The knowledge of Don Bosco and his work in Slovene territory goes back to the 1860s; before the Salesians came there at all, there was a consistent number of Salesian Cooperators. Don Rua yielded to the insistent requests of these Cooperators, and especially to those of one of the most zealous pastors of the Slovene Church at that time (the Archbishop of Ljubljana, Mgr Anton B. Jeglič,1850-1937), who offered them a small castle at Rakovnik, not far from the Slovenian capital.⁷ The first group of Salesians arrived at Rakovnik on 23 November 1901, led by Fr Simon Visintainer, who had been chosen as the first Rector.

In 1907 the second Salesian work in Slovenia in the small town of Radna was opened: a novitiate of international character, even though the majority of the candidates were from Poland; it functioned later also as a studentate of philosophy. Even the third Salesian work “Marijanišèe”, opened in 1912 in the village of Veržej, was not directed originally to Slovenes, but to German Sons of Mary who wanted to transfer from Penango (Piedmont-Italy) to somewhere nearer home.

In 1919 political freedom enabled the Salesians to take up again their full apostolate in the first house of Rakovnik and a period of new foundations followed in the whole of Slovenia. The prospects of continued development led to the erection in 1922 of the Province of Sts Cyril and Methodius with headquarters at Ljubljana; in it were incorporated the first Salesian houses of Croatia and Czechoslovakia. The first superior, with the role of Visitor, was the Italian Fr Peter Tirone, who was succeeded in 1926 by the Pole Fr Stanisłaus Pływaczyk and, from 1929, by the Slovene Fr Franc Walland.

The bright hopes for the future changed suddenly with the outbreak of war, especially when Jugoslavia entered in 1941. The war led to some deaths among Salesians, eliminated through the work of the Jugoslav Communist Party.

In the years of détente, around 1955, the Salesians chose fresh areas for new work for the benefit of the local Church; they offered themselves for missions among the people, and even prepared manuals suitable for this kind of apostolate (printed in the form of leaflets or in SejaIec (the review for preachers). After 1955 Fr Walter Dermota began an activity for the preparation of catechetical aids and in 1963 managed to set up the very successful Salesian Catechetical Centre.

1989 saw a historic turning-point. The Salesians were given back their boarding schools of Veržej, Celje and Rakovnik-Ljubljana, and as soon as 1991 were able to open the first Catholic high school in Slovenia (Želimlje). In the meantime other Slovene Salesians carried out an apostolate among their co-nationals living outside the homeland at Opicina-Italy, Klagenfurt-Austria and among the emigrants at Hamilton (Canada). Slovene Salesians have been working in Albania from the beginning of Salesian work in that country.

The rather long and somewhat complex story of Salesian work in the Northern European Region serves to show us how Don Bosco’s charism can be implanted everywhere, how it can grow strongly and also resist in the face of the kind of adverse circumstances we have described. How much we can learn from the Salesians of this Region! And I am convinced that they themselves can draw enlightenment and inspiration to face successfully the challenges of the present day, no longer characterized by war and persecution but by a creeping secularism, a reductive globalisation, and a dechristianisation of culture.

The Region is in the midst of a deep and rapid process of transformation of a Europe which for centuries has seen its people fighting against each other, with constantly changing frontiers between nations (Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Jugoslavia, Hungary, Russia, etc.); a Europe that has witnessed the “forced immigration” of entire peoples in Russia, the obligatory “transfer” of Poles and German people in Silesia, the events of the Sudetans in the Czech Republic; a Europe that dreams of unity and has decided to turn over a new leaf in its history and give its backing to peace, to the freedom of countries and of all its citizens, to the development in solidarity of all the countries within it, and which has recently adopted a Constitution that can keep it united in diversity.

3.1The new Europe

This is the new Europe, which in the past was able to create rich cultural expressions and is now decisively headed towards the development among all European citizens of a sense of belonging to one people, while committing itself to systems for social security and all individual freedoms. A Europe which, after the widening of its boundaries, knows nonetheless the gap between extreme riches on the one hand (a GDP of 32,000 US$ in Switzerland and 1.9% unemployment) and extreme poverty on the other (a GDP of 1.90 US$ in Bosnia-Herzegovina with 60% unemployment).

