2.3 SOCIAL COMMUNICATION:

DELIBERATION N.6 OF THE 23rd GENERAL CHAPTER

Fr Antonio MARTINELLI

Councillor for the Salesian Family and Social Communication

Preliminary

The deliberation concerned reads as follows: "The journey of faith of the young demands from the community a new form of communication" (GC23, 254).

The chronicle of the GC23 makes evident the manifest will of the capitulars to deal with the theme of communication in the context of "educating young people to the faith". Such an approach had not been contemplated in the preparatory work for the Chapter, but the members deemed it opportune not to overlook so significant an aspect of contemporary culture; and so were born the few paragraphs from 254 to 260 of the Acts of the GC23.

What happened is in some way indicative of the practical history of the salesian communities as regards social communication: there was need of a 'supplementary' decision and a further stimulus for an efficacious insertion into a process which today's world is following at high speed.

A careful re-reading of the few pages concerned will help us to a fuller realization of our mission as educators and evangelizers.

What follows should be considered as a first 'aid' towards a deeper understanding of the Acts of the GC23. It is directed primarily to the communities so that they may rediscover their commitment to education to the faith through social communication; and then also to those working in communication at provincial and local level, to enable them to verify the effectiveness of the service they are rendering.

Communication in the perspective of educating young people to the faith

A rapid consideration of the capitular text concerning communication must be linked with all the work that went before. To separate the theme of 'communication' from a deeper consideration of 'educating young people to the faith' would only impoverish its content and perspectives, and so also the relevant reflections and practical directives. It would lead to a certain disappointment in the treatment of a reality so wide and vast as is social communication in today's world. In all three of the fundamental parts that make up the capitular text can be found cultural data and evidence of educational problems which refer back urgently to communication, and the latter must find a new way (cf. GC23, 254) for meeting today's urgent needs.

We can point out some of the references occurring in the Acts of the GC23.

The cultural data seem to emphasize the fact that society continues to exist not only through communication but that it exists and lives in communication. And the young are not extraneous to this situation. Indeed:

- young people look intensely for interpersonal communication, so as "to overcome isolation and establish contacts" (GC23, 51);

- the young perceive how and to what extent their personal maturity is linked with communication, positively because of the help it offers and negatively because of the conditions to which it gives rise (cf. GC23, 63. 125. 183);

- finally, many aspects of the personal and communal life of the young believer are linked with experiences in relationships and communication (cf. GC23, 143-145).

All this, of course, opens up new qualitative commitments for the salesian community, as well as new work-perspectives starting from the field of communications. And in this line let me point out an immediate and practical linkage between communication and education to the faith. The clarifications given in an earlier edition

of the AGC concerning the first deliberation of the Chapter about ongoing formation and the weekly community-day, should be read and realized, keeping in mind the needs and problems of communication in the context of evangelization and education to the faith at the present day.

The educational problems that emerged during the capitular discussions are a stimulus to the pastoral charity of the Salesian, who must be the first to live the commitment of educating young people to the faith. New "cultural trends, fashions and ways of life become widespread" (GC23, 17) through more rapid communication, and faster means of travel bring into contact persons previously unknown to each other because of geographical distance apart.

Speedy passage of news brings individuals, groups and institutions face to face with events that demand urgent responses and decisions.

Continual cultural inter-penetration between distant parts of the world highlights the need for a critical capacity and for ideological and practical comparisons in the daily life of an educator.

Education today, and education to the faith, call for new skills in interpersonal relationships and group communication. Every educative action, in fact, can be considered as a communication through the mediation of symbols. And we are directly involved in all this as "communicators" by the very fact that we are educators.

If this "new" communication is wanting, the challenges of the youth world appear at once:

- `distance'.

"Young people far from the Church are numerous and present a big challenge to salesian communities, who are aware that the gap between them and the community is very often based on a difference of mentality and a lack of communication" (GC23, 77);

- irrelevance of the faith.

"Youngsters tend to live their faith 'in private', without linking it with the real life that rejects it. These situations of isolation, of restriction to private practice, of being extraneous, are met with more or less everywhere and especially in the mass media" (GC23, 84).

The salesian community is aware of its nature as "missionaries of the young", but experiences at the same time how difficult it is to communicate to them efficaciously the rich qualities of the faith. The organization of the community along the lines requested by the General Chapter through its first five deliberations, will find concrete expression in the search for a "new communication".

The global aspect of the new form of communication

The few paragraphs of the Acts of the GC23 are full of significance for the matters they deal with. They are not concerned with a technical definition of communication, such as can be derived from theories of information to be found in specialized manuals on the means of communication or on linguistic sciences.

