Address of the Vicar General Fr. Juan E. Vecchi at the opening of the GC24

Your Eminence Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo,

My Lord Cardinals and Bishops,

Mothers, Sisters and Brothers representing Groups of the Salesian Family,

Members of the General Chapter.

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We are beginning the 24th General Chapter of the Society of St. Francis de Sales which will start us out on the path leading us to the great Jubilee of the Redemption.

I am happy to be able to offer grateful greetings to his Eminence the Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. His presence is a sign of our communion with all those in the Church who have accepted the invitation to undertake the radical following of Christ.

I thank our Salesian Cardinals and Bishops for their fraternal participation in this function. Your Salesian vocation placed at the service of high pastoral responsibility reminds us of the ecclesial character of our Congregation and of this assembly of ours.

We are grateful too for the representation here today of other branches of the Salesian Family, and particularly to Mother Marinella Castagno, Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, to the Coordinator General of the Cooperators, to the World President of the Past-pupils, and to the Superiors General of the Don Bosco Volunteers, of the Salesian Oblates, and of the Sister Apostles of the Holy Family.

And to you, members of the Chapter, gathered from all over the world, I offer a warm welcome and best wishes for the success of your work.

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1. An ecclesial event

What it is that brings us together today we are told by our Constitutions. Our General Chapter is the principal sign of unity of the Congregation: a sign in the sacramental sense which such unity manifests and at the same time produces and strengthens.

The unity is revealed in the visible fraternal encounter in which we intend to carry out a communal reflection to keep ourselves faithful to the Gospel and the charism of our Founder and sensitive to the needs of time and place. Gospel and charism are our common and constant points of reference, but they are not static points. Times and places are the terrain where they are sown so that they may germinate, flourish and produce new fruits. The will of God, sought for in discernment, is what we are looking for to guide us in the practical choices we have to make.

In this way the General Chapter comes to be the means through which the Salesian Society in its totality seeks to know, at a specific point in history, what service it is called upon to render to the Church and to youth.

This is a matter of considerable importance. In fact the objectives already mentioned - discernment of God's will, adherence to the Gospel, fidelity to the charism, spiritual and practical unity, sense of the present time, adaptation to places - are at the root of our human existence and the foundation of our consecrated life.

It is true that they imply tasks which are demanding but at the same time both noble and joyful, and this all the more so when we can count on excellent fellow-travelers: the Holy Spirit, Mary most holy, and Don Bosco.

The same image of the General Chapter given us by the Constitutions is also revealed in our history. The past 150 years gave seen 23 great assemblies before this present one. Although there were many differences between them they opened up a perspective, made concrete a certain trait, strengthened a dimension, and perfected a method. The combined result has been not only to ensure our charismatic unity with the passage of time but continually to enrich it.

For us Salesians, therefore, the present moment is pregnant with significance and possibilities, but is also dense with realities already achieved.

This would seem to be something that concerns only our Congregation, or at the most our Salesian Family. But art.6 of the Constitutions opens up further horizons. It invites us to turn our gaze on the Church and feel ourselves immersed in its mystery: "The Salesian vocation", says the article, "places us at the heart of the Church and puts us entirely at the service of her mission". It is the Church herself that considers our General Chapter not just as a private happening in a religious Institute but as an ecclesial event, when in her own law (can.631) she lays down its character, compass and main objectives.

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We are gathered together here as Church, called together in her name and for her service, in virtue of that charism which with other gifts of the Holy Spirit constitutes the mystery of the Body of Christ and the principal energy of its mission.

This ecclesial dimension has been underlined by the filial and welcome acceptance of the message of the Holy Father, who according to our Constitutions is our highest Superior, to whose authority the members, even when gathered in General Chapter, are always filially submissive, even by force of the vow of obedience.

Precisely because of its spiritual and ecclesial significance, the General Chapter has the highest authority in the Congregation. This it exerts in extraordinary form, especially in the fulfillment of its three tasks of legislating, electing and deliberating.

