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FLASH

Salesian Youth Ministry Animation

Number 1. September 2022

Cultivating dreams,

collecting fruits

Local and Provincial

organic planning

Fr. Miguel Ángel García Morcuende

Youth Ministry General Councilor

YOUTH MINISTRY SECTOR

Salesiani di don Bosco SEDE CENTRALE SALESIANA

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Cultivating dreams, collecting fruits

Local and Provincial organic planning

Fr. Miguel Ángel García Morcuende

Youth Ministry General Councilor

1 Salesian educative-pastoral

model and methodological

approach

We hold with conviction that the true strength

and distinctive character of our Salesian mis-

sion are the strong values that inspire it, the

dreams that these values manage to gener-

ate and the results that are achieved. Every

time we are confronted with our mission,

the awareness arises that we must become

more capable of carrying it out according

to the Salesian educative-pastoral model.

In order to elaborate the educative-pas-

toral proposal («Honest citizens and good

Christians») on which our commitment is veri-

fied, every EPC (every province!) must choose

the appropriate instruments and define the con-

crete steps. For animation, coordination and

governance, it is indispensable to have this

methodological attention that allows us to

trace out ways, to reach the objectives, to use

the resources well and to verify the results.

In our contexts we perceive so many chal-

lenges (social, educative, pastoral) and,

therefore, we need tools to think about the

future, that is, to express the mission in cou-

rageous, thoughtful and well-planned proj-

ects. Planning is:

–– a mental and community process of involve-

ment, clarification and identification (stop-

ping for a moment, taking stock... and then

«launching» the Province/EPC in a concrete

direction);

–– an operational tool.

Concretely, the Salesian Educative

Pastoral Project (SEPP) is the updating

of the Preventive System: the general

action plan guiding educative and pasto-

ral processes in a determined provincial

and local context. The unity of the educa-

tive-pastoral interventions requires that

there be a project, according to this glob-

al vision of the person. The project can be

conceived as a kind of «highway signs» that

gives indications on how to move in the

territory of the young people, as Salesians.

The value of the commitment of a Salesian

province/work is tested more and more by

the fruits, and less and less by good inten-

tions or by a good name historically acquired.

There is a lot of talk about planning, and

not only today: we speak of projects, cur-

ricular models, objectives and evaluation.

However, until a few years ago, these terms

and the related problems were far from the

attention of the majority of pastoral workers. In

fact, every leader went ahead without worry-

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Fr. Miguel Ángel García Morcuende • Cultivating dreams, collecting fruits

ing too much about planning; when they did,

they relied mostly on intuition and practicality.

2 The main «hindering» factors

Pastoral planning must be framed within

the need to seek new ways of acting that

renew and stimulate pastoral action capa-

ble of effectively evangelizing the world of

young people today.

Nevertheless, we note that we are still trapped

in a pastoral action of activities instead of a pas-

toral approach to processes. Moreover, we run

the risk of responding to pastoral challeng-

es with a «generalization» of the goals to be

achieved. It is said that what we need to do is

to evangelize those who are far away, to under-

take a new evangelization, to renew our pasto-

ral agents, etc. All this is true, but the objectives

are so broad that we can never know with suf-

ficient precision what we want to achieve, let

alone to what extent they are being achieved.

What could be preventing us from planning

adequately? Why do we sometimes resist plan-

ning? What are the fears that we have when it

comes to planning? Today, the recurring objec-

tions/resistances have this profile:

–– «Pastoral work has been done for two thou-

sand years without the need for projects».

We acquire habits of improvisation or rou-

tine in our daily repetitive work that make

us see as useless and costly any rationaliza-

tion of the pastoral activity. We have a long

experience, so why plan what we already

know and are doing every day?

–– «Pastoral work is under the free and unpre-

dictable action of the Spirit and, therefore,

it is not programmable». Planning is all too

human a matter and even an obstacle to

free divine action.

–– «It’s always been done this way» (repeti-

tive laziness). Carrying out a planning pro-

cess, with all that it entails in terms of fore-

sight, analysis, cooperation and evalua-

tion, makes little sense and clashes with

ingrained attitudes.

–– «This is how it is done because it is the safe

practice»: «nothing new under the sun» is

expected. It is a passive conformism that

adapts to what others command and say:

there is no need for projects because others

already have them. We are simple executors.

–– On the contrary, «everything changes and

must change»: references must be created

continuously and freely, each person tends

to let his own project prevail.

–– «Excessive desire for results»: this may

be an anxiety related to achieving short-

term goals, with the desire for immediate

answers. It rejects approaches that require

constancy, patience, long periods of quiet

but effective and permanent work.

All this leads us to ask ourselves if pasto-

ral planning is still necessary or if it is a mere

resource and a fad of the past. Is it worth the

effort to elaborate serious and well-done pas-

toral plans or is it better to let ourselves be led

by the Spirit? What is needed for good plan-

ning? What attitudes and methods are neces-

sary to achieve good and effective planning?

