Salesian Generosity and Joy

Dear Confreres,

Last week, the provincial council and I were in Peru for the "team visit." Br. Bill Hanna stayed in New Rochelle because of recent hip surgery. The team visit occurs once every six years. The Rector Major and members of the General Council meet with the provincials and provincial councils of a region. The last InterAmerica team visit was in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This year we met in Ancón, just north of Lima at a retreat center run by the Neocatechumenal Way. The principal objective of the team visit is to strengthen the fraternity and unity among the leaders of the provinces with the Rector Major and General Council. The week began with a day-and-a-half tour of sites in Lima of historic, cultural, and religious importance. We had three full days of presentations, discussions, and dialogues with the Rector Major and General Councilors. The topics included our Salesian consecrated identity, vocation animation, the missionary spirit and missionary vocation, the Salesian mission shared with the laity, the Salesian Family, renewing the provinces and the houses of formation in the region, and working together as a Congregation. Over the next few months, I’d like to share with you some reflections on these themes in Salesian News.

Fr. Hugo Orozco, the General Councilor for the InterAmerica Region, gave the first presentation, an overview of the reality of the region, comparing statistics from the time of the last team visit and the present. Here are a few observations:

• SDBs in our region are about 11 percent of the Congregation;
• The average age of the region is 57 years, and there are 418 fewer SDBs;
• Compared to six years ago, there are about half the number of novices;
• There are a large number of varied works, all of them significant;
• The provinces collaborate with each other;
• There are efforts to become multi-lingual;
• The vocation of the Salesian Brother is not so visible;
• There has been an increase in the number of communities with four or less SDBs, weakening fraternal life;
• We struggle to adequately prepare formators;
• Although there are many groups of the Salesian Family in the region, SDBs are not committed to their role of animation; We need to improve best practices for financial transparency and accountability.

These are just a few of the observations, positive aspects, and challenges. There were no big surprises. We studied our province in depth as we prepared for the last provincial chapter. We can see that, even with the many cultures of our region, we share much in common.

The Rector Major commented that our region has a rich charismatic patrimony to share with the Congregation. Salesian missionaries came to this hemisphere almost 150 years ago. We are celebrating 125 years of Salesian presence in the USA. The efforts at living a dynamic fidelity to the charism have required a constant reading of the signs of the times and responding with the creative initiative of Don Bosco today. Our province has memorialized these efforts at dynamic fidelity in our province strategic plan. Another way to continually renew the charism is to read and share reflections on recent Salesian magisterium—documents from the Rector Major and the various departments of the Congregation. During the team visit, some of the General Council responded to questions from the confreres by referring them to documents published since GC28.

This is Holy Week. We are about to celebrate the Paschal Triduum. Even with just a superficial glance at Don Bosco’s spiritual experience and our Salesian history, we can see the death and resurrection of Jesus at the center. To really live the Da Mihi Animas Caetera Tolle will require of us a certain death and new life. By living our Salesian vocation with joy and generosity, we become signs of the power of the Resurrection (Const. 63).

Happy Easter to you all.

Fr. Tim Zak