – “The
mission is given to the community”:
The apostolic mandate which the Church entrusts to us is taken up and
put into effect in the first place by the provincial and local communities.
The members have complementary functions and each one of their
tasks is important. They are aware that pastoral objectives are achieved
through unity and joint brotherly responsibility.
For the Salesian Priest, this means that apostolic individualism
has no place: his apostolic choices must be mediated by the com-
munity, they cannot be merely his individual choices according to
his likes, dislikes or personal judgement.
We must keep in mind, further, that the Salesian religious com-
munity is characterized by an essential complementarity between
Priest Salesians and Brother Salesians:
The significant and complementary presence of clerical and lay Sale-
sians in the community constitutes an essential element of its makeup
and of its apostolic completeness. (C 45)
“The Salesian who is a priest should feel a spontaneous bond
of communion with the Brother in virtue of their common Sale-
sian vocation, and the lay Salesian should feel the same towards
his priest-confrere. Our vocation is essentially a community voca-
tion; hence there must be an effective communion that goes deep-
er than mere friendship between persons.”9
The priestly dimension is not exclusive to the priest confreres
and the lay dimension does not pertain solely to the Brothers.
The Salesian community is not an artificial aggregation of two
kinds of members who make an effort to live together. Both di-
mensions are present in the heart of each confrere, highlighted in
different ways but intimately connected all the same, so that the
Priest cultivates also the lay dimension of the common mission,
while the Brother cultivates also the priestly dimension of that
9 AGC 335 26.

2 Pages 11-20

▲back to top

2.1 Page 11

▲back to top
64 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
mission. “Without the lay dimension we should lose the positive
aspect of a healthy secularity characteristic of our choice of edu-
cational methods, and without the priestly dimension we should
run the risk of losing the pastoral quality of the whole plan. By
upsetting the complementary balance we could fall on the one
hand into a kind of pragmatic social activism, and on the other in-
to a too generic kind of pastoral commitment that would no
longer be the genuine mission of Don Bosco.”10
Fr Viganò points out, of course, that the intensity of pastoral
charity and the degree of holiness depend neither on the ordained
ministry nor on the various services that we provide in our shared
apostolic responsibility, but only on the interior vitality of the
common priesthood, or, in other words, on the life of faith, hope
and charity. He goes on to say something that still sounds sur-
prising:
The life of grace (i.e. of pastoral charity), says St Thomas Aquinas, has a
value which is of itself greater than all created things. We shall be judged
on the basis of love: in the heavenly Jerusalem there will be no further
need for the Bible, for bishops and priests, for the magisterium, for the
sacraments, for coordination, or for the great many mutual services
which are indispensable in our history. And so already, in the ecclesial
community, the order of institutional, hierarchical and operational real-
ities take second place (if we may put it that way; remember where the
chapter on the People of God is placed in Lumen Gentium!) to the Mys-
tery they serve and reveal to those who live the faith. Holiness is rooted
in the degree of perception and communion with the life of the Trinity.
We see the intensity of holiness reflected in Mary, and ministerial
authenticity in Peter. Both were very holy people: but they show us very
clearly that the degree of holiness is not to be identified with hierarchical
and ministerial degree.11
The ministerial priesthood is not so much a special privilege
as a service that is destined to cease, and that already now takes
second place. Its glory consists in putting itself at the service of
10 AGC 335 27. See also AGC 424 66-68: “Renewed Attention to the Salesian
Brother.”
11 AGC 335 28. See also Catechism of the Catholic Church 773.

2.2 Page 12

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 65
the people of God so that all – priests included – might reach the
“dizzying heights” of holiness.
2.2. The charism
As a Salesian, the priest confrere’s ministry is always mediat-
ed by his charism. That is the reason behind Fr Viganò’s sugges-
tion that we use the terms Priest-Salesian and Brother-Salesian,
where ‘Salesian’ is understood as a noun.12 The Salesian charism
colours everything.
As a way of following Christ, the religious priesthood is very
different from the diocesan priesthood. For the diocesan priest
there is a clear ministry into which he pours out his life. The re-
ligious priest, instead, finds his rule of life in a founder and his
original way of following Christ. Thus the Priest Salesian’s exis-
tence is completely marked by the charism originated by Don
Bosco.13 Don Bosco did not think primarily in terms of the kind of
ministry he would have in the Church, like most young seminar-
ians who look forward to being parish priests. He did not feel that
he was called to carry out a ministry that already existed; he felt,
rather, that he was called to concretize in works and institutions
the new pedagogy of grace that was his way of being present
among young people.14
12 See AGC 335 24-25. We have, however, made the option to retain the com-
mon English usage ‘Salesian Priest’ and ‘Salesian Brother,’ while also sometimes
resorting to ‘Priest Salesian’ and ‘Brother Salesian,’ as also to the circumlocution
‘the Salesian who is a priest.’
13 See A. BOZZOLO, “Salesiano prete e salesiano coadiutore: spunti per un’in-
terpretazione teologica,” in Sapientiam dedit illi. Studi su don Bosco e sul caris-
ma salesiano, ed. A. BOZZOLO (Roma: LAS, 2015) 340 = A. BOZZOLO, The Dual
Form of the Salesian Vocation: A theological interpretation, tr. Michael Smyth
(Bengaluru: Kristu Jyoti Publications, 2019) 34.
14 See BOZZOLO, The Dual Form 36-37. See also ibid 41-42:
In this sense, Balthasar sees in Peter the physiognomy typical of the diocesan
clergy, while in John he finds the symbol of the religious clergy. In these two dis-
ciples, in fact, the relation between office and love follows a movement that goes