Every capitular, once he has been elected by his Province, becomes a member of the General Chapter with full and exclusive personal responsibility. He is not bound by directives or choices of his own Province or Region, as though he were merely a spokesman. The General Chapter is not, in fact, an assembly of representatives, but a collegiate body of extraordinary government whose authority derives from the Constitutions (cf. C 123).

The first and principal term of reference of every capitular is the General Chapter itself, its objectives and purposes and the process of discernment pursued in it. To this process each one brings his personal experience and cultural sensitivity, and in it he allows himself to be moulded in the light of the charism.

This belongs to the very nature of the General Chapter: it looks at the Congregation in itself in the first instance, and then in its parts, from the standpoint of the unity, fidelity and vitality of the whole. It is a powerful reminder for all the members to place the charismatic dimension and world perspective before any particular ones.

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2. The 24th General Chapter

Our present General Chapter (the 24th) is the largest in numbers in Salesian history. There are 210 capitulars from 89 circumscriptions, with this latter also the highest number yet achieved. Those present will actually number 208, but with them we link a grateful and deeply felt thought for Fr. Egidio Vigaṇ, who would have presided over the Chapter, and for Fr. Martin McPake, Councillor General for the English-speaking Region. To the capitulars there have also been added seven observers, who have been invited to ensure a more consistent presence of coadjutor brothers.

The preparatory stages indicated by the Constitutions and General Regulations have been duly implemented: the convocation and presentation of the theme, formation of the technical commission, provincial chapters, appointment and work of the precapitular commission, the sending out in due time of the scheme of work, and the designation of the juridical commission for checking the validity of the elections. We believe therefore that as far as human responsibilities are concerned the preparation has been well done.

The GC24 follows the line taken progressively by the General Chapters of the period following Vatican II: after an overall reflection on the Salesian identity and the subsequent promulgation of the renewed Constitutions, they went on to study more deeply certain particular aspects of our life: the evangelization of the young, formation, our pastoral practice or the preventive system, animation of the community, and the figure of the members. Subsequently they focused on points still more precise and capable of verification: the journey of faith to be proposed to the young, criteria of functionality of our works, Salesian youth spirituality, the configuration of the subject of pastoral activity, i.e. the educative community with the Salesians as animators and the laity as participants in Salesian educative and pastoral interests.

It is precisely through this last point that the GC24 is linked with and almost visibly joined to its predecessor. The intention, in fact, is to clarify and make more concrete the sharing of responsibility which the laity can have in Don Bosco's mission and spirit, always for the evangelization of the young and especially those who are poorer; and this in the context of the educative community, of the Salesian Family and of the vast movement of the friends of Don Bosco or of persons interested in education in a Christian sense.

At first sight this may seem a completing or crowning of what we have already said about pastoral practice, but it is in fact an invitation to rethink the whole new perspective of the Church as the people of God which has matured in recent times.

It may also seem to be a further effort at spreading the Salesian spirit, but it is in fact a spur to a reexamination of everything with a view to the discovery of dimensions which have so far remained hidden. In this sense the path we have already followed is most useful to us in discerning the further road we see indistinctly as lying ahead. And this is something indispensable if we are to understand and render fruitful at the present day what we have developed so far.

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And then our General Chapter, like its predecessors has the duty of electing the Rector Major and his Council. I think it hardly necessary to emphasize the importance of an act of this nature. Our communication services have sensitized communities and confreres in a more intense manner than in the past. We are therefore sustained by the prayer and solidarity of many in our process of discernment.

What appears as a legitimate interest for everyone becomes, for each capitular, a fact of conscience for which he is personally responsible before God and his confreres. The Lord wishes to make use of our personal and communal mediation to indicate the one who will become a sign of the presence of Don Bosco, with his closest collaborators. In this we are asked for purity of heart and a joint effort at serene seeking.

Patient enlightenment, the ability to listen, detachment from superficial motivations, autonomy in giving one's own vote, will find their most genuine sources in prayer and in charity towards all. We have thought it well to precede the elections by some days of discernment and the invocation of help to obtain that interior peace and tranquillity which will ensure us God's help.

