CONVOCA TION OF THE 23rd GENERAL CHAPTER

Introduction. - Convocation in accordance with the Constitutions. - Particular character of the GC23. - The theme proposed: its choice and significance. - The tasks involved in education to the faith indicated by the Constitutions. - The challenges of our new times. - The “pastoral” commitment of the salesian community. - The work of the forthcoming provincial chapters. - Conclusion.

Rome, Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord

6 August 1988

My dear confreres,

Among the many gifts we have received during this centenary year of grace we must include also the convocation of the coming General Chapter: it will be the 23rd.

Don Bosco attached particular importance to general chapters. He himself presided at the first four of them in 1887, 1880, 1883 and 1886; at that time they took place every three years, a practice that continued until 1904. In convoking the first General Chapter he reminded the confreres that “we are undertaking something of the greatest importance for our Congregation... our meetings have no other purpose than God’s greater glory and the salvation of souls... We intend to place the Chapter under the special protection of Mary most holy”.¹

The present Constitutions tell us that “the general chapter is the principal sign of the Congregation’s unity in diversity”;² by its means we meet as brothers on a worldwide scale to grow in fidelity to the Gospel, to Don Bosco and to present-day needs.3 It is a community event of identity, unity, revision, planning, and of salesian dynamic presence among the pilgrim People of God, which in the midst of “temptations and tribulations” continually renews itself so as to be the light and salt of the earth.³ Through it the whole Congregation makes itself docile to the Spirit of the Lord, seeking “to discern God’s will at a specific moment in history for the purpose of rendering the Church better service”.⁴

It is therefore one of the most significant events in our community life. We must be fully aware of this; we must feel ourselves involved in a responsible commitment at worldwide level, and play an active part in its preparation based on the concrete situation in our own particular province. Because it is an event in harmony with the workings of the Holy Spirit, it should give rise in the first place to an atmosphere of intense prayer accompanied by pastoral zeal, study, verification, dialogue and the formulation of efficacious proposals for meeting the serious challenges we are facing at the present day.

Convocation In accordance with the constitutions

The Constitutions state that “the general chapter is convoked by the Rector Major”,⁵ and so it is my intention by this letter to officially convoke the GC23.

In the recent plenary session of the General Council too I have appointed the Secretary General, Fr Francesco Maraccani, as Moderator of the Chapter.

I have also chosen the following as the Chapter’s theme:

“Educating young people to the faith:

a task and challenge for today’s salesian community”

Finally I have appointed the” technical commission” which has worked with the Moderator to draw up a “plan of preparation” for the Chapter and to promote the “interest and active participation of the members”.⁶ The results of the commission’s work are to be found elsewhere in this issue of the Acts.

In due course the “precapitular commission” will also be appointed; under the responsibility of the Moderator and in agreement with the Rector Major, it will draw up the reports or schemata to be sent in good time to those taking part in the general chapter”.⁷

“The convocation”, say the Regulations, “will be made at least one year before it opens”.⁸ The various possibilities were carefully studied in the General Council,⁹ and as a result the Chapter will take place in Rome at the Generalate, Via della Pisana 1111, from 4 March 1990 for a period – I hope – of not more than two months. It will begin with a retreat for the chapter members to enable them to open themselves to “the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord”.¹⁰

The “principal purpose of the chapter”¹¹ is not only to make an adequate study of the theme proposed, but also to exercise according to law the “supreme authority” which is one of its characteristics. In fact it belongs to the General Chapter “to elect the Rector Major and the members of the general council”.¹²

This is a grave responsibility affecting the life of the Congregation and its future; it is a question in fact of designating those who for a period of six years will be responsible for the ministry of unity, animation and guidance of the Congregation in the Church and in the world. One need only read over again the articles of the Constitutions which refer to the various roles to be played at world level among us in the service of authority to understand the need there is for immediate prayer, and to begin to discern and dispose our minds to overcome motivations or feelings inappropriate in the face of so vital a choice.

The particular character of the GC23

The GC23 should restore the celebration of the general chapters at world level to their “ordinary” rhythm, as regards both duration and work content.

The GC22 and the approval by the Apostolic See of the revised text of the Constitutions, and the completing of our Rule of life by the last provincial chapters; marked the end of a laborious and fruitful postconciliar period dedicated to the vast work of clarifying the salesian identity in the Church and its consequent legislative expression at both general and provincial level.

The Chapter now in preparation can be called “ordinary” by comparison with the previous general chapters that followed Vatican II. The intention is in fact to concentrate the attention of the confreres on a specific argument of a practical nature, considered to be of particular urgency for the Congregation but to a certain extent sectorial in nature, in the sense that it does not refer to the whole of salesian life.