2.3 Page 13

▲back to top
66 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
The priesthood assumed within the horizon of a particular
charism gives the ministry of the religious priest a particular
place in the Church that is not the same as that of the diocesan
clergy. Thus, the diocesan priest is rooted in a particular territo-
ry, whereas the religious priest is characterized by a universal
openness. The former is entrusted with the ordinary pastoral care
of a parish and in a diocese, whereas the latter participates in a
special mission that runs across ecclesiastical regions.15 The dioce-
san priest is called to a general ministry to the whole of life, from
conception to death. The religious priest, instead, has a vocation
that is essentially a particular service to life codified in his
charism. Saints Benedict, Anthony of Padua, Camillus de Lellis,
and in more recent times, Maximilian Kolbe, Alberto Hurtado
and others have been such great gifts to the Church and the
world because of their faithfulness to the particular charism to
which they were called, and to which the gift of their priesthood
was perfectly attuned.
That is why a Priest Salesian’s apostolic choices are always
mediated by our educative-pastoral charism for young people,
most especially for those at risk. Sometimes I hear young Salesian
deacons or priests complaining that they have had no chance to
in opposite directions. Indeed, “the two were on opposite courses. Peter received
an office and love was then bestowed upon him for the sake of the office – that he
might accomplish it more perfectly. John was, from the beginning, the epitome of
love... He received the office by reason of his personal dedication.” [Balthasar, The
Christian State of Life (1983) 287]
It is significant, in this perspective, that while Peter was certainly married,
John remained a virgin: “As the virgin apostle he represented the ‘religious priest’
as opposed to Peter, the married ‘secular priest.’” [Ibid.] The presence of John at
the foot of the cross with Mary sheds further light on the special Marian bond of
consecrated life and of the priests who belong to it. In them, in fact, the objective
and ministerial priesthood seems to be associated in a special way with the sub-
jective and existential priesthood of the oblation of oneself in the way required by
the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. In religious priests, therefore, the
grace of ordination finds its place within the Marian space of obedience to God
proper to their Order, within a characteristic form of realization of the Johannine
love that Mary constantly teaches the great founders and their spiritual sons.
15 See BOZZOLO, The Dual Form 47-48.

2.4 Page 14

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 67
celebrate a baptism or preside at a marriage, and I ask myself:
How many times did Don Bosco celebrate a baptism or preside
at a marriage? And was he less of a priest for that? We have to
remember that Don Bosco impressed a very concrete peculiarity
on the figure of the Salesian Priest. Together with the Brother
Salesian, the Priest Salesian is invited to a mission immersed in
the world of the young and of the working classes, which calls for
commitments of an educative and pastoral kind and is addressed
to people who are often far from the Church or belonging to other
religions.
The apostolic consecration of the Salesian Priest pours into
the three munera of the ministerial priesthood.
Through the ministry of the Word (munus docendi) the
Salesian who is a priest brings the word of Christ into a wide
variety of situations and in different forms of preaching, help and
counsel, illuminating the experience of the young, giving direc-
tion to their lives, and accompanying them in the transformation
and transfiguration of their existence. (FSDB 39)
The charismatic identity emerges also in the fact that the
ministry of the Word adapts itself to a wide variety of situations
and contexts. The Salesian Priest is willing to use the most di-
verse approaches and knows how to meet the young at their pre-
sent stage of freedom. (C 38) Adapting ourselves to the young and
to their experience rather than expecting them to conform to our
own level is the first and basic form of Salesian inculturation.
The figure of the Catechist that used to exist in many of our
houses gives us an idea of the variety of forms in which the
munus docendi can be carried out within a Salesian setting. The
Catechist was usually a young and dynamic Salesian priest who
cared for all that concerned evangelization, catechesis and Chris-
tian life within a Salesian house. He was responsible for planning
the major liturgical celebrations and practices of piety, animating
groups focussed on apostolic interests (such as the missionary
group), and taking care of vocational animation and personal ac-

