austraLasia #2787
Hotting up
ROME: 14 March 2014 -- They are lining up - for coffee, but not only. Hot coffee, and hot topics!
We wondered yesterday if the Missions Councillor role would survive the day - well it did, at least for the day. Discussion flowed freely and could be easily summed up as, well, a certain level of shock and disappointment by many (not all) that such a thought might even be floated.
And now it will be the turn of Social Communications. The brave juridical commission has another proposal up front for discussion on this one. They want it to become a secretariat under the RM rather than a Department. Let's see where that goes.
And the first glimmers of a document emerging from the 'Listening and interpretation' stage are with us.
"Scendi dalle stelle"
Yes, you can click that link and hear Luciano Pavorotti at his best with this beautiful and perhaps most favourite of all Christmas Carols in Italian. But yesterday the term (which in context there might have been translated as 'come down off your high-horse, or come out of the clouds' or words to that effect) appeared to be levelled at anyone who thought we should be 'reducing our core business' as one put it - by eliminating the Missions Councillor role from the General Council.
Other comments might give one a sense of the feeling on the floor - "Absurd", "Benedict XVI set up a new department for new evangelisation and we want to remove ours?", "They're off their heads", "ad hoc" and some passionate please not to end up giving the world the wrong message by touching something that has been at the historical and charismatic core of Salesian activity since its earliest days.
There were other views, of course, and a missionary of many years who is also a member of the commission that formulated the proposal did try to express how the intention was to ensure that missionary thinking touches all provinces.
No straw vote was taken - the result would have been pretty clear. But the discussion is by no means over and this is a good example of how a Chapter works. If everyone just stuck to the status quo all the time, nothing much would happen, would it? Nevertheless there will be urgent appeals to the Holy Spirit to enlighten minds on this one.
Communications - recast it as a Secretariat?
The Juridical Commission has put forward a fairly nuanced version of its proposal this time, nuanced in the sense that it has offered minority as well as majority views on whether this role (SC) should have a councillor on the General Council or become a secretariat directly under the RM.
The proposal recognises that:
- SC is an open continent where millions of those to whom we are sent live;
- many Salesians though know little about it, about the new communications 'grammar' etc. etc.
- in a constanttly expanding and changing world we have to understand SC and be in dialogue with it;
- it goes beyond Press Office, ANS-sdb.org, our procution enterprises.
That said, they propose that:
- it should not be represented by a councillor on the GC,
- there ought be a central secretariat set up, directly dependent on the RM, following R 108.
They would argue that:
a) institutional communication is directly and strictly tied to the top level of government
b) moving from a department to a secretariat does not mean giving less attention to SC; they would argue it responds better to the very nature of communication that runs across all dimensions of the Salesian mission;
c) setting up a department also sets up possibilities for 'sectorialism' (awful word)
d) a secretariate dependent on the RM would be a more agile way of achieving education and evangelisation through animation, formation, information and production
e) supervision of communications enterprises can be given to the Economer General - working in with the Secretariate.
The opposite view on this would run along the following lines:
a) given the growth and relevance of communications today, a continent inhabited by the young, we cannot possibly lessen our attention to it
b) we are called as Salesians to be “in the vanguard of progress” in this field and profound interpreters of the signs of the times, and that is a good reason for SC to be on the front line of animation and government at Congregational level
c) According to C. 6 a Department is the best way of expressing a sector which is an integral part of the Salesian charism
d) Any thought of parallel thinking action is not tied to the number of departments but to how they work and coordinate within the Council
f) A secretariat without a change on how people work together at General Council level does not reduce the risk of sectorialism.
Stay tuned!
Glimmers of a document emerging
As the commissions do their work of study on core topics of the overall GC27 theme, run that past the Assembly, then forward their summary to the Drafting Group, this latter begins to put together a succinct and hopefully 'moving' account which becomes the firm basis for any eventual document.
The first of these attempts will be given to the Assembly on Friday 14 March, to chew over.
It will be headed with the term 'Mystics', this being the first core topic of the theme. it is likely to put as briefly as possible why on earth we apply this term - to Don Bosco, to ourselves. It will try to sum up what the pointers for hope are that we show signs of this mysticism in our personal and communal lives, and will also try to recognise the failings in this regard.
It will endeavour to offer certain horizons to guide individuals and communities into the future.
None of this is 'invented' - it is material that is coming through in the commission and assembly discussions.
Have a prayerful thought for the Drafting Group. They too have a major task ahead of them.
The very first report on the state of the Congregation
In the light of the current RM's Report delivered last week, it becomes a fascinating exercise to read the very first such report - which Don Bosco sent along (late) to the Holy See, then further explained (late again) in response to 'observations', and had to clarify yet again (this time with evident exasperation) after yet more observations came his way! First time fully available in English.