To rethink our identity in an adequate manner and to avoid the insidious danger of being merely superficial, the last three general chapters have enriched us with documents of great doctrinal depth which have enlightened and guided’ us in responding to the new challenges of the present day. In the light of this wealth of guidelines officially available to us, we are now asked to verify that we have assimilated them and put them into practice.

The scope of the Ge23 is therefore limited to a more immediately practical objective: to verify the efficacy of salesian education with regard to the life of faith of the youth with whom we work, so as to revise with greater incisiveness the educational and pastoral projects of each province and of the individual houses. (What we are looking for from the coming Chapter is a concise collection of “practical guidelines”.)

The theme proposed: Its choice and significance

– The choice of the theme was a natural outcome of the experience of recent years, of the difficulties met with by both young people and the salesian community, but also of our thoughts on the occasion of the solemn promise of fidelity to Don Bosco which we renewed on 14 May last.

The education of youth to the faith has become a complex mission, not only in particular provinces or cultural areas but to some extent throughout all the various Regions. It is quite true that the problem is not one of our own Congregation alone: it is one which deeply touches the whole Church. Nor do its ramifications stem exclusively from specific characteristics of the present-day youth condition; they are rather the consequence of a cultural situation associated with a “turning point” in history: “Ours is a new age of history”, said the Council, “with critical and swift upheavals spreading gradually to all corners of the earth”.¹³ It is a moment of a new ecc1esial beginning, a time of great responsibility and of fascinating historical commitment. It reminds us of the famous “leap forward” of which John XXIII spoke in prophetic fashion in his ad. dress at the opening of Vatican II: It will be our duty, he said “to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us, pursuing thus the path which the Church has followed for twenty centuries”.¹⁴

In the General Council the choice of this theme was reached after lengthy discernment. It began last January with the suggestion of various themes made by the Councilors themselves. Then the Regional Councilors made an informal sounding of the provincials and confreres in their eight regions, bringing back the results to the General Council in June. The various proposals were sorted, and after hearing the opinions of all and noting the priority accorded to the subject of christian education, the Rector Major, made on 6 July the definitive choice.

The Council had already studied and discussed at length over the previous year some of the points involved, which had been seen as urgent problems to be taken up and analyzed to help the provinces.

Once the theme had been chosen there were further discussions for the purpose of expressing it as clearly as possible, defining its content and studying the best way of presenting it to the confreres. In this way it was possible to provide the technical commission with material sufficiently precise to enable it to proceed with its specific work of service to the provinces.

– The significance of the theme is clear from its very statement. Education of the faith¹⁵ and to the faith¹⁶ is the specific line of approach to the analysis and deeper study of the whole question. To use any other approach would be to lack relevance. We shall have to be on our guard therefore against being led astray by side issues.

To develop the theme we must analyze from a pastoral point of view and make a salesian verification of the reality in which we are working. We shall therefore have to make practical reference to the young people we are educating in each of our local presences, so as to reflect on the problems about the faith which crop up in their own lives.

In this regard there is a task we have to carry out, and a challenge to which we must respond.

The “task” is clearly indicated in the Constitutions; the “challenge” will be defined by what is found by the individual local communities and in each province, according to the diversity of the works, social situations, culture and trends.

We must be able to distinguish between what we may call recurrent difficulties and the challenges that arise from cultural innovations, which call for a real rethinking of methods and of the content of education to the faith.

The theme does not exclude an educational commitment among non-christian youth. This indeed is expressly included, but from the specific aspect of a journey to the faith. In his letter “Iuvenum Patris” the Holy Father has reminded us that “the aspect of religious transcendence, the comer. stone of Don Bosco’s pedagogical method, is not only applicable to every culture but can also be profitably adapted even to non-christian religions”.¹⁷

No type of person with whom we work therefore is excluded, but what is emphasized and has to be verified is the specific pastoral and missionary aspect of all our work with respect to the faith of young people: always and everywhere we are “shepherds and missionaries of the young”! We educate with our heart centered on Christ, gradually leading youth in his direction. If it were otherwise, the center of our spirit would no longer be pastoral charity; nor would “da mihi animas” be the motto defining us..

The tasks Involved In education to the faith Indicated by the Constitutions

Our Constitutions explicitly declare that “‘this Society had its beginning in a simple catechism lesson’. For us too evangelizing and catechizing are the fundamental characteristics of our mission. Like Don Bosco we are all called to be educators to the faith at every opportunity. Our highest knowledge therefore is to know Jesus Christ, and our greatest delight is to reveal to all people the unfathomable riches of his mystery”.¹⁸ There you have the great task which defines us!

And the General Regulations, speaking of the educative and pastoral project, tell us that a central nucleus of the plan should be an explicit program of education to the faith, which will accompany the general development of the youngsters, and coordinate the different forms of catechesis, celebrations and apostolic undertakings”.¹⁹

These two articles give clear emphasis to the theme of the GC23.