2.5 Page 15

▲back to top
68 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
companiment of the young. This figure from our recent past gives
us an idea of how the Salesian charism can merge harmoniously
with the munus docendi of the priestly ministry within the mis-
sion entrusted to the community.
It is significant also that the ministry of the Word comes first,
not that of sanctification. It would be a pity, therefore, if our
young Salesians were to emerge from specific formation with a
rather excessive and exclusive concern for the munus celebrandi
rather than with a passion for the first proclamation that finds
such strong insistence in Christus Vivit.16
The ministry of sanctification (munus sanctificandi) also
can have many expressions for us, but the most significant of
these consists in the service of initiation to life in Christ in litur-
gical prayer and the celebration of the sacraments, especially those
of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. (FSDB 39) The Salesian
Priest is a specialist in initiating the Garellis and the Magones of
today to the sacramental life. He learns to meet the young at their
level of freedom and in their experience of life (cf. C 38), striving to
use symbols and language that make sense to them.
The Synod on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Dis-
cernment makes a strong appeal to the Church to renew herself
in the ability to reach out to the new generations, natives of the
digital world and living within social networks, with all the risks
but also the immense potential that this involves. The Church
has the right to expect the sons of Don Bosco to be on the fore-
front in finding new ways of initiation to the mystery of Christ
within this new digital territory. “It is no longer merely a ques-
tion of ‘using’ instruments of communication, but of living in a
highly digitalized culture that has had a profound impact on ideas
of time and space, on our self-understanding, our understanding
of others and the world, and our ability to communicate, learn, be
informed and enter into relationship with others.” (CV 86) The
16 CV 214, citing EG 165.

2.6 Page 16

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 69
munus sanctificandi involves accompanying young people in their
encounter with Christ with a creativity that emerges from deep
within our own life of faith, hope and charity.
We must insist that the service is that of initiation, and not
merely one of administering the sacraments. Preparing young
Salesians for a passionate competence in this area is surely one
of the great challenges facing initial formation, because it calls
for far more than merely the insertion of a few extra courses on
catechesis or sacramental theology into an already packed cur-
riculum.
The sacrament of Reconciliation occupies a special place in
the life of a Salesian Priest, as it did in the life of Don Bosco. For
Don Bosco, this sacrament was perhaps the greatest means of ini-
tiation to the life of the Spirit, in which he invested so much time
and energy, reaching out to his youngsters one by one, finding
that “sensitive spot, that responsive chord in the boy’s heart”17
from which new life could begin to unfold. Such a spiritual art
was not improvised. We can think of the teenager John Bosco who
learnt to cherish the sacrament during the years at the Moglia
farm and then at the school of the good Calosso. We can look back
at the young priest preparing himself under the wise guidance of
Cafasso for the “confession examination” at the Convitto. We
could well ask ourselves about the place of this sacrament, first in
our own personal lives and then in our ministry. What kind of
Salesian priests are we if we hardly frequent this sacrament and
make ourselves available for this ministry?
17 The Biographical Memoirs, after quoting several examples of how this
sacrament was lived in the Oratory, summarize Don Bosco’s ‘reasoning’ as fol-
lows: “Just as there is no barren or sterile land which cannot be made fertile
through patient effort, so it is with a man's heart. No matter how barren and
restive at first, it will sooner or later bring forth good fruit. It will begin by loving
what is naturally good and ultimately advance to what is supernaturally good,
provided that a zealous spiritual director will cooperate with God's grace by prayer
and effort. Even the most callous boys have a soft spot. The first duty of the edu-
cator is to locate that sensitive spot, that responsive chord in the boy's heart, and
take advantage of it” (MB 5:236).

2.7 Page 17

▲back to top
70 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
The ministry of animating the Christian community
(munus pascendi) is totally geared to the service of unity in the
different communities – the religious community, the educative
and pastoral community, the Salesian Family, the Salesian Move-
ment, and society in general. (FSDB 39) Animation, with its root
in the Latin anima (soul), consists in giving life and unity. It can-
not, therefore, be a vertical affair. The ‘soul’ is that which is pre-
sent everywhere and works from ‘within.’ The Church invites
those entrusted with the munus pascendi to adopt a new way of
exercising authority, one which gives emphasis to the dynamic of
fraternity (NW 41).
It is interesting, in this regard, to see how authority is under-
stood in the renewed orientations for the Salesian Rector and
community approved by the Rector Major and his Council in June
2019:
The Preventive System fosters a style of leadership where trust and
confidence are fundamental in the relationship between educator and
young people, and equally between confreres within the Salesian com-
munity. The role of guidance and animation of those entrusted with a
‘service of authority’ is by no means diminished. On the contrary:
when such a role and service is lived according to the Salesian spirit it
acquires a greater authoritativeness, much more effective than what
can be achieved only by recourse to ‘cold rules’ (Letter from Rome
1884).
It is interesting to find the same appeal to ‘authoritativeness’ in the
final document of the Synod on Young People, the Faith and Vocational
Discernment: “To undertake a true journey of growth, young people
need authoritative adults. In its etymological meaning, auctoritas indi-
cates the capacity to promote growth; it does not express the idea of a
directive power, but of a real generative force” [Final Document, Synod
on Youth, 71].
To enable a Salesian to mature in this kind of auctoritas, first of all as
educator with the youth and then also in his service of leadership, much
attention and care has to be given to his human and spiritual growth.18
18 The Salesian Rector: A ministry for the life and governance of the local com-
munity (2019) 40.

