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(ANS – Rome, 13 March 2002)
The sixth commission, dealing with structures of government, opened the plenary session by asking for a straw vote. This commission has to suggest possible alternatives to the present system before the dates planned for the election of the new General Council (2nd-8th April). The president of the sixth commission, Don Strus, and its spokesman, Don Pellerey, offered four options, all of which involved a Vicar General, Economer General and Regional Councillors.
1. Keep the same number of Councillors, but transfer responsibility for the ‘Salesian Family Office’ to the Vicar General.
2. Reduce the number of Offices to two, ‘Formation’ and either ‘Salesian Mission’ or ‘Youth Ministry’, leaving the animation of the Salesian Family to the Vicar General.
3. Have three Councillors responsible for ‘Formation’, ‘Salesian Family and animation of the Laity’ and ‘Salesian Mission’.
4. Elect four General Councillors without specific roles, who would be allocated responsibilities by the Rector Major. It is envisaged that there would be technical offices, consultants and secretaries to provide support.
A change of name was also proposed, from ‘Council of the Rector Major’ to ‘General Council’.
The commission had taken account of the proposals from the Provincial Chapters, the text provided by the pre-Capitular commission, the observations made by the Chapter members and its own meetings, plenary and in language groups.
The regulations of this General Chapter require a period of two days between the presentation of proposals and any voting upon them to allow for personal study and group discussion. For this reason the proposals of the sixth commission will be reconsidered on Friday.
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