3. FORMS OF COMMUNION OR SHARING AND BELONGING: THE SALESIAN FAMILY AND SALESIAN MOVEMENT[48] Salesian Family Don Bosco "founded not only the Society of St. Francis de Sales but also the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Association of Salesian Cooperators".5 These groups and others born later make up the Salesian Family.6 The unity of the Salesian Family increases with the understanding of the common mission starting from the specific vocation of each member. The work of the postconciliar period has left us a precious heritage of goals achieved: the publication of the official documents for each branch of the Family for the animation and life itself of the associations; the Common Identity Card; the participation of lay people in the GC24, a visible and prophetic sign of a formation process to be carried out together. But the change of mentality needed to reach recognition of the common responsibility required for confronting the mission to the young has not been assimilated by all because, among other reasons, vocational discernment has not always been carried out within the various component groups with attention to the role of the lay faithful. There are still environments in which a certain paternalism
weakens the autonomy of the laity, and inadequate formation
compromises the sharing of responsibility in the mission. [49] The Salesian Movement It would be an impoverishment and an excessive simplification were we to reduce the area of influence of the person and message of Don Bosco to the Salesian Family alone. From the very beginning of Salesian work, in fact, a vast movement of persons and groups, men and women of different conditions of life, grew up around Don Bosco.7 Subsequent history shows that the movement has been marked by a spiritual convergence and a shared objective of education, with so broad an approach as to involve also those outside the Christian category. The Valdocco model has overcome cultural and territorial limitations, and the objective of "good Christians and upright citizens" has been spread far and wide. Today the Salesian presence is embodied in widely different contexts, characterized by pluricultural and plurireligious settings, thus realizing a wide range of collaborations. If we are looking for images to enable us to understand all of this, we could say that just as an echo belongs to the sound that makes it, and every flow of water refers back to its source, every branch to its root, every ripple (even the weakest and most distant) is concentric with its starting point, so it is with those who "work for the salvation of the young" in Don Bosco's name. The Salesian Movement is not a structured reality with a precise organization. Above all else it is an awareness, a mobilization, an affective and effective belonging in view of the good of the young. Although not everywhere are the SDBs and Salesian Family aware of the richness and vast nature of the radiation of Don Bosco's charism, the latter is well known to those who want to be involved in educative processes. Of this there are two visible indications:
[50] In this broad context of the Salesian Movement is inserted the variegated reality of the Friends of Don Bosco: sympathizers, admirers, benefactors, collaborators, advisers, believers and non-believers, and non-Christians.8 With different shades of meaning they present the following identity:
It is recognized that the Friends of Don Bosco are inserted in
a wider movement than the present reality of the Salesian Family.
Their insertion in the spirit and mission of Don Bosco is
diversified, with a variety of degrees and attitudes, after the
fashion of concentric circles: for some it a matter of direct
involvement, for others of indirect participation. [51] Since the centenary of 1988 and the GC23, the SDBs, Salesian Family and Salesian Movement have been sharing a true and proper process of communion and sharing. In this the young people form the most sensitive and reactive part, willingly entering the Movement so as to live the Salesian option for the service of youth. Even though the same objectives and degree of sharing have not been achieved in every province, everywhere attempts have been made to establish with the SDBs a new kind of encounter, able to open up vocational outlets and to develop with young people frontiers with the indifferent and those at a distance, in response to new demands and challenges. The Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) has received official recognition from the Holy See and takes part in meetings of the "Concilium pro Laicis". It is a movement with an educative character offered to all young people and with a missionary slant. The more sensitive members are aware that they are bearers of a precious patrimony for the Congregation, and ask to be helped in the discovery of the project of life and in the choice of a process which will make them strong in spirituality and witness. The animating force of the SYM is not, in fact, its organization but the Salesian youth spirituality: it is in this that all groups converge. For this reason spirituality requires a constant effort at
formation. Particular attention needs to be given to the vocation
guidance of the young so that they become inserted into the
ecclesial and social world with options and commitments which are
a response to problems of the present-day world. |