How do you perceive the present situation of ministry in general, and of youth ministry in particular?
I perceive it to be very diversified, with great possibilities and riches, but also with serious challenges and inadequacies.
The Jubilee 2000, with three preceding years of preparation, according to the plan proposed by Pope John Paul II, carried a very strong stimulus for the renewal of ministry in the entire Church and in a special way for youth ministry. Let it suffice to think of the growing experience of the World Youth Days in these years: Paris (1997), which surprised and shook the reticence of the Church in France in front of the youth; Rome (2000) with the enthusiasm of almost two million youths, coming from all over the world, facing the demanding challenges of the Pope. After the Jubilee, the different Churches made their own the pastoral proposal of the Pope in his letter NMI—a renewed impulse of Christian life centered on the person of Christ (29)—and drew up concrete pastoral projects following the indications and priorities identified by the Pope.
Another growing reality of Church ministry is the active leadership of the Christian community, and within it, concretely that of the laity. I remember the meeting of the ecclesial lay movements, convoked by the Pope on Pentecost of the year 1998: one huge multitude of lay movements, associations and groups, that is taking up with fresh dynamism and renewed creativity the evangelizing mission in the various parts of the world. In our own circle, one cannot doubt the development that the Salesian Family, and in a special way, the Salesian Youth Movement, has shown in all the parts of the world.
In spite of that, the ministry of the Church, and in particular, youth ministry, must face not a few enormous challenges. One of the more important is that of evangelizing the new postmodern culture, with phenomena so pervading and universal, such as globalization, in all its aspects, the development of the computer and of modern means of social communication, the emergence of new values, new ways of looking at life and lifestyles, the impact of secularization and at the same time of a new religious sensitivity of the “New Age” type. In response to this challenge, in these years the Pope has set as a priority for the ministry of the whole Church the duty of the “new evangelization,” which allows the reconstruction of the Christian fabric of human society (cf. ChFL 34).
Focusing more concretely on youth ministry, I would say that I perceive everywhere a great vitality with a myriad of initiatives and proposals, a flourishing of groups, associations, and movements, a lot of good will and effort on the part of many adult and young animators.
At the same time however, I realize that our youth ministry is a ministry of activities more than of processes, a ministry of individuals and with little coordination more than of the community who share a project, a ministry for sectors and fragments more than a united and integral journey.
Today the world of youth offers to the ministry a great variety of resources and possibilities: its passionate search for spirituality, its openness to the language of life and witness, its sensitivity to human values, the quality of life and solidarity, peace and justice, a new enthusiasm to come together and publicly express the faith.
Often the Christian communities and their institutions go through a great deal of effort to renew and open themselves to the young. The scarcity of educators and pastoral workers in comparison with the continuous increase of demands and the multiplication of areas for ministry impel them to set aside the moments of personal and communitarian reflection, and yield to an activism that prevents them from going deeper into the reality of youth in order to understand its more profound challenges, uncover new resources and possibilities, and adapt structures and initiatives.
The youth are yearning for challenges that are demanding and for the accompanying presence of significant adults; but often these adults are so absorbed by their administrative duties and functions and the management of their activities that they fail to find a way of establishing with the young a quality-presence—both human and spiritual, of fostering spontaneous interpersonal relationships, of dedicating time and energies to personal and group guidance, and of ensuring significant invitations to human growth and Christian maturation.
In some parts, above all in the context of secularized society, the Christian communities present an image of fatigue and disorientation. The young feel that the adults (family, parish, educators in general) are somewhat ashamed to talk of the essentials. They prefer to give the young prescriptions, and indicate things to do, rather than to share with them an experience and journey of faith. In such a case, the pastoral presence and challenge carries little clarity and evangelical force.
In Western Europe there is a widespread crisis in the transmission of the faith and in the irrelevance of the sense of God and of the transcendent, especially in the youth sector of the population. What concrete pastoral and evangelizing options can address this deep crisis?
The last surveys on the youth in Europe reveal that among them there is a clear opening up to the theme of religion and a growing yearning for spirituality and transcendence. It is also true that this is lived above all from point of view of the individual subject or person, according to the logic that seeks the satisfaction of individual needs; a religiosity relegated to the sphere of private life, with hardly anything shared and institutional, lived through multiple heterogeneous experiences, in a syncretistic ensemble of beliefs and practices. Hence, I would say that among the young, more than the irrelevance of the sense of God and of the transcendent, there seems to be developing a kind of new paganism in which each one looks for and builds a god according to one’s personal standard and needs.
