Art. 45 – Common and complementary responsibilities

[The project of life of the Salesians of Don Bosco: A guide to the Salesian Constitutions, Rome 1986, p.413- 424]

Each of us is responsible for the common mission, and participates in it with the richness of his own personal gifts and with the lay and priestly characteristics of the one Salesian vocation.

The salesian brother brings to every field of education and pastoral activity the specific qualities of his lay status, which make him in a particular way a witness to God’s Kingdom in the world, close as he is to the young and to the realities of working life.

The salesian priest or deacon brings to the common work of promoting human development and of educating in the faith the specific quality of his ministry, which make him a sign of Christ, the Good Shepherd, especially by preaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments.

The significance and complementary presence of clerical and lay Salesians in the community constitutes an essential element of its make-up and of its apostolic completeness.

In art. 44 it was stated that the one single mission entrusted to the community is carried out by members who have complementary functions and each one of their tasks is important.

Now art. 45 presents briefly the figures of the members who make up the community and work in it for the same mission. It expresses in synthetic fashion:

• the vocational unity

• the specific characteristics of the salesian coadjutor brother (or ‘lay salesian’) and of the salesian priest or deacon (or ‘clerical salesian’)

• their essential reciprocal relationship

THE VOCATIONAL UNITY

The priest or deacon and the brother are presented in the first place in their fundamental equality. The Salesian vocation, says the Rule, is the same for both. The two figures are referred to as the ‘salesian brother’ and the ‘salesian priest’: what is fundamentally common to both is that each is a ‘Salesian’ (the term being used not as an adjective but as a noun), thus expressing their fundamental equality. The manner of living the common salesian vocation, on the other hand, is spelled out by the specific characteristics which define the particular condition of each of them, priest and brother, and the respective tasks which devolve on them as a result.

The article begins by taking up again the theme of art. 44 and stating, that each of us is responsible for the common mission and participates in it with the richness of his own personal gifts. The expression ‘each of us’ is to be understood in a collective sense: the brother and the priest. It is another way of emphasizing the fundamental common responsibility, which is followed by the reference to the original contribution provided by each of the two figures. One and the same religious consecration, the identical apostolic mission and participation in community life are at the basis of the equality between brother and priest.

Don Rinaldi put it like this in 1927: “When Don Bosco began to think about founding a religious Society, he wanted all its members, priests, clerics and laymen, to enjoy the same rights and privileges... The brothers … are Salesians obliged to strive after the same perfection and carry out the very same apostolate, which belongs to the essence of the Salesian Society. (ACS 40,574 – July 1927). Don Rinaldi’s words reflect those of Don Bosco himself; when speaking of the Congregation to the young apprentices he said: “It is an association of priests, clerics and laymen, especially artisans, who want to live in unity so as to love each other and do each other good… Between the members of the Congregation there are no divisions: we all look upon ourselves as brothers…” (BM XII,121).

And so the Constitutions give prominence to the unity of the Salesian vocation, but also to the necessity of two kinds of members for the fulfillment of the original mission of the Congregation.

“The sons of Don Bosco”, wrote Fr. Ricaldone, “must stand side by side, complete one another, and go forward in carrying out the aims of their identical mission… they are not separate or divergent elements but the heirs, instruments and executors of the same divine plan.” (ACS 93, p.14 – 1939)

This joint presence of laymen and clerics and their indispensability for the mission is not just something incidental but has its roots in the very identity of the Congregation.

The Rector Major, Fr. E Vigano, wrote: “We find in the Congregation’s single vocation two fundamental aspects: the sacerdotal and the lay. It is not simply a case of this or that confrere… preferring the ministry of things temporal: it is a matter involving the salesian community as a vital organism, i.e. the Congregation as such, which has of its essence a peculiar and simultaneous sense of both the sacerdotal consecration and the lay dimension, each imbuing the other and forming together a unique life of communion. (ASC 298, p.15 – 1980)

SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TWO FIGURES

But vocational unity doe not deny or disregard the specific nature of the two figures, and the second and third paragraphs of the article dwell on some characteristic features of each.