2.8 Page 18

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 71
What is needed, therefore, is a very precise formation and
qualification: a great capacity for human relationships, vaccina-
tion against all forms of clericalism, a good theology of the laity,
experiences of formation together with our lay mission partners.
Fraternal life in community has to become a clear and indispens-
able element in vocational discernment and admission to perpet-
ual profession.
Let us insist on this point: no priest, much less the Salesian
Priest, can hold himself excused or find some way of diluting the
ministry of communion. Jesus died that he might gather into one
the scattered children of God. (Jn 11:52) Are there limits we can
put to those who are children of God? Does not “Who is my neigh-
bour” translate into “Who is my brother and my sister”? Can we
who are passionate followers of the Lord allow ourselves to put
limits to communion, excluding perhaps first Samaritans, and
then also Jews, and eventually people of other religions, first the
sinners and then also refugees and migrants and all those who
intrude into our comfort zones? We are called to be prophets of
fraternity, and there are no limits to fraternal communion: it ex-
pands in concentric circles to embrace the whole of God’s cre-
ation. It would be good to remember that Church communion is a
theologal reality before being a pastoral concern for us. “And he
put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things
to the Church, which is his Body, the fullness of him who fills all
in all (to pl¯ero¯ma tou ta panta en pasin pl¯eromenou).” (Eph 1:22-
23 NIV).
It is in the context of this love for the Body of Christ, in its to-
tality as well as in its concreteness as the community into which
we are inserted, that the service of authority finds its meaning
and justification. The ministry of Pope Francis is a constant re-
minder of the evangelical way of serving the servants of God en-
trusted to our care, and our new Rector’s Manual can provide
useful meditation and encouragement to those called to the ser-
vice of authority, which in several areas of the Congregation today
can often involve great personal self-sacrifice.

2.9 Page 19

▲back to top
72 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
2.3. The sign
As a consecrated person the Salesian Priest is an eschatological
sign, a living memorial of the way of life of Jesus. In his celibacy
for the sake of the Kingdom, he is a sign of the life of the resur-
rection that Jesus offers everyone.19 Don Bosco’s insistence on the
Last Things is perhaps a prophecy of this aspect of our identity
– that we are in the Church, in a special way for the young, signs
of the resurrection. The Salesian Priest is at all times and every-
where an educator-pastor, concerned about the total well being of
those to whom he is sent, with a totality defined by the mission
and person of the Lord.
So, like all consecrated persons, the life of a Salesian Priest
will be marked by a passion for the Lord, translated into a joy
that is often contagious (Salesian cheerfulness! see C 17) but al-
ways visible, “as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our
Saviour, Jesus Christ” (Order of the Mass, Communion Rite).
When he celebrates the sacraments, the priest confrere knows
he acts in persona Christi and that his actions have an efficacy (ex
opere operato) that is quite independent of his personal worthi-
ness. But he also knows that, like all Christians, he is called to
19 AGC 342 21-22: Consecrated life is an important part of the sacramental
nature of the Church. “In particular it openly proclaims the eschatological char-
acter of the People of God. Consecrated persons, with their total self-donation
through the practice of the evangelical counsels, become a visible sign of the force
of the resurrection; they strive to become experts in discerning the action of the
risen Christ in history and bear witness to the commitments and joy of hope in
preparing for the Saviour’s return with the expectation of ‘new heavens and a
new earth’.”
AGC 347 21: “Against the background of the sacramental character of the
whole Church... the discussion moved to the symbolic and transforming function
of consecrated life in its widely different charismatic forms, as though it were an
‘eschatological parable’ for the faith of all the People of God... Its significance, in
this symbolic and prophetic role, does not raise it above the life of the other mem-
bers of the Church as though it were of greater dignity, but distinguishes it and
makes it ancillary to it because destined for a particular service. It proclaims some
of the aspects of the multiform mystery of Christ, making the rich contents of sal-
vation perceptible to people of the present day.”

