Meeting of Salesian Bishops

Welcome of the Rector Major

Valdocco, Saturday 22 May 2010

My Dear Brothers, Bishops.

I am indeed very happy to welcome you most cordially, to thank you for accepting the invitation to this Meeting and to express my joy at your presence. This is always your house, our hearth, since in some way, all of us Salesians were born here in Valdocco. An opportunity to speak with you about questions regarding the Church and the Congregation in the world is always very welcome.

I emphasise the two words used: brothers, because as I have always noticed in my travels, communion with you and among us always remains strong. Everywhere I have found Bishops at my side in celebrations, in meetings, united in the love for our founder. I have seen the fascination Don Bosco has, and been aware of the apostolic stimuli he provides.

But not only brothers, you are Bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals of the Church; and this in recognition of your personal commitment in the service of the Church, of your pastoral role and of your ecclesiastical experience.

There have been precedents for this meeting but not on quite this scale: in 1975 Fr Luigi Ricceri called the missionary bishops together for the centenary of the missions. In 1988, for the centenary of the death of Don Bosco, Fr Egidio Viganò called a limited number of Bishops to join the Rector Major and his Council in spending a day at Colle Don Bosco: with Holy Mass followed by a meeting at which some of the bishops spoke expressing their own sense of communion, which I mentioned earlier.

In 2001, on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Incarnation of the Son of God and of the new millennium, Fr Juan Edmundo Vecchi wanted to call together all our bishops for a few days.

This time the grace has fallen to me to repeat this happy initiative, in part at the suggestion of some of you my dear brothers, bishops, in part my own proposal to spend some days together during the period of grace we are living between the GC26 and the GC27: the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Congregation, the centenary of the death of Don Rua, the 125th anniversary of the consecration of the first Salesian bishop, Mons. Giovanni Cagliero, the pilgrimage of the casket of Don Bosco around the whole world, and finally the preparation of the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco.

This combination of anniversaries and of stimuli led us to set in motion and prepare the meeting to which you have responded so positively.

The idea was gradually coming to maturity when at the GC26 the Congregation took as its main path for the future the return to Don Bosco in order to start afresh from him, making our own the spiritual and apostolic passion that was his, and taking up the challenges everyone shares regarding the urgent need to evangelise, the need for vocation ministry, the re-discovery of evangelical poverty, the commitment to go out to the new frontiers.

Looking at the number of our Bishops, 120 alive and 243 in the history of our Congregation, we said to ourselves that it was remarkable that there was such a large number of confreres who are living their Salesian identity in a very particular situation, that of the episcopate, in a relationship with the whole body which the Holy Spirit raises up, appoints and sends to sustain the Church as a sign and instrument of salvation.

The desire for this meeting grew even stronger when the Congregation became the religious institution with the largest number of bishops! It is also worth noting that this episcopal experience can have its effects on the whole Congregation, so that we, without speaking about the placement of personnel, can in some way be in communication with some of the dioceses, especially those where our Salesians are carrying out the role of being responsible for education, catechesis or vocations.

The Congregation has also contributed with personnel and financial means to the organised structure of many of your dioceses. Today, once again since it is being entrusted to us, we are seeing the foundation of a Prefecture Apostolic, that of Azerbaijan in the Caucasus. There are therefore a number (we are not talking here about the quality) of confreres who have lived and are living their Salesian vocation (charism, spirituality and mission) in the episcopal state.

We consider the relationship bishop-local Church not only as a special opportunity for observation and experience, but much more as a sacramental communication, the value of which cannot easily be measured. For us Salesians, you are a gift; through you and with you we are inserted more deeply in the body of Christ which is the Church, we become more ‘Catholic’ and to a greater degree Christians.

Then I have been impressed, wherever I have gone to visit the Salesian communities, by the attentive and almost filial presence of Salesian bishops who have taken part in celebrations and in meetings and have shared their points of view with the Rector Major. So then I understood that in the vast majority of cases the vital links not only were not loosened, but rather were strengthened. Speaking with you informally and in passing I received favourable and enthusiastic comments about the suitability of holding this meeting we are now having together.

There is also a second factor: this meeting is taking place in the period of preparation for the bi-centenary of the birth of Don Bosco. In addition, its comes mid-way between the GC26 and the GC27. We wanted to listen to you! Here then are the aims of this meeting, in line with the motto which we have chosen, and the subject on which we want to focus:

“The Salesian Charism and the Episcopal Ministry”

Challenges and faith journeys

for a new evangelisation of the young of today!

On the 125 anniversary of the consecration of Bishop Giovanni Cagliero

The first aim, for us who share in the pastoral ministry and are pastors, is to draw on your spiritual and apostolic experience, recalling, that as John Paul II affirmed, “ spirituality is the fountain-head and at the root of every type of activity: cultural, political, educative, apostolic.”

Since we want to examine this communion more closely, here is a second aim: to talk together and exchange ideas about some situations we all have very much at heart: the mission to youth, the charism of education, consecrated life, the Congregation and the Church according to the continental Synods, and finally to look at some possible areas for greater collaboration.

The third aim is to listen to your views regarding the Congregation, starting from your ecclesial experience. It seems to me, in fact, that this “sensus ecclesiae” is one of the aspects of our Salesian life to be developed much more, both in our experience of the Christian faith, and in our educative pastoral mission among the young.

The fourth aim is to celebrate together in the places associated with the origins of our charism, the gift of our Salesian vocation, making the first focal points “Valdocco” with the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, and “The Becchi” with the Sanctuary of Don Bosco.

In the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians we have the picture which gives us the vision that Don Bosco had of Mary and of the Church, and which he wanted to communicate forcefully to his Salesians, collaborators, benefactors and boys: the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Apostles, the history of the Church. The Holy Virgin is the icon of the Church and the protectress of the Christian community, she is the Help, the great support of our pastoral ministry.

The fifth aim is to encourage relationships and contacts among yourselves. Perhaps you could help by making twinning-arrangements of various kinds and at different levels, involving the Cooperators and the Salesian Family. This is nothing new: I have found it working in practice in very many Salesian places around the world, and I believe it would be possible among the dioceses too.

This gives us the idea that by helping one another a little through our pastoral experience, we could also build up what is nowadays often called the exchange of gifts between continents, the ability to give and take, and forms of international collaboration, as examples of communion for the whole church, overcoming ethnic and cultural barriers.

In conclusion: I can say that with you I perceive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. As in an upper room, we, like the disciples, are gathered around Mary. Together we have celebrated the Love of God incarnate in venerating the Holy Shroud, which speaks to us of the real incarnation of the Son of God even unto death. Together we shall celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost. Together, finally, we shall celebrate the Feast of Mary Help of Christians.

May the Lord bless this meeting of ours. I hope and pray that all of you will enjoy days of calm reflection, but also of rest, spiritual rest, and that you will experience the esteem in which, I can assure you, the Congregation holds you.

Fr Pascual Chavez V., sdb

Valdocco – 22 May 2010