Thirteen years after the Charter of Charismatic Identity of the Salesian Family, published in 2012, a new publication is released, as the fruit and further step of that previous document. And while the former text contained the ambitious aim of journeying together, this new resource aims to give concrete form to it.
‘Reflecting on journeying together as a Salesian Family is the purpose of this document, to shed further light on the particular responsibilities of the various groups and individual members in animation and accompaniment, and to achieve a renewal in the way they carry out their mission with dynamic fidelity’ is written in the presentation of the booklet.
The reflection is carried forward in the light and in continuity with the Charter of Identity, in order to draw motivations and practical indications from it that will contribute to the further development of the exercise of animation and accompaniment in the Salesian Family. The work has moved from the lived experience of the last decades, to the new challenges of the world in the light of the Gospel, the Magisterium of the Church and the teaching of the Rectors Major. People from the different continents with qualified experience of animation and accompaniment in the Salesian Family have contributed to its preparation, alongside members of the Secretariat, although, as it is specified, ‘the text remains open to further contributions and additions’.
The booklet is structured in two parts. The first, ‘The Charismatic Family of Don Bosco, a prophecy for the young and the poor in the Church and in the world’ refers to the figure of Don Bosco as Founder of the Salesian Family and its prophetic mission. The other, entitled ‘animation and accompaniment bodies’, identifies the essential perspectives of animation and accompaniment, clarifies the nature and roles of the various bodies and identifies the fundamental attitudes in which the Delegates or Animators of the various groups are called to grow in order to respond to the task entrusted to them.
‘The document presents as an invitation to commit ourselves more, as a Salesian Family, in common response to God's call to grow in quality and depth,’ the presentation of the booklet concludes, while hoping for the establishment of Salesian Family Advisory Councils at the territorial level and the development of an apostolic fruitfulness that can derive from the synergy in the complementarity of the different groups.
The text of this new resource is already available at the bottom of the page in three languages - Italian, English and Spanish. The French and Portuguese editions are also expected to be published in the coming weeks.
