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March 29, 2012
Dear Brother and Sister Salesians:
Last week many of us participated
in one of the most impressive and
significant gatherings of Catholics
in the US, if not the whole world. I
refer of course to the Los Angeles
Religious Education Congress
held annually at the Anaheim
Convention Center. This year
upwards of 40,000 people attended!
You’d think such a huge gathering,
even if it was about faith, would
draw more media attention.
It’s not that we of the Salesian
Family just participated either.
We had a very popular booth
which was “manned” by SDB
young men in formation, young
FMA postulants, and young
hearts and faces of the Salesian
Youth Movement. And we also
had one of our own, Juan Carlos
Montenegro, invited back to give
his popular workshop in Spanish
on the Salesian style and brand of
youth ministry. And then we saw
the Salesian Family in action in our
crowded hospitality suite in one of
the hotels. My thanks, in the name
of everyone in the province, to all
involved.
A congress on religious education
is exactly where we Salesians
belong. Religious education is
what we Salesians are about.
After all, Don Bosco would say
that his whole ministry began
with a simple catechism lesson
and a Hail Mary. The very first
regulations of the oratory have
these words: “Religious instruction
is the oratory’s primary objective,
while the rest is only an accessory,
an inducement for the boys to
attend.” When our Constitutions
tell us that “we are all called to
be educators to the faith at every
opportunity” (C 34), they lay down
for us what must be the primary
purpose of each of our institutions,
programs and works.
Of all the many excellent talks I
heard and workshops I attended
one really stands out for me. It
was a workshop by Thomas
Groome of Boston College on
implementing the US Bishops’
framework in our religion classes.
In our schools and parishes aren’t
we struggling with this framework?
But I think Groome gives us a path
forward when he challenges us to
a new method of apologetics to
teach the faith to our young people
and to persuade them to that
faith. Yes, apologetics! Actually
it’s an old apologetic method,
stemming all the way back from
Aristotle: pathos, logos, and ethos.
As Salesian religious educators,
whatever the curriculum or
textbook, we want to share our
enthusiasm for Jesus with young
people (pathos). We want to appeal
to their minds in understanding
the reasonableness of faith in Jesus
(logos). And we want to teach
them the beauty of virtue over the
fear of punishment (ethos). It’s the
difference between a teacher and a
witness.
Is this not the method of Jesus
with the disciples on the way to
Emmaus, accompanying them from
life to faith and back to life again?
Is this not what Don Bosco meant
by reason (logos), religion (ethos)
and kindness (pathos) as the
methodology for walking side by
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side with the young so as to lead
them to the risen Lord (C 34)?
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Timothy C. Ploch, SDB
Provincial
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