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(ANS – Rome, 19 March 2002)
This week is to be spent on discussions in the main assembly of the documents prepared by the six commissions. This will continue until Saturday, when the sixth commission will have to present its final document on the Structures of Government.
Yesterday the discussion of the draft document of the first commission, ‘Fraternal Life’, overran its allotted time and continued for the whole day. There were many more interventions than expected: 40 written, 32 booked and several others from the floor.
A recurring factor in the interventions was the request that the document should concentrate on the importance of Salesian community life and lead to concrete lines of action. What was required was a simple, practical document, facing the challenge of ‘Novo Millennio Ineunte’ to spread the gospel courageously in the new millennium through personal and community witness.
Attention was drawn to the personal freedom of the Salesian who offers himself and involves himself in living and working with others, and to the role of the Preventive System in defining the style of community life. This concept was favourably received and was proposed to refer to it throughout the document as the key to understanding fraternal life.
The draft presented in the assembly opened with a Salesian ‘Credo’ which could well serve as an introduction to the entire document. Finally it was observed that the analysis should not get lost in detail but should underline the urgent challenges facing us.
(ANS – Rome, 20 March 2002)
Two further commissions, the second and the fourth, heard the observations of the assembly on their draft documents presented at the end of last week.
The second commission, ‘Gospel Witness’, was asked to begin not from the religious vows but from the following of Christ, the need for God and the grace of unity. The role of the Holy Spirit should be highlighted, as should the Christian witness of martyrdom. Other interventions asked that the document should face up, honestly and without embarrassment, to the ‘serious and important’ problems which were now being observed in the provinces concerning the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience
The interventions on ‘Animating Presence among the Young’, the theme of the third commission, fell into four categories. The first saw the community as the force which sets processes in motion, creates ‘synergy’, promotes good relations in the local area, tries to build ‘presence’ and does not identify itself exclusively with its work. The second concentrated on the prophetic role of religious life, best expressed in the style of carrying out its mission. The commission was asked to draw out the details of this. The third category centred on vocations. There had been a downward trend, resulting from the crisis of some years ago, and it would be necessary to draw upon the unexplored resources and potential within the community. The final group of interventions dealt with the participation of young people in the pastoral work of the community, so that they could themselves become agents of animation and grow in their responsibility for evangelisation. It was important to value the experience of volunteering and of the Salesian Youth Movement.
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