This is the new Europe, which is running the risk of losing its ‘soul’, the fruit of two thousand years of Christian history which made it all one as a continent. Today’s Europe is in fact indebted to the valuable contributions of Augustine, of Thomas Aquinas, of Rembrandt, of Michelangelo, of Raffaele, of Leonardo, of Shakespeare, of Montesquieu, of Spinoza, of Bach, of Galileo, of Newton, of Kant, of Goethe, of Einstein and others.

This is the new Europe which has given to the world men and women of the highest stature: St Benedict, St Francis of Assisi, St Dominic Guzman, St Ignatius of Loyola, St Francis Xavier, St Boniface, St Willibrord, St Thomas of Canterbury, St Patrick, St Adalbert, St Hyacinth, Sts Cyril and Methodius, St Stephen King of Hungary, St Catherine of Siena, St Teresa of Avila, Fr Damian De Veuster, St Edith Stein, and a host of other saints.

This is the new Europe which is no longer at ease with its soul and is blotting out its history, or at least reducing it to the influence of Athens, Rome and Paris, and to a situation in which the Church and the gospel message are struggling to find a place in this “home for everyone”. It is the case of a Europe, at least as regards its western part, which in the words of John Paul II, “gives the impression of ‘silent apostasy’ on the part of people who have all that they need and who live as if God does not exist”.¹⁰

The fact is that in some parts of Europe there is clearly a need for a first proclamation of the Gospel, because there is an increasing number of the non-baptised, either because of the notable presence of immigrants belonging to other religions, or because children of families with a Christian tradition behind them have not been baptised due perhaps to the Communist domination of the past or to a widespread religious indifference.

This is the Europe we must discover and to which we must open up the Gospel, a true mission territory for first evangelisation. And all this must be done with the zeal and enthusiasm of Paul who responded to the cry for help from the man from Macedonia, but also with the intelligence of one who is aware that what is at stake is the heart of the Gospel, God revealed in Jesus who died on the cross. We must proclaim a God who is compassionate, who has a predilection for the poor, the weak, the widow, the stranger – a God so human that He Himself became a man who suffered and by his passion gave us back the dignity we had lost, and filled us with hope.

It is true that this new evangelisation of Europe needs new evangelisers. For this reason the Salesians must get ready for this wonderful task of contributing to the restoration of Europe’s soul, by putting Jesus Christ and his Gospel at the centre of personal and community life, by strengthening the love of (and faith in) our own charism, by acquiring an ever greater knowledge and esteem of the eastern “lung” of the Church and of the Congregation, concentrating on a love that will benefit the poor, the needy, the abandoned and those at risk, learning to dialogue and be tolerant in a context that becomes ever more multi-cultural and pluri-religious.

3.2The youth situation

My earlier letters on the Western European Region and the Region of Italy and the Middle East have provided a picture of the youth situation in western Europe. Roughly speaking this description is true also of the youth situation in the western part of the Northern European Region. For this reason I want to dwell rather on the youth situation in the central and eastern part of Europe which is generally less well known.

Going by the Report of UNICEF’s Innocenti Centre of Research at Florence, entitled “Young People in Societies in Transformation”, which analyses the experiences of the “generations of transition” in 27 countries of central and eastern Europe, there exist in these countries 65 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24. Of these 26 million (41%) are students, 21 million (32%) are working, and 18 million (27%) are neither one nor the other. These figures are eloquent in themselves, but even more so from the standpoint of our mission.

The Report sees in the “transition generation” an enormous resource for the region (and not only for the region) in this era of rapid economic and social transformation. It recommends the development of policies for the benefit of the young which aim at supporting families, communities and society, as well as the young people themselves.

The Report also asserts that the success or failure of adolescents and young people often has its roots in infancy; it is fitting therefore to invest in small children. And a conclusion follows that is of great significance for us: happy and healthy youngsters do not spring up out of the blue. They are persons who have begun life as babies and have developed their potentiality through education. I cannot fail to recall at this point the appeal made by Cardinal Ratzinger during the meeting of European Provincials when, in reply to a question as to what he himself expected from the Salesians of Europe, he declared with clarity and conviction: “the prophecy of education”.

