i) Belonging to the Salesian Family is not primarily a juridical or organizational matter: it consists in the fact that groups by virtue of their vocation participate in the charism of Don Bosco, i.e., in his spirit and mission. These groups were either directly founded by Don Bosco (such as the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Co-operators) or they refer back to him indirectly in having been raised up by the Holy Spirit within the "Salesian happening" through the mediation of some Salesian and helped by certain Salesian environments or groups — as happened with the Don Bosco Volunteers, who had their origins in the work of Father Rinaldi and his apostolate among a number of women Co-operators and the pupils and past pupils of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.¹

ii) The elements common to the various groups can be reduced basically to

iii) Since the SGC several thoughtful contributions have been received regarding the elements of the genuine Salesian vocation: Fr Ricceri in 1973,³ Fr. Viganò in 1981,⁴ and authoritative representatives of the various groups recognized by the SGC ⁵ as belonging to the Salesian Family. With these contributions in mind we could list the elements as follows:

iv) Salesian vocation—this means being called to share in the gift of God, the charism granted to Don Bosco and his family, in some important aspect of the natural and supernatural apostolate typical of Don Bosco. The group must show signs of being moved by the Holy Spirit and look to Don Bosco as guide and model; it must aim at implementing his charism in some way or other. This is easier to discern if the Founder is a Salesian, a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians or some other member of the Salesian Family.

v) Participation in the mission to the young and the masses. This means that the Institute include within its scope all or some of the elements of the overall Salesian mission: evangelization and catechesis; integrated development of the young, especially the poor and abandoned; the furthering of Christian culture amond peoples, especially through the mass media and missionary work.

vi) Sharing in the Salesian spirit and educative and pastorla method that is based on pastoral charity, family spirit, optimism, simple and vital prayer, esteem for the sacraments and devotion to Mary.⁶

vii) Adoption of the pastoral principles and the educational and apostolic presence and action inspired by Don Bosco’s Preventive System.

viii) Evangelical life according to the Salesian spirit inasmuch as the Institute propose to its members a Gospel ideal in conformity with the evangelical counsels, with vows, promises or other ways of commitment lived according to the life-style and Salesian holiness of which Don Bosco and the other Saints of the Salesian Family are practical models.

ix) Active Salesian solidarity. Each group maintains its specific distinctiveness and autonomy, but will cultivate a spirit of communion that will enrich the Salesian Family. This means each group will:

• genuinely incorporate itself within the different groups of the Salesian Family and live out its typical bonds of solidarity and collaboration;
• • recognize that the Rector Major as Don Bosco’s successor, is the father and center of unity of the Family, and hence that the Salesian Congregation has the special task of spiritual animation inherited from Don Bosco.⁷

x) All these elements are necessarily basic to an intense apostolic communion and solidarity between the various groups of baptized who share them. In Don Bosco’s time it was possible to have a strict union with organizing and juridical links. Today we express our fidelity to his will by seeking other ways of communion adapted to the special characteristics of each group.⁸

Acceptance into the Salesian Family

xi) The SGC recognized as belonging to the Salesian Family in the strict sense, by virtue of their vocation, the Salesians, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. the Co-operators and the Don Bosco Volunteers. It left the way open for the acceptance of other groups instituted after the death of Don Bosco up to the present time, or groups that could arise in the future. It did not indicate the way this acceptance should be implemented.⁹

xii) The SGC recognized the Past Pupils as belonging to the Salesian Family by virtue of their Salesian education. It also allowed the possibility of belonging to the Salesian Family in the wide sense to those for whom we work and those within the vast circle of Salesian action in the Church.¹⁰

xiii) The following directives are exclusively for those groups who wish to belong officially to the Salesian Family according to their special vocation; who seek participation and communion in a charism that naturally calls for some sign and structure that will unite them to the Rector Major, the successor of Don Bosco, Founder and first animator of the Salesian Family.

