Salesian Family Provincial Council Action Program for 2021-2022

Dear Confreres,

The Salesian Family Provincial Council met on Monday, August 30 to evaluate our action program from last year. We were able to propose a new program for 2021-2022. During the meeting, we also reviewed a common calendar. I am happy to share with you this year’s action program for the Salesian Family Provincial Council. Although it is primarily a plan for the province leaders of each group in the Salesian Family, we can see how it aligns with our SDB province strategic plan and your local community plan and local SEPP. Let’s remember that the SDBs are the first group of the Salesian Family with particular responsibilities to animate and promote the Salesian Family.

On Wednesday, September 29, the Feast of the Archangels, the Michaelites will celebrate the 100th anniversary of their canonical recognition. The Congregation of Saint Michael the Archangel (CSMA) was founded by Bl. Bronislaw Markiewicz and is a group in the Salesian Family. They have presences in Toronto and London, ON, and Grosse Pointe Park, MI. We congratulate them on this special occasion.

Fr. Tim Zak

Salesian Family Provincial Council Action Program for 2021-2022

1.) The province leaders of each group in the Salesian Family will animate their members to participate in the Year of Amoris Laetitia Family. In line with our Salesian charism, we promote an outlook where the Church is thought as a “family of families,” where the Salesian family spirit is evident in all our presences, and where we provide families accompaniment, which springs spontaneously from the very heart of our educational charism. The FMA and SDB province delegates to the Salesian Family, with a team of volunteers, will help coordinate:

• Monthly virtual sessions on each chapter of Amoris Laetitia, open to all; Salesian Family Pilgrimage June/July 2022;
• Participation in World Meeting of Families in local Dioceses;
• Province Convocation of Families in May 2023;
• Resources for celebrations in families, and reminders to local Salesian leaders to involve families in celebrations of the Salesian Family; and
• Links to the online dialogues with families from the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life; videos from the dioceses of New Jersey; and other online resources.

2.) The province leaders of the groups of the Salesian Family will encourage all their members to participate in the Salesian Family Spirituality Days, January 13-16, 2022. The theme of the spirituality days will be the Strenna: “Do all through love, nothing through constraint” (St. Francis de Sales). Especially during this coming anniversary year of the death of St. Francis de Sales, the Salesian Family Provincial Council will support the work of the North American Salesian Network (NASN), and we encourage our members to take advantage of common resources and shared projects as they develop throughout the year.

3.) The province leaders of the Salesian Family will make efforts “to strengthen the sense of belonging, fostering a direct and practical knowledge of the various different groups of the Family and appreciation of their specific identity” (Charter of Charismatic Identity, 46.2). This may be done by:

• Sharing significant events of each group in a common calendar.
• Encouraging local groups of the Salesian Family to celebrate together significant events throughout the year (Salesian feast days, professions and promises, anniversaries, founder’s days, etc.).
• Effectively using various forms of communication, including social media, to stay in touch with each other and to help group leaders feel supported.
• SDB and FMA province delegates will work to keep lists of leaders up to date. With the help of the communications contact in each group, they will link the social media of each group to https://donboscosalesianportal.org.

4.) The province leaders of each group of the Salesian Family will imitate Don Bosco, responding to the search of young people for meaningful accompaniment (Christus Vivit 26). Salesian accompaniment is more a lifestyle and manner of interpersonal relationships and less a pastoral action or service. The province leaders will model Salesian accompaniment with local groups and local leaders.