Until 1989, that is before the fall of the Berlin wall, unemployment was practically nonexistent in the greater part of the countries of the region. Now it has become an enormous problem with more than 40% of young people unemployed; many have been out of work for more than a year.

Between 1989 and 1998 the birth rate fell by a third or more in most of the countries, and indeed by a half in Armenia and Estonia. If the present trend is maintained, the number of young people between 15 and 24 in central Europe will drop by a third in the next twenty years.

The Report reveals also a generation whose health is threatened. About half a million of those who in 1989 were in the 5 to 14 age-group are no longer alive today. In 1998, in the whole area, 85,000 people died between the ages of 15 and 24, Many of these deaths were due to accidents, acts of violence, homicide, suicide, and natural causes like infectious diseases and complications in pregnancy.

Although in some of the countries in transition the suicide rate among youngsters between 15 and 24 has decreased, in 16 countries it has gone up and has more than doubled in Lithuania, in Belarus, in Russia and in Turkmenistan. The rate is particularly high, and is still rising, in Slovenia, in Estonia, in Latvia, in Ukraine and in Kazakistan.

The Report asserts moreover that young people of poor families, from rural areas, of ethic minorities and the disabled, form an unusually high percentage of those who abandon school at an early age or who never go to school at all.

All these indications describing the youth situation in the central and eastern part of Europe are certainly of great value to us for the fulfilment of our mission among the young.

3.3The Salesian situation of the Region at the present day

The Northern European Region was set up by the GC24. At present it includes 16 Provinces, together with the Special Circumscription of the East with headquarters in Moscow, and one Provincial Delegation (Malta). In its recent plenary session the General Council also approved the constitution of a Delegation of Ukraine-Byzantine rite in the Ukraine.

The Region covers 25 countries in 3 continents, and a total of 21 different languages are used.¹¹

Many Provinces, with great generosity, have accepted responsibility for the Salesian mission in other countries.¹² Other provinces maintain a close link with their foundations which have now become part of autonomous circumscriptions: the North Belgian Province with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and with Bangui in the Central African Republic; the three German-speaking Provinces with Ghana; the Province of Great Britain with Liberia.

3.3.1Coordination

The Region does not function as a single Provincial Conference, because of the wide variety of contexts. For the purpose of fostering interprovincial collaboration, four areas have been created:

– The Provincial Conference of the four Polish Provinces (Piła-Kraków-Warsaw-Wrocław) and the Circumscription of the East with headquarters in Moscow.

– The Provincial Conference of the three German-speaking Provinces (Cologne-Munich-Vienna).

– The Sts. Cyril and Methodius Consulting Group (CIMEC), bringing together five Provinces (Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary).

– The Consulting Group of the “Atlantic Area” which includes the four English and Dutch-speaking Provinces (North Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland-Malta, Holland).

3.3.2Salesians

In September 2004 the Region had 2,751 professed confreres and 52 novices. As in the other Regions of Europe this represents a diminution. In fact since 1996 the number has fallen by 472 confreres.

The average age in the Region is 55 years, but it varies widely from one Province to another. The youngest is Poland-Krakow (42 years), the oldest is Holland (72 years).

The majority of the novices are to be found in Poland (30); the Provinces of the CIMEC (with the exception of Slovakia), which at the beginning of the ‘90s were still getting a good number of candidates, have seen a fall in the number of novices. A modest improvement is taking place in Slovenia and Croatia, and the development of Ukrainian confreres of Eastern Rite gives rise to hope.

More problematic are prospects in the Atlantic area of the Region and in that of the German-speaking Provinces, where very few candidates are entering (except in Great Britain which this year has three novices).

In 1996 the Region had 498 confreres in temporary vows. Now it has 240. Closer examination reveals the great differences that exist across the Region in this respect:

– 153 temporarily professed confreres belong to the four Polish Provinces and the Circumscription of the East; 71 are in the CIMEC area, of whom there are 51 in Slovakia alone; the Atlantic area has 16 and the German-speaking area 9.