1. The Salesian Brother

The Rule presents the salesian brother in the first place in his singular salesian vocation, as a ‘brilliant creation of the great heart of Don Bosco, inspired by Mary Help of Christians’, to use the delicately sensitive expression of the Blessed Phillip Rinaldi (ACS 40, p.574 – 1927). The seventh successor of Don Bosco points our the lofty ecclesial significance of this vocation, comparing is with that of the ministerial priesthood: “Radically the difference is not one marked by any negative quality or lack of ecclesial endowment; it is a case of different choice: the brother has opted for a positive Christian ideal not determined by the sacrament of Holy Orders but constituted by a number of values, which form of themselves a true vocational objective of high quality. The GC 21 points out clearly the nature of this choice, calling it a ‘vocation’ which is in itself:

• specific (with its own special character)

• complete (it lacks nothing)

• original (the brilliant creation of the Founder)

• meaningful (of particular relevance at the present day). [GC 21, 173p]

As a Salesian the brother is first and foremost an ‘educator’ dedicated by vow to the overall advancement of the young and the common people. He carries out tasks of cultural, professional, social and financial kind, in addition to those which are of a catechetical, liturgical and missionary nature: in other words he is engaged in ‘every field of education and pastoral activity’. Because, as a religious, he does not act in his own name, but receives his mission from the Church, he shares deeply in the pastoral ministry, giving a particular expression to his baptismal priesthood.

But while the salesian brother is carrying out these tasks, he is also giving his characteristic contribution to the community, a contribution which the Constitutions see as deriving precisely from his lay condition. “There are some things”, said Don Bosco, “that priests and clerics cannot do, and you will do them”…(BM XVI,313), they are precisely the things which his conditions as a ‘lay’ religious enables him to do.

Hence, after stressing the authentic and fundamental Salesian religious vocation and its community dimension, the text goes on to consider the specifically ‘lay’ form in which the brother lives it. As the GC21 said very clearly: “The lay dimension is the concrete form in which the brother lives and operates as a Salesian religious” (GC21, 178). The article of the Constitutions says the same thing in different words: the brother ‘brings… the specific qualities of his lay status.” It should be noted that precisely because of this kind of presence, as well as the traditional name of ‘salesian brother’ the Constitutions and Regulations in certain context use the term ‘lay salesian’.

We may ask: in what precisely do the ‘specific qualities of his lay status’ consist, that distinguish him form the lay qualities of the man living in the world?

It will be useful to keep in mind the significance of some terms in frequent use. “Laity”; according to the accepted usage in ecclesial documents (LG chapter IV, and AA of Vatican II) refers to those who through Baptism have been incorporated into Christ and constituted members of the People of God; in their own way they share the priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ, and to the best of their ability carry on the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world (LG 31). In the Council documents and in the CIC the layman is considered from the vocation standpoint as a member of the faithful distinct from clerics, who are in sacred Orders (LG 31; CIC – can.207). The religious state is one with peculiar characteristics in the Church, linked with a Charism of the Spirit; the conciliar documents explicitly state that the faithful who are either clerics or lay can become religious (LG 43;CIC can.588).

In the documents of the Magisterium frequent reference is made to secular tasks as belonging to the laity (LG 31: ‘Their secular character is proper and peculiar to the laity”). The term ‘secular’ (and related terms) refers to tasks connected with the ‘secular’ reality, i.e. all temporal realities which concern the present age (as distinct from the realities which directly concern the last end). In one sense the whole Church, because of its pilgrim nature, has a secular character, and therefore all its members are linked to some extent with secular realities. But the laity are more specifically inserted in such realities and it belongs to the laity to insert in them the Gospel ferment through their professional contribution.

A distinction needs to be made between SECULAR LAITY, who foster secular realities and raise their level in a Christian fashion, acting within them in virtue of their own duties and laws, and RELIGIOUS LAITY (which include the Salesian Brother) who work in specific sectors of the secular realities in virtue of their consecrated status and according their professional competence the charitable activity of the Church offering a living witness to the fact that ‘the world cannot be transfigured and offered to God without the spirit of the beatitudes’ (LG 31)

The Special General Chapter gives the following answer: “With the characteristics proper to religious life, he lives his vocation as a member of the laity, seeking the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to God’s plan; he exercises his baptismal priesthood, prophetic witness and kingly service, and in this way truly shares in the life and mission of Christ in the Church; with the intensity that derives from his specific consecration, and by ‘mandate’ of the Church (and not merely as a private individual), he fulfils the mission of spreading the Gospel and of sanctifying in a non-sacramental manner; his works of charity are undertaken with greater dedication within a Congregation devoted to the integral education of youth, especially those in need; finally, as regards the Christian renewal of the temporal order, since he has renounced efficacious manner, educating youth to the Christian renewal of work and to other human values (SGC 149).