xiv) During GC21 the Rector Major stated that belonging to the Salesian Family in the strict sense referred only to properly constituted groups, and that it was clear that no group was properly constituted unless approved by the Rector Major and his Council; and that the group should have a bistory that would convince the competent official organs that such recognition should be given.¹¹

xv) There are groups who already by virtue of their foundation and possession of the necessary historical and charismatic elements already belong in fact to the Salesian Family. It is a matter therefore of clarifying the conditions and indicating the procedure whereby the Rector Major may formally recognize such groups as officially belonging to the Salesian Family.

xvi) Official acceptance is given by the Rector Major and his Council when a group freely requests it and when it is clear that the group’s life and apostolate are in substantial agreement with the common aims of the Salesian Family, and when such aims are clearly set out in the official documents of the same constituted group.

xvii) An Institute that has clearly expressed in its Constitutions the common values of the Salesian vocation, and can show that these are not only in its documents but actually practised in its history and life, may express its desire and motivation to the Rector Major and request official acceptance into the Salesian Family.

xviii) Since being part of the Salesian Family involves the commitment of all the members of the Institute, the request is to be made by the supreme authorities of the Institute and confirmed by its Assembly or General Chapter in view ensuing duties and rights.

xix) The Rector Major will have the request and its motives examined by the Department for the Salesian Family. If its decision is affirmative he will ask the opinion of the other groups of the Salesian Family and also seek the opinion of his Council. If after these examinations he judges that there are sufficient reasons for granting the request he will inform the interested group and all the other Salesian Family groups of the decision.

xx) The Rector Major’s acceptance of a group does not take away its autonomy, but it requires group that the include the declaration in some official document (preferably Constitutions) so that the fact be known and accepted by all its members.

Cordial relations in the Salesian Family

xxi) As a consequence official acceptance, the group shall regard the Rector Major, Don Bosco’s successor, as the father and center of unity of all the Salesian Family,and accept those guidelines and directives regarding the fidelity of each group to the Salesian values common to all.

xxii) Membership requires a special duty of spiritual and apostolic solidarity with all the other groups of the Salesian Family; this includes knowing and helping one another, zeal for vocations, communication, and being present at significant events in the life of each group on the part of all the other groups as a way of building up ecclesial communion in the Salesian style.¹²

xxiii)    To foster this communion by dialog, liaison, participation and common initiatives so as to implement the Salesian mission and presence in the Church, it will be useful, with the agreement of all, to set up efficient structures (such as Salesian Family pastoral councils) for arranging gatherings to foster cordiality, study and prayer; these will make for an exchange of spiritual riches and collaboration and help create a more lively sense of the identity of each.

xxiv) The Congregation has inherited from DB particular responsibilities for Salesian animation and pastoral service among the various groups of the Salesian Family in the interests of unity and fidelity to the charism of Don Bosco with full respect for the specific vocation of each group. For this purpose does the Department for the Salesian Family exist.¹³

xxv) The Congregation will be available for this work at world, provincial and local levels, and will give special importance to the training of Salesian animators for the members of the groups and their charges. In their turn the groups will consider the pastoral service of the Salesian priests and the other Salesian Family groups as a true help to the fidelity to the charism of Don Bosco and the family spirit.¹⁴

xxvi) The Salesians, without prejudice to their community and religious life, will willingly open their houses and works to welcome and animate the members of the various groups according to the requirements of their life and apostolate; indeed all the groups should act thus among themselves.

xvii) In particular the Congregation will give the various groups the use of its facilities and systems regarding formation, history, studies, spirituality development and Salesian mission, inviting all to collaborate.

xviii) Don Bosco used say that "extraordinary good could come from the reading of the Salesian Bulletin, i.e., the closest bonds of unity and oneness of heart".¹⁵ Thus the Department for the Salesian Family invites the various groups to participate through their talented members in the activities of the media and the dissemination of Salesian information.

