At the end of the third week

9 March 1996

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We have reached the end of our third week; it has witnessed:

• the work of the commissions,
• the functioning of the Central Coordinating Committee,
• a test of the assembly, which has taken a document from its first phase through to its approval, in the following stages:
• proposal of the commission,
• requests for clarifications,
• general discussion in assembly,
• soundings by straw vote,
• re-presentation of the proposal,
• successive votings on the same text, with the possibility of reformulation.

The commissions had realized a first discussion, reaching some convergence and preparing for the presentation in the assembly of the first draft of their document.

The Central Committee had held two meetings in sober and concise fashion and had heard the opinions of the commission presidents with a view to solving some problems concerning coordination and overlapping. He congratulated the commission presidents, spokesmen and secretaries on their work. He also added some comments on the dynamics of the Chapter and other questions.

With respect to the dynamics of the Chapter he remarked on the internal tranquillity of everyone. They have a time and place to make their ideas heard, especially in the commissions, and it is up to each one to put forward solid and convincing reasons for his proposals, following the discernment method. He also mentioned the freedom of expression and the will to participate which have been undoubtedly a source of benefit for the assimilation of the document by individuals and for the document itself which can thus reflect the sensitivities of everyone.

As regards the topics about the study and creation of structures of government, he directed attention to

• a sense of objectivity: universal application on the part of ordinary government. After expressing personal preferences and interests, one has to pass:
• from feelings to reasons, and
• from the part to the whole.

Moreover it would not be expedient to disregard an overall view because of minority opinions; ours is not an assembly for the dividing up of capital, but for the purpose of giving consistency to the Congregation in its life and activity.

• A second point calling for our attention concerns the global coherence of the structures on which functionality depends. The Vicar General explained this by two examples concerning the relationship between the tasks of the Regional Councillors in respect of their own Region, and those in the setting of the General Council in respect of all the other Regions and important questions of the Congregation as a whole. With regard to possible new obligations: the sectors are important, but more important still is the ability of the General Council to come to grips with global problems. He further referred to the criterion of proportionality, emphasizing that it is necessary to activate the sectors in a manner proportional to the Congregation's possibilities. To think that where an urgent need arises structures must be immediately set up to meet it, seems to be a too hasty way to go about things when the articulation of 89 circumscriptions of the Congregation have to be kept in mind. In addition to a horizontal distribution of duties, there is also a vertical sequence corresponding to the principle of subsidiarity: the Regional Councillor does not have a direct rapport with the local communities but with teams and structures at provincial and regional level, Central roles are not called upon to repeat with greater authority what has been entrusted to provincial levels, but to insist on coordination at higher level.

• Fr. Vecchi concluded with a reference to three further points concerning the functioning of transmission structures.
• Correspondence with the mission, but remembering that the mission is not exhausted by the sum of the sectors which express it; there are problems regarding the life of the community and the strengths available, their location in the context, etc.
• The dimensions concerning what the General Council is called upon to do at the present day in the Congregation as a whole, in the organization and ordering of the different sectors, i.e. the range of the Departments is not to be measured simply by their titles (missions, youth pastoral work, etc.) but in line with what the Salesian Congregation can and must do.
• A criterion of action: due proportion between the production of proposals, their communication and their realization; it is useless to have an abundance of proposals coming from various sectors, if those who receive them have neither the time nor the means to give them effect. In such a case the General Council would do better to study other problems of a global nature.