Team Visit of East Asia and Oceania

Hua Hin, 11.03.05

My concluding address is built on what has been dealt with in these days of the Team Visit. Rather than multiply directives, I invite you to concentrate all your forces on three particular areas for action through which you can face the powerful social and cultural challenges of East Asia and Oceania today.

In each Province, these need to be translated into the aims to be achieved, identifying those who will be responsible for their implementation, and determining the timescale for their assessment.

Keeping in mind that Asia and Oceania as a whole are the main field of evangelization in the Third Millenium, I would summarize the goal of our salesian presence in the Region as our commitment to foster the missionary dimension of the salesian vocation.

To make this happen, we need to ensure:

I.The Primacy of the spiritual life

The key to the renewal of the provinces and communities is to be found, as I have indicated in the presentation of the Acts of the CC25, in Const. Art. 3: Our Apostolic Consecration. “Our apostolic mission, our fraternal community, and the practice of the evangelical counsels are the inseparable elements of our consecration which we live in a single movement of love to wards God and towards our brothers. Our Mission sets the tenor of our whole life.” So, mission is for us Salesians the center of our life.

The crucial point is, then, to understand what mission is all about. Mission is not mere activities, initiatives, or works; it is the expression of our passion for the salvation of the young (DMACT), a passion that has its source “in the very heart of Christ, apostle of the Father” (C 11).

The challenges we are facing come from:

cultural provocations: secularism, materialism and consumerism lead us to a life without God, spiritual values and the ability to make a gift of oneself;

personal temptations: the weakening of Salesian identity and the lack of a solid formation induce us to live the religious life as a “state” and not as a ”project” of life and gradually to lose the sense of vocation;

institutional problems: the lack of a sense of belonging to the Congregation and the failure to adopt its guidelines lead to a sense of formal belonging, a lessening of affection, and an indifference to all that reinforces identity and unity.

The New Religious Life requires people full of passion, fire and mysticism, i.e. men who have love as the most powerful driving force and who let the Holy Spirit be their leader. If they have a why, they will be able to face whatever how. The following are the aspects that need to be taken care of:

1.The spiritual life of the individual confrere, of the community and of the Province

The Provincial and his Council must ensure that:

every confrere learns to make his lectio divina every day, rediscovers the examination of conscience, and is able to find some time for study and reflection;

the community offers opportunities to the confreres to share their faith, spiritual experiences and pastoral work; guarantees time for reflection during spiritual retreats; and finds occasions for praying with young people.

2.The personal and community plan of life

In the “Memoirs of the Oratory” we find the project of life of Don Bosco and of the Oratory of Valdocco. The Provincial and his Council must ensure that:

every confrere has a personal project of life which he reviews on the occasion of the annual spiritual retreat and the monthly recollections; in it he traces out the path of his spiritual life in fidelity to the Constitutions;

at the beginning of each educative and pastoral year every community prepares its project of life, in which it binds itself to live, with the help of the “grace of unity”, the commitments of a fraternal life, the radical following of Christ, the apostolic mission, prayer and an ongoing formation.

3.The role of the Rector

Fundamental to this commitment to the spiritual life is the role of the Rector as the father, guide and animator of the community. For this reason the Provincial and his Council must ensure that:

every Rector is aware that his first responsibility is to guide the confreres and the community in keeping alive the passion for the salvation of the young;

he takes care of the confreres, prepares himself for the service of spiritual direction, prioritizes his commitments, keeps himself available and facilitates the fraternal talk with the confreres;

the new Rectors are sent to appropiate courses in spiritual direction so that they are prepared to animate their communities spiritually and to listen to their confreres.

II.A Planning Mentality

With the planning mentality we wish to decisively confront some big challenges which present themselves in our life and in the salesian educative-pastoral work:

The cultural challenge of individualism which destroys the Christian sense of communion, and brings about compartmentalization in our work and fragmentation in our lives;

The personal challenge of activism which leads the confreres to give primacy to doing and not to being, bringing about physical overwork, psychological stress and spiritual emptiness;

• The institutional challenge of resistance to change to respond adequately to a rapidly changing reality, and which requires a change in the style of work: from one centred on doing and on activities, to one centred on processes and on a planning mentality.

1.The way of fulfilling our mission today

The planning mentality is the only way today to fulfill our mission efficaciously and meaningfully. For this:

The Provincial and his Council in the next few years will continue to motivate the confreres and the salesian communities, and inculcate in them a planning mentality; in a special way the Provincial and his Council will enable the Rectors and the salesian animators of the principal sectors of the community life and of the educative-pastoral work to guide the communities on this path of planning.

“Drawing up a Project means developing communion (looking together at reality, sharing the values, choices, motivations;), the more everyone is involved, the more will the project become a common one. The realization of a Project is also animation because in drawing it up we have to decide not only on the main priorities but on the people with whom we shall be directly dealing.

The drawing up of a Project is even a way of evaluation, because projects do not arise spontaneously but form one phase of a long process, which begins with an assessment of what has been done already and what still remains to be done.” (Rector Major, ACG 380, p. 12).

2.The various projects

This planning mentality is expressed through the various projects that guide the development and the accomplishment of the life and the educative-pastoral work of the Province and of the communities.

2.1The Overall Provincial Project (OPP)

The OPP is the strategic plan of animation and government of the province, which looks both at its life and mission, and presents the fundamental options that guide the sustainable growth of the province (priorities and criteria of development of the works as a whole), the vocational development of the SDB and of the communities (criteria for the numerical and qualitative consistency; relations between communities and works), the meaningfulness and the cohesiveness of the works and the educative-pastoral services (criteria of meaningfulness and of re-dimensioning).

It guides and inspires the other provincial and local projects.