3 Complex educative-pastoral

situations with which

we have to deal

Salesian youth ministry, in all its expressions,

is formulated and expressed operatively in

planning. Without it, it would remain in the

realm of principles and intentions without an

effective translation in relation to the pasto-

ral action in its daily life. Pastoral planning

becomes more pressing in light of the fol-

lowing challenges:

Educative and Pastoral fragmentation (lack of

operational unity) is widespread. As a result,

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FLASH • September 2022 YOUTH MINISTRY SECTOR Salesiani di Don Bosco • Sede Centrale Salesiana

pastoral workers suffer from a lack of effec-

tiveness and impact of their apostolic action;

everything depends on the ingenuity and

good will of individuals.

There is also the problem of language, that

is to say, common words are often used, but

with different meanings, according to the

mentality and experience of each person.

Words such as co-responsibility, integral for-

mation, evangelization, etc. have different

meanings depending on who is using them.

Pastoral dispersion is also found in an inte-

rior dispersion. The persons need a synthe-

sis to achieve coherence in pastoral action.

Where do we want to go? What should I do?

There are more and more frontiers, demands

multiply, urgencies become pressing; projects

are made, but often without concrete impact;

and even when they are put into practice, they

are rarely evaluated. It is necessary not only to

be aware of that, but also to sensitize, to raise

awareness and empower people to act in order

to take on the educational and evangelising

proposal, specific to the Salesians.

4 The Benefits of Planning

for the EPC/Province

The project: a matter of faith

Pastoral planning does not respond primar-

ily to organizational needs. Planning is done

in the light of faith; it is not immediately part

of a «technical prudence». It places mental

effort at the service of young people. These

considerations apply at all levels and for any

kind of initiative or course, at local and pro-

vincial level.

Above all, it is a decisive, an essential

way of facing reality with the eyes of Don

Bosco: running too much in the planning

process is not a sign of concreteness, but

of superficiality. The planning of pastoral

(ecclesial) action is above all a question of

discernment: listening to what is the Lord

asking of us at this moment in the histo-

ry of these young people? And to discern

is also etymologically, to separate, to dis-

tinguish, to divide; it means to take a posi-

tion, to take sides: «Test everything and

hold on to what is good» (1 Thess 5:21).

Pastoral planning is not reduced, therefore,

to seeking the multiplier effect of our efforts

and institutions. Planning is a mediation that

puts us all in search, in the light of the Word

and with the help of the Spirit: what are the

needs that make us discover the Lord through

the challenges presented to us by the reali-

ty of youth?

Let us say at the outset that pastoral plan-

ning means exercising the virtue of hope, which

gives historical form to the ideal for which we

strive, is based on faith and translates into the

gift of self. «What we have behind us and what

we have before us is irrelevant compared to

what we have within» (O. W. Holmes). The

exercise of hope implies a series of demands:

–– The elaboration of a local or Provincial proj-

ect requires, first, interior freedom; namely,

freedom from any negative past experiences

we have had. Without inner freedom, we will

remain prisoners of the disappointments we

have experienced, of the failures we have

seen despite our serious commitment, to

the point that we may be convinced that it

is not worth trying again. Freedom from the

present, not to live it as a closed or oppres-

sive time, a time that cannot be changed.

Freedom, finally, before the future, not to

be paralyzed by the fear of failure, by the

worry of «what will come next», by the anx-

iety of the unknown.

–– This interior freedom will allow us to exer-

cise pastoral intelligence, in determining

what is the greatest possible good here and

now. Pastoral intelligence helps us to over-

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Fr. Miguel Ángel García Morcuende • Cultivating dreams, collecting fruits

come our tiredness (or lack of energy) to

decide, to opt for what seems to us to be

God’s will, and to overcome the perplexity

(or uncertainty) that comes with making a

choice, accepting our limits.

–– Along with inner freedom tempered by pas-

toral intelligence, patience is needed, both

in terms of waiting for the right time (wait-

ing for things to be ripe), and in terms of

concentrating all energies on what is pos-

sible today, thus preventing these energies

from being dispersed and exhausted in ner-

vous activism, sterile immediacy, or useless

complaining and anger. The patience need-

ed to cope with the difficulties of planning

will also be necessary when the time comes

for implementation.

The project reflects the type

of EPC/Province

The existence (or not) and the quality of the

design clearly show the EPC/Province model

that is intended and pursued:

–– An EPC/Province of an administrative-bu-

reaucratic type: the decision is the prerog-

ative, the privilege of a few, generally one

person (director, parish priest or the pro-

vincial and his closest collaborators). The

project has a «top-to-bottom» character

or profile: the sdb and the laity receive it

ready-made and are called to put it into

practice and, if necessary, to collaborate

in its realization.