Conclusions

1) The Salesian Family’s 9^th Spirituality Week was held at the Rome Salesianum from January 2 - 30, 1982. The theme was Vocations in the Salesian Family.

2) Its aim was to draw up a united vocation apostolate for all the groups of the Salesian Family in the light of combined study and experience.

3) A study was made of the common Salesian vocation that flowed through the specific character of each group. This study was made against the background of the fundamental vocations of the Church with constant reference to the universal vocation of every Christian.

4) Points of doctrine and practical directives were clarified in the light of theology and human science, the documents of the Church and the Salesian Family, the reflections of the Superiors and also the matters brought up by speakers, discussion groups and assemblies.

5) All matters raised were deliberated, trued up against the person of Don Bosco, his work and his enlightened efforts for vocations (lay, religious and priestly) in accordance with his educative and pastoral project which he entrusted to all the Salesian Family.

I. Doctrinal principles

6) Every vocation comes from the Father (Rom. XVIII 29; LG 2) revealed by the Son (GS 22), is given life by the Spirit (LG 12), and is realized in the Church.

7) The word vocation has many meanings: vocation in life, vocation to the faith, and especially Christian vocation in reference to the People of God or in reference to the kinds of individual vocations necessary for the communion and mission of the Church — priesthood, lay vocation, and consecrated religious or secular (LG 3, 4, 6; also special documents of Vatican II on specific vocations).

8) The common Salesian vocation includes the essential vocations described in the Constitution on the Church with all their different practical and autonomous methods — priests and lay-brothers, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and other Institutes of Sisters, Don Bosco Volunteers (consecrated seculars), Salesian Cooperators, other priests and layfolk, and also Salesian Past Pupils with Salesian commitments.

9) It is the task of the Superiors who promote the Salesian Family to establish the criteria and assess the Salesianity of other groups who wish to be accepted into the Salesian Family and participate in its vocation.

10) The common Salesian vocation with its characteristics and specific traits is fundamentally a Christian, ecclesial and missionary vocation.

11) Therefore it requires of all members a commitment to conform themselves to the risen Christ living and working within each person and throughout the history of humanity; members will thus become enthusiastic bearers of his Gospel, effectively educating others to hear his Word and translate it into their lives;

be the Church and act the Church, belonging openly to its communion, participating actively in its mission of being for all a sacrament of salvation, a sign and means of uniting each person with God and each person with each other (LG 1); members will cultivate a deep solidarity with man, his world and his history (GS 1);

belong radically and with conviction to the universal Church, which is a missionary Church, and be deeply involved in the local Church, the mediator of all God’s calls and mans responses — for the seed of a vocation germinates in the community of faith, develops in it, and is destined for it.

12) Today the Christian community (families, parishes, etc.) is in many places in a state of crisis owing to the rapid and headlong social and cultural transformations. The changes undoubtedly have their positive aspects, but there are many negative aspects that cannot be squared with the Gospel (EN 20).

13) The Christian community is in crisis also because of elements of doubt and resistance regarding the renewal of all sectors of the Church required by Vatican II, and the lack of strong and vital witness in individuals and communities either through little coherence in their lives or small enthusiasm for evangelization.

14) The Christian community is finding it hard to overcome this crisis because of an ever-widening superficiality in making a judgement of the world "of which Christians are the soul" (LG 38): they alienate themselves from it, refuse to be involved in it and do not challenge the errors, faults and injustices in society. This is especially the case when dealing with the young, who are not indifferent to the values of a vocation but are obstructed by the way some live out these values.

15) Therefore the strategy of a united Salesian Family vocation apostolate demands primarily an extraordinary commitment to evangelization that will develop a human and Christian personality in children, teenagers and adults, each according to his personal vocation (Paul VI: Summi Dei Verbum).

