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OPENING OF THE GC25
Rome, 25 February 2002
Luc Van Looy, SDB
Vicar of the Rector Major
Your Eminence Cardinal Martinez-Somalo
- Dear Cardinals Alfons Stickler, Antonio Maria Javierre and Ignacio Velasco
- Dear Archbishops and Bishops
- Sisters and Brothers representatives of the Salesian Family,
- Dear Confreres Capitulars
At the beginning of the 25th General Chapter of the Society of Saint Francis of Sales, I am happy to greet to you all, cordially and gratefully. I see in your presence a sign of your affection for our Congregation and your participation in one of the most important events in its life, a General Chapter.
I thank Mother Antonia Colombo, Superior General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and all the leaders of the various branches of the Salesian Family who are here: the Central Coordinator of the Cooperators, the World President of the Past Pupils, the one responsible for the Don Bosco Volunteers, the Superiors of the religious Congregations and those responsible for the Groups and Associations within the Salesian Family.
Through your supporting presence we are conscious of the links which unite us in the one Family of Don Bosco.
And to you dear confreres capitulars who have come from the different Provinces around the world I express a heartfelt and fraternal welcome. I know that you have come to work, to experience a powerful worldwide presence, and to prepare the future of the Congregation.
Above all I want to remember very gratefully and affectionately Father Juan Vecchi, whom the Lord called to himself a month ago. Still fresh in our minds are the memory of his loving fatherliness, of his wisdom, his incisiveness in governing the Congregation, and his personal testimony of faith and serene acceptance of God's will during his long illness. The Congregation and the Salesian Family were together at his side during this time of sickness, united in prayer with Brother Artemide Zatti. Father Vecchi began and guided the preparations for this General Chapter: we are sure that from heaven he will help us to bring it to a successful conclusion.
In recent years, the canonizations of Mgr Versiglia and Fr Caravario, the beatifications of the young Polish oratorians and of the Spanish martyrs encouraged our whole family to a "high standard of ordinary Salesian living" (cf. NMI 31), and the approaching beatifications of Fr Luigi Variara, Sr Maria Romero and Brother Artemide Zatti place the saints once again at the centre of the whole Salesian Family.
1. The journey following the Council.
The theme of this General Chapter fits into a process followed and developed in the period after the Council. After a general reflection on our Salesian identity (GC20) and having looked more deeply into some of its features such as the evangelization of the young, the preventive system, the animation of the community and the characteristics of the members (GC21), we came to the promulgation of the Constitutions, renewed in the GC22 of 1984.
Subsequently we focused our attention on the process to be followed with young people in order to educate them to the faith and in the faith (GC23). We highlighted for this the need for a community that was always being renewed, that involved itself more actively in the world of young people to greater pastoral effect, and, which at the same time, became the animating nucleus of the educative and pastoral community and of the different branches of the Salesian Family.
The GC24 took up again this theme of the involvement of lay people in our spirit and in our mission and defined the new role of the Salesian religious community within the EPC and in the drawing up of the SEPP.
And so in both the GC23 and the GC24 the Salesian community emerged as the focal point. In fact, to a large extent, the quality of the Congregation's witness, apostolic impact and fruitfulness depend on the community itself functioning well. It is the community of Salesian religious that has the task of being "salt of the earth and light of the world" in its various works and activities.
Following this line of thought, the GC25 now wants to assess the progress made in the light of the last General Chapter, to go more deeply into the proposals that were not sufficiently well understood, and to give impetus to the work of renewal already under way in the communities. It wants to relaunch the community as the key element in the evangelization of the young in the new millennium.
This theme, therefore, does not divert our gaze from those we are working for, nor from the lay people who are collaborating with us. As Fr Vecchi wrote in his letter convoking the Chapter:
"The objective of the GC25 is not so much what the community and confreres must still do for the young, but what - at the present day - they must be for them as they live with them. Before all else we must keep in mind what we are and how we live, so as to act more effectively from an evangelical point of view for the benefit of those to whom our mission is directed" (Towards the 25th General Chapter AGC 372, p. 13)
The Salesian community therefore is the focal point of GC25. To this is added the task of putting into effect the working guideline of GC24 (n. 191) regarding the structures of government, and that of the election of the new Rector Major and the members of the General Council who will guide the Congregation in the next six year period.