1. At the provincial level

The provincial educative-pastoral project (SEPP):

It presents the objectives, the contents and the processes of our educative and evangelizing proposal to be accomplished in the presences of the provinces as a whole.

The provincial project of formation

It applies to the province the orientations of the Ratio both for initial as well as for ongoing formation, the qualification of the confreres and the formation of the SDB and the lay partners together.

2.1.2At the local level

The community project

It develops the criteria and objectives of the salesian style of “living and working together”, which the confreres of a local community share and commit themselves to, evaluating it annually.

The educative-pastoral project of the work

It presents the objectives, the processes and the contents of the educative and evangelizing proposal to be accomplished in each work.

2.1.3At the personal level of each salesian

The personal project of life

It consists on the goals and the formative experiences which each salesian takes up responsibly for his vocational growth, the development of his capability of renewal in the mission, and the progressive unification of his life and mission.

3.Orientations

In the animation of all these projects that orient and guide the life and work of the salesian communities, the following orientations are proposed:

3.1The Provincial and his Council in the next few years will draw up or re-elaborate the OPP according to the suggestions offered by the Rector Major and his Council, make it known and bring about the maximum possible agreement among the confreres and communities, and guide the animation of the entire life and work of the province according to the options, criteria and lines proposed in them.

3.2The Provincial and his Council will accompany and help the local communities to draw up the community project of life, and to animate the drafting of the SEPP by the EPC according to the options and criteria of the OPP and the provincial SEPP.

In this task they may be assisted by a specialized group of SDB and competent lay persons, who offer adequate instruments to the communities, and accompany them in the process of drawing up and evaluating the projects.

3.3The Provincial and his Council will help the Rectors to guide the confreres in drawing up their personal project of life, setting aside for this purpose specific moments in the atmosphere of a retreat, offering schemes and models and encouraging occasions of communication and verification.

III.Our commitment to Formation

Formation is a response to the gift of a vocation or call from God. To respond to this gift and to the challenges of the present day, our provinces, communities and confreres have to be placed in a state of ongoing formation that makes for their spiritual renewal, updating in their educative and pastoral work, and pedagogical competence. The following are the aspects that need to be taken care of:

1.Inculturation of initial formation

To communicate our Salesian identity to new vocations in the Region we have to give them greater care and attention, see to their inculturation and offer competent guidance. Some aspects become particularly necessary:

The inculturation of our charism requires a knowledge of Don Bosco and of our Salesian identity. Therefore,

• we need to revise and make more concrete the programme of Salesian studies to be taught in each of the phases of formation;

• we have to see to the formation of Salesians in “Salesianity”, drawing on the resources available at our Salesian Pontifical University;

and we must take steps towards a more robust Salesian spirituality and pedagogy in the region.

Inculturation will be effective if we know the family background and the past life of our candidates, pay attention to their prenovitiate and the formation preceding it, and offer them personal guidance.

Inculturation needs to be reinforced through an experience of the various ways of expressing the Salesian charism and cultures which are found in the different provinces of the region; to this end, encouragement ought to be given to interprovincial collaboration in initial formation and to the study of the English language.

Religious inculturation requires the study of the great religions and the formation in inter-religious dialogue.

2.Ongoing Formation

Each confrere must be helped to acquire a mentality of ongoing formation and to make provision for periods of reflection and personal study in his schedule. In particular, he should opt for readings on spiritual, Salesian and educative-pastoral themes.

The provinces should help the Rectors of local communities to include a section on ongoing formation in the community plan. Ongoing formation is fostered when the library is kept up-to-date, there is a vibrant community life, and occasions are provided for fraternal gatherings and for meetings at local, provincial and regional level. The “community day” has to become an effective experience of ongoing formation.

The province needs to offer opportunities of ongoing formation to groups of confreres, especially Rectors, and to age groups, particularly Salesian Priests and Salesian Brothers in the first five years after their ordination or perpetual profession. Such opportunities could take the form of seminars, provincial assemblies, and interactive forums on important themes of spiritual and pastoral life.

3.The Provincial Formation Plan

To have good, solid communities and to be prepared to face the new challenges in the fields of our mission and formation, every Province must carefully study the measures it needs to take to qualify all its confreres.

All this will be laid down in the Provincial Formation Plan drawn up by the Provincial and his Council with the assistance of the Provincial Formation Commission. The plan will also spell out the ways in which ongoing formation is to be carried out in the province.

IV.Conclusion

In the present religious, social and cultural contexts of the Region, it is necessary for all the provinces as groups, and for all the confreres as individuals to grow into the concept of networking for the mission. We need to look beyond the boundaries of our own houses and provinces to develop a salesian mentality that is not limited by local or provincial boundaries.

In the spirit of collaboration and networking we need to create a united salesian reality in the entire Region of East Asia and Oceania; more concretely:

1. At the Provincial Level

constant effort at conscientisation regarding the need of networking and synergy at all levels, thus creating a better sense of adherence to the provincial community and the Salesian Family. Frequent and opportune use of the communications media to sensitise communities on the need of networking is of great importance;

more appropriate use of the various commissions and other organs of animation to coordinate and link together works of a similar nature thus maximising results in terms of mission and minimising the efforts to attain them.

4.2 At the Regional Level

strengthening inter-provincial collaboration by readily providing competent personnel and adequate financial support, and for the inter-provincial formation houses;

collaborating for Mission ad gentes by making missionaries available;

using better information channels such as websites and news letters to link provinces together and to undertake common ventures.

I entrust all of you to the motherly care of Mary Help of Christians. May she continues to be the guide of our lives and the support of our mission.

D. Pascual Chávez V.

Rector Major

Hua Hin, 11.03.05