A brief word on:

• human: concern to liberate from interior and exterior manipulation of the physical, emotional and cultural life so that there will be an harmonious development of body, talents, motives, interests, values, ideals, etc.
• Christian: concern to educate for the faith, for loyalty to the Church and all it stands for in the world, in accordance with one’s personal vocation.
• vocation: concern for the young: preparation for matrimony, celibacy, virginity as true values and expressions of self-donation; openness to specific vocations according to the destiny God proposes for each person (Pop. Progressio 5).

16) In step with the other vocations in the Church and based on the common matrix (the Christian vocation) is the Salesian vocation, with its distinctiveness, relevance and pluralism within the one Salesian Family.

II. Educational and pastoral pointers

17) Whilst working among the young and adults we find some individuals rich in spiritual resources and we put to them implicitly or explicit the matter of a particular vocation: the life of the committed lay person, the married life, the religious or secular life of consecration, the priesthood.

18) For all vocations, and especially the latter ones, pastoral action should include a particular vocation guidance; nor can there be a valid vocational guidance unless it be based on pastoral action.

19) The duty of helping you people to discern their own vocation derives from the young person’s right to receive guidance rather than from any particular vocation situation the Church.

20) This guidance is basic to a genuine vocation, which is a divine call asking for a positive human response that is linked to psychological and religious forces that call for an appropriate educative and pastoral guidance.

21) The call of God is developed within the life-plan made in view of the God-plan that keeps revealing itself ever more clearly and concretely

22) Discernment must be carried out with prudence and patience, for the response to God’s call is not static but spirited; it is not a point of departure but a point of arrival; it is fully accomplished at the age of maturity, the age of freedom and responsibility (PO 11). It develops with the personality; it is molded, integrated and fashioned in step with the personality, with the personal vocation.

Discernment

23) Discernment verifies the existence or absence of

the signs by which God indicates to each person his way in life and the genuine intermediary helps involved — which need not be extraordinary: they are to be assessed by prudent people (v. PO 11); such signs are the enlightening and stimulating action of interior graces and the exterior mediation of persons, situations, events that give rise to spirited reaction and aspiration in favor of a committed vocation.

The personal qualities in a young person that are genuine indications of a vocation: they are its necessary requisites. Objective qualities show suitability: health, culture, balance, morality, devotion; subjective qualities indicate the aims of the candidate: right intention, explicit or at least implicit. In all these matters special attention must be paid to motivation so that it may be authentic, sincere, valid and in line with the particular vocation.

24) The lack of basic requirements or the presence of dissuasive indications normally excludes from a committed vocation, which in reality is not only a personal matter but also an ecclesial one.

25) The presence of objective and subjective requirements is a very important indication. It has been authoritatively maintained that these qualities indicate a possible response to a possible call from God; they point the way to God’s initiative. However the final judgement belongs to the proper Church authority.

Education

26) Education guides and helps

• to seek, discover and welcome God’s signs;
• to cultivate, protect and develop the initial embryonic qualities;
• to work out and implement a plan for the spiritual life.

27) A vocation should be proposed gradually, with respect for the unhurried process of seeking, discovering and checking; there should be no racing ahead, no maneuvering or pressuring; pedagogical help and support should be given at the candidate’s side in a community environment that is educational and pastoral, and through an enthusiastic youth apostolate able to seek out, encouraging finally oblation; "Here I am, Lord; send me" (Is. VI 8).

28) Authorities mention five steps that lead to a fundamental life-option of a vocation: sensitivity to the vocation; acceptance of an exacting formation; willingness to participate with a strong personal effort; deciding on a particular vocation; and finally oblation: "Here I am, Lord; send me" (Is. VI 8).

29) Therefore the vocation apostolate must not be left to improvisation or confided to individualistic action: it should be planned as part of the educative and pastoral action of the community.

30) Within the Salesian Family a joint apostolate is planned with the co-responsibility and collaboration of all the groups. It does not exclude links with other institutions and will be integrated into the apostolate of the local Church.

