Regarding the question of education

Educational attention

115.   The question of education invites us to invest courageously in prevention  at every level, and not to limit ourselves merely to projects of assistance, remediation or meeting emergencies. This requires a qualified knowledge of the Preventive System that can translate into today’s needs the intention of Don Bosco and Maria Domenica Mazzarello for  forming good Christians and honest citizens: men and women of adult faith, thought  of and witnessed to in the ecclesial and socio-cultural reality, in which they are called to shine as the salt of the earth and light of the world.

Our way of educating can help all, even non-Christian young people, to read reality and the media culture critically; it can urge young women in particular  to participate responsibly in social and political life and to give their contribution on the cultural and professional levels. In the educational sector, the cry of the poor is fundamentally a cry for an evangelizing education and, for our personal and community life, an appeal to austerity in our choices and not only a commitment to promote actions of human development. A heart that is poor and a sober lifestyle are the first conditions to take upon ourselves the expectations of the little ones and the needy, from whom we have much to learn. The poor are often our teachers.

In the educational sector, the syntheses of the provinces emphasize the importance of giving greater attention to families, promoting at the local level a serious reflection that commits us to know the potentials and resources of the family and, at the same time, the causes of family crises so widespread today.

The province responses also emphasize the need to develop formative strategies for  young people who are preparing themselves for marriage and to develop a sensitivity in the educating communities that leads to promoting political choices in favor of the family.

·       Within the educational communities, what sensitivity and concrete attention do we give to the study of the Preventive System and to identifying the ways that can render it timely and operative?

·       How can we live in our communities a lifestyle according to the principles of justice, i.e., limiting personal needs, giving an account of the expenses in community, comparing ourselves with the way poor people live?

·       In the educational environment, how can we show preference for the quality and quantity of time given to the disadvantaged of every type?

·       As educating communities, in what measure do we assume the formation of the families of our young people, convinced that this is an effective way of implementing prevention today ?

Co-responsible with the laity and the poor in the educational mission

116. The sensitivity and the manner of going out to the poor are changing. We understand  better that we cannot act alone.  It is necessary to form a school of co- responsibility in communion, and this implies collaboration with all who share with us the educational mission and networking with civil and religious organizations and institutions in the area. The activities should not have an exclusive stamp, but must be the result of the interaction of convergent duties and roles.

The conviction that the poor must be protagonists of their own development is growing; often they are able to suggest solutions that are more adequate to their problems. We are also becoming more aware that our relationship with them should be one of reciprocity and not just rendered services.  We must go to them with the transparency of the poor Christ who came to serve. We must nourish in them and in ourselves that faith in Divine Providence that always cares for little ones.

·       In working on an international level, in what measure is our Institute sensitive and propositive to the problem of the enormous difference between rich and poor nations?

·       How are we, together with the laity, promoters of a culture of peace founded on the globalization of solidarity?

·       What is our position in the face of  the complex phenomenon of migration? How can we respond according to the missionary dimension of our charism?

Searching for the structural causes of poverty

117.  There is an increasing number of young people and especially young women who we may consider  to be already  defeated by globalization. A deeper knowledge of economic dynamics will make us more sensitive concerning the structural causes of poverty on various levels. For this reason, we commit ourselves to collaborate in the development of educational and cultural projects that involve us actively as educating communities, with the aim of preparing persons who are ready to take in hand their own destiny and to work with justice, not allowing themselves to become slaves of power and of the  laws of the marketplace.

·       What strategies are we implementing in order to become aware of the influence that  the ideology of neo-liberalism has on our personal and community way of living poverty and our educational projects?

·       At the level of  educating  communities, how do we utilize the social magisterium of the Church, drawing from it criteria of discernment for our own education for active citizenship and for that of others ?

·       What journeys should we undertake to promote the economy of solidarity and to propose an economy of communion?

·       Would it be appropriate and possible to make our voices heard in those places  where decisions regarding young people and families are developed on an international level?  In what way?

In the renewed Covenant, the commitment to active citizenship: the unity of the theme of the Chapter is rooted in the biblical vision of life and of history.

The gift of the Covenant commits us to live the evangelical beatitudes radically in communion with the Sisters and to collaborate in the realization of the plan of the Father to make of all people one sole family.  It is a call to live new life in Christ, configured to Him by the Spirit, in communion of love and of service in the Church (cf VC 93).

At the beginning of the Third Millennium, John Paul II entrusted to the Church the task of reflecting the light of Christ, of making His face shine before the new generations (cf NMI 16).

Welcoming this invitation, we want to make of our communities houses and schools of prayer and of communion (cf n. 33, 43), to make of the educating communities workshops in which the different vocations become reciprocal gift and richness, committed to reawakening the dream of charity (cf n. 50) in order to give ear to the cry of the poor, particularly of the young people.  For us, Salesian educators and for those who share the educational program of Don Bosco and Maria Domenica Mazzarello, we are dealing  with empowering the creativity of love, translating it into seeking ways to educate ourselves and others to live as active citizens according to the Gospel.

Jesus has taught us to say Our Father, inserting us into the people of the new

Covenant and thus putting us into solidarity with all our brothers and sisters of

the world.                                                                                           St. Cyprian