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(ANS – Rome, 21 March 2002)
The first round of comments on the drafts of the documents that each commission was asked to draw up and present to the Assembly has been completed. Yesterday evening until late this morning the fourth and fifth commissions collected the contributions of the chapter members to be added to or to be used to modify what they had produced in the first instance.
The comments on the themes of the Rector and of formation, covered by the fourth commission were mainly concentrated on these topics: To emphasise more the characteristic of "father" in the person of the Rector. The fostering of the quality of gospel friendship which makes the Rector a "sincere and true" friend, who enables the confreres in the community to open up in confidence and is a companion in every situation and stage of growth. In this regard the human sciences can help so that this service is carried out effectively. Many comments referred to the community as the ideal place for ongoing formation, and to the new Ratio which provides many ideas in this regard.
The commission was therefore asked to take account of the practical suggestions offered by the Ratio regarding animation. It was also suggested that the life of prayer should receive more attention as a source of the spiritual energy that was needed, with particular reference to the practice of "Christian" meditation and the "Lectio Divina."
The document of the fifth commission "Living and working together" was given a positive reception especially with regard to the way it spoke about the "quantitative and qualitative consistency" of the community. However, the Assembly requested that the whole document should be reduced in length. Among the particular suggestions was one to indicate concrete priorities regarding the concrete challenges in order to provide specific guidelines and especially some that would apply to local situations. In this regard the Provincial and his Council needed to organize the community in its "fundamental elements" (the number and the quality of the Salesians), to make it more capable of responding to the challenges and to the needs of the local area. It was the Provincial’s task to look with courage at all the works from the point of view of their effectiveness and their witness value as a result of the sharing of life and work by the community.
Now that this stage is completed the Assembly is getting ready to give its opinion on the proposals presented by the sixth commission on the verification of the structures of government. This is planned to be on next Saturday morning, 23rd March.
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