They refer to the global aspect of communication, but this is considered as an interpersonal and institutional relationship, i.e. between persons and between institutions. "It not only passes on information, but communicates ideas, creates easy agreements and puts forward models of life and behaviour" (GC23, 254). Attention to the global aspect shapes the presence and action of the individual Salesian and of the community and makes it possible to meet the new needs of youth.

The global element also has reflections on the settings in which the Salesian works, and affects the educative, cultural, religious and spiritual dimensions of what he does, because communication "touches on every area of social life and every dimension of the life of the individual" (GC23, 254). The community must learn to grow in its ability to communicate, so as to use "a kind of language adapted to the young and to people in general, especially in the liturgy and catechesis" (GC23, 258). This is a challenge for the salesian educator. He will have to learn many kinds of language and will have to use in the most adequate manner the means of communication.

Don Bosco "initiated original apostolic undertakings to defend and sustain the faith of the people" (GC23, 256).

The global element indicates an objective for the Salesian engaged in pastoral work. The GC23 was guided in its reflections by the image of Emmaus. The charity of the Good Shepherd on the way to Emmaus is the model for the salesian communicator. "We repeat his attitude: we take the first step in approaching the young and joining them; we travel with them along the same road, listening to them and sharing their hopes and anxieties; we patiently explain to them the demanding message of the Gospel; and we stay with them, to repeat the gesture of breaking the bread and stirring up in them the ardour of faith that will transform them into credible witnesses and proclaimers of God's word." (GC23, 93)

This is in line with the salesian spirit, centred on the charity of the Good Shepherd. To neglect the new communication with all its possibilities of a verbal, cultural and symbolic kind, or in the use of gestures and body-language (cf. GC23, 255), would be to say goodbye to educational efficacy and to lose a means of education to the faith.

Some contents of the new form of communication

The global dimension of communication has some testing grounds at the present day. The GC23 examines three of them which represent certain objectives and express some contents to ensure the success of communication: interior freedom, interpersonal relationship, and social solidarity. "The incidence of faith on life, or its practical irrelevance, is clear today in some aspects of the existence of individuals or of culture, which therefore become its acid test" (GC23, 181). These aspects always include communication.

The first is the formation of conscience (GC23, 182-191). John Paul II wrote in his message for the World Day of Peace, 1 January 1991: "Among the many other institutions and bodies which play a specific role in forming consciences, the means of social communication must also be mentioned. In today's world of rapid communication, the mass media can play an extremely important and indeed essential role in furthering the search for the truth, provided that they avoid presenting merely the limited interests of certain individuals, groups or ideologies. For more and more people the media are often their only source of information. How important, then, that the media be used responsibly in the service of the truth!".

The second is education to love (GC23, 192-202). This is a typical theme of interpersonal communication which requires for the rich development of the persons concerned affective human maturity, a decisive option, and the recognition of certain existential values of primary importance: autonomy, creativity, respect, dialogue, solidarity and self-donation. It is quite superfluous to point out the incidence of the means of social communication on education to love, but many believing communities need to make a determined practical effort to oppose a contemporary culture which makes use of the mass media to distort values and weaken the forces of resistance of the young in the face of the rampant hedonism.

As salesians we can boast of a significant number of works and activities in the field of communication, and they find in the GC23 a stimulus for an efficacious work of high quality.

The third is the social dimension of charity (GC23, 203- 214). Relationship must develop into shared responsibility. Experience of salesian life brings us in contact with "new and tragic forms of poverty: delinquency, emargination, exploitation of persons, and drugs" (GC23, 203). And in the meantime "new problems are emerging which require the active participation of individuals: peace, the environment and the use of goods, the moral question in every single country, international relationships, the rights of the defenceless" (GC23, 204).

A different culture must come into being. Education is needed to the value of solidarity. "The salesian community tries to bear witness to justice and peace before the youngsters and to promote them everywhere. And so it lives in deep harmony with the world's great problems and is attentive to the sufferings of those in the setting in which it is placed" (GC23, 208).

From the broad horizons to the indispensable working structure

The GC23 did not stop only at communication as such. It addressed also a few pointed statements to social communication. Alongside relational aspects it considered also typical processes for the communication of messages. For this reason it believed it opportune to indicate a working structure, with a provincial delegate for social communication (cf. GC23, 259). The precise statement in the Acts which brings the whole discussion about social communication very much down to earth runs as follows: "The Provincial will appoint someone to be responsible for social communication in the province" (GC23, 259).

In many provinces this directive will probably do no more than confirm an already well-established practice. In others, on the other hand, it may require the remedying of a delay which is certainly unhelpful from both a community and apostolic point of view. It represents an important option, in fact, for every province, because it brings the theme of social communication within the compass of the provincial organization, as regards both responsibility and pastoral outlook. It is a further step in line with the sensitivity needed in connection with articles 6 and 43 of the renewed Constitutions.

