Much of his term of office was devoted to the preparation for the Special General Chapter, the 20th, and the 21st General Chapter, for the renewal of Salesian religious life. He opened the doors, in the Congregation, to dialogue, began to operate the new structures of Government of the Congregation (the Regional and the various Councils), worked to make the new Constitutions understood and accepted, began the first reshaping of Salesian works and the project for the Salesian Family.
As Fr Santo Russo SDB recalls in his book The Strenna of Don Bosco and his successors [The book is in Italian], “During his term of office he transported Headquarters from Turin to Rome, celebrated the centenary of the first missionary expedition, launched the temporary Salesian missionary volunteering process, reorganised the press office. After 12 years of intense work governing the Congregation, he felt the need, like his predecessor Fr Ziggiotti, to pass the baton to others, and on 15 December 1977, he resigned.”
Fr Ricceri carried out his term in a very delicate and turbulent historical period: the period of the crisis that also involved the Salesian Congregation after the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the 1968 period. He experienced these difficult years of renewal and contestation not without pain, misunderstanding, correction of deviations, tensions, but firmly and decisively, remaining faithful to the spirit of Don Bosco, fighting for the unity of the Congregation, for its just renewal and adaptation to new needs, in a spirit that has been described as “dynamic fidelity”.
And from his own words you can tell what the strenna meant to him. In fact, in the Introduction to the 1968 Strenna commentary he said: “Strenna, first of all, means gift, it means friendship, family, familiarity... In the tradition of our good families there was precisely the strenna that was received on New Year's Eve, and which then became more sophisticated ...; but the substance remained: the son, the daughter received this gift from their parents, from their relatives.”
And in presenting the 1973 strenna, he added,”It does not have a simple sentimental value, it is not a rhetorical slogan, but it comes to give all the members of our family a true program of action and life that, when implemented, unites us in the same intentions; and while it is very useful to the individual, it is of no small advantage to the community that feels committed to a united effort towards a goal that interests our common vocation.”
After Fr Ricaldone, Fr Ricceri also followed up with a presentation, an official commentary, usually not very long. In addition, the strenna began to be offered in broad terms to all the members of the Salesian Family. In his 12 years as Rector Major, he left 13 strennas, handed down 9 through the Acts of the Superior Council and 4 from the Salesian Bulletin of the time.
Unlike those of his predecessors, the strennas, at least for the most part, were developed and quite lengthy. Many strennas were determined by particular events in the Church or the Congregation, especially the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.
However, there were also references to ordinary themes of Salesian spirituality: love for and fidelity to Don Bosco, devotion to Mary Help of Christians and the Eucharist; charity towards the poor and needy (1971); commitment to the education of young people, catechesis, vocations; and the Salesian missionary dimension.
Here are the strennas Fr Ricceri gave to the Salesian Family:
1966: “In the jubilee year of the birth of our Father, I invite the members of the Salesian Family and those linked to it to offer him as a welcome tribute an effective interest in the directives of the Ecumenical Council. In particular, the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, to commit themselves to studying and generously implementing the ‘Decree on Religious Life’; the Cooperators and the Past Pupils the 'Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity', the young people the ‘Constitution on Liturgy’”;
1967: “For a more apostolically fruitful action and more respectful of human values within the religious and social community, let us live the spirit and practise the method of ‘Dialogue’ desired by the Council”;
1968 (Year of Faith and Marian Centenary Year): “Welcoming with filial devotion the exhortation of the Supreme Pontiff for the centenary of Sts Peter and Paul, I invite the entire Salesian family to celebrate the Year of Faith with a generous and fervent resolution to deepen the authentic value of the Faith; to revive awareness and effectiveness of it in their lives; to bear witness to it today with Christian consistency. May the Virgin Help of Christians, valid support and defence of the Faith, on the Centenary of the consecration of her Basilica in Turin, comfort us in our commitment”;
1969: “’The Eucharistic Mystery commits the entire Community of the faithful and demands from each individual member of the faithful a very personal and vital devotion.’ In the light of these words of Paul VI we make the Eucharist and our Eucharistic life: the Centre of the Educative Community, the soul of family life, the source and support of our witness and our apostolate”;
1970: “The fundamental law of human perfection, and therefore also of the transformation of the world, is the new commandment of charity (cf. GS lll, 3B). Inspired by this statement of the Council and the living example of Don Bosco, we rediscover the authentic meaning of charity in the Gospel message; we verify the effectiveness of charity in our personal, family and community life; we renew our commitment to the service of charity that we owe to the ecclesial community and to all our brothers and sisters”;
1971: “Faced with the very serious problems of underdevelopment, let all of us who in any way feel we are members of the Salesian Family courageously commit ourselves to living and implementing Don Bosco's charism for the spiritual, cultural and material promotion of what he called ‘poor and abandoned young people’. In particular: - Confreres, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Cooperators and Past Pupils should become effectively aware, each according to their circumstances, of this essential vocation to the Salesian spirit. According to the situations and needs of individual countries and always with a Christian sensitivity, let concrete activities are be promoted for the social and moral uplifting of young people. let us educate young people in our works to a keen and open sense of social conscience and start practical initiatives of service to others”;
1972: “To make the mission of Don Bosco current and valid among the people of our time, especially among youth, in the spirit and according to the directives of the Special General Chapter, let each member of the Salesian Family commit themselves to a decisive personal renewal of their spiritual life, an indispensable foundation for effectively renewing the mission entrusted by Providence and the Church to the Family of Don Bosco”;
1973: “Let the Salesian Family regain the vitality of its origins by committing itself to living an intense missionary climate”;
1974: “Faithful to the teachings and example of Don Bosco, let all members of the Salesian Family consider it a dutiful crowning of their educational education: - to guide and form apostolic vocations in the Church; to dedicate themselves with particular care to those called to the priestly and consecrated life; to promote and increase Salesian vocations, to fulfil the mandate to continue the charism of Don Bosco in the Church”;
1975: "In the light of the Centenary of the Salesian Missions, let the Family of Don Bosco, responding with a filial sense to the Pope's invitation for the Holy Year, undertake to live 1975 fully as a year of conversion to God, rediscovering the values of the Christian and Salesian vocation, reconciliation with our brothers and sisters in communion of faith, love, apostolic action, evangelisation inspired by the ‘missionary project‘ indicated by the Help of Christians to Don Bosco".
1976: “In 1976 our Family will remember the Centenary of the birth of the Association of Salesian Cooperators, the Regulations for which Don Bosco published in that year. While we thank the Lord for the effective collaboration that the Cooperators have lent to our Mission in many ways for a century, I invite the Salesians, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Past Pupils and other groups of the Salesian Family, to renew their commitment to get to know, promote, animate the Salesian Cooperators, Don Bosco's original intuition so they can share responsibility, and call lay people to an apostolic commitment in the Church”.
1977: “This year the Salesian Congregation celebrates the 21st GC in its history, exactly one century after the first Chapter called by Don Bosco himself. In this significant circumstance, the Salesians are invited to verify the effectiveness of the ‘renewal of the Congregation’ requested of them by the post-conciliar period in the light of the great reflection that the Church is making on the fertile theme of Evangelisation. I consider it most beneficial to extend an invitation this year to all members of the Salesian Family, to verify their commitment to proclaim Christ and bear witness to him with their lives. Individuals and groups of our Family will try to fulfil this commitment together, from the most current perspective of Don Bosco's apostolic project”.
