SOME NEW SITUATIONS

CHAPTER 3: SOME PARTICULAR NEW SITUATIONS

1. ACTIVITIES AND WORKS MANAGED BY LAY PEOPLE WITHIN THE SALESIAN PROVINCIAL PROJECT

An analysis of the situation shows that in some contexts there are works or activities entrusted by the SDBs to lay people, and also activities and works started up by the laity and subsequently recognized in the provincial project.

1.1 Fundamental criteria

[180]

For an activity or work managed by lay people to be considered as forming part of the project of a Province, there must be realized in it the criteria of identity, communion and significance of Salesian activity and must be given effect under the responsibility of the Provincial and his Council.¹

a. Criteria of Salesian identity

The criteria for the Salesian identity of works and activities, given in the SDB Constitutions and Regulations, ensure the realization of Salesian objectives and refer to the CEP, the PEPS and those to whom our mission is directed. The same criteria are valid also for works and activities managed by lay people within the provincial project.

With reference to the Educative and Pastoral Community:
The work gives effect to the CEP, involving in a family atmosphere young people and adults, parents and educators:²
- it has a group of animators and of those who take responsibility for it;
- it takes part in the life and initiatives of the provincial community;
- it has a lay director who is, if possible, a member of the Salesian Family.

With reference to the Educative and Pastoral Project:
The CEP draws up and realizes the local PEPS according to the guidelines of the provincial project:
- it takes its inspiration from the preventive system;
- it fosters the integral advancement of the young person; it promotes his education and culture; it proposes a journey of faith based on a meeting with Christ, ecclesial experience and sacramental life; it helps the young person to discover his own vocation; it gives attention to the formation of groups and to the growth of group activity;
- it emphasizes criteria proper to Salesian activity: oratorian heart, various processes, personalized follow-up, a spirit of initiative and creativity, youth protagonism.

with reference to those towards whom our work is directed:

- the work is directed to the young and especially to the poorest of them, to the working classes, and to people not yet evangelized;
- it takes place preferably in places of the greatest poverty, and is committed to collaboration with the forces of the area and of the local Church.³

b. Criteria of communion:

Vocational communion: in the educative and pastoral community there is a plurality and variety of vocations, which manifests and realizes an 'experience of Church'.⁴ In it is always to be preferred the presence of SDBs, because of their specific vocational and charismatic contribution.
Provincial communion: works or activities managed by lay people, within a provincial project, should seek forms of communion and of sharing Don Bosco's charism; they should become integrated into the provincial community and create the conditions needed for the maturing of vocational choices for the Church and the Salesian Family.

c. Criterion of significance

The significance of a provincial project depends on the resources of the SDBs and laity placed at the service of animation of activities and works.

The provincial project must in the first place guarantee the charismatic identity, evangelizing efficacy, educative quality, and ability for fostering vocations in all the activities and works.

The province must be able to offer to the laity responsible for such activities a strong charismatic accompaniment; in fact, in the presence of lay people with a clear Christian and Salesian identity, the form of provincial accompaniment must be equally positive, so as not to leave without corresponding support the already existing availability.

1.2 Guidelines

1.2.1 Responsibility of the Province

[181]

It is the Provincial with his Council who decides whether or not to accept into the provincial project and under provincial responsibility educative works or activities which came into being autonomously and are managed by lay people.

It also belongs to the Provincial with his Council to decide whether to entrust to lay management any works or activities; the latter will remain within the provincial project and responsibility.

Activities or works of the laity accepted within the provincial project.

There are works and activities belonging to lay members of the Salesian Family or Movement which realize Don Bosco's mission. The SDBs must foster the full autonomy and responsibility of the laity in such realizations; in fact it would normally be neither useful nor possible to take them into its own project and responsibility.

But if in particular situations an activity or work belonging to lay people of the Salesian Family or Movement should ask to become part of a provincial project, after an evaluation by the province of its own forces and of the possibility of realizing in the new work the criteria of Salesian identity, communion and significance, it can be accepted by the Provincial with his Council.

Activities or works entrusted to the laity within the provincial project.

The Province has the responsibility for ensuring the Salesian identity of works and activities managed by the laity within its own project. For this reason:

it offers interventions of animation and government, by analogy with what happens in those CEPs which have the presence of the Salesian community, such as the provincial visitation, verification of the local project, the linkage between the lay director of the work and the Provincial, the periodic participation of a delegate of the Provincial in the Council of the CEP;
it promotes the constitution of the CEP Council;
it organizes together with the laity a serious process of formation to the Salesian identity;
it follows up the lay people who have roles of animation and responsibility in the CEP;
it establishes a stable linkage with a neighbouring Salesian community or with the provincial centre of animation, especially as regards charismatic and ministerial aspects;
if there is question of closing a work, it will first verify the possibility of entrusting it to lay management, conveniently locating it within the provincial project.

1.2.2 Responsibility of lay persons

[182]

Statutes

Since contexts and civil legislation vary so much, every Province must define he models of management for different kinds of works entrusted to the laity within a provincial project, with particular reference to tasks of responsibility, to nominations, duration in office, decision-making organs. and the competence of the Provincial. For this purpose the Province will propose regulations or statutes for the activity or works concerned.

Contracts

Situations exist in which a Province entrusts to a juridical entity (association, society, or cooperative) a work or sector of a work, together with the use of furniture etc. belonging to the province. In this case a contract is necessary to regulate juridical and financial relations.