–– An EPC/Province based on improvisation,

there is an overlapping of initiatives and pro-

posals on parallel lines. It reflects a «weak»

planning: there is a lack of thought-out,

shared and verified processes and relation-

ships. There is no relationship with clear

and thought-out intentions (projects), with-

out the concern to converge on common

objectives and around the person of the

young people.

–– However, in an EPC/Province based on

co-responsibility, spaces for mobilization

and exchange open up; the diversification

of participation bodies (councils, commis-

sions, groups) generates a true decen-

tralization and creates areas of responsi-

bility. The elaboration of the SEPP or the

OPP requires a co-responsible communi-

ty that in turn builds it, a «synodal» style

that expresses and creates communion.

Project builds and educates

the EPC/Province

The dynamics of the project highlight certain

processes relevant to the life of the EPC/Province,

on the communicative level (communication

between persons and different groups), on

the level of decision-making (common shared

choices) and on the structural level (appropri-

ate use of available resources and attention

to their regeneration). It is a reminder of the

ecclesiology of communion. That is why we

need time to reflect together: planning is an

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FLASH • September 2022 YOUTH MINISTRY SECTOR Salesiani di Don Bosco • Sede Centrale Salesiana

exhausting and time-consuming undertaking

(whereas pastoral work is always in a hurry!).

A project presupposes an explicit reference

to one’s own identity and its operative imple-

mentation (the desire-need to put into prac-

tice certain fundamental values and options in

a concrete situation and with some clear and

known addressees). It is not planned according

to existing structures or tasks, but to the sur-

rounding reality. Always towards an action to

be carried out in and from the future, express-

ing simultaneously what we want to be and

what we tend to do.

The commitment to planning is a strong

instrument to safeguard oneself from exter-

nal influences that, often unconsciously, mod-

ify the action and the very intentionality of

the EPC/Province, adapting it in fact to needs

that are not originally evangelical (and some-

times even incompatible with the Gospel). On

the other hand, the triggering of spaces for

sharing preserves the members of the EPC/

Province from the temptation of a «narcissis-

tic» and «self-referential» mission.

The EPC/Province also must manage con-

flicts; in fact, they can become a cause of deep-

ening and growth, or of authoritarian involu-

tion, or of tragic division, when participation

capable of transforming the conflict into a

factor of change, is not activated. It is pref-

erable to accept confrontations than to run

away from reality. Genuine planning supports

this constructive effort. Conflicts are inevita-

ble in the climate of human events, but their

positivity is neither evident nor automatic. In

this sense, communication is crucial.

OPP/SEPP of the Province creates

a sense of ownership

Feeling part of a group/community is the

fruit that such a planning process produc-

es in those who elaborate it first, more

directly, and in those who participate in

it: for those who elaborate it, it means a

sincere and positive desire to build; for

those who participate, it means the advan-

tage of knowing where they are going and

at what speed, and of giving their own con-

tribution by sharing the reasons.

This sense of belonging is an indispensable

element for us. Therefore, we must seek the

highest level of trust that is realistically possi-

ble, according to the situations, the people

and the type of EPC/Province in which we

live. Planning is crossover with stimuli and

contacts, with vertical and horizontal links,

with actions aimed at achieving the objectives

that are ours and that we all pursue togeth-

er, with personal responsibility and comple-

mentary roles. The first attitude to strength-

en the bond is trust. We humanize ourselves

through relationships of trust with others (not

against others).

OPP/SEPP of the Province

triggers testimony

Planning places the EPC/Province in the liv-

ing fabric of the territory. The «topographical»

determination becomes a task and respon-

sibility of evangelization towards the pop-

ulation of an area.

A planning mentality is essential to act effec-

tively and wisely in the educative-pasto-

ral field. Without planning, there is no care-

ful analysis of reality (fidelity to the young)

and a clear and shared definition of pastoral

objectives (fidelity to God) with appropriate

strategies, within the established deadlines.

We are called to work in concentric circles, as

Jesus did when he addressed the crowd, the

72 disciples, the 12 apostles, the three cho-

sen ones... with different attitudes, paths and

perceptions.

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Fr. Miguel Ángel García Morcuende • Cultivating dreams, collecting fruits

Another advantage is that the planning

reminds us what idea of person (Salesians,

lay people and young people) we want to

form. What anthropology and for what project

of life. In a context in which we are «domes-

ticated» and become insensitive because we

are full of so many things, in contact with

«provocative» situations, we must reflect on

the totality of the person and the harmonious

and integral empowerment of mind, heart and

body, the insistence on the unity of life, on the

search for a unitary meaning. Consequently,

planning refers us to the central aspects of

our educative-pastoral proposal.

The educative-pastoral proposal of the SEPP

of the Province and the proposal of the OPP

must be organic, intelligent and courageous.