The Salesian Brother is called to live his lay condition according to the Salesian Charism and in the context of his community. (ACS 298, p.29-30 – 1980) The reality of his lay status is not cancelled by his religious profession, but rather gives a special slant to every aspect of the confrere’s life: the Salesian mission, life of community, apostolic activity, profession of the counsels, prayer and the spiritual life.

It gives to the Salesian community too its characteristics aspect that Don Bosco wanted: enriched by its lay aspect the community is able to approach the world more validly as regards its apostolic objectives.

The text does not refer directly to the different roles of the Salesian Brother, but stresses that his lay condition and his experience, united with a deeply Salesian heart, make him particularly ‘close… to the young and to the realities of working life’. History bears witness to the fact that in the Oratories, in technical and trade schools, in the missions the brothers have carried out a very rich apostolate and have had a most efficacious influence. We may well think that in the ever more secularized world in which we are living, the presence of the Salesian Brother becomes correspondingly more urgent and valuable. (ASC 298, p.47-79; Don Vigano presents two authoritative appeals, quoting Don Albera and Don Rinaldi).

We may note finally that the entire text of the Constitutions reveals the interior attitude which underlines the characteristic vocation of the Brother, on account of which his Salesian heart is anchored in the transcendence he live in temporal realities, into which he injects the radical power of the Gospel. This enables him to move in a secular context with a mentality which is at the same time both technical and pastoral, and this is of great value to the community!

2. The Salesian Priest or Deacon

The ‘Salesian priest or deacon’ is the sign of Christ the Good Shepherd, the sacrament of his ministry as Head of the Church.

Priest, according to Vatican II, exercise ‘the function of Christ as Pastor and Head in proportion to their share of authority’ (PO 13). In fact, ‘by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, priests are signed with a special character, and so are configured to Christ the priest in such a way, that they are able to act in the person of Christ the Head (PO 2).

Between the ministerial priesthood (deriving from the sacrament of Order) and the common priesthood of the faithful (deriving from the sacrament of Baptism) there is a mutual complementarity: they are ordered one to another (LG 10). From the standpoint of the final purpose of Christian life, primacy belongs to the common priesthood: “All the disciples of Christ, persevering in prayer and praising God, should present themselves as a sacrifice, living, holy and pleasing to God. They should everywhere on earth bear witness to Christ and give an answer to everyone who asks a reason for the hope of eternal life which is theirs” (LG 10).

But from the point of view of the sacramental efficacy of their insertion in the sacrifice of Christ, the priestly ministry has an essential role on account of the ‘sacred power’ of which it is the bearer: priest, in fact, ‘exercise within the limits of their authority the office of Christ, the Shepherd and Head’ (LG 28).

What happens is that the service of the priestly ministry renders efficacious in the Church the common priesthood of all the faithful. But if priests exercise their role of presiding they must also, as St. Peter warns in his first letter, avoid acting “as domineering over those in [their] charge but being examples to the flock “ (1 Pet 5,3): they must be able to show that they are at the same time both ‘leaders and members’; truly ‘fathers’, but also ‘brothers’; teachers of the faith, but mostly ‘fellow disciples’ of Christ; masters of perfection ‘for the faithful, but witness’ also be their personal holiness”(MR 9).

On the basis of this doctrine of the Council, the Constitutions ask in the first place that Salesian priests be all that they should be.

It is both pleasing and significant to recall what Don Bosco said to the Minister Ricasoli who had invited him to Palazzo Pitti at Florence on 12 December 1866: “Your Excellency, I want you to know that Don Bosco is a priest at the altar, a priest in the confessional, a priest among his boys, a priest in Turin, and a priest in Florence. He is a priest in the house of the poor and a priest in the palace of the King and his ministers (BM VIII, 239).

This is a wonderful indication of personal identity and unity of life in Don Bosco. “In this way”, declares the Council, speaking of priests, “by adopting the role of the Good Shepherd they will find in the practice of pastoral charity itself the bond of priestly perfection which will reduce to unity their life and activity” (Po 14).

The salesian priest feeds his heart on pastoral charity which can only come from Christ the Shepherd. This is a basic attitude which prompts him to seek through his every word and gesture to be an authentic pastor with the heart of Christ himself. It is his first and chief task!

Recalling the decree ‘Presbyterorum Ordinis’, the SGC had this to say: “The priest is the spiritual man and must always have before his eyes the image of Christ, servant and shepherd. His ministry is an act of service, eschatological in character, the visible signs of which are his preaching of the Gospel and administration of the sacraments. In virtue of his office he publicly proclaims Christ as Saviour of today’s world; he gathers together the Christian community, uniting them in Christ’s sacrifice, and as their guide leads them to the Father through Christ in the Spirit (SGC, 142).

