Material for the drawing up of a provincial plan
Rome, 24 July 1991
Prepared by the General Council in fulfillment of GC 23 deliberation in §238.

This document is offered to the provinces to enable them to fulfill the directive of the GC23.

The third of the Chapter’s Deliberations obliges the local and provincial communities to draw up a program for the formation of the Laity, with particular attention to those lay people who are Cooperators (GC23, 232-238e.)

The formation concerned involves the life and activity of the lay person at three distinct but complementary levels: the professional level, educational commitment, and Christian witness with respect to the faith. GC23, 237e. In other words, what is asked for is the drawing up of a lay "project", suited to the needs and circumstances of each provincial community.

The same Deliberation asks the Rector Major and the appropriate Departments to prepare "elements and lines of thought for a lay project" to help the provinces in their task. GC23, 238e.

The following pages are an attempt to respond to the Chapter’s request.

It is important to clarify the meaning and import of the work that has been done by the Rector Major and his Council and of what is called for from the provinces. The phrase "elements and lines of thought for a lay project" means that the provinces must be provided with material to be used in drawing up a provincial plan. It is a case therefore of providing "elements and lines of thought", and not a ready-made plan to be applied in the communities.

The passage from such outlines to a plan or project needs attention to certain points that we want to specify.

First and foremost, the drawing up of such a plan requires the active and responsible cooperation of the lay people themselves. The community must ensure the involvement of the whole Salesian Family and any other lay persons who are engaged in our educative and pastoral activities. In other words, the contributions which the unique vocation of the laity can offer in considering and organizing the work must be made available to all of them (C 47).

The practical ways in which the laity are involved in the drawing up of the provincial plan will be decided by the provinces and communities. Part of their obligation according to the Constitutions (cf. C 5) as Salesians of Don Bosco is to become the animating center for other endeavors.

A second point to be kept in mind Is the relationship between the "educative and pastoral plan", drawn up in recent years by the provinces and local communities, and the present requirement of the Chapter. They should not be seen as two plans that are separate and distinct. Nor should one try to make the lay project a substitute for the educative and pastoral plan. What should be produced, rather, is a single provincial and local plan in which the presence, originality, contribution, formation and shared responsibility of the laity are properly recognized and given the necessary elbow-room in line with ecclesial and conciliar directives and with Salesian tradition.

A third element clarifies still further the function of the present material. Many requests have been received for more explicit practical guidelines, concrete examples and models for the participation of the laity in the life and activity of the Salesian community, etc. As far as possible these needs have been met, but at the same time it has been realized that although the difficulty exists it is better not to descend to details, so as not to address only certain areas of the Congregation to the detriment of others.

All the work of adaptation and application to particular situations must be done by the provinces; we have been obliged to remain at more general levels, without these being considered "generic" in nature (RM).

Attention must also be directed to a fourth point, because of its special importance concerning the immediate obligation of the local and provincial communities in using these outlines for preparing the detailed lay project. We have not begun from the "settings" in which lay people work in the community: oratory, youth center, school, training center, parish, communities for young people in difficulties, the educational use of free time, institutionalized and spontaneous initiatives, etc.

There are two main reasons for this:

1. In the first place the variety of settings and initiatives call for comments by those directly involved, if they are to be adequate for the concrete circumstances.
2. Secondly, the necessary convergence of all involved in the work, lay people and religious, on aspects of conciliar and Salesian renewal concerning the laity and their rights and duties cannot easily be foreseen in theory. This is something that has to be achieved as a first explicit objective.

Before ending this rapid presentation of the work that has been done, we want to point to a perspective which has been the dominant factor in drawing up these outlines. In the face of the many different lay figures in our communities we have had in mind a "Salesian plan", born of the sharing of some elements that can be found in every province in the world. They are values and riches of spirit and spirituality, which Don Bosco lived and organized in his experience of the Salesian Family, and left as a legacy to all those who take their inspiration from him. The mere recognition of this "golden thread" which links together everyone, members and friends, is sufficient to make clear the spiritual and educational "movement" in which our lay people live out their lives.