In such a situation, there cannot but be a deep crisis of places, institutions, and moments which used to constitute, up to some time ago, the normal channels for the transmission of the faith to the young generations.
How do we address this crisis? I believe that the relationship which has grown between Pope John Paul II and the youth during his 25 years of pontificate can offer us some important indications.
Before all else, the Pope wants to stay with the young, shows his trust and affection, believes in the potentials for good, truth, and beauty that are found in their hearts, and hence encourages them and offers them demanding and radical challenges. The first option in our ministry should be to journey with the young, to open ourselves to a positive and warm dialogue with them, facing with decision and without concession the cultural and anthropological challenges that characterize our epoch.
But above all, the Pope offers to the young the person of Jesus. Nothing but an encounter with a person is capable of transforming a person’s life, neither rules nor doctrines. Consequently, what we do in ministry should lead the young to the encounter with the person of Jesus. This is what they are waiting and yearning for, not moralism or socio-cultural discourses or a generic welcome. Ministry, above all in the environs of secularization, should aim to facilitate among the young the knowledge of, the encounter, and the personal relationship with Jesus Christ, in way that they discover the meaning of their own existence and are enabled to actualize an option of a full and happy life.
Along with the straightforward presentation of the person of Jesus, it is also necessary to develop the educative dimension of a genuine process of transformation of mentality and life. There is a need to strengthen a real pedagogy of Christian initiation, that is, to offer to the young systematic and profound processes leading to the personalization, communication, and socialization of the faith, going beyond all-embracing experiences that are highly emotive and subjective; to educate to prayer, to listening to the Word, to discover the signs of God’s presence and action in history, to translate into a commitment of life what is experienced in prayer, and so on.
Moreover, the Pope invites the young to be “light and salt” among their companions, in the places where they live, and in society in general, thus giving the pastoral proposal a clear missionary impulse. Our ministry should surpass its own complex of guilt and timidity, and recover the apostolic courage, that cannot but speak out what it has lived and experienced. We cannot content ourselves with those who come to our group, our youth centers, or our schools; we must go and meet those who are aloof, those who remain distant, the mass of youth on the streets. Nay, in front of the tendency to reduce faith to something private, we are invited to make the Gospel present in human life and culture, with a clear, active, and critical presence of Christians in all the settings of society, and their witness to models of thought and of alternative lifestyles coherent with the Gospel.
Which pastoral paths would you consider valid in the past but no longer today? Why? Which paths are valid today in other parts of the world and show good chances of being actualized?
Many paths in the ministry of the past can retain their validity if they are inserted into the new project and assume the new style and method of ministry that I emphasized in the previous answer.
When we analyze the new movements that are appearing in the Church in these years and are attracting many youths, we realize that all of them have three fundamental characteristics, lived in diverse forms and degrees: a profound spirituality centered on prayer, the Word, and the sacraments; a strong experience of communion, of attention to the persons, to interpersonal relationships, to the deep communication of life; and a radical commitment to the poorest and the least. I believe that these three characteristics constitute the three lines of pastoral action which should serve as benchmarks for all forms of youth ministry in the future: spirituality, community, and commitment. Moreover, I believe that today we must develop them in this order, overcoming the temptation to enter as a volunteer into a commitment that is not born out of a personal experience of Jesus Christ and his Gospel and is not sustained by a community close at hand and open.
One has the impression that the crisis is not only in the beneficiaries, but also in the pastors or ministers. In front of youth ministers who are discouraged and confused, what would be the profile (individual and communitarian) of youth ministers who are needed today to animate the educative-pastoral projects and structures? How should they be formed?
Even if, thanks be to God, there are many generous educators and youth ministers dedicated to their work, there is also quite a number, who, in front of the complexity of the situation and the difficulties encountered, take refuge many times in the organizational and administrative aspects of the institutions or in a general educative and developmental commitment, or who try to repeat past experiences, thinking that they continue to be valid for the youth of today.
To be able to face the ministry which the new evangelization demands, educator-ministers should live a strong apostolic spirituality, a solid personal relationship with Christ, actualized in daily life, an attitude and practice of pastoral discernment which develops a faith-vision of life, persons, and events, and overcomes both the activism that makes life superficial and dispersed, as well as the spiritualism which does not lead to radical life-choices.
Moreover, today the educator-ministers of the young should possess a solid personal constitution, both human and Christian, to be able to become above all relevant and credible witnesses for today’s youth, capable of offering them inspiring and valid challenges and of accompanying them as they journey towards their goals. This supposes a solid and well structured mental scheme that allows them to nourish a serene confidence in themselves, and at the same time be open and available for dialogue and communication with those who think differently; to cultivate an attitude of ongoing formation avoiding the tendency to take refuge in a rhythm of life that is overly agitated, superficial, and routine.