The planning forms the capacity to listen, dis-

cern and decide.

Listening is...

–– to get out of our points of view, our schemes,

our needs, our security.

–– to be ready to welcome, to make room for the

other and for the reality that surrounds us.

–– to participate, to share, to let oneself be

«wounded» by the events that happen,

by the life that is told to us; an attitude to

grasp and take charge of presences, silence

situations, deprivations, aspirations, facts,

tragedies.

Discern is...

–– to distinguish, take responsibility, regard-

ing the problems of the area.

–– to understand that preferential love for the

poor is an inevitable criterion of Salesian

discernment.

–– to compare what is there, to understand

how to respond to what God is asking of us.

Decide...

–– to activate the most important and urgent

processes in relation to people’s real needs.

–– to create an intervention strategy, lines and

instruments of action, as a reference guide.

–– to relate Salesian principles and values to

the situation on the ground.

5 For a proper approach

The question of operational tools is not

secondary. This last point is intended to

raise awareness of the criteria for good pas-

toral planning: easy to use, brief text, under-

standable to all.

What is the life cycle of SEPP?

Starting point

(Awareness that every work

has contextual issues)

Arrival point

(General objectives - final)

4 dimensions in different pastoral settings

and areas of pastoral animation

Processes

Resources

(Whom to work with and how to work

- choice of interventions - timing)

Verification

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FLASH • September 2022 YOUTH MINISTRY SECTOR Salesiani di Don Bosco • Sede Centrale Salesiana

It is a matter of articulating «knowledge»

(which comes from experience) and concrete

«strategies» (which come from tactical deci-

sions). In this regard, it is worth noting:

The context of the Salesian work is very

important. We are talking about a summary of

2 or 3 pages. Explaining the reality, the educa-

tional, cultural, social and pastoral framework

to which reference is made is the first step in

developing a planning process. It is not a statis-

tical fact. Defining the premises is necessary for

those who read the project, it is an act of trans-

parency towards those you intend to involve.

The different ways of reading reality and

the meanings attributed to it, lead to differ-

ent knowledge, different hypotheses and

sometimes contrary operational methods;

it is therefore essential to make explicit and

share the main concerns/challenges of real-

ity. It is not a matter of carrying out a socio-

logical study, but of defining and redefining

what challenges us: as in all areas of human

experience, it is not possible to change what

is not reflected (=known). Without this prior

common awareness, there is a risk that oper-

ational actions will be incongruent, scattered

and repetitive. The SEPP is not born from

nothing, but from the history (positive and

negative) that sdb and the laity of the works

live day by day, individually and/or in groups.

The history of the Salesian work today

takes place in a specific historical period

and in a specific territory. We run the risk

of devising and drafting «ideal» but occa-

sional and scattered objectives, process-

es or actions, which are repeated here and

there, without visualizing and interweav-

ing the most urgent questions. Our proj-

ects must be conceived and implement-

ed within «real contexts» of life expressed,

written, reflected upon.

From this «wisdom» emerge the priority

points of attention and work for all, the nodes

of the project. They correspond to the situa-

tion of the Salesian work and are considered

generators of apostolic resources: it is the uni-

fying part that acts as a pole of reference and

convergence for the programming of the dif-

ferent areas and sectors of pastoral animation.

The renewal of the environments and sec-

tors of pastoral animation is a matter of stra-

tegic and concrete decisions and choices.

The implementation of a pastoral project is

done through actions, thought-out and not

improvised, simple and connected steps. For

this, care must be taken in the formulation

of the precise interventions. The question of

this part is: how to operationalize each of the

proposed processes through an INITIATIVE or

a CONCRETE ACTION (or SERIES OF ACTIONS).

The right interventions reflect a great deal of

contact with «provocative» (stimulating/chal-

lenging) situations that help to reflect and to

see where the essentials of the environments

are, what are the central aspects of the practice.

In summary: the organization of the differ-

ent sectors of pastoral action, articulating them

in a coherent way and seeking an indispens-

able union of wills around the one mission, has

shown more and more clearly the importance

and the necessity of an organic pastoral. The

most notable requirements of an organic pasto-

ral are, on the one hand, to impress on all pas-

toral action an evangelizing character (unidi-

rectionality). This implies demanding the union

and coordination of the work of all the pasto-

ral agents and promoting the convergence of

the action of all the agents in each of the pas-

toral sectors. And, on the other hand, to pro-

gram the action, to establish the goals to reach,

to choose the means to use and to establish

a rational distribution and a promotion of the

available resources, human and material, ade-

quate to the needs of the moment and of the

context in which we act.

Fr. Miguel Ángel García Morcuende

Youth Ministry General Councilor

sdb.org Via Marsala 42 - 00185 Roma • Centralino: (+39) 06 656 121 • Email: pastorale@sdb.org