The commitment proposed by the General Chapter has the nature of a challenge. Our aim is to realize the dream of Don Bosco who wanted to raise up in the Church and in society lay people formed in his own spirit and charisma, "cooperators" (1.8. fellow-workers) for the benefit of the young.

Rome, 21 July 1991

FIRST PART

It is important that there be agreement concerning the term "lay person" and its reality. All who are called to play a part in the drawing up of the "lay project" at provincial and local level must understand the theme and the reality of the "lay person" from an ecclesial and Salesian point of view.

Here we approach a vast ecclesial reflection which puts the figure, action and life of the lay person in a new context. It begins from Vatican II, which should be read again with the sensitivity and approach expressed in the years of the post-conciliar period, right up to the Exhortation "Christifideles Laici" [= CL] that followed the Bishops’ Synod.

We now have a renewed ecclesial vision, and its essential points of reference for our present theme are the Church (as the people of God, communion, and mission in relationship with the world), the believer (in respect of the royal, priestly and prophetic function received in baptism), and the secular characteristic proper to the lay person (cf. CL 15). Awareness of the innovation has had a big effect on all who have considered in a responsible fashion the new problems inherent in the spreading of the Kingdom of God.

A highly qualified and representative meeting of the Church expressed the meaning of the renewal called for by the contemporary situation in the following words: "The lay person Is a member of the Church in the heart of the world and a member of the world in the heart of the Church" (Puebla).

John Paul II in his post-synodal exhortation CL recalls the horizons within which the existence of the lay person is realized: communion and shared responsibility. "The charisms, the ministries, the different forms of service exercised by the lay faithful, exist in communion and on behalf of communion. They are treasures that complement one another for the good of all and are under the wise guidance of their Pastors." (CL 32e). "In the context of Church mission, the Lord entrusts a great part of the responsibility to the lay faithful, in communion with all other members of the People of God... Pastors know how much the lay faithful contribute to the welfare of the entire Church." (CL 32e). The shared responsibility of the lay person extends over the whole range from the proclamation of the gospel right up to the organization of gospel values in society, in the service of the person and communities of mankind (cf. CL 33-44).

The intention here is not to recall the story of Don Bosco at Valdocco and in the world so as to give concrete examples of the part played by the laity in Salesian work.

To understand Don Bosco’s thoughts and desires concerning the laity, the place to start is the well-known chapter on EXTERN SALESIANS. From the very beginning many of his activities were realized thanks to the presence of his lay friends. What is of greater interest to us is to recall what gave rise to the sympathy and collaboration that grew up between Don Bosco the priest and the various prominent lay people of his time. In the first place the Salesian mission, with its characteristic option for the young and the poor, not only finds its natural place among the laity, but needs their cooperation and their shared responsibility.

In Don Bosco’s experience young people were always educators of their peers. Adults, because of their age and Christian maturity, were always involved in daily and extraordinary work for the benefit of the poorer classes. Salesian tradition is rich in this regard.

Moreover the very structure of the religious community, made up of priests and consecrated laymen, called coadjutors, gave a lot of space to lay values too in the life of the believer. The ultimate objective of Salesian education: "Upright citizens and good Christians" is a sufficient indication of the lay aspect of the mission entrusted to the educative community.

Reflection on the recent General Chapters of renewal should not be overlooked. From the GC19 to the GC23 the understanding of the LAY reality has been constantly growing in the Salesian Congregation.

The indications given in the Constitutions- and Regulations mark the completion of a long process (Cf. C 5 and 47, and R 4, 5 and 148). An important factor in the process has been the Salesian magisterium of Fr. Luigi Ricceri and of the present Rector Major, Fr. Egidio Viganò.

The term "laity" includes a wide variety of categories of persons. The observation may be thought superfluous, but it nevertheless expresses a fact which must condition our approach and guide us at a practical level. Think, for instance, of formation.

The variety of categories necessarily implies a difference in rhythm and formative commitment. In drawing up programs in this connection one must keep in mind the different levels from which different groups begin.