2.10 Page 20

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 73
join his offering to that of Christ, and that, as a consecrated per-
son, he is called to live in such a way that his offering of his body
becomes a prophecy and a sign.20
Like all consecrated persons, the Salesian who is a priest also
takes his place at the Marian heart of the Church. Mary is the
Woman that is the Church. The vocation of every member of the
Church is to be, like Mary, a total Yes to God. We are the Spouse
that anxiously awaits the arrival of the Bridegroom and with the
Spirit says: Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev 22:17) The vocation of Mary
is the vocation of us all. Consecrated life takes its place at this
Marian heart of the Church, because its role and task is to be a
prophecy of this Yes and of the final communion of all human be-
ings with God in the life of the resurrection.
Mary is at the same time also a concrete person with whom
we have a very special relationship. This is what happened in the
life of Don Bosco, for whom the Church not only had a Marian
face but also the face of his mother, that wise woman who not on-
ly intuited the demands of the priestly vocation on the person of
the priest but also knew how to recommend her son to Mary.21
The affective maturity of the Salesian Priest, lived within a
clear sexual identity, is a limpid expression of his celibacy that
takes on a particular importance in the context of the concern for
the safety and well-being of minors, and here lies the profound
validity and continuing relevance of Don Bosco’s insistence on the
20 “I am counting on you ‘to wake up the world’, since the distinctive sign of
consecrated life is prophecy. As I told the Superiors General: ‘Radical evangelical
living is not only for religious: it is demanded of everyone. But religious follow
the Lord in a special way, in a prophetic way.’” (Apostolic Letter of His Holiness
Pope Francis to All Consecrated People on the Occasion of the Year of Consecrated
Life, 28 November 2014, 2). See also Bozzolo, The Dual Form 28: “Unlike the or-
dained ministry that has an institutional consistency that transcends the person
of the minister, so that it remains valid even if the minister is unworthy, conse-
crated life consists entirely in the quality of the loving response of those who live
it. There is no chastity if you are not chaste, there is no poverty if you are not poor,
there is no obedience if you do not obey.”
21 See BOZZOLO, The Dual Form 42-44.

3 Pages 21-30

▲back to top

3.1 Page 21

▲back to top
74 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
virtue of purity. As a Salesian, the priest confrere is called to a
particular imitation of the purity of Jesus. Jesus is the Pure of
Heart in whose presence women, children and men felt safe. He is
so completely Son of the Father that he was able to show himself
to every man and every woman exclusively as brother. “Only as
brother did he offer himself to the attention, the friendship, the
tender affection of his sisters and brothers. His freedom on this
point is total, limpid, divine. His celibacy, far from being renunci-
ation and restriction, is the consequence of being completely Son
and completely Brother.”22 The Salesian knows, however, that he
is called not only to be a safe place for young people but also a re-
splendent sign that speaks to young people and allows him to ed-
ucate them to love and purity. (C 81)
As a priest, the Salesian is called to the exercise also of spiri-
tual fatherhood and to walk the fine line of being paternal but not
paternalistic. The risk of a suffocating paternalism that borders
on clericalism and abuse of authority can be reinforced by the way
father figures could be experienced and understood in certain cul-
tural contexts. In these situations we will have to make greater ef-
forts to imitate the fatherliness of Don Bosco. However demanding
this may be, we cannot lower the standards and compromise with
this goal. The fatherliness of Don Bosco is the hallmark of his spir-
it and charism. “When we think of our Father we remember most
especially his concern for the spiritual good, the kindness that in-
spired his relationships and the wise guidance given to individuals
and groups: three points that characterized his fatherliness. These
found expression in his actions and attitudes.”23
Amorevolezza lies at the very heart of the Preventive System.
It is Don Bosco’s unique way of relating to young people, and the
usual translation as loving kindness fails to convey its full mean-
ing. This kind of pure love or loving purity that is at the core of
our charism can be understood and absorbed only by osmosis. It
22 F. ROSSI DE GASPERIS, Sentieri di vita (Milano: Paoline, 2007) 2.2:242.
23 J.E. VECCHI, AGC 365 46.

3.2 Page 22

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 75
matures and ripens along the years in the kind of transparent
self-giving that we can contemplate not only in the life of Don
Bosco but also in so many of his sons such as Srugi, Variara, Zat-
ti, Cimatti and Sandor, to name only a few.
There is another field in which today our being ‘eschatological
sign’ and ‘living memorial of the way of life of Jesus’ becomes a
precious gift for young people, the Church and the world at large.
Ecological consciousness is growing along with the unparalleled
and unprecedented ecological risk we are running today. Being
signs of the resurrection through the gift of our consecration, we
are also signs of the value of creation and of the call to the eco-
spiritual conversion demanded by Laudato Si’. The resurrection
casts a new light upon life, lighting up our profound intercon-
nectedness with the whole of creation.
If we reduce man exclusively to his horizontal dimension, to that which
can be perceived empirically, life itself loses its profound meaning. Man
needs eternity for every other hope is too brief, too limited for him. Man
can be explained only if there is a Love which overcomes every isola-
tion, even that of death, in a totality which also transcends time and
space. Man can be explained, he finds his deepest meaning, only if there
is God. ... We are invited, once more, to renew with courage and with
strength our faith in eternal life, indeed to live with this great hope and
to bear witness to it in the world: behind the present there is not noth-
ing. And faith in eternal life gives to Christians the courage to love our
earth ever more intensely and to work in order to build a future for it,
to give it a true and sure hope.24
The more we grow in the consciousness of the everlasting des-
tiny embedded in every human face, the more every other aspect
of life is rediscovered in its immense value, as part of the one di-
vine design where the created universe and the created freedom
of each person mirror each other as mysteries beyond reckoning.
As consecrated persons we are surely called also to bear witness
to the marvellous interconnectedness of God’s creation on its way
to the eschaton, to the reconciliation of all things in Christ.
24 BENEDICT XVI, General Audience 2 November 2011.