Indeed a further degree of realization is still needed of the General Regulations (in particular R 31-33), according to the practical possibilities of each province and with a greater understanding in the various Regions. For convenience of reference the articles concerned are quoted here in full:

"As far as local possibilities permit, the provincial with his council should promote our pastoral presence in the social communication sector: he should prepare confreres to enter the fields of publishing, the cinema, radio and television; he should establish and build up our centres for the publishing and diffusion of books, aids and periodicals, and found centres for the production and transmission of audio-visual, radio and television programmes. These services should be established on secure juridical and economic foundations, and there should be liaison and cooperation between those in charge of them and the Councillor General for the Salesian Family and Social Communication" (R 31).

"Salesians should take care to educate their charges to an understanding of the language of the social communication field, and to a critical aesthetic and moral sense. They should also encourage musical and dramatic activity, and promote reading circles and cineforum groups" (R 32).

"The channels of information and dialogue, both inside and outside the Congregation and Salesian Family (bulletins, ANS, short films, video-cassettes, etc.), should be developed, with appropriate use also of the means offered by recent advances in technology. Publishing houses in the same country or region should devise suitable methods of collaboration, so as to adopt a unified plan" (R 33).

The degree of commitment and activity linked with social communication is vast and demanding, and calls for commitment and proper qualification; but it has given the impression of being left to the goodwill of a few persons and the initiative of well-deserving pioneers. The Chapter's decisions should give a further impulse, as regards both organization and qualification, to the whole of the work of this sector. The indication that there should be someone responsible at provincial level was the least that could be asked for in the General Chapter; but it was the first and indispensable step for stirring up fresh attention on the part of the communities to this "apostolic priority" (C 43); beginning a coordination between persons and activities; foreseeing linkages between forces working within the Salesian Family, the locality and the local Church; the promotion of new initiatives linked with modern culture which owes so much to communication.

Each province now has the task of revising its own organization in the light of the new requirement.

The figure and role of the provincial delegate for social communication

A reflection on the figure and role of the person responsible for social communication in the province is not something new. In the previous six-year period three study seminars were organized for the purpose by this Department in three different Regions; they gathered information about what was being done in the salesian communities and pointed to what was still needed to keep abreast of the times and the tradition of Don Bosco. I do not refer specifically to all this material, because it was updated to some extent by the GC23 and because various continental meetings are foreseen for the not-distant future which will go more deeply into the matter.

I do no more than recall, with a brief practical comment, n.259 of the GC23: "The Provincial will appoint someone to be responsible for social communication in the province. This person will:

- assist the individual communities in promoting various communicational realities;

- offer his services to the various sectors of activity and will maintain relations with local ecclesiastical and civil organizations.

In everything concerning the education of the young, he will work with the team for youth pastoral work".

And here are the simple conclusions to be drawn from the capitular text:

- Every province must have its provincial delegate for social communication: this is the most immediate way for ensuring the realization of all the province's obligations in the social communication sector which are mentioned in the articles of the General Regulations. The organizational requirement obviously implies the other necessity - the preparation of qualified personnel for the sector. The appointment of the provincial delegate is not a purely formal act; it reminds Provincials of the urgent need to prepare persons to whom this task can be entrusted;

- The provincial delegate for social communication is a member of the team which assists and collaborates with the provincial delegate for youth pastoral work, because the social communication plans are not something extraneous to the programme of the province and of its pastoral work for the young. This will prevent any conflict or duplication of interventions or criteria that would prove harmful to those to whom our mission is directed.

- The work of the provincial delegate for social communication will be aimed in three main directions:

• the salesian communities.

These need help and guidance in promoting and developing the knowledge and multiple activities of communication. In the communities great potential forces already exist: what is lacking is some competent stimulation.

•ecclesiastical and civil organisms.

This is a work that goes by a variety of names; it may be called public relations; it may be called building the official image of the salesian community; it may include salesian representation in institutions concerned with social communication. It will include membership of ecclesiastical and civil organisms with the task of confrontation, collaboration, and the offering of our own particular charisma.

•the various sectors of activity.

The delegate will provide a well qualified service to the different sectors of salesian activity, in so far as the social communication dimension is common to all of them; he is available to all of them for the purpose of assessing such things as content, means and manner of realization.

Conclusion

The GC23 did a great deal with regard to social communication, not in quantity but in quality. To become aware of this is to be already involved in its realization in one's own area of work.

It is the responsibility of the communities to unveil to the confreres the new and interesting horizons that the Congregation is opening before them.