MESSAGE OF THE GC24 TO YOUNG PEOPLE

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Dear young people,

150 years ago on 12 April 1846, Easter Sunday, Don Bosco moved with his youngsters to Valdocco. There the Oratory took root, grew and bore fruit, to such an extent that eventually it served youngsters all over the world.

We Salesians, gathered in our General Chapter and inspired by this event, want to make contact with you, the members of the Salesian Youth Movement, animators, volunteers and all who in one way or another have come to know and love Don Bosco.

Thank you for your requests

First of all we want to thank you for what you said to us in reply to the questionnaire we sent you in preparation for the General Chapter:

• you asked us insistently to be present among you spontaneously to a greater extent, to share your life in an informal manner;
• you want us to accompany you and help you in attaining a deeper formation;
• you want to be given the possibility of playing an effective part in the work of education and evangelization;
• you want to see us as consistent witnesses of the Gospel by our religious life: men of prayer who are truly poor and able to live and work as a community.

The experience of the 24th General Chapter

For us the GC24 has been an extraordinary experience of Salesianity. We have touched almost physically the universal nature of the Salesian charism and mission, the drawing force still exerted by Don Bosco at the present day, and the communion that exists between us and so many people of good will, of every religion and culture, and especially with the Salesian Family.

We have heard your voice and that of the lay people who work with us: one and all ask us for openness and participation; they want to be involved in the Salesian mission as protagonists. Don Bosco, who from the very beginning was able to involve youngsters in his enterprise and lead them to put themselves at the service of their peers, is for us an example and stimulus.

We have studied more deeply our vision of the Church as a communion of vocations at the service of the Kingdom in the world.

We have gained a better knowledge, and for this we thank God, of your work in the field of animation and evangelization in so many forms and different places. We have experienced the great joy of sharing with you the Salesian mission.

This is already a realization of the communion and sharing between Salesians and lay people in the spirit and mission of Don Bosco, the theme of the Chapter itself.

Our response

We accept the challenge which reaches us through the Chapter.

Though well aware of our limitations, we join hands with you in a common journey, and we commit ourselves to making our communities and works open to all of you.

Like Don Bosco, with you we want to live, with you we want to stay, with you we want to work for the salvation of the young, especially those who are poor and most in need.

We propose to you a journey of faith, made concrete in Salesian youth spirituality, of which we want to be living witnesses among you.

We want to see you as young people with strong interior convictions, seeking God and open to him.

We want to prompt you to make of your life a service to others, especially to those who are most abandoned, and to be bearers of solidarity and hope.

We encourage you to be missionaries among the young.

We ask you to live an intense friendship with Christ.

We invite you to make holiness your goal.

And in all this, please count on our accompaniment and support.

A common commitment

Don Bosco used to say: "If I had with me a group of youngsters who think as I do, we could conquer the world". With the same trust and confidence we invite you to work with us for the education and evangelization of young people the whole world over.

Let us live the experience of preparing ourselves together to continue the journey of faith, and bring Don Bosco to life again as the century draws to an end, giving him as a living person to the new generations of youth!

This will be our concrete form of taking part in the great project of the jubilee year, to which the Pope is calling us.

Let us place these desires and commitments in the hands of Mary Help of Christians, the Mother and Teacher of Don Bosco and of youth, so that they may become a joyful reality.

Rome, 20 April 1996