– From 2002 a tendency towards stabilisation can be detected of vocations in the Provinces of Croatia, Poland-Piła, Poland-Wrocław, Poland-Kraków, Slovenia and in the Circumscription of the East. The only Province showing a slow decline is Slovakia.

– Malta, the Provincial Delegation of Ireland, appears to be somewhat different. The Delegation has 34 confreres (9 of them in initial formation). With an average of 48 years, it is showing signs of growth. This implies that Malta has a religious and ecclesial environment far different from that of Western Europe. At the request of the Bishops, the confreres have recently taken responsibility for the training of workers in Youth Ministry in the island.

3.3.3 Brothers

At present the Region has 249 Brothers, of whom 23 are in temporary vows; they represent 9% of the total number. In 1996 they were 237, with 42 temporarily professed. It should be noticed that 8 of those in temporary vows are in Slovakia.

This is something else that takes place in many different ways. In the Atlantic and German-speaking Areas it is well organized. In Ireland it takes place through the group “Ethos” in collaboration with the FMA. In Great Britain it is done through “The Governors”, and in North Belgium by a structured two-year programme for all lay people involved in schools and in houses for young people at risk, and through the “Centre of Formation” (Vormingscentrum). In Germany they have a vast programme of formation for lay people together with Salesians; it is organised by the JugendPastoralIstitut from Benediktbeuern.

In Poland the formation of lay personnel in schools is usually left in the hands of head teachers. In this matter it may be possible to draw up a project at interprovincial level.

In the CIMEC too the situation varies from one Province to another. Hungary organises meetings at provincial level. Slovakia concentrates on the formation of lay animators. Croatia and Slovenia give their attention mainly to the formation of laity involved in parishes; in schools the formation is entrusted to the head teachers.

Some Provinces, with the expenditure of much energy, have set up higher Institutes where Salesians and laity can become qualified: Benediktbeuern (Austria, North and South Germany), the Faculty of Theology of Ceské Budejovice (Czech Republic), the Salesian Higher Institute of Christian Education at Warsaw (Poland), the JABOK special school of social pedagogy and theology (Czech Republic), the Salesian Higher Institute of Economy and Commerce (Poland-Warsaw), Courses of Salesian formation (North Belgium).

In general the Region is outstanding for the notable number of qualified confreres who have not only a university degree but also a diploma in education.

In Europe there are two main challenges to pastoral work among young people: the dechristianization of a Europe closed in on itself, which has lost the thread of its Christian legacy and in which many young people are living with a great religious hunger but are often unclear and confused, and the challenge of the new kinds of material and spiritual poverty and of immigration which afflicts youngsters in particular and gives rise to a growing social exclusion.

Facing these challenges, youth ministry finds itself called upon in the first place to live more radically the commitment to evangelisation, as a response to the intensive search of young people for meaning, as a means of fostering the values of personal dignity and zest for life, and as an explicit way of making contact with the Lord Jesus and with faith journeys; and at the same time it must be inclusive, overcoming the different forms of youthful marginalisation, seeking ways of integration, of interreligious dialogue and of intercultural experience, of giving help to the family, etc.

Youth ministry in the Region is looking for practical ways to give a decisive response to these challenges. While traditional structures of encounter and education (schools, parishes etc.) are becoming ever more difficult to manage and are losing their impact – especially in the western part of the Region – new possibilities are arising for making contact with the young, for prompting them to positive objectives: youth groups and movements, houses of spirituality, projects for the accommodation and education of the very poor and of young immigrants in particular, welcoming environments, opportunities for young people to take the lead etc.

And so, for example:

In the Flemish part of Belgium youth pilgrimages are being made to the places of the origin of our charism, and there are spirituality weekends and weekend retreats for young people organised by the team of the Oasecentrum of Groot-Bijgaarden; in Malta there are the activities of ‘SPYS’ and the ‘Live-ins’ at Dingli.

Prominent in Poland are the new and promising youth movements: ‘Pustynia Miast’, ‘Saruel’, ‘Oasi’, ‘Ministranti’, Silos, with various pilgrimages and regular youth encounters such as ‘Savonalia’ (Kraków), and ‘Pielgrzymka ministrantow’ (Wroclaw), Scouts, vocational camps etc.

