DIREZIONE GENERALE OPERE DON BOSCO

Via della Pisana, 1111, C. P. 18333 - 00163 ROMA

Consigliere generale per la formazione

MEETING OF “MISSIONARIES” IN EUROPE

“Motivations and commitments of “Project Europe”

Rome, 25 - 27 November 2011

Dear Confreres,

I am happy to meet you and come to know all of you, to propose to you some reflections on the motivations and commitments regarding the Project for Europe and especially to hear your experience and the way you live the vocation of "missionaries" in Europe. I will now present a summary of the reasons for “Project Europe” and will then review the first two areas of this Project.

1. Reasons for “Project Europe”

The 26^th General Chapter indicates its explicit task: "to relaunch the Salesian charism in Europe" (GC 26, 108). It is up to the Rector Major with his Council to define "the nature and objectives of the intervention for a renewed Salesian presence in Europe" (GC 26, 111).

The reasons for this commitment, which is so concisely and solemnly formulated, are provided in the fifth theme of the General Chapter, which deals with the new frontiers. Europe is, in fact, one of the new frontiers for the Congregation. The 26^th General Chapter identifies this frontier.

“We share the Church's concern for the future of the Gospel in the Western world, and especially in Europe. There is a constant weakening of reference to the Christian roots which have contributed to the identity of the Continent, inspired thought, customs and art, guided the history of its peoples, enriched the Church with splendid figures of holiness, and for centuries nurtured a missionary zeal throughout the world. Given the interdependence of peoples, Europe's destiny involves the entire world and becomes the concern of the universal Church. This opens up a new frontier with respect to the past; for us Salesians it is an invitation to ‘give greater attention to the training of young people in the faith’ (EiE 61)” (GC 26, 99).

If this is the reason, we can legitimately ask: are there not also very urgent challenges in other regional contexts as well? Why is this privileged treatment regarding Europe? The needs of the first evangelization in Asia and Africa, the challenge of poverty, of the sects, the encounter of the gospel with indigenous peoples in Latin America, the Salesian presences in Islamic contexts - are not these frontiers equally urgent?

The General Chapter presents a precise answer in this matter. It describes with lucidity and precision the overall situation of the Congregation in Europe:

“In recent decades we have witnessed a gradual weakening of the Salesian presence in some nations in Europe. The worrying decrease in vocations has meant confreres are doing their best to maintain presences and activities by involving lay people in the management and animation of these works, redefining boundaries of provinces in order to set up joint projects to respond better to the challenges of education and evangelisation. We see the un-sustainability of this kind of effort without a courageous project on the part of the whole Congregation”. (GC 26, 102)

The Salesian charism threatens to disappear from Europe or at least from some of its areas. If the situation were to continue in this way, Europe would lose a great resource, especially at the very moment when there is an educational emergency. The situation of the youth has become an urgent problem that demands an appropriate answer.

Pope Benedict XVI does not hide the danger of the marginalization of the gospel in Europe and of the disappearance or reduction of the charism on the whole. On 1^st March 2008 it was stated:

“At a time when in Europe vocations are declining in number, many are the challenges that the charism of Don Bosco encounters. The Pope expressed his concern in the letter addressed to the Rector Major and to the members of the Chapter. The challenges of evangelisation are increasing; the Salesian Congregation needs to devote its attention to strengthening the proclamation of the Christian message, the presence of the Church and Don Bosco’s charism in this continent. Just as Europe has been generous in sending numbers of missionaries to the whole world, so now may the whole Congregation by making a special appeal to those Regions rich in vocations, be responsive in its regard.” (GC 26, p.92).

Starting from the First Meeting of European Provincials, in December 2004, the Rector Major had already identified the need for a special intervention in favour of Europe, and since then had sent missionaries to Europe.