2. The theme of the GC25: facing the challenges of today
The theme of the Chapter "the Salesian community today" has these four main points:
fraternal life,
evangelical witness,
animating presence among the young,
animation of the community.
The various Provincial Chapters reflected on these points, starting from the experience of the local communities and identifying some particular problems which the Precapitular Commission have clearly indicated, such as for example:
- the need to strengthen the life of the community in the Spirit. That is, to create the necessary conditions so that the confreres can experience deeply the love of Christ, which leads them to a fraternal life that is profound, to a total dedication to their mission for youth, to a attractive witness to the values of the gospel;
- the need to develop the ability of the religious community to provide inspiration within the educative and pastoral community so as to foster communion, enthusiasm and a strong sense of belonging;
- the difficulty of coping with the real demands of the mission, given the reduction in the forces available and the consequent imbalance between the amount of work and the personnel available;
- the ageing process and the shortage of vocations which make the life in community more difficult and lead to the possible hindering of future progress of the mission
On this and on other aspects of community life the General Chapter is called to indicate the best ways to relaunch the community at the beginning of this millennium, remembering Don Bosco's words:
"We have chosen to live together in unum. This means in unum locum, in unum spiritum, in unum agendi finem" (in the same place with the same spirit, with the same objectives) (BM IX 573).
The motive behind the choice of this theme, however, is not simply an awareness of weaknesses or shortcomings in our religious community life today, but rather of some challenges in a much broader context.
Today's culture
In the first place, today's culture challenges us. Living and proclaiming the faith has become difficult in the secularized world, where people slowly and quietly have drifted away from the faith as from something that has little relevance in everyday living.
The educative and religious character of the family having diminished considerably, and the Church being seen as an institution cut off from modern society, the young people who are growing up in secularized environments find it difficult to understand religious language, and they become accustomed to arriving at their own criteria of behaviour, and forming their own judgements about life, without any reference to religious values, and often without listening to the advice of the adults close to them. In our days, the credibility of the Church is put under scrutiny by the mass media, which highlight - rightly or wrongly - the weaknesses or moral failings of religious and priests.
Again, the school situation challenges us especially in those countries where a process of reform is taking place. Don Bosco's system puts the person and his fully rounded education at the centre, while today we see that the greatest concern in the field of education is concentrated almost exclusively on imparting knowledge without giving much attention to the formation and the guidance of the individual. In addition, the teaching of religion tends to be given ever less importance, leading inevitably to a weakening in the total formation of the young person and of his capacity to develop a personal culture.
The task today is to find a way of overcoming these barriers, physical, psychological and cultural, in order to reach also those young people who are furthest away, and to help them to come to faith in Christ. It won't, in the first place, be our words or arguments that will open up this road, but the witness of a community that lives its own faith in Jesus Christ, finds its unity in it and makes it visible in joy and openness.
This spiritual depth leads the faith community to overcome a narrowed vision and individualism, and to live in fraternal friendship and collaboration to the extent of being attractive and evangelizing, as the document Vita Consecrata states in n 46
"The life of communion in fact, "becomes a sign for all the world and a compelling force that leads people to faith in Christ...In this way communion leads to mission, and itself becomes mission" (Vita Consecrata 46).
The same love for Christ also leads to a generous welcoming and a giving of oneself to others . To young people in the first place, through an active and friendly presence among them, and then to lay collaborators and to members of the different branches of the Salesian Family, through a communion built on the experience of shared planning, responsible involvement and formation together "so that it can become a living experience of Church and a revelation of God's plan for us"
(C. 47)
By being a sign, the community becomes also a school of faith which finds the courage and creativity to show its own Christian face and knows how to give flavour and direction to the lives of those for whom it works.
Geographical expansion and involvement
The phenomenon of globalization, with the corresponding phenomenon of localization, underlines the necessity of a balance between the unity of the charism and the plurality of its expressions.
It is necessary that greater weight be given to the value of brotherhood than to differences of race, language etc., in such a way that our communities, open to different cultures, become a true gift to the Church and to society. Our presence in all the continents, in 128 countries, helps us to have a world view of our charism, and to observe the developing life of the Church and of vocations throughout the world. While it is becoming old in some traditional places, it is growing and coming to birth in other countries and continents.