In the CIMEC also there are interesting experiences: in Slovenia the Association ‘Mladinski Ceh’ and the ‘Skala’ project; in Croatia ‘Don Boscofest’, youth groups, and ‘Campus ministry’; in Slovakia associations of altar-servers, spiritual and educative projects, youth festivals, Lumen and the ‘Domka’ activities. In the Czech Republic there is the Salesian Youth Movement and that of Salesian clubs for young people. In Hungary there are well attended meetings at Peliföldszenkereszt for workers and animators engaged in youth ministry.

In the German-speaking area there are the efforts of the “Don Bosco Haus” at Vienna together with ‘Eurotreff’ and ‘Jupa - Tagung’. In Germany there is also the significant activity of ‘Aktionszentrum’ at Benediktbeuern and the houses of spirituality at Calhorn and Jünkerath.

At Regional level there is not yet a project of collaboration involving all the Provinces, but there are many initiatives for the young organised at regional or interprovincial level. In recent years the “Don Bosco Youth net” has come into being; it is a structure coordinating various Salesian youth organizations of the European Provinces.

The various pastoral projects involve many lay people, teachers, animators and members of the Salesian Family; they testify to a significant extent the way the young are taking the lead.

I think that in the Region we must encourage and strengthen this development of youth movements which are so evidently lively, creative and attractive. Still true are Fr Vecchi’s words in a letter to the Provincials of the Western Area of the Northern European Region: “I think it is necessary in all the works to put the emphasis on the development of youth ministry with schemes of evangelisation for all, emphasising at the same time formational processes and a clear plan of Christian spirituality for those who show themselves willing and able to take up more decisively the task of seeking out and following up vocations”.

This means creating the conviction that the SYM is a true Salesian work; it means drawing up a plan of pastoral action for families; it means closer collaboration with initiatives of the local Church, often not known to us; it means giving more importance to pastoral work among university students, and gradually reaching a closer coordination at interprovincial and regional level.

4.4 Pastoral work for vocations

Within youth ministry, pastoral work for vocations merits special attention. The Plan of animation and government of the Rector Major with his Council for the six-year period 2002–2008 for the Northern European Region had foreseen among other things the creation of a new “vocational culture”. This appeal has found an echo in every Province, and the method of implementing it has been studied by the Region’s Provincials. Here are some points that have emerged.

In the Atlantic and German-speaking Areas we have to admit that our works and structures, though of the highest educative quality and guided with great dedication and competence by confreres and laity, are proving to be environments ever less suitable for prompting vocations to the consecrated life. The few candidates we have seem rather to come from the “movements” with a strong identity and spiritual dimension (prayer groups, pilgrimages, etc.) or from outside our environments altogether.

In the Circumscription of the East, in Poland and in the CIMEC on the other hand, schools and parishes remain the primary settings where youngsters find their vocation, even though ever greater importance must be given to the aspect of Salesian spirituality in the groups and movements.

Many Provinces now have prayer groups or organise periods of adoration for vocations. It is clear that prayer creates a mentality, leads to a conversion, gives us courage in making proposals and sustaining them, but above all it emphasises the grace and primacy of God in our lives. And this in fact is the proper frame of reference. I would like to recall some significant initiatives in this regard.

Salesian Poland has witnessed a great development of the “Salesian youth movements” marked by a powerful spirituality and mission among the young, such as ‘Saruel’, ‘Pustynia Miast’ e ‘SPE’, from which many vocations come. The animation of our young confreres in parishes during youth retreat days or “vocation weeks” must not be overlooked. The Warsaw Province has begun this year a process of twelve steps for young people open to Christ’s call in their lives.

It is good also to see how in Slovakia pastoral work for vocations has become an integral part of pastoral work in movements and in youth centres.

The Czech Republic, one of the most secularised countries of Europe, and especially Bohemia, has had for years a suitable and well qualified model of aspirantate and prenovitiate at Sebranice.