There is no doubt that the invitation of the Supreme Pontiff in this regard has helped the Chapter Members to move gradually toward this choice for the whole Congregation. In his closing address to the 26^th General Chapter, the Rector Major clarified that this is a deliberate commitment of the General Chapter affecting the whole Congregation; it involves "all the Regions and Provinces to send Salesian personnel".

2. Revitalizing the Salesian charism

For the whole Congregation, and particularly for the European Provinces, “Project Europe” is an excellent opportunity to restore vitality to our charism. It is helping us, in accordance with GC 26, to rediscover some elements of our identity and our spirit. In this perspective, the situation that we are facing in Europe has become for us a great opportunity rather than a threat.

Of the three areas indicated in “Project Europe,” the first one is decisive: the "endogenous regeneration of the charismatic identity". It highlights the low impact of the charism. In point of fact, the Salesian charism in different parts of Europe is not capable of regenerating itself; it has lost it power to attract vocations; it is not capable of facing the challenges that secularization poses; it is in danger of disappearing.

For this, it is necessary to place the problem on the table: is the salesian charism in Europe capable of regenerating itself? If it has the capacity and the strength to revitalize, what are the steps to be taken? Help from outside will be important, but the revitalization has to be primarily “endogenous”. The regeneration of the charism regards particularly the individual Salesian, the community and the mission.

The Salesian in Europe

What is his identity? What defines him: the role and the service? How does the religious consecration give meaning to his life (Const. 3)? What place do prayer and the mystic have in his life?

What are the diseases that he manifests: spiritual superficiality, activism, lack of trust, self absorption, dislike for study and continued formation?

Why does his life become meaningless? Is this perhaps the result of a loss of identity and the weak expectation of a life that one professed to live in obedience, poverty and chastity?

The Salesian Community in Europe

How does the community meet the cultural challenges? What is a Salesian community in Europe? Is it a home of the pastoral workers or an organization that manages works?

What are its diseases: functional relationships, lack of fraternity and sharing, functional subdivision of labor, difficulties to reflect and pray together?

How does the community manifest its consecrated identity? How is it perceived in the locality? What image has the salesian community in the context of the educative pastoral community?

The Salesian Mission in Europe

Why is our mission weak? Why does it not provoke the profound questions of faith? Is it because we lack courage? Why do we stop at the threshold?

What are its diseases: Can the mission be reduced to the maintenance of works? Can we be satisfied with good organization? Can we be apostles without being disciples?

How is the mission capable of combining education and evangelization? How does it meet an unbelieving and indifferent youth? How does it respond to the needs of the youth?

In the face of these questions, I suggest some ways to re-vitalize our charism in Europe.

The first way requires starting from the knowledge of the European culture and the diverse sub-cultures present in Europe. Culture creates mind-sets, offers models of life, generates behavior, permeate life. Deep knowledge of the culture will suggest ways to respond to the above mentioned questions. If this be the given context in which we live, what kind of Salesian should we be and become? If the cultural climate is characterized by these traits, what model of community should we construct, so as to be prophetic, provocative and attractive? If the context presents itself to be suspicious and indifferent to faith, how should we modify our pastoral intervention? Without a serious cultural preparation, we cannot become significant in the context. Therefore, we need well prepared Salesians.

The second way consists in discerning the signs of life that are dimly perceived in consecrated life and in the Congregation in Europe today, in order to strengthen or cause them to be born. We have to discern the direction in which the Spirit is blowing. Only spiritual people can discover and provoke the signs of the times that are signs from the Spirit. It is therefore necessary to identify the positive aspects and the expectations present in the society, in the Church in Europe, in consecrated life and in the Congregation. It is opportune to search out those shoots that indicate new life that is growing. This search for vitality has to deal with the Salesian, the Community and the mission in Europe.