The Holy Father says in his Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consacrata at n. 51:
"Placed as they are within the world's different societies- societies frequently marked by conflicting passions and interests, seeking unity but uncertain about the ways to attain it - communities of consecrated life, where persons of different ages, languages and cultures meet as brothers and sisters, are signs that dialogue is always possible and that communion can bring differences into harmony. Consecrated men and women are sent forth to proclaim, by the witness of their lives, the value of Christian fraternity and the transfiguring power of the Good News, which makes it possible to see all people as sons and daughters of God, and inspires a self-giving love towards everyone, especially the least of our brothers and sisters. In an age characterized by the globalization of problems and the return of the idols of nationalism, international institutes especially are called to uphold and to bear witness to the sense of communion between peoples, races and cultures. In a climate of fraternity, an openness to the global dimension of problems will not detract from the richness of particular gifts, nor will the affirmation of a particular gift conflict with other gifts or with unity itself. International institutes can achieve this effectively, inasmuch as they have to face in a creative way the challenge of inculturation, while at the same time preserving their identity."
The search for quality
Involvement in the world of culture requires a serious commitment to the qualification of people and of works. The effective significance of our activity depends mainly on our ability to combine a professional approach and the spirit of our charism.
Speaking of the role of the Salesian community as the animating nucleus, Fr Vecchi indicated the path to follow. We have to make the effort to become:
- persons who live our own lives with confidence and joy, with an attitude of understanding and dialogue with the young and their world, with attention to culture, and with the ability to involve ourselves in the local area;
- educators who are competent, who know how to combine education and evangelization, and to prepare people to transform society in a Christian manner;
- animators willing to share the formative process with lay collaborators in every day life and on important community occasions, such as the drawing up of the SEPP, the verification of the EPC and discernment in particular circumstances;
- leaders who have made their own the value of participation and of sharing responsibility, and are able to animate by creating and revitalizing suitable opportunities;
- Salesians who, working with others in partnership, show a particular sensitivity towards the education of those who are poorest, and become promoters of a culture of solidarity and peace.
(Experts, witnesses and craftsmen of communion. The Salesian community - animating nucleus, in AGC 363, p. 40)
To achieve this quality both in the communities and in the confreres, during the last six year period, the Congregation has made a notable effort to rethink and bring up-to-date its formation practice, appropriately adapting its role of formation to the challenges and the requirements of the present time. The Ratio, promulgated in December 2000, is a compendium of norms and guidelines for the Congregation in the area of formation. It considers the whole of formation from the standpoint of ongoing formation, attributing to everyday life and work an effective formative role.
For this reason it is necessary that in every community there is:
an atmosphere that fosters the growth of the confreres as individuals and as community (the family spirit that creates a mentality of searching and discerning together, drawing on everyone's experience, a climate of faith and prayer that strengthens the inner motivations, disposing each one to live them in the radical way of the Gospel and with apostolic generosity...);
good use made of all the occasions and means that can promote ongoing formation;
a yearly programme of ongoing formation;
communication with the provincial community and with the Congregation and the acceptance of the encouragement and the guidance that come from them... (cf Ratio n. 543)
3. Some pointers for the future
The task given to us by Christ - to be salt of the earth and light of the world - leads us to look at the current situation in which we want to continually rethink our specific charism, ascertaining whether the salt still retains its taste and whether we have put the light in the right place.
The Jubilee Year invited us to raise the level of our lives and with the watchword Duc in altum the Holy Father encouraged us to head for the open sea and out into the deep - as Fr Vecchi repeated in his strenna for this year.
For this first General Chapter of the new millennium, "Duc in altum" means relaunching the Congregation in one of those most fundamental aspects which bear witness to its religious and charismatic vigour. The community in fact is the key to the renewal and to the growth of the Congregation in its mission to youth , in its vocation ministry and in its evangelical and charismatic impact on the world.
In this fraternal gathering which is the General Chapter, we want, in the first place, to "live" our communion, as a sign of the unity of the Congregation. We want to undertake a shared reflection on the community to re-discover and to re-express the heart of the evangelical inspiration of Don Bosco's charism, sensitive to the needs of time and place. (cf C. 146) It is a question of giving fresh life and a foundation to our gospel and charismatic witness as communities in order to become prophets for the new millennium. We want to identify and to share the ways ahead for the whole Congregation for the next six years.
