''austraLasia' #542
GC25: A MODEL OF THE SALESIAN COMMUNITY?
Several comments are coming through about the gathering of 231 confreres in the Chapter with all their differences of culture, language, experience...
As one correspondent puts it:
"Nevertheless, there is one thing that impresses me very much. It is the family spirit in the chapter. We come from over 90 Provinces and different nationalities with different languages. Many of us are not good in Italian but we manage to understand one another and to share our ideas with one another. A lot of courtesy and friendliness is found among us. We chat, eat and have fun together. We pray together and listen to the sharing of different provinces of their hope and worries. If the salesian communities all over the world live like this chapter community, it will be the greatest blessing and gift from our Lord. In this context, I would say that there is still a lot of hope in our congregation and God's blessing is still with us. " Nevertheless, there is not a little frustration being experienced by a few members who come from provinces where matters of great moment are able to be shared with the help of other models of corporate process.
COMMISSIONS BEGINNING TO SHAPE UP THEIR PROPOSALS
At this stage, much of the interest is focussed on the commission dealing with structures. But another commission that is likely to provide some challenging material is that dealing with 'New forms of community'. Even from the earliest moments of this commission, the notion of Salesian Community as wider than just SDBs had taken firm hold. As one correspondent writes: The formation and collaboration of Laity is being taken up into a new level of understanding. The SDB community is certainly seen at the animating nucleus and as having responsibility for keep all true to the charism of Don Bosco". Then there was the Goodnight already reported where a new form of community has been tried in Belgium.
But back to Commission #2 and structures! There are a number of models being proposed, most of them presenting a stripped-down version of the present council with much less emphasis on rigid structures and more on a group who can plan and envision the future of the Congregation with the Rector Major. For example, one model would have the RM, Vicar and Economer at the core, along with three others: one overviewing Salesian Mission (in all its forms), another the Salesian charism, and the third, formation. Regional councillors there would be, and resident in Rome for close contact with the RM, but not necessarily part of the regular Council. Having said that there is another proposal which would have much the same numbers on the Council as at present but with re-arrangement of portfolios. It won't be long before we get a feel of which direction carries the day - I think it is easy to see that one of these has a fairly anglo-saxon feel about it!
Regions and regionals have been under discussion from one of the sub-groups, with some sensible (from this writer's point of view!) ideas coming up re the way regionals carry out their role, viz., keep mainly to animation of groups and roles in the Province and less to the interviewing of individual confreres.
By the way, there is a suggestion that the Australia-Asia region be reconfigured. Let's see where that one goes.