Hotting up
ROME: 14 March 2014 -- They are lining up - for coffee, but not only. Hot coffee, and hot topics!
We wondered yesterday if the Missions Councillor role would survive the day - well it did, at least for the day. Discussion flowed freely and could be easily summed up as, well, a certain level of shock and disappointment by many (not all) that such a thought might even be floated.
And now it will be the turn of Social Communications. The brave juridical commission has another proposal up front for discussion on this one. They want it to become a secretariat under the RM rather than a Department. Let's see where that goes.
And the first glimmers of a document emerging from the 'Listening and interpretation' stage are with us.
"Scendi dalle stelle"
Yes, you can click that link and hear Luciano Pavorotti at his best with this beautiful and perhaps most favourite of all Christmas Carols in Italian. But yesterday the term (which in context there might have been translated as 'come down off your high-horse, or come out of the clouds' or words to that effect) appeared to be levelled at anyone who thought we should be 'reducing our core business' as one put it - by eliminating the Missions Councillor role from the General Council.
Other comments might give one a sense of the feeling on the floor - "Absurd", "Benedict XVI set up a new department for new evangelisation and we want to remove ours?", "They're off their heads", "ad hoc" and some passionate please not to end up giving the world the wrong message by touching something that has been at the historical and charismatic core of Salesian activity since its earliest days.
There were other views, of course, and a missionary of many years who is also a member of the commission that formulated the proposal did try to express how the intention was to ensure that missionary thinking touches all provinces.
No straw vote was taken - the result would have been pretty clear. But the discussion is by no means over and this is a good example of how a Chapter works. If everyone just stuck to the status quo all the time, nothing much would happen, would it? Nevertheless there will be urgent appeals to the Holy Spirit to enlighten minds on this one.
Communications - recast it as a Secretariat?
The Juridical Commission has put forward a fairly nuanced version of its proposal this time, nuanced in the sense that it has offered minority as well as majority views on whether this role (SC) should have a councillor on the General Council or become a secretariat directly under the RM.
The proposal recognises that:
- SC is an open continent where millions of those to whom we are sent live;
- many Salesians though know little about it, about the new communications 'grammar' etc. etc.
- in a constanttly expanding and changing world we have to understand SC and be in dialogue with it;
- it goes beyond Press Office, ANS-sdb.org, our procution enterprises.
That said, they propose that:
- it should not be represented by a councillor on the GC,
- there ought be a central secretariat set up, directly dependent on the RM, following R 108.
They would argue that:
a) institutional communication is directly and strictly tied to the top level of government
b) moving from a department to a secretariat does not mean giving less attention to SC; they would argue it responds better to the very nature of communication that runs across all dimensions of the Salesian mission;
c) setting up a department also sets up possibilities for 'sectorialism' (awful word)
d) a secretariate dependent on the RM would be a more agile way of achieving education and evangelisation through animation, formation, information and production
e) supervision of communications enterprises can be given to the Economer General - working in with the Secretariate.
The opposite view on this would run along the following lines:
a) given the growth and relevance of communications today, a continent inhabited by the young, we cannot possibly lessen our attention to it
b) we are called as Salesians to be “in the vanguard of progress” in this field and profound interpreters of the signs of the times, and that is a good reason for SC to be on the front line of animation and government at Congregational level
c) According to C. 6 a Department is the best way of expressing a sector which is an integral part of the Salesian charism
d) Any thought of parallel thinking action is not tied to the number of departments but to how they work and coordinate within the Council
f) A secretariat without a change on how people work together at General Council level does not reduce the risk of sectorialism.
Stay tuned!
Glimmers of a document emerging
As the commissions do their work of study on core topics of the overall GC27 theme, run that past the Assembly, then forward their summary to the Drafting Group, this latter begins to put together a succinct and hopefully 'moving' account which becomes the firm basis for any eventual document.
The first of these attempts will be given to the Assembly on Friday 14 March, to chew over.
It will be headed with the term 'Mystics', this being the first core topic of the theme. it is likely to put as briefly as possible why on earth we apply this term - to Don Bosco, to ourselves. It will try to sum up what the pointers for hope are that we show signs of this mysticism in our personal and communal lives, and will also try to recognise the failings in this regard.
It will endeavour to offer certain horizons to guide individuals and communities into the future.
None of this is 'invented' - it is material that is coming through in the commission and assembly discussions.
Have a prayerful thought for the Drafting Group. They too have a major task ahead of them.
The very first report on the state of the Congregation
In the light of the current RM's Report delivered last week, it becomes a fascinating exercise to read the very first such report - which Don Bosco sent along (late) to the Holy See, then further explained (late again) in response to 'observations', and had to clarify yet again (this time with evident exasperation) after yet more observations came his way! First time fully available in English.