Moreover, we need educator-ministers who are ready and capable of sharing their lives with the young, of listening to them with cordiality, of affirming them, and accompanying them with expecting recompense; educator-ministers rooted in the community, sharing its youth-ministry project, working in a team and with a strategic management mentality.
Their formation is a delicate process that never ends and demands a continuous attitude of reflection on their own and the others’ experiences in order to learn from them; readiness to share with others, to allow themselves to be guided and corrected; confidence—in persons and in themselves—that is sustained by a deep life of faith.
Apparently, the communitarian dimension of the faith is particularly difficult to transmit in an individualistic and fragmented culture as the actual one. How do you form true Christian communities with youth? Does one not lose the actual Salesian youth ministry, by starting with a certain age, let us say, 24 or 25 years? How can we avoid the tendency to remain in one’s private world, the danger of egocentrism, and the lack of socio-political commitment in these communities?
The question touches one of the more important concerns and challenges which are presented today to youth ministry in general, and to Salesian youth ministry in particular. Armed with the preventive sensitivity and methodology of Don Bosco, we know that the principal educative values should be sown during preadolescence and that the first stirrings of growth should be triggered during adolescence and early youth. But this journey should be continued with a precise and systematic accompanying presence up to the point of leading the youth to a project of life, to a mature vocation-choice, something that today is being delayed more than ever.
Regarding the first two stages, we have a rich experience and ample educative structures, schools, youth centers, groups, and so on. But we have little resources and less experience when it comes to accompanying young adults who have not yet reached a mature vocation-choice in life; youth from 20 to 30 years of age who no longer frequent our settings of formal education, but still need and look for adequate settings that can enable them to complete their journey of education and faith begun in the previous phases.
In these last years, the Congregation has witnessed an increase in the attention given to this age-bracket, with diverse initiatives: the formation of animators of the SYM (groups, associations, youth centers)—here we are dealing with young adults who through the service of animation continue the process of formation and education in the faith; associations and movements that give special attention to these young adults through processes of youth catechumenate without neglecting the earlier stages. The Salesian volunteer movement itself, both social and missionary, is a setting that enables many young adults to develop their own possibilities of formation towards an adult vocation-choice.
I believe that this is a field in which the Salesian youth ministry should collaborate closely with the Salesian Family, above all, with those lay groups that offer the young the possibilities of adult Christian life, such as the Cooperators and the Past Pupils. Together, they should look for those settings and those more appropriate services to accompany these youths and enable those who so desire to continue to live their Christian faith as adults according to the Salesian style in the various associations of the Salesian Family or in the Christian communities of our parishes, or in other ecclesial movements, and so on.
All this calls for adults of prophetic caliber, who are close to the young, and are capable of accompanying and challenging them, both individually and in group, with systematic and demanding experiences of spirituality and service, with a highly person-centered but also well structured and integrated plan of formation, with a methodology that initiates them to the enlightening influence of Christianity on daily life in their places of study or work.
I believe that we Salesians should dedicate more personal and greater efforts to attain this goal, involving, as I said earlier, the lay groups of the Salesian Family.
In order that these groups and communities of young adults may overcome the tendency to close themselves in a private world as well as the lack of socio-political involvement, one of the objectives of this phase in the faith-journey should be to enable the young to incarnate their faith and spirituality in the arena of their own concrete family, social, and political responsibilities.
Several think that our traditional structures for youth ministry (schools, parishes), which were born for human growth and evangelization, are finding it hard to succeed, and, what is worse, use up many persons just to remain operational. What must be done? Do we need to invent new structures? From the perspective of youth ministry, can we still make the most of the existing structures? Under what minimum conditions?
The traditional educative and pastoral structures undergo exactly what befalls other social structures: having arisen and developed in a stable and one-track society, they find it difficult to adapt themselves to a complex and ever-changing society. We have passed from a strong unitary and monolithic model to another that is clearly fragmented and often contradictory. Educators, beginning with families, do not know how to face their educative mission and run the risk of renouncing to an authentic educative dialogue by limiting themselves to a superficial “laissez-faire.” New contexts and educational realities emerge, at times in contrast with the traditional institutions, such as the peer group, the street, the world of social communications and the internet, and so on, which have a great capacity of modeling mentality and behavior, but at the same time are proven to be weak in personalizing values and sustaining radical choices of life.
