By Fr Eli Cruz, SDB
Canlubang, Philippines - After the first historical attempt to launch the CDB (Con Don Bosco) vocation in our Region, in South Korea (started in 1999 with first vocation discernment and ended in 2010), there is a second attempt starting in the Philippines.
The Philippines-North Province (FIN) is starting to form the Volunteers with Don Bosco (CDB = Con Don Bosco), the Salesian consecrated secular male institute, which officially began in 1994 when Fr Egidio Viganó called to one meeting in Rome many young men who started in different parts of the world this experience.
Fr Eli Cruz, former FIN provincial, proposed the idea of establishing such group in the Philippines to Fr Václav Klement, EAO regional councilor, who readily gave his support and shared his experiences. Fr Eli Cruz answers some questions:
What attracted you to this Salesian consecrated secular vocation?
I grew up with (a) exemplary models, (b) good knowledge, and (c) high esteem of the consecrated secular vocation because my two aunts were among the first members from the Philippines of the Notre Dame de Vie Institute, a French-founded group of consecrated lay women and men who are professional people living in the world with the Carmelite spirit.
My two aunts had hoped that I would join the Institute after university studies, but God called me to be a Salesian priest. However, my early exposures and the imprint the lives of my two aunts and their other members of the Carmelite NDV Institute left on me are coming into full circle with my own Salesian vocation.
Why did you start with the CDB vocation promotion?
The FIN Provincial Chapter 2013, while it “sees the urgent need to work with young workers or professionals… especially those at risk in the business process outsourcing industry,” also “recognizes that it is at a loss as to the new models of community structures and apostolic interventions. It encourages a pilot group of confreres to venture into this new frontier.”
AS NEW FRONTIER: The CDBs are the consecrated Salesians who can, using the images of Pope Francis, (a) wear “dusty shoes”; (b) have “the smell of the sheep”; and (c) serve as the “field hospital after the battle” with their very proximity and accessibility to young workers.
FOR THE BICENTENARY OF DB’S BIRTH: Beyond celebrations that may just be postcards of happy memories, what can give more lasting significance is the re-birthing in the Province of the avant-garde idea of Don Bosco about the ‘Extern Salesian’ which he presented in the 1860 Constitutions.
IN THIS YEAR OF THE CONSECRATED LIFE: The Salesian Family has a unique vocation to offer through the professed CDBs who “by vocational choice live as laymen in the world… to enliven reality from within… immersed in the Heart of Christ and enlivened by the optimistic humanism of Don Bosco and St. Francis de Sales” (CDB Constitutions, 6).
What is the profile of our first candidates on discernment and formation?
For the moment, there are 3 young men, aged 32, having their monthly formation. They are alumni of Don Bosco Technical College in Mandaluyong City, a school where, so far, a third of SDBs in the Philippines studied, 3 FMAs taught as former teachers, and 3 locally founded Marian congregations were formed from its students. All 3 are licensed engineers from our college, with one having studied there since grade school, one since high school, and the other one already in college. It’s a very fertile ground.
Even prior to their formation into the CDB, all three are known to Fr Eli as students and then as professionals who have a regular prayer life, apostolic involvement with the poor, capacity for self-reflection, affective maturity, gentlemanly dealings with their bosses and constituents in the workplace, and cultural intelligence in working with people and in places of other cultures. They are enthusiastic in the discernment and formation process.
All three are financially stable professionals working in Manila. One of the 3 candidates works in a high-profile embassy in its department that deals with project proposals for the alleviation of poverty in the Asian region. The other two work in the same European company in supervisory positions over young professionals. All 3 work in an environment where professionalism is valued and the witnessing of Christian values is respected.
Any wish or dream about some other potential CDB vocations in the EAO region?
The CDB trinomial vocation as Salesian, consecrated, secular men is tough. But there are frontiers and peripheries of the Salesian mission that only they can penetrate. So may their tribe increase!