In this regard I want to indicate immediately some lines or perspectives for our communities, aiming at a significant witness for the future that is capable of refounding or redesigning our presence in the world of today.
Above all, as witnesses to poverty, our communities are involved in society participating in many forms of poverty, material and spiritual, committing themselves to justice, and to human dignity. It is in fact the vocational choice of their members that gives them this sort of sensitivity which is a mark of the Church. The Pope reminded us that:
"The option for the poor is inherent in the very structure of love lived in Christ. All of Christ's disciples are therefore held to this option...For each institute, according to its charism, this involves adopting a simple and austere way of life, both as individuals and as a community," (VC 82)
The communities will ensure that they reconsider their way of living and of working, giving preference to a presence among the less fortunate youngsters and developing in their members and in those for whom they work a culture of solidarity that is an expression of the gospel of charity.
In the second place, as witnesses to faith the communities need to respond to the thirst for spirituality shown by young people.
I quote the words of Fr Vecchi:
"Young people... need witnesses, persons and environments that can show by example the possibility of living a life according to the Gospel in our society. This evangelical witness which is at one and the same time a communion between brothers, a radical following of Christ, and an active presence which stimulates and brings life to the young, constitutes the first educative service we offer them, the first word of the proclamation of the Gospel. From a vocational point of view they feel attracted to join communities with a purpose rather than merely engage in a particular kind of work." (Towards the 25th General Chapter, in AGC 372 p. 16)
. In the exhortation the Pope invites religious to:
"inspire in all the faithful a true longing for holiness, a deep desire for conversion and personal renewal in a context of ever more intense prayer and of solidarity with one's neighbour, especially the most needy." (VC. 39)
The evangelical witness of our communities to fraternal life and charity towards those in need will be a strong invitation and an encouragement to others to share the Salesian charism. In this way they will fulfil what our Constitutions say:
"...the discovery and guidance of vocations...[is] the crown of all our educational and pastoral activity. (C. 37)
Thirdly: as witnesses to communion our communities ought to try to extend, to strengthen and to create communion by becoming as the Pope says, "true experts of communion" (VC 46).
They will become effectively significant in a local area through their involvement, according to their own charism, both in the pastoral work of the local Church and in working on behalf of poor young people and in collaboration with other bodies and agencies. They will try to promote evangelical values, by their words and even more by their example, and by being present in those places where educational criteria are determined and policies regarding young people are decided Not only this: the vocation as educators and consecrated persons and the priestly ministry will lead communities to set in motion organized action for the guidance and the formation of collaborators and of the educative communities. To enable them to live their own lives with maturity and joy, to understand and to live Salesian spirituality and to carry out their educative and pastoral mission competently and in a professional manner, the communities will work at their cultural and professional development but also and especially at the growth of their human, Christian and Salesian vocation.
They will establish relationships of collaboration and co-responsibility in the shared mission, and will become actively involved in the Church and in society, especially in areas of education, of the evangelization of culture, and in social communication.
Fourthly as witnesses to a deep spiritual life the communities need to commit themselves particularly to revitalizing their own Salesian spirituality, recognizing that the community owes its existence and mission to the Holy Spirit, and therefore it cannot possibly reinvent itself or carry out its role fruitfully without a deep spiritual experience. They will seek therefore to start afresh from Christ (NMI 29) recognizing that "a religious community is, above all else, a mystery which must be contemplated and welcomed with a heart full of gratitude in the clear context of faith." (Fraternal life in community, n. 12)
At the beginning of the new millennium we were insistently reminded of the importance of being authentic Christians and competent and credible witnesses. Today - it has been said - without passion and mysticism no one can be a Christian, mush less a religious and a Salesian. May the General Chapter know how to rekindle this flame in every Salesian community.
Conclusion
We entrust ourselves to the help of Mary, " model of prayer and pastoral love, the teacher of wisdom and guide of our Family" (C. 92) and to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, with a docility like that of Don Bosco, in order to be enlightened in every step that we take and on every decision that we make in this Chapter. We also know that every renewal carried out under the inspiration of the Spirit and in harmony with the charism of Don Bosco will be accompanied by their creative power. It is in this way that we can take up our work with complete confidence that we are doing the Lord's will.
This is what we wish for ourselves, certain of the Lord's presence among us.
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