3.3 Page 23

▲back to top
76 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
3. Vocational Animation and Formation
In the light of what we have been discussing, here are some
suggestions that might help us deepen the Salesian consecrated
identity in the priestly form today.
A first point is to deepen our awareness of the beauty of
consecrated life. Vocational animation and initial formation are
processes that work fundamentally by contagion: a consecrated
person who lives his vocation with joy and passion is attractive
and prophetic. In this context, it would be good to remember the
booklets issued by the CICLSAL during the Year of Consecrated
Life, all of which were centred on the Lord: joy in following the
Lord (Rejoice!), the reading of the signs of the Lord’s presence
and the waiting for his coming that is at the core of the conse-
crated vocation (Keep Watch!), the beauty and splendour of the
Lord (Contemplate), being witnesses of the Risen Lord among the
nations (Proclaim).25
A second point is to deepen our understanding of the
priesthood itself. The problem does not come from being too
much priests, but from being too little priests: we tend to concen-
trate on ‘doing priesthood’ rather than on ‘being priests.’ The
problem in the Congregation is that we have many priests but not
enough priesthood.26 We tend to be fascinated by priestly work –
and perhaps by the kick we get out of it, the immediate returns,
the appreciation of the faithful – rather than by the living out of
the priesthood of Christ in its true profundity. There is so much
to be gained by a renewed attempt to understand the beauty of
the priesthood of Christ.
25 CICLSAL, Rejoice! To consecrated men and women from the teachings of
Pope Francis (February 2014); Keep Watch! A letter to consecrated men and women
journeying in the footsteps of God (September 2014); Contemplate: To all conse-
crated persons pursuing the Beauty trail (November 2014); Proclaim: To conse-
crated men and women witnesses of the Gospel among peoples (August 2016).
26 AGC 335 8.

3.4 Page 24

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 77
In the third place, the Salesian Priest has to be formed to be
attentive to the constantly changing socio-cultural context
in which young people live. This implies at the same time a con-
stant return to the charismatic inspiration that nurtures our
Salesian identity and mission. We were born out of the experience
of Don Bosco with the marginalized youth of Valdocco to whom he
gave his life until his last breath. Our Constitutions embody this
vocation and mission, and the Church asks only that we be faith-
ful to such a heritage and mandate. In the variety of contexts and
changes that condition the culture and life of people today, the
charismatic experience of Don Bosco remains our lodestone. It is
the permanent criterion not only for our works but also for our
personal engagement in the mission among the youth as Priest
Salesians and Brother Salesians.
Don Bosco lived a pastoral experience in his first Oratory which serves
as a model; it was for the youngsters a home that welcomed, a parish
that evangelized, a school that prepared them for life, and a playground
where friends could meet and enjoy themselves.
As we carry out our mission today, the Valdocco experience is still the
lasting criterion for discernment and renewal in all our activities and
works. (C 40)
A fourth point is that the Salesian charism must permeate all
our efforts of vocational animation. While accompanying all
young people in the discovery of their vocation, we must also
courageously propose what is typical of our charism, involving
them in our mission, community life, and the experience of the
values of our spirit.27 Within this presentation of the charism, we
must learn to propose the Salesian consecrated vocation – first of
all by joyful witness, and then also in more explicit ways. There
will always be those who come to us with the intention of becom-
ing priests. These must be helped to see if they feel called to em-
brace the Salesian charism with all their hearts. Such a ‘conver-
sion’ to the charism is a sine qua non for further steps on the
27 Criteria and Norms for Salesian Vocation Discernment, 3rd ed. (Rome 2000)
39.

3.5 Page 25

▲back to top
78 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
journey. Here is also the great task for all our provinces: to move
clearly from recruitment to a true vocational culture.28
As far as the vocation of the Salesian Priest is concerned, cer-
tain criteria of discernment must be carefully followed: Salesian
consecration (Chapter 2 of the Constitutions), the capacity to be
a builder (and not a destroyer) of community, zeal for the salva-
tion of young people, and so on.
A fifth point regards strengthening the processes of accompa-
niment in the prenovitiate, novitiate and postnovitiate.
These three phases form a unit among themselves and are vital for
growth in the Salesian consecrated identity in its two forms. If it
is true that about 80% of our candidates speak about a true dis-
covery of personal spiritual accompaniment only in the prenovi-
tiate, these phases become even more critical.29 Personal spiritual
accompaniment in the context of community accompaniment is an
indispensable instrument in the personalization of the values of
our vocation. Every province needs to invest courageously in the
preparation of formators, as individuals and as teams, so that they
become guides who are able to win the confidence (Strive to make
yourself loved!) and touch the hearts of Salesians in initial forma-
tion. We cannot afford to have situations where badly handled
authority gives rise to dynamics of fear and suspicion that ruin the
process of accompaniment and of formation in general.30 In addi-
tion, formators and especially those offering the service of per-
sonal spiritual accompaniment must be able to help deepen most
especially the charismatic and community dimensions in the con-
text of the overall goal of configuration to Christ.
28 GC27 75.1.
29 M. BAY, Young Salesians and Accompaniment: Results of an international
survey (Bangalore: Kristu Jyoti Publications, 2019) 494. See Young Salesians and
Accompaniment: Orientations and Guidelines (2019) 46. We keep in mind that
54.42% do speak of being accompanied by a ‘soul friend’ in the years before the
prenovitiate.
30 See BAY 545-546 (8. Unhelpful elements/features or difficulties in the ex-
perience of personalised spiritual accompaniment) and Young Salesians and
Accompaniment: Orientations and Guidelines (2019) 53-59.