Croatia successfully reopened two years ago the aspirantate at Podsused, near Zagreb. Slovenia too has reopened its prenovitiate.

In the Ukraine as a first step in vocational pastoral work in the territory, aspirantates have been opened for candidates of both Latin and Byzantine rites.

In Germany there are reception communities in operation at Benediktbeuern, Bamberg, Regensburg and Chemnitz.

In the light of these experiences I think it important to direct our attention to the following elements for an authentic pastoral work for vocations:

– The presence and witness of the Salesian communities:

· ensuring that the communities are visible, as regards their daily routine, their environment, and especially as regards brotherly relationships among the confreres;

· that they are able to bear witness to the “sequela Christi” in poverty, chastity and obedience;

· that they live the preventive system among the young, freeing themselves from other commitments that take them away from young people and obscure the significance of our life as consecrated people.

– Programmes of spirituality and service that are decisive and of high quality:

· offering to youngsters who show willingness clear spiritual ways forward, and then setting up among them creative groups after the style of the old sodalities, which provide opportunities for the young to take the initiative in line with the principle “the first evangelisers of the young are the young people themselves”;

· seeing to it that the youngsters are followed up personally.

– Strengthening our work in the university field and collaborating more closely with the initiatives of the local Church.

4.5 Social communication

This sector of the Region is in a state of growth. Most of the Provinces have a provincial newsletter, while in others the letter of the Provincial serves the same purpose of information.

The Region publishes the Salesian Bulletin in 15 different editions, including a Russian edition that began in January 2004. There are 14 publishing houses, 17 bookshops and 7 printing establishments. The big publishing houses, like “Don Bosco Verlag” in southern Germany and “Portal” in the Czech Republic, specialise in pedagogical and psychological publications. The other houses concentrate rather on books supporting our mission among young people and families. Collaboration is being consolidated between some of these publishing houses, led by that of the Munich Province of Bavaria. A first modest step in collaboration has been the publication in seven languages of a small book for children “Rosie goes to Church”; it was printed in the Czech Republic. More recently a book on the Saints for children has been published, and a third is in preparation with the title: “With you, children, through the liturgical year”.

Of particular significance is the work of the publishing house of Gatchina in Russia, which is gradually finding its place in Russian society and the local Church.

At the urging especially of young confreres, deeply sensitive to the new technologies, websites have been developed for parishes, youth centres, schools and Provinces; this calls for education to a well-balanced use of this form of communication through information technology.

It is my hope that our work in this field may increase, and that social communication may become an important dimension of our mission. I think it of primary importance for formation, for animation of the Salesian Family and promotion of our charism, especially in Eastern countries, that as soon as possible we have available the fundamental texts of the charism and of our Salesian literature in the different languages. Greater attention needs to be given to our Salesian history over the last fifty years, which reveals how the Congregation, almost without contact with the Centre, has developed and discovered models of pastoral work to meet the circumstances. It is a history of which we can be proud, which we must never forget, and which has so much to teach us!

4.6 The Missions

Commitment of the Region to the missions has a long and wonderful history. The Region still has 340 missionaries working in different continents, including the 70 confreres who have the pastoral care of the “Catholic missions” in Germany.

In the eastern part of the Region special mention is due to the noble dedication of Poland, especially in Africa, and at the time of the creation of the Circumscription of the East; to the courageous commitment of Slovakia in Siberia and Azerbaijan, to the generous presence of Slovenia in Serbia and Montenegro, of Croatia in Bosnia-Herzogovina, and of the Czech Republic in Bulgaria.

Naturally in recent years, because of the decline in vocations and the conviction that Europe itself is becoming ever more a mission territory – especially as regards its western part – the number of missionaries going to other continents has fallen dramatically; but the Provinces remain open to this ecclesial dimension of our charism and, with great generosity, allow those confreres to depart who have asked to go to the missions. In this connection our thanks are due to all the Provinces of the Region and to the missionary confreres themselves.