We must face decisively this new situation and its challenges. Our society needs more than ever educative-pastoral structures capable of establishing a dynamic and profound dialogue with the youth-world, with its sensibilities and needs, but without renouncing to the educative mission of witnessing to and proposing values and criteria of conduct, and of inspiring and sustaining projects of life and of search for meaning. The traditional structures of education and ministry still have a lot to offer to our society, provided that they know how to renew themselves at the very depths.
These structures should know how to resist the dynamics of bureaucracy and mass-production toward which the actual society is pushing them, by ensuring priority attention to persons and to interpersonal relationships, to intergenerational dialogue and encounter, to participation and teamwork, and so on, such that they become genuine settings of life and youth-culture. Don Bosco had this intuition already in his time, when he wanted that all his institutions be genuine houses in which the young would feel at ease, as in a family.
They should promote a truly integral educative program that takes into account all the dimensions of the human person and not only those immediately useful and profitable for production and consumption. A program which develops with particular attention those aspects to which the young of today are particularly sensitive and open, such as affectivity, the body, nature; values such as peace, solidarity, freedom, participation, creativity, dialogue; the search for meaning, interiority, the quality of life.
The educative-pastoral institutions should be transformed into genuine educative communities in which all the participants in the educative work, the young themselves, the educators, the families, identify themselves with a shared set of values, take up solidly as one the very same educative project, and work actively as partners in its realization, fostering a positive and dynamic network of interpersonal relationships, promoting truly participative and corresponsible methods of work and action
What do you think should be the ministry in a Catholic institution, knowing that many of those who come do not look for religious formation, but for quality teaching or discipline? What ministry should be carried out in a Catholic school with students not interested in what is religious?
Ministry in a Catholic institute should not be of some kind in which religion is added to a culture, a setting, and a structure neutral or indifferent to the model of life inspired by the Gospel. Ministry is the quality that we should give to the whole ensemble of scholastic life, above all to those elements that distinguish it, such as culture, methodology, discipline. We want that all these elements be inspired by and promote a vision of life and reality open to the values of the Gospel of Jesus, favor an attitude of research and deepening into the meaning of an integral and transcendent life, and offer the believers the occasion for critical and positive dialogue between culture and faith.
The Catholic institute should translate into practice the conditions indicated in my previous response and resist decisively the pressure of the environment that urges it to focus its own quality on academic results, on the effectiveness of its discipline, and on the quest for excellence. In this sense the Catholic institute should take up a truly counter-cultural attitude, offering to all, with respect but with decision and clarity, a culture of life and of solidarity, an integral education open to the religious dimension of the person, a decisive commitment towards the poorest and the weakest.
In the midst of the dialectic between traditional structures of youth ministry and the new forms of youth-poverty, in what would consist the prophetic attitude of the Salesian Family in these moments? How can it be formulated in the practical field?
Already six years ago, Fr. Vecchi, in his letter on the new forms of poverty, wrote that education is the most specific and original contribution that we Salesians can offer in the prevention of and struggle against the new forms of poverty. More and more I see the truth of this affirmation. Today the new forms of youth-poverty are largely the consequence of certain conditions of life which favor individual profit over the common good, a rapid and easy progress over sustainable development accessible to all, the priority of economic interests over all the rest, and often, against social and cultural values. It is not enough therefore to look for immediate solutions. We need a work of education that promotes new models of behavior and life, leading concretely to the culture of the other in front of possessive individualism, the culture of sobriety in front of consumerism, the globalization of solidarity in front of the exclusion of the weak.
As a Salesian Family, spread all over the world, with a multiplicity of resources and a rich spiritual patrimony, we have great possibilities, and at the same time, a tremendous responsibility to promote in a joint effort concrete projects which not only address the immediate needs of the young but go further and foster a lifestyle of greater solidarity and generosity.
For example, in some countries of Latin America the joint action of different groups of the Salesian Family, in collaboration with other persons and institutions, has created an entire social movement that has promoted laws and recommendations for the defense of the rights of minors. In other countries of Europe, different social and missionary volunteer are creating an entire vast movement of solidarity and collaboration with developing countries and peoples. The work on behalf of street children, the initiatives to help boys and girls excluded from the official school system, are inspiring a new sensitivity and a concrete desire of collaboration in many provinces, groups, and associations.
There are possibilities, but we should work hand in hand with others, with concrete and shared projects, with constancy and system, maximizing all the resources and possibilities that are given us by the enormous variety of works and presences animated by the different groups of the Salesian Family all over the world. Instead of opposing works and structures in a sterile and destructive conflict, why do we not take up the commitment that each group brings its own originality and that all collaborate for the integral development of the young, especially the poorest? Why can we not commit all the members of the educative communities of our schools, training centers, parishes, and youth centers, to concrete projects directed to the poorest?