The work to be done in pursuit of the great content and objectives of these “fundamental characteristics of our mission”, and the educational process to be followed, we find described in the Constitutions themselves, especially in articles 31 to 37. The technical commission has clearly set out its various aspects. Here I would like to focus your attention, dear confreres, on some key points which should help us to understand the unique style of the salesian educational commitment.

I invite you to keep in mind the following points: the fostering of organic unity, the promoting of critical understanding, the development of love, and the discovery of the joy of living.

– The fostering of organic unity is an aspect which concerns both method and content. We have summed it up in the slogan “evangelizing by educating”.²⁰ The Pope reminded us of this in his letter: the particular method of Don Bosco for the evangelization of youth “forms an integral part of the process of human formation, ... so that the faith must become the unifying and enlightening element of their personality”.²¹

This is not an easy thing to do: it demands a deepening of the vision of Christ as the “perfect Man”, the formation of a heart on fire with pastoral love, and the careful acquiring of an up-to-date educational competence concerning human values in the process of growth. This fostering of organic unity obliges us to resolve the tragic cleavage between the Gospel and culture at the grass roots of personal life.

The secret lies in never forgetting the enlightening and unifying function of the faith, and in making it accepted as a leaven for the maturing of the whole person.

The Council too emphasizes this unifying and organic function of the faith: “Let christians follow the example of Christ who worked as a craftsman; let them be proud of the opportunity to carry out their earthly activity in such a way as to integrate human, domestic, professional, scientific and technical enterprises with religious values, under whose supreme direction all things are ordered to the glory of God”.²²

-The promoting of critical understanding in relation to personal freedom. There is an urgent need for education to an authentic sense of sin, i.e. personal sin which depends primarily on one’s own will.

At the present day the awareness of such sin is dangerously declining. Critical understanding is usually fostered with reference to structures, society, particular economic or political systems, without any attention being given to the radical importance and responsibility of the individual and the education of his freedom.

Promoting critical understanding in relation to faith means accompanying the young person on his path of “conversion”, educating him to the values of personal dignity, of overcoming selfish tendencies, of reconciliation, of the great christian significance of repentance, of learning to forgive as he himself feels forgiveness. Don Bosco attached great importance to this aspect, which he considered one of the columns of his educational system.

Giving new life to the sacrament of Reconciliation is an indispensable objective in education to the faith!

– The development of love must bring the young person to understand and share in the greatest act of self-donation in history: the redeeming sacrifice of Christ.²³ The christian faith is directly linked with the Eucharist. From the very outset many of Christ’s disciples did not grasp this; his words seemed like wild exaggeration, But “Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Will you also go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”‘.²⁴

It is not a question here of harking back to the observance of norms (even though the Church’s precepts are important), but rather of educating the mind and heart of the young in such a way that they clearly perceive the supremely central nature of the Eucharist in the life of the individual and in the climate of an educational environment. This is the other column of Don Bosco’s pedagogical method, so vividly present in his educational practice.

It must not become weakened by inconsistent attempts at rationalization. The much vaunted needs that have to be respected in the so-called pre-evangelization process are in fact the result of a secularist kind of lowering of the objectives to be reached in education to faith, with harmful consequences for the educators themselves. Certainly, as the Constitutions say, “imitating God’s patience, we encounter the young at their present stage of freedom”; but they also go on to say: “We then accompany them so that they may develop solid convictions and gradually answer the responsibility for the delicate process of their growth as human beings and as men of faith”.²⁵

If our education does not aim at developing love, we shall never form strong personalities. And education to true love passes necessarily through the Eucharist.

Finally, the discovery of the joy of living implies the ability to appreciate the sense of life as a “vocation”.

Every young person represents a human project to be discovered and realized in the light of a personal awareness of being an “image of God”. If the dignity of the individual is measured by his freedom and the perfection of freedom is the lived exercise of love, the vocation of every young person will consist in his ability to plan his life and conduct on the basis of love. The principal enemy of existence as a vocation is a selfish mentality.

The Constitutions tell us that “we educate the young to develop their own human and baptismal vocation by a daily life progressively lived and unified by the Gospel”.²⁶ There is no need to dwell here on a presentation of the multiplicity of human and christian vocations, but I think it necessary to emphasize the urgent need there is at the present day to be able to single out and bring to maturity numerous vocations to male and female consecrated life, to the ministerial priesthood, and to a generously committed laity; and hence to insist on the pedagogical importance of this vocational aspect of education to the faith.

Let us never forget, either as individual confreres or as communities at the service of the young, that “this work of collaboration with God’s design (is) the crown of all our educational and pastoral activity”.²⁷