3.6 Page 26

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 79
A sixth point concerns strengthening the processes of accom-
paniment and discernment during practical training and in
preparation for perpetual profession. Our Constitutions
describe practical training as a phase of intense lived experience of
Salesian educative and pastoral action.31 Given its proximity to the
perpetual profession, this phase becomes even more critical in
terms of a final discernment of the Salesian consecrated vocation,
both on the part of the individual and of the community. Would it
not be worth investing in better and more efficacious forms of ac-
companiment in this vital phase, so that it truly becomes a “learn-
ing by experience the meaning of the Salesian vocation” (C 98)?
The Rector Major has been insisting that provincials send practical
trainees only to communities that have demonstrated the ability
to accompany them. It might be useful also to promote a renewed
reflection on the criteria for admission to the perpetual profession.
The transition from practical training to the next stage of ini-
tial formation – a move that normally takes place close to the
preparation for perpetual profession – can offer good opportuni-
ties of discernment to both confrere and community. A process of
overall evaluation of the confrere’s Salesian experience since the
novitiate, and especially during practical training, is a good basis
for exploring motivations as well as orientations towards the fu-
ture. The choice to begin specific formation in order to become a
Salesian Priest needs solid roots and sound ‘positive signs’32
emerging from Salesian life experience. The Ratio invites us, in
fact, to carry out an overall evaluation of the practical training
experience:
When one finishes his practical training, it is appropriate that there be
an overall assessment – on the part of the Provincial and the communi-
ty, and on his part as well – of his entire experience and of the progress
he has made in his vocation. (FSDB 439)
31 C 115. The Italian text speaks of a “confronto vitale e intenso con l’azione
salesiana in un’esperienza educativo pastorale.”
32 Cf. Criteria and Norms 39; 42-43.

3.7 Page 27

▲back to top
80 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
At the conclusion of practical training, there should be an overall
assessment of the whole experience carried out by the Provincial, the
community and the confrere himself. (FSDB 444)
Nothing prevents us from expanding this evaluation to the
complete arc of Salesian experience since the novitiate, and to
make a projection towards the future. Some provinces combine
this kind of overall evaluation with the ‘declaration of intent’
required for beginning specific formation towards priesthood:
The specific formation of the cleric confrere requires from each candi-
date a clear intention to embrace the priestly life. Therefore, at the time
of his acceptance for this phase of formation, a declaration of intent is re-
quired of him in this sense. The way in which this declaration is made
may vary: for example, it may be through a request to the Provincial to
undertake the study of theology, or a request to begin the preparation for
perpetual profession with a view to becoming a Salesian priest (FSDB
482).
Good practices like these would help give much more value to
the crucial passage from practical training to specific formation
and perpetual profession. Evidently, they call for the best disposi-
tions and also involvement both of the confrere concerned and of
those who accompany him at that moment of his life.
A seventh point concerns specific formation in prepara-
tion for the Salesian priesthood. This phase, also because of
its length, has a formidable impact on the Salesian consecrated
identity in its priestly form. The FSDB could not be clearer in its
formulation of the objectives of this phase:
“Our living Rule is Jesus Christ... whom we find present in Don Bosco
who devoted his life to the young.” [C 196] This statement of our Con-
stitutions sums up our Salesian vocation: we are to conform ourselves to
Jesus Christ and spend our lives for the young, as did Don Bosco. All our
formation, both initial and ongoing, consists in acquiring and actualiz-
ing this identity in individual persons and in the community. To this
end are directed the efforts of every candidate and every confrere, the
activity of the animators, and the entire formation enterprise.
For this reason, our Salesian identity is the basis of unity and of belong-
ing to the worldwide Congregation. It is the heart of all our formation,