31) To this end we must make a joint study of the formation of united stable work-groups in the Salesian Family at national, provincial and (where possible) local level. (v. GC 21 113-114; 118-119).

III. Practical directives

32) It is of prime importance to spread the knowledge of the person, life and charism of Don Bosco who was remarkable for the innumerable vocations he presented to the Church. Knowledge of Don Bosco is a convincing draw-card for Salesian vocations. Then we should present his spirit as having a particular style of rapport with God and our fellow human beings. Finally we need to show how his charism can be translated into concrete, diverse and autonomous ways to suit each group of the Salesian Family.

33) Furthermore we must reaffirm the all-important value of witness in personal and community living at all levels, and witness too of the Christian and Salesian values of which all the groups of the Salesian Family are bearers.

Animation

34) Those engaged in educational and pastoral labors must be attentive and concerned that all pastoral efforts include vocation work.

35) Special interest must be stirred up particularly in the following persons: parents, teachers (especially in catechetics), animators of the apostolate (especially of Church groups), confessors, consecrated persons engaged in pastoral activities, and lay people committed to educating for the faith.

36) Environments for animation are: the family, that by living its own special vocation it may truly become the domestic Church (LG 11) and the "junior seminary" of vocations (OT 2); the parish, which is the living cell of the local church and special "mediator’ for vocations; the school and the youth center, where the Christian vocation is developed; groups, which constitute a living experience of Christ and the Church; the educative and religious community, which presents and carries out the charism and mission of Don Bosco.

37) Necessary activities:

38) In the structures, in the planning-meetings and in the vocation enterprises the Salesian priest should if possible be accompanied by a Salesian brother.

Guidance

39) Guidance coupled with animation (which is the more important of the two) is necessary for all people in every age group (workers, university students, adults) and must be carried out according to the following essentials:

40) information: it is essential to speak of Christian, ecclesial and Salesian vocations, since all in the Church have the right to know and examine the various ways of living out the basic Christian vocation.

However, our mediation has the serious problem of bridging the "culture-gap": the "language" of vocations must be in step with theology, but it must also take stock of psychological and sociological factor’s in the human and divine aspects of vocations: as opportunity offers it must use means of information such as the living word, pamphlets, audiovisuals, pilgrimages to religious institutes and seminaries, exhibitions, recitals, films, radio and television, etc.

41) Contact between persons is a great help in sorting out vocation matters: thus there is need of private talks, periodical group meetings, live-ins for students, workers and social workers, and these should be open to all the Salesian Family groups. They include places and times to meet together for such things as retreats and group meetings. These will whip up enthusiasm in a group and encourage contacts between persons.

42) Practical experience: visiting or living for a while with members of the Salesian Family, joining them for prayers, work, meals, recreation etc., and thus seeing in practice the distinctive traits of the Salesian vocation: this must be an experience of faith, of commitment, of coming to grips with one’s vocation (Fr Dho).

It is a great help to be present at priestly ordinations, religious professions, missionary send-offs and home comings, the ceremony of the Cooperators’ promises, etc.

43) Prayer gatherings are fundamental in vocation guidance provided that they be not only prayers that God may send others as laborers to his harvest but rather that he may help the members of the praying group to achieve their particular vocation ("Lord, what must I do?" — Acts XXII 10).

44) Animation of the groups of the Salesian Family requires personnel or teams comprised of representatives of all the groups of the Salesian Family who will work under the primary responsibility of the Provincial (SDB or FMA) and the local Superiors.

Guidance on the other hand claims the commitment of all who are educators in the faith, beginning with the parents themselves.

45) Finally it is the duty of the Salesian Family groups to give their support and approval to the united nation and diocesan plans promoted by the episcopal conferences. They should give their help in drawing up such plans and assist in their implementation. They should also have their representatives (at national, regional and diocesan levels) in the structures and functioning of the united centers for all vocations of special consecration (see Letter of Sacr. Congr. for Cath. Educ. to bishops, 2-1-78; also GC21 119).