The third way is formation. If this is the culture and if these are the signs of the Spirit present in it, what is the formation to be offered in Europe? It is not merely a question of formation in the European context, but much more, namely, facilitating a “European formation”. Also in this case, formation should question the profile of the European Salesian (whether he be native or missionary), the identity of the Salesian community, and the type of mission. There will be no revitalization of the charism without a great effort at a new formation - initial or permanent. Formation should favor personal, community and institutional conversion. If the hearts of the confreres are not changed and if there is no apostolic passion in the community, we will not be able to bring fire on the earth. This formation should above all bring a transformation of the heart and the mind. Formation that does not transform the person, the community and the mission and hence does not help the process of spiritual and pastoral conversion is purely conformity and adaptation.

3. Redesigning the Salesian presences in the Province

To speak of “redesigning the Salesian presences in the Province” helps to define clearly the three aspects of the problem: the word “redesigning” refers not only to the outcome, but above all to the process that aims at changing the existing situation; the term “Salesian presences” offers an aspect of concreteness to every single community and work; and the mention of “in the Province” implies that this process concerns every single Province and ought to take place within each Province.

The process of redesigning our presences is an application of Project Europe. In fact, number 2.3.1 of the Interventions of Project Europe for 2011-2012 states: “The Provincial with his Council, in the context of the Province Structural Plan will re-design the presences of the Province, identifying how and through what interventions to make the presences significant, selecting the presences to be re-dimensioned or simplified, finding the new needs and the new frontiers to which to respond with new presences, activities and works.”

This operational guideline of Project Europe asks for three processes to be carried out: a “re-signification”, a “re-dimensioning” and a “re-location”. The aim of the first process is to make the presences in a Province new and “significant”, i.e. capable of “communicating a message” to people; the second process intends to reduce, rationalize and simplify some presences in a Province in order to strengthen others; the third process takes into consideration the new needs that call for a response, the new frontiers, and the new presences that need to be opened.

The significance of “Salesian presence”

The Constitutions and the Regulations speak 22 times of “works”¹, but the term “presence”, as a synonym for activity or work, appears only twice.² The word “presence” has a more dynamic and broader meaning than “work”. Starting with GC24, a preference was made to speak of the Salesian community as an animating nucleus, together with lay persons, not of works but of educative and pastoral communities. In GC25, together with lay people and the Salesian family, the Salesian community animates a presence. Let us now examine how the Congregation officially understands the word “presence”.

In 1998 the Rector Major, Fr. John Vecchi, gave a conference to the Union of Superiors General on “Redesigning presences: criteria, perspectives, restructuring”.³ This is still a text for all of us to refer to today. In it he describes how we are to understand a “presence”.

In 2002, GC25 used this term especially in the third section which spoke of an “animating presence among the young”; the interesting thing is that this Chapter also described its meaning; we could say that GC25 made official the terminology used by Fr. Vecchi. GC25 said:

“Wherever there is a Salesian community, there is a gift of God: an experience of faith, a network of relationships and multiple forms of service to the young. The community gives visibility to the Salesian presence, animates it and promotes its growth. Even though it is not possible to identify the mission with the work, the Salesian presence among the young gives shape to a work and can be expressed in it. The presence expresses a progressive capacity for welcoming acceptance and communion, a commitment to education and evangelization, and a method for follow-up and vocational discernment” (GC25 38). “The Salesian presence is a dynamic reality, a network of relationships, an ensemble of projects and processes, activated by pastoral charity and carried out together with young people, the laity and the Salesian Family. The subject of this presence, therefore, is not exclusively the Salesian community” (GC25 42).

A presence directs us to something else that becomes present; it is therefore a symbolic reality. It directs us to our charism. For the sake of visibility and continuity in time, the charism needs to be incarnated in concrete and recognizable works. However, it cannot be taken for granted that simply by existing a religious work makes the charism present, nor that the vitality of the charism is to be measured by the ongoing continuation of the works. The works can continue to function by force of inertia, but they can gradually lose their power of suggestion, their vitality and “significance”; they can have a great history to narrate, but no longer have anything to say for the future. Therefore, it is important to redesign our presences, and hence the presence of the Salesian charism, rather than to ensure the “survival” of our works at all costs.

