14 strategic points emerging from the study and sharing of 7 sectors of the Salesian Life and Mission

By Fr. Angel F. Artime, SDB
Rector Major

RMG, 6 July 2017 -- Four months after the 2017 Team Visit in Hua Hin (Thailand) all East Asia - Oceania Region confreres are getting the final formal letter of the Rector Major. On the last day of the Team Visit the Rector Major has shared 13 points emerging from the study and sharing of 7 sectors of the Salesian Life and Mission: Formation, Youth ministry, Social communication, Missions, Economy, Salesian Family and Reshaping of Salesian presences.

During the first month of the summer plenary session of the General council has refined these regional indications to the healthy development of the Salesian Charism in our Region. Full text of RM's letter is available on the Boscolink: EAO Team Visit 2017 - Rector Major Letter.

Fr. Angel introduced the final version:

"… At the same time, I now offer you some strategic points that I hope will serve as a blueprint for the Provinces and for the whole Region. These are the points shared in Hua Hin, but now enriched by a careful study in the General Council.

1. I want to acknowledge the growth of communion in the Region over the past 15 years. Despite the great diversity present in the Region, you are conducting a shared ministerial journey with commitment and harmony, with common goals... All these elements are a guarantee of communion.


2. Today there are many signs of openness and mutual cooperation among the Provinces of the Region…. Openness and mutual cooperation are concrete ways of making communion real and effective.


3. The care and growth of Salesian identity in the Region is very important and requires a permanent commitment…. Identity requires that the Provincials together with their councils have a clearer vision with which to animate and govern the Provinces.


4. Identity also means taking seriously and with determination the reshaping of the Province, giving priority to the consistency of our communities (in quantity and in quality) and to our Salesian mission in the Province. Today the soul of this identity and this reshaping is sharing our mission with the laity, attending to their formation and sharing real responsibility with them.


5. It is also an opportune time to strengthen and grow as the Salesian Family in the Region. ..You should not leave this only to some confreres who have an interest, but it must be, more and more clearly, a priority for the whole provincial community.


6. … We call for you to strongly consider this reality: the Salesian vocation is a single vocation in two forms - Salesian Brother and Salesian Priest, while promoting the vocation of the Salesian Brother.


7. We must have the courage to go out and seek the peripheries that are awaiting us. Because we are persons of faith and because we let ourselves be guided by the Spirit, we need the courage to get out of our comfort zones, where we are already known and safe.


8. The Rector Major and his council ask you to work in a constant and careful manner assuring sustainability, economic transparency and the pror and clear use of our patrimony…. We need to promote wherever possible a movement towards the self-sustainability of our mission and formation, also with the help of provincial PDO (Planning and Development Offices).


9. Formation is a high priority in this six year period…. We need a formation that prepares for the Salesian mission, and becomes concrete in our Youth Ministry, a ministry of processes for young people that will lead them to Jesus…. Formation has to be a life-long process of ongoing formation with the necessary initiatives at local and provincial level.


10. In a very conscious way, all Provinces are called to make an option to ensure the qualification of the confreres. It is important to guarantee the formation of future formators….


11. Enculturating Don Bosco’s Preventive System in a multi-cultural and multi-religious environment demands consecrated persons who are solidly rooted in the charism… we need to grow towards a stronger planning mentality that will help us move from a model of Youth Ministry based only on events, to one which is more marked by processes…


12. We invite the Region and every Province to continue to promote internationality and Interculturality… It’s very providential that at this moment in history each Province is able to receive Salesian missionaries and lay missionary volunteers from other nations and cultures.


13. I greatly appreciate, dear confreres, the effort the Region is making to provide many translations…. Likewise continue to foster AustraLasia - Bosco Link, which unites and makes the Congregation visible in the Region. To strengthen these and other processes of communication it is very important to have a full time Social Communication Delegate.


14. Finally, I would like to mention the six delegations within the Region. No other Region in the Congregation has so many Delegations! We invite you to continue accompanying the processes in these Delegations, continuously helping them to move in the right direction."

Let's make fruitful these precious indication for the healthy growth of Salesian Charism in our provinces and delegations!

Related article:

• Australasia 4324: Steadfast growth in communion
  The 13 points for the growth of the EAO Region: EAO Team Visit 2017 (10) - Day 4

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