In your opinion, what should be the principal features of a ministry that addresses the phenomenon of migration? How should our ministry face the situation of cultural and religious pluralism which we are beginning to feel in Europe and which will gradually increase?
A few months ago a meeting was held in Barcelona to face concretely this topic. It was the culmination of many efforts, initiatives, and reflections that had been carried out during these last years in the different provinces of Salesian Europe. At the same time, this meeting was meant to indicate some directions and criteria for action that would orient and re-launch the Salesian commitment among migrants.
I think that the final document expressed very well the features of a Salesian youth ministry in front of the phenomenon of migration: a youth ministry for migrants, that is founded on the pedagogical option of intercultural learning, open to integration through a universal ethos based on the culture of solidarity, authenticity, and the relationships of peace and respect among men and women, which we build on the foundation of our identity.
We must become aware that we live in a world that, if on one hand is more globalized, on the other hand appears ever more divided among the cultural, social, economic, religious differences. This presents new challenges to formation, of which the main one would be, the education to interculturality. In my opinion, this is the key to resolve the difficult problem of how to achieve and harmonize the unity of humanity amidst the diversity of peoples comprising it. It implies a pedagogy of openness to diversity, of a culture of dialogue and reciprocity, of solidarity and peace. This is possible only in the measure in which we discover that there are transcultural values, valid always and everywhere, and that living them in our religious and educative communities, we become persons of communion. As the Pope in his Apostolic Exhortation “Vita Consacrata” (51) recalled, the multicultural and international communities reveal themselves in many parts as significant witnesses and formative settings on the meaning of communion among peoples, races, and cultures.
In this sense, the lines of action of the meeting of Barcelona speak of education to the values of multiculturality, beginning from a shared moral base, from an education to honesty and good citizenship, with particular attention to interreligious dialogue, favoring the unconditional welcome of persons, promoting their active involvement, fostering among them the presence of cultural mediators who facilitate the dialogue among different cultures. Moreover, the concern for migrants should be integrated into the educative-pastoral project of every province, such that it becomes a reality present in every setting, carried out ever more together.
All this supposes a change of mentality among the Salesians as well as the members of our educative communities: to promote a formation to interculturality and to diversity as richness, through experiences of intercultural work adequately reflected on and evaluated, and the integration of the migrants themselves into the educative communities as mission-partners.
Thanks be to God, all these directions are already being actualized in many of our provinces. The concern now is to extend them and insure that they become a heritage and reality in all our presences.
Given our closeness to the world of youth and their language, what can the Salesians say and offer regarding the language, rites, public image, and social witness of the so-called “official or institutional Church?” How can the Church come closer to the young, and vice-versa?
To bring our Church closer to the young, first of all we should love her deeply, even the so-called official and institutional Church. Then we should make the young feel this love, by helping them discover the positive values and realities that are in her, the signs of the presence and action of God. This is what Don Bosco did in his time, in front of the Protestant avalanche that was confusing and disturbing the simple faith of the people and the young. With a language simple, attractive, and accessible to all, Don Bosco strove to make known the history of the Church and the Papacy, the lives of saints and good persons, propagated popular devotions and practices of piety adapted to the young. Thus he strengthened their love for the Church and their faith.
Today the young have shown that they are very sensitive and open to these values of faith and the Church. The person of the Pope and his vast meetings with the young, the World Youth Days, the flourishing of youth movements, are some of these signs that we as educators should appreciate and take advantage of.
We should also accompany the young that they can live and experience the faith of the Church, her liturgy and prayer in their youthful language and style, without mutilating it or rendering it superficial. It is an important educative duty that enjoins us to be authentic teachers of youth spirituality, who, through the signs and the youth-language, are capable of bearing and keeping alive a genuine experience of faith and of God.
On this point our communities and groups of the Salesian family would have to carry out an important role: they would have to be for the young powerful signs and images of a Church close to them, open and in dialogue, on fire with Jesus and his own mission of fullness of life, happy communities, profound and sensitive to the world of the young, thus constituting genuine experiences of Church and schools of ecclesial prayer.
Today it is not enough to commit oneself to others in order to bring the Church close to the young. Without losing anything of its radicalness, this commitment should show clearly its own foundation and deeper motivations—the God of Jesus, his love and his project of salvation that is actualized through the community of believers, under the leadership of their pastors.
Pascual Chàvez V.
Rector Major of the Salesians
Rome, 24 May 2003