3.8 Page 28

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 81
the fountainhead of our formation process and its constant point of
reference. It is also the determining criterion of vocation discernment.
(FSDB 25)
The Salesian priest [or deacon] combines in himself the gifts of Sale-
sian consecration and those of the pastoral ministry, but in such a way
that his particular manner of being a priest and exercising his ministry
stems from his Salesian consecration. As a sacramental sign of Christ
the Good Shepherd, from whom he draws his pastoral love, he works
within the framework of his community in his bid to “save” the young
(FSDB 39).
It is time to rethink the whole process of specific formation so
as to give our Salesian consecrated identity the centrality that
belongs to it. It is by no means enough to guarantee that the plan
of studies corresponds to the academic requirements in view of
ordination to the priesthood. We need to identify and promote the
methods that would favour the ongoing attainment of that charis-
matic synthesis that is the core of the vocation of the Salesian
who is a priest. As Cardinal J.J. Hamer had insisted during the
1990 Synod on Priestly Formation, major superiors have the
responsibility to ensure a perfect harmony between formation to
the priesthood and formation to the religious life according to the
particular identity and charism of his institute.33 During the
study of theology, we would need to make a concerted effort to
read the theological treatises in the light of our charism.
There are in particular two kinds of relationship that have a
tremendous impact on future ministry, and that therefore must
be the object of special attention. The first is the lived experience
of the religious community: a clear sense of belonging and the
ability to give of oneself in generous service are extremely impor-
tant positive signs. Problems in community life after ordination
often have their roots in poor community experience during ini-
tial formation. The second is the ability to live the Salesian spir-
33 Cited in AGC 335 14. Jean Jérôme Hamer, OP, STD (1916-1996) was a Bel-
gian Cardinal who was Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated
Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (1985-1992).

3.9 Page 29

▲back to top
82 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
it and mission as shared with the laity. This kind of conviction
and ability will not emerge automatically after ordination; it must
be the object of particular attention during the processes of initial
formation.
In general, we need to ensure that specific formation is not
reduced to its necessary intellectual dimension, much less to
merely “passing examinations.” Aspirants to the Salesian priest-
hood must be helped to enter more deeply into their specific
identity of confreres called to live the priesthood within the Sale-
sian vocation and mission. This would require, as we said, a
thorough revision of formation processes and instruments (com-
munity and personal formation plans, community, group and
personal accompaniment), an expansion of the agents of forma-
tion to include lay men and women and married couples, and a
far better preparation of formation guides in general. All this
would have to be done in a participatory way that ensures that
the young confreres are actively involved as the first ones re-
sponsible for their formation.
In the eighth place, there is the period of the quinquennium.
The importance of this phase could not get greater endorsement
than the one coming directly from the life of Don Bosco. It is in
the first five years of his priesthood, which coincide with the time
between his ordination and the establishment of the Oratory at
Valdocco, that the Salesian mission was born. Our founder’s per-
sonal experience is an equally strong testimony to the impor-
tance of being accompanied during the crucial period of full in-
sertion into the pastoral life: without Cafasso at his side we can-
not even imagine the Saint John Bosco we know and follow. It is,
of course, the responsibility of the Provincial to assign confreres
to communities where they can be mentored and accompanied, as
it is up to the confreres concerned to accept the need for such
mentoring and accompaniment. No less important at this time is
the support coming from the peer group. There are very valuable
experiences of quinquennium meetings and mutual support at
provincial and interprovincial levels that are worth learning from

3.10 Page 30

▲back to top
GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES 83
and imitating. And then there is study, which Cafasso used to de-
fine as the eighth sacrament for a priest. It would be a tragedy if
Salesian priests were to stop reading, reflecting and studying
soon after ordination. If we are to be educators and pastors
rather than functionaries or mercenaries, we have to certainly
take care of the reflective and contemplative side of our vocation.
The best example here is Don Bosco himself – the Don Bosco who
had a room reserved for him at the Convitto to which he would
retire every day in his early years as a priest, in order to read and
write.34
Ninth, given the large number of parishes in the Congrega-
tion and the huge formative impact of this particular form of pas-
toral service on our Salesian life and on our perception of priestly
ministry, it would be important in the forthcoming six-year period
to foster processes of listening, study and reflection on this topic,
to be carried out jointly by the Youth Ministry, Mission and For-
mation departments, involving also confreres and communities
engaged in Salesian parish ministry.
In the tenth place, the Salesian Priest, along with the Salesian
Brother, will work out ways of actively promoting the ecclesiology
of communion that expands in concentric circles to embrace the
whole of humanity. This means moving beyond the boundaries of
our own religious and educative-pastoral communities to network
with other religious, the diocesan community, the human com-
munity in which we are situated, and with all those interested in
caring for our common home and in uplifting the lives of the
young, especially the most marginalized. The priesthood of Christ
embraces the whole human family and, indeed, every form of life
in God’s magnificent creation.
***
34 See G. BUCCELLATO, Notes for a ‘Spiritual History’ of Father John Bosco
(Bengaluru: Kristu Jyoti, 2014) 77. See also the vast body of publications by Don
Bosco, now easily available at http://www.donboscosanto.eu/.

4 Pages 31-40

▲back to top

4.1 Page 31

▲back to top
84 ACTS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
As we learn to take better care of the identity of our priest con-
freres, we will see an improvement also in the pastoral quality,
spirituality and shared responsibility of the subject of the mission
that is the community. Ongoing growth in these aspects is a chal-
lenge for the Salesian religious life in its two forms, so that all of
us, Brothers and Priests, might grow in faith and humanity and
render more fruitful service to young people and to those to whom
we are sent, with all the energies and resources at our disposal.