But the Constitutions emphasize that the Salesian priest is called to exercise his ministry according to the Salesian Charism in the context of his community. His model is Don Bosco, whom Pius XI in his Enclyclical on the priesthood cited with John Mary Vianney and Joseph Cottolengo as a ‘star of the first order’ and ‘true giant of holiness’. The Salesian priest is a priest according to the spirit and apostolic guidelines which made of our Father a sign of Christ for the young and the common people.

The Council itself recognized that within the one priesthood there could be different roles: “All priests contribute to the same purpose, the building up of the Body of Christ, and this demands many kinds of duties and fresh adaptations, especially in our own times” (PO 8).

There are therefore different ways of exercising one and the same priestly ministry.

There are many tasks which may await the Salesian priest: responsibility for a youth center, preacher and catechist, teacher and educator, work in a parish, chaplain, group animator, missionary, superior of a community etc.

The common denominator is the fulfillment of his task with a priestly heart; that he proclaim the Word, that he sanctify and animate a community. The text expresses these intentions and tasks by the word ‘especially’.

The salesian priestly ministry is not something isolated and practiced individually. It enters into the communion of pastoral objectives for the complete Christian education of the young which involves also other equally indispensable contributions.

Nevertheless the text emphasizes a basic orientation. Among all their tasks, Salesian priests give priority to those characteristics of their ministry, because “it is the first task of priest to preach the Gospel of God to all men”(PO 4), and they are ministers of the sacraments, particularly of the Eucharist and Penance. And so the Gospel, the altar and the confessional represent the priorities for the ministry of every Salesian priest.

ESSENTIAL RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP

The last paragraph of the article emphasizes the essential mutual relationship that must exist between the lay Salesian and the Salesian priest in the community, if the latter is to assume its full apostolic physiognomy. This means that in the Salesian priest must be found some of the aspects found in eminent form in the vocation of the brother and vice versa, and this to such an extent, that the priesthood has no meaning from a Salesian point of view if it is not seen in relationship with the figure and contribution of the lay salesian.

On the other hand the lay religious character of the Brother does not find its true meaning without conscious reference to the figure and ministry of his priest confreres; the brother lives and works in spiritual and pastoral communion with them.

The article ends with the statement that the ‘significance and complementary presence of clerical and lay Salesians in the community constitutes an essential element of its make-up and of its apostolic completeness’. This is and expression in other words of Don Bosco’s explicit desire concerning the ‘form’ of the Salesian Society (C 4): the Salesian Congregation would no longer be itself if one of its components were missing; in every provincial and local community the presence together of clerics and lay members is needed for its ‘apostolic completeness’.

The priestly and lay dimension requires each other and com-penetrate in a specific spirituality of apostolic activity. Each is in so strict an integrational relationship with the other that they become mutually essential. In the Salesian community priests and brothers take part in a vital exchange of their different aspects, and forge the bond of an intrinsic inter-relationship for carrying out their common mission.

As the RM said at the end of GC22: “Every confrere be he cleric or lay, if he has the true awareness of being a ‘member’, will feel that he shares the responsibility for everything, bringing to it the gift of himself and his particular vocation. The priestly and lay components do not imply the extrinsic summation of two dimensions each belonging to groups of confreres distinct from each other, running on parallel lines and eventually putting together the efforts of each group, but rather a single community which is the true recipient of the one Salesian mission. This requires a particular formation of the personality of each confrere, so that in the heart of each clerical Salesian there is an intimate feeling of being linked to and co-involved with the lay dimension of the community, and in the heart of each lay Salesian in turn there is the same feeling in respect of the community’s priestly dimension. It is the Salesian community, in each of its members, which bears witness to these sensitivities and carries out undertakings which are at the same time both ‘priestly’ and ‘lay’ (GC 22,80 and GC 21, 194-196).

From all this it is not difficult to understand why the Constitutions indicate the ‘significant and complementary presence’ of clerics and laymen as an “essential element” for the ‘apostolic completeness’ of the Salesian community. And one can understand too the importance, in pastoral work for vocations, of presenting and showing adequately the two figures of Salesians, with the specific and rich contribution that each of them brings to the common mission for the young and the poor.

God our Father,

You distribute your gifts in a variety of ways,

and direct them all to the common end of salvation.

Grant that in our communities

The common riches and diverse gifts

With which you endow lay and priestly members

May be received by each one with gratitude

And used to good effect

For the harmonious building of your Kingdom,

Especially among young people.

Through Christ our Lord.