It is also right to emphasise that all the Provinces take good care of missionary confreres returning home definitively to their Province of origin. A very valuable service is provided in this regard by the Mission Offices of the Region, by their missionary animation, the welcoming of confreres returning from the missions and the collecting of funds for the support and extension of the Salesian mission all over the world. And so in Austria we find the “Jugend Eine Welt”; in North Belgium “DMOS-COMIDE”; in Germany-Cologne the “Missionsprokur” and the “Jugend Dritte Welt” in Bonn; in Germany-Munich the “Missionprokur” at Beromünster in Switzerland; in Great Britain the “Missions Office”; in Ireland-Malta the “Missionary Office”. In Poland there is a Missions Office in Warsaw, and in Holland the Missionary office.

While expressing, in the name of the whole Congregation and of the missionaries in particular, our gratitude to all these Offices for helping us to fulfil the Salesian mission in the world, I invite all of them to seek a greater synergy in harmony with Provincial projects so as to give rise to even greater promotion in the Provinces themselves and to ever more effective help for the Salesian missions. This is the way to create in the confreres a mentality which looks on missionary promotion as an essential part of a Province’s mission, to make our confreres and lay collaborators aware of the fact that we are all called to be missionaries in our own countries, especially in the western world, and that we have to carry out an explicit evangelisation by trying to bring to maturity in young people the choice of a way of life, including the Salesian way.

The Salesian Family is well established in the Region and in some Provinces is undergoing a real revival. But for the future there is need for greater collaboration between its various branches, based on the conviction that Don Bosco wanted to start up a great spiritual and apostolic movement at the service of young people, the Salesian Family, and which having the Rector Major as its centre of unity, today still bears his charism and continues his mission. It is because of this understanding that I am insisting everywhere on the need to create a greater synergy, while respecting the identity of each Group, so that we can work together wherever we may be in the world.

In some Provinces there is a “Consulting group” for the Salesian Family, which has been found to be a suitable instrument for the animation of the whole Family.

The FMA have a consistent and important presence in the Region, with 166 communities. Collaboration is in general very positive. It may be useful to note that in Poland the person responsible for Salesian schools at national level is an FMA; in Ireland another FMA is responsible for the formation of lay personnel in the work of the two Congregations through the “Ethos group”, and in Northern Belgium the FMA take part in the government and animation of the Salesian schools. There are many fields too in the area of youth ministry and the use of spare time where there is excellent collaboration.

The Cooperators Association has a significant presence in the Region with 211 “Centres” and more than 5,500 members.¹³ We can never forget that in many Provinces of the Region the existence of our Congregation is due to the enthusiasm and intervention of the Cooperators with our father Don Bosco and his successors.

I would like especially, as a sign of gratitude, to point to the significance of the Cooperators in the CIMEC Area and in Poland during the Communist regime. Without their active presence the Congregation would not have survived.

It can be said that the Cooperators are very much linked with the Salesians and Salesian work. With them we truly live the family spirit and collaboration in the mission. A field still to be cultivated as a vocational resource for the Association include the Volunteers and the numerous leaders, adults and young people involved in the Salesian Youth Movement.

The life of the Past Pupils’ Association varies from one Province to another. In some it is well established with a well structured organisation (North Belgium, Great Britain, Germany-Munich, Malta), in others it is in process of starting up again (Poland, Croatia, Slovakia), and in still others (such as Austria, Germany-Cologne, Ireland, and the Czech Republic) there is animation but few links with the Federation.

Some ADMA groups exist in the Region (Great Britain, Poland-Piła, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic).

The Don Bosco Volunteers (VDB) are some 274 in number, with the majority of them in the Czech Republic which has 5 groups with 44 members, in Poland which has 50 members, and especially Slovakia with 15 groups and 150 members.

In Malta there is the CDB with 5 members.

A word needs to be said about the Michaelites, the “Congregation of St Michael the Archangel” (CSMA) founded, as I said when speaking about Salesian work in Poland, by Fr Bronislaw Markiewicz who will be beatified on 24 April. The Congregation has 320 confreres, of whom 217 are in Poland and 103 in other countries. They include 17 Brothers and 36 confreres in initial formation.