Our immediate thought as Salesians goes to the lay people in our Family: cooperators and past pupils. The Don Bosco Volunteers too have by their very constitutions a secular dimension which makes them similar to the laity on the level of daily activity. But we must not forget the lay collaborators, those engaged in activities and sectors of responsibility (one need only think of teachers, those engaged in administration, animators of sporting groups) and all the willing friends of Don Bosco, and this not just because they are a valid and sympathetic support to us in so many of our works.

The intention underlying the gathering of the present material, requiring elaboration in different geographical and cultural contexts, does not exclude either lay people who belong to faith communities different from the Catholic Church. But it does not seem realistic, nor even possible, to want to cover all these situations and indicate the practical attitude of the community and Salesian Family to them in every case. The work of adaptation and application called for from the provinces must take into account such circumstances with all their factors and particulars.

SECOND PART

The prospective that has guided the compiling of the present working material has been expressed from the outset as a process of "spirituality", requiring a slow growth and a wider constitution of the Salesian Family. In fact, the works, activities and persons which together constitute the Salesian presence in any particular area, or are expressed with the specific traits of- Don Bosco’s style and spirit, bring about an ample and spontaneous convergence of GROUPS and of their organization. A particular IMAGE of the Salesian experience is linked with the educative and pastoral project that each individual community and the province as a whole realize in a specific area.

The Salesian institution in its various expressions puts into circulation a number of MESSAGES that coalesce and form a concrete characteristic of the life of an area, and thus become a reference point for thinking and practice.

Titles to membership in the Family are many and varied, and give rise to a large number of groups diversified among themselves. It is important to have a clear idea of this complexity, so as to respect the nature and originality of each group.

In the Salesian Family there are various degrees of membership. To the first level belong the three central groups: SDBs, FMAs, and Salesian Cooperators. They represent the permanent basis of Don Bosco’s charism, ensure its faithful continuation in time, and bear in themselves a specific force of growth for the future of the Church. They are the foundation and a point of comparison for all the others in whatever touches the spirit, mission, and methods of pastoral and pedagogical activity (cf. SDB C 5).

When we speak of the "laity", it is important to emphasize that the highest expression of their life in the Salesian Family is represented by the Cooperators. Their fundamental lay statute is represented by the Apostolic Exhortation of John Paul II, Christifideles Laici, on the vocation and mission of the laity in the Church and in the world.

The manner of living and working as Salesian Cooperators in the mission and spirit of Don Bosco are described in their Regulations of Apostolic Life.

Rich too and fruitful is the membership in the Family of those Past Pupils who have opted for a work of evangelization, i.e., those who take part, with a variety of ministries, in carrying out the single mission entrusted to the Salesian Family and in the realization of educational and pastoral work

We may recall a variety of categories of persons and groups linked with the Salesian Family.

Lay collaborators, if they are convinced Christians, provide new and significant horizons to the Salesian project for the young, who thus find in them models of Christian life adapted to our various modern circumstances.

The members of the Association of Mary Help of Christians, who are proud to have Don Bosco as their founder, commit themselves with Christian consistency in popular aspects of the Salesian mission.

At a wider level are to be found the Past Pupils. The title of "education received" is a binding and directive force that exceeds in scope even that of the Christian faith (SDB C 5).

Finally, we should not overlook collaborators and friends, such as parents, even though they be non-Christian or non-practicing, and people of good will who live and work in our parishes, etc.

Participation in Don Bosco’s mission at different levels is expressed through two characteristics peculiar to the Salesian Family:

• A broad range of interventions.

The laity are not called to work only in works run by Salesians or by the various groups of the Family. Their field of action extends beyond this and reaches ecclesial and civil contexts in which the needs of the young and for education call for Don Bosco’s particular charisma

• The search for a minimum of linkage.

The inspiration drawn by all from Don Bosco’s experiences leads to a general convergence on a spirit and spirituality that is simple and adaptable to daily life. Almost automatically a movement grows up, sustained and animated by groups that live in a more intense form their membership of the Family.