4. Priority for the qualification of Confreres

In the Report on the State of the Congregation I ended the part dedicated to the "Preparation of the confreres" with the following statement: "The state of our resources, the implications of our commitments and the general growth in the world ask everywhere of our confreres and communities further progress in cultural preparation and spiritual strength. The perspective therefore is to consolidate…, dedicating a special period to the requalification of our personnel, and in particular those in directive positions, sending the greatest possible number of confreres for specialist training, and improving initial formation on the basis of the experience we have already gained"

It was an evaluation I thought to be imperative, open to interpretations not always well understood, but matured in prayer and suffering. It seemed, indeed, like a guideline with fundamental consequences in the six years ahead.

Today I am convinced that we must wager on this priority investment and translate it into some concrete commitments, accepting the consequent limitations which it seems must follow. A conscious choice is being imposed on the Congregation and Provinces, which will make possible a qualitative leap in the way' of life of every confrere, in the mentality and practice of communities and consequently in the form in which provincial objectives are set out. It is not a question of a light retouching but of something more radical, though not completely new because in many parts the process has been already begun.

I know that it is not easy to live at a personal level and translate into an action of government the salesian balance between "for you I study" and "for you I always work", between love and the search for pedagogical and pastoral quality. The urgent needs of the mission, scarcity of personnel, the new opportunities we are offered, the multiplication of projects, constant elements in salesian experience and a positive result of "Da mihi animas", urge us to be enterprising. And that must continue. But care must be taken that activity does not lead to weariness, repetition, cultural stagnation, mental distractions, and improvisation.

It is not the first time in the history of our Congregation that attention is being given to decisive choices for a change of practice, in the light of perceived demands and to prepare for new and flourishing developments which appear possible but only on certain conditions. They follow phases of growth which were necessarily rapid, and by forestalling exhaustion they prepare for others equally flourishing.

I would like to recall three interventions, made at different moments in history but which together emphasize the same concern we have today. All three establish a criterion and a line of action for guaranteeing the preparation of confreres and quality in fulfilling the educative mission.

In the years 1905-1906 Don Rua wanted to organize and ensure regularity in the studies of the young confreres. There were many frontiers of work, personnel was on the increase but still insufficient, the criteria for involvement in the works were those of the Founder, but the expansion of the Congregation and the needs of the Church made evident the need for a change. There was in fact the risk of sacrificing formation to the urgent needs of the works and cutting down the course of philosophy and theology.

"We must give greater regularity every day", wrote Don Rua, " to our own affairs, and to this effect we place before even the most noble of other aspirations, the moral and intellectual formation of our clerics". "In practice", he went on, fully aware of the difficulties that would be caused by the decision he was about to announce, "we propose two items:

Do not propose to the Superior Chapter, for a period of at least five years, the opening of new houses or foundations, nor the enlargement of those now existing. We cannot do it, and that is all there is to it. Consider carefully your houses one by one, and when you have seen which ones you can suppress for the better arrangement of the rest of the Province, put the proposal to the Superior Chapter. It is not their number we must have at heart, but their proper and regular functioning".

And in a letter of 1906 he returned decisively to the same points.

In 1928 there was an intervention of Don Rinaldi. Vocations were increasing in a consoling manner (there were about 1,000 novices); salesian works, and especially the missions, were developing at an impressive rate and new requests were being constantly received; Provincials did not have the personnel for so many works and not infrequently studies were sacrificed, and with them the formation of the young confreres.

Faced by such a situation, and aware that the mission could not be fulfilled without the necessary preparation, Don Rinaldi wrote in the Acts of the Superior Chapter of September 1928: "I have therefore decided, with the full approval of the Superior Chapter, that during the four years from 1929 to 1932 no new foundations will be accepted, neither of houses or of missions. This pause, well understood by Provincials and Rectors, will be a benefit for the Provinces; it will bring tranquility to the houses and relief to all the confreres; rather than a harmful break, it will mark a true progress for our Society, because it will serve for a better cultivation of vocations and prepare the Congregation for a more solid development in the future".

And I complete this reference to our history by recalling some expressions written by Fr Ricceri in 1966, in the official presentation of the documents of the GC19. The context is not difficult to understand. Vatican II had recently finished, and we were on the verge of discovering new horizons and pastoral needs, made decisive by the encouraging vision of the Church, its mission and its relationship with the world. "Connected with this need for formation", wrote Fr Ricceri, "there is the other not less important one of qualification of the individual confrere for the various tasks to which obedience calls him. Today society will not accept into its structures utility men, men without cultural, technical or professional training… People, and the Church first of all, consider us authentic specialists in pedagogy and the apostolate. We must, to the limit of our capacity, live up to this reputation… A bit of practice is no longer sufficient… From now on every manifestation of our activity calls for qualified personnel… It is not a question of collecting degrees or specializing for its own sake, and much less of encouraging selfish or ambitious desires to study for one’s own satisfaction but with sterile application to the apostolate; what is required is simply an adequate preparation to work fruitfully in one of the innumerable fields of action to which Providence has called us. It can be seen at once what and how many consequences for superiors and confreres follow from these changes". And some months later he wrote in the Acts of the Council: "If we want to respond to the inescapable demands of our mission, more must be done to give to all the activities of Salesians that qualification which is not a luxury but an ever more evident necessity".

The period immediately preceding our own on the other hand, under the guidance of Fr Egidio Viganò, emphasized the same emergency and took efficacious steps to resolve it, with the reorganization of the formative processes reformulated in the Ratio, with the updating of study programs in line with the evolution in nearly all the branches of theology and knowledge, with the beginning and extending of ongoing formation and the foundation of new Institutes corresponding to qualifications for the present day (pastoral work, social communication).