II. OUR PASTORAL EDUCATIONAL SERVICE

 

4. Each provincial community should draw up its educative and pastoral plan, based on the preventive system, to respond to the youth situation and to the conditions in poor areas.

C 31-39. 47

A local plan should also be drawn up with the involvement of all the members of the pastoral and educative community and in harmony with that of the province, for the purpose of directing all initiatives to the task of evangelization.

5. The application of the plan requires that in all our works and settings we establish the educative and pastoral community, whose animating nucleus is the Salesian community.

C 38. 47

Let all the Salesians play an active part in the drawing up, realization and subsequent revision of the plan, and let them see to it that in a family spirit the young people, their parents and other collaborators also take part, according to their different roles.

C 32. 33

6. Characteristic aspects of our pedagogy should be expressed in the plan and realized in practice through suitable processes; such aspects are: the active and responsible involvement of the young people themselves; a sensitive education for love; a serious cultural, social and professional preparation; communication in its artistic and recreational expressions.

C 34. 36

7. A central nucleus of the plan should be an explicit programme of education to the faith, which will accompany the general development of the youngsters, and coordinate the different forms of catechesis, celebrations and apostolic undertakings.

8. In our educational work and pastoral settings the formation of groups and associations should be encouraged, according to age and interests, and their continuity should be ensured. Special care shall be taken of groups having a christian commitment, and those shall be fostered which share the Salesian mission and live in its spirit.

C 35

Attention should also be given to local ecumenical movements, especially in areas where different religious denominations exist.

C 37

9. With the help of trained educators and a programme of suitable activities, due attention should be given to the vocational guidance of young people.

Special regard should be paid to the discovery, and subsequent follow-up by suitable initiatives, of those youngsters who show signs of lay, religious or priestly vocations.

10. To maintain and provide for the ordered development of its various pastoral and educative activities, each province is to draw up a programme for the training and updating of personnel for the different sectors, due regard being paid to the aptitudes and inclinations of the confreres and the needs of the works.