“Re-signification”: making our presences new and giving them an inspirational quality

A Salesian presence is “significant” if it has an identity that distinguishes it, a visibility that makes it recognizable, and a credibility that renders it effective. In this regard, GC25 enumerates seven criteria:

“In the elaboration and revision of the Province Structural Plan, the Provincial and his Council, with the help of a working team, will evaluate the effectiveness of the mission of the individual works with reference to the following points:

• the adequate number of confreres and the necessary qualities in the Salesian community;

• the possibility of a fraternal religious life in Salesian style, perceptible and significant for the young and for lay collaborators;

• the presence among the young, especially the very poor and those most in need, through an intense living of the preventive system;

• the ability to provide responses of educative and evangelizing quality to the challenges arising from the world of youth and from the social context;

• the ability to combine with other forces (laity, youngsters, Salesian Family, other Provinces and organizations), and give rise to ecclesial vocations with particular attention to the Salesian Family;

• the promotion of light and easily managed works that allow for a dynamic adaptation to a change of circumstances;

• the ability to collaborate and have an effective and prophetic impact on the evangelical transformation of the locality” (GC25 84).

The first criterion regards the person of the Salesian. The one who makes the difference in the community is a Salesian of good quality, serene, well-prepared, motivated, balanced. Allotting tasks which are disproportionate or for which one is unprepared just in order to fill a role at all costs is sometimes paid for at a high price. The reduction in the forces available or the uncontrolled expansion of the works or their complexity can create some real problems or a permanent state of emergency which crushes persons and upsets that delicate balance between the apostolic mission, the fraternal community and the practice of the evangelical counsels (cf. C 3) in which our consecration consists.

The second trait is the quality of fraternal life. A sufficient number of confreres, apostolic commitments commensurate with the forces actually available, well-thought-out styles of organization, timetables consistent with the obligations of our consecrated life, a shared community plan of life, the actual availability of confreres suited to roles of direction are some of the “variables” that influence fraternal life in a significant manner and turn a community into a welcoming “home”.

The third element is the possibility of direct contact with the young. In order to be Salesian, the presence must have a clear youthful connotation and it ought to be structured in such a way as to allow the meeting of the young with the Salesians. In addition, being close to and helping the poorest are nowadays the eloquent signs that speak directly of the Gospel, and make us more credible and authentic in living our vocation and carrying out our mission; they attract many people and move them to act in solidarity.

The fourth is the educative and pastoral quality which we succeed in ensuring in our works - not only the quality we would like to have, or say we have, or plan to have, but the quality that can really be perceived and verified. It is easy in this regard to confuse good intentions with effective results. The quality we refer to is the capacity to put into practice that “pedagogy of the faith” which is the preventive system.

A fifth factor which can contribute to the “making new” of a community is its vocational vitality. It is a matter of taking care of vital elements in the community: community prayer and apostolic dedication, fraternity, presence among the young and the ability to welcome them and share some time together, the witness of a life which is obedient, poor and chaste, and being close to the problems of the young and of ordinary people. This convinces, attracts, provokes and makes an explicit vocational invitation credible.

The sixth criterion regards the ability to draw in other forces so that the Salesian community can become a centre of communion and of participation. We are “significant” when those wanting to get involved find in our community a point of reference, support and acceptance. In this sense the Salesian community becomes the animating nucleus of a much wider educative and pastoral community. To this end, it needs to have a sufficient number of confreres and that they be well prepared.

The final element of “significance” regards our impact on and insertion in the local society and the Church. The presence is “significant” when it becomes the reference point for social, cultural and religious initiatives, when it conveys a message to people, when it is in dialogue with its surroundings, with the educational institutions and with the local Church, when it is able to establish relationships and network with others…

I thank you for your attention. I hope that some of the points I have proposed may serve for an enriching discussion.

Fr. Francis Cereda