5. Future prospects

5.1For all the Provinces of the Region

After covering the history of the different Provinces that make up the Region of Northern Europe, so different in their context, kind of work and available human resources, I feel the need to say something about future prospects, keeping in mind on the one hand the great commitment of the confreres, who live their vocation with exemplary dedication, enthusiasm and competence, and who believe in the young, in the prophetic value of education in Europe at the present time, and in the unique value of Don Bosco’s preventive system in evangelization. And remembering on the other hand the marked decline in number of vocations, at least in some areas, of vocational frailty, of the falling numbers of confreres working directly with young people, and consequently of our progressive separation from the world of youth.

With the GC25 we affirm that “in the midst of a pluralistic world, searching for new models for life and meaning, yet marked by dramatic situations of poverty and oppression, consecrated life today can be significant if, like the ‘house built on the rock’, it is founded on the unconditional commitment to Jesus Christ, anchored in the evangelical call to holiness, and placed on the frontiers of the Church’s mission” (GC25, 2).

How then do we see the Congregation’s future in this Region? What decisions must we take to continue to be this “Salesian European element” that has so much to offer to the Congregation?

I offer the Provincials, the members of Provincial Councils and all the confreres some practical guidelines to outline a present designed to have a future in the Region.

5.1.1 Live the zeal and enthusiasm of ‘Da mihi animas, caetera tolle’.

Since the future will depend on persons who are fired up, whose lives are inspired by the educative and evangelizing zeal of Don Bosco, we are called upon to rediscover the very roots of our charism, the joy and confidence of those early days, even in our own Province; to make a priority of evangelisation in the oratorian sense, offering to young people paths of faith, personal follow-up and schools of prayer; fostering a structured and unified youth ministry at local and provincial level by ensuring the presence of the dimension of pastoral work for vocations; giving the Salesian Youth Movement its proper place; taking up again reflection on the content of the GC23 and the manual of Youth Ministry, so as to ensure the genuine identity of our environments and proposals; to enliven various projects with a clear vocational aim and process; to give a missionary animation to our pastoral initiatives and processes and stimulate the mission “ad gentes” among both confreres and volunteers; to establish model parishes with a clear Salesian ethos and gradually abolish parishes ‘ad personam’; to remain open to the launching of new works or flexible initiatives of reduced dimensions; to approach with courage new areas of poverty – youngsters at risk, ethnic minorities, those far away from the Church; to promote the Salesian charism in the neighbourhood with the help of the means of social communication; to renew attention to our identity and to the promotion of the vocation of the Salesian Brother.

5.1.2 Create communities that prompt “family life”.

Youngsters have need of witnesses, of persons and groups whose lives manifest a new way of living, who clearly demonstrate in the ordinary circumstances of every day that living in love is worthwhile. For this reason we must accept the fact that the local community makes the primary contribution to ongoing formation. Hence the importance of properly appreciating the family moments foreseen by the Constitutions, for example, the house council, the assembly of the confreres, the community day, the monthly and quarterly retreats, the Good Night, the Rector’s conferences; taking particular care to follow up community Rectors; concentrating, in harmony with the Provincial Organisational Plan, on some works particularly significant from a Salesian standpoint and grouping together confreres available for the projects involved, thus creating strong and visible communities which will serve as a driving force for the development of a Salesian approach in all our works; developing a strategy that will enable us to close or to hand over our other works to lay people or to official bodies; properly organising the Salesian formation of lay people, where this is still lacking; strengthening the conviction that we are the “animating nucleus” of a wide movement based on the Salesian Family and on all the collaborators who share in the Salesian mission.

5.1.3 Renew and deepen our spiritual life.

Since the education and evangelization of young people in Europe at the present day calls for Salesians marked by an intense life of the spirit, who can speak of God to the young and bring Him to them, we must put at the centre of our personal and community life Christ, the life of prayer and sacramental life; we must organise community life against the background of the centrality of this fundamental aspect; we must make good use of the suggestions given us by the Constitutions in this regard, living tranquilly in obedience, chastity and poverty; consolidating or intensifying our moments of prayer for vocations in every community. A support for the Region can come from Benediktbeuern if we make of it a centre of formation and of Salesian spirituality, and as a “Forum” for dialogue between the two lungs of Christian Europe.

5.2 For the different parts of the Region