The GC24, in line with its legislative task, can also verify in accordance with law and within the limitations of its competence those norms which need urgent adaptation: i.e. the Constitutions and General Regulations. Its authority is supreme, but is neither isolated nor limitless. It takes place and is completed in association with other organisms of government. It would be a waste of time to take up secondary problems or those which ordinary government can deal with more easily through experience.

For the validity, not least at a charismatic level, of the conclusions concerning each of the three tasks indicated, there must be absolute juridical correctness, beginning from the elections in local communities, going on through the realization of the Provincial Chapters, and finally in the merit and procedures of the General Chapter.

Ours is not just a gathering of friends or pastoral workers, nor is it a meeting of experts. It is the point of convergence of some 17,000 confreres, each of whom has in this General Chapter his own shared responsibility laid down in norms resulting from wisdom and long-studied considerations for the expression of communion.

Its legality is therefore far more than an external formality. It belongs to the substance of the General Chapter with its contents. As the SGC20 declared: "The religious life is of its nature charismatic; for this reason it has a spiritual dimension and here its vitality is to be found. But from the very fact that religious are human and have specific goals to attain together, there is the need to have an organization as in any other society, and this has need of structures" (SGC 706, 1).

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3. The context of the GC24

The Chapter does not isolate us from the world, but inserts us in it with greater awareness and greater foresight and caution. It is called upon to become the occasion for taking note of the point in history at which we are living, so as to be part of it in a more evangelical manner through a service, but especially through a prophetic presence. There are some coordinates which mark this climate of the world.

The first is the new evangelization: it includes a reading of the times, the feeling of an urgent need for the proclamation of Christ, and the ecclesial proposals and movement already taking place. It is like the concrete expression in pastoral practice of the whole process of reflection which the Church has made through Synods and documents of the period following the Council. It appears as a lucid awareness of cultural tendencies, of world problems and human aspirations; and at the same time as the response which Christ's disciples intend to give by their words, but more especially by their lives. And this not only to guarantee salvation after death, but also to defend personal dignity in history. As educators both aspects are of concern to us; they become fused together in our intention to evangelize by educating.

The second coordinate is the discovery of the riches brought to the new evangelization by each of the vocations: that of the lay person, that of the ordained minister, and that of the consecrated individual. And this not in isolation but in their interaction, in their mutual enrichment and working together for the evangelical leavening of the world. It is not a matter of conforming to a single pattern, of watering down our identity, of being less consecrated, but of being so more radically and openly, so that the laity too may live the Gospel in a more radical manner within secular realities. We are asked to draw new light and energy from our situation in total transcendence and love, so that the laity may feel themselves led to the leavening of worldly realities from within, in line with the laws involved, by directing them to the Kingdom.

The third coordinate is the Jubilee of the Redemption of the year 2000. This is more than a mere anniversary, even though it be an exceptional one. The figures are full of significance, such as the urgent need of prophecy in our own time, the reawakening in believers of hope in him who was, who is and is coming again, a glimmer of "what lies beyond" for those who are unbelievers, the calling of all churches to unity and of all religious experiences to commitment for mankind. The digits 2000 are merely a chronological indication of the year, but as a point in history it comes laden with possibilities. And to the examination of these we too are called, even as a General Chapter.

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4. Conclusion

The nature, purpose, tasks and context require from each capitular and from the Chapter as a whole, vision and concreteness, a utopian outlook and a practical approach. It may be that these two dimensions are incompatible from the outset. There will be some who want something prophetic and charismatic, open to God's future, without limits of perspective. And there will be others who are looking for something practical, almost of an administrative nature, restricted to the possibilities of the present time, prudent in the face of dreams for the future. To the capitulars it belongs to make a synthesis of the two. We must not let ourselves be so blinded by distant horizons that we do not know what to do today; but neither must we let our view be so imprisoned in immediate needs that we do not see the light of the perspectives ahead and fail to aim at their realization.

As religious and educators we have to be at one and the same time specialists in both dreams and the understanding of possibilities, in the utopia of the Kingdom and the nitty-gritty of daily work.

From her who was given in a dream to Don Bosco as the Mistress of Wisdom, we ask for inspiration and guidance in the work we are about to undertake.