By Fr. Ángel F. Artime, SDB
Rector Major
RMG, 25 December 2016 -- Dear Confreres, I am writing this letter... to all the Provinces of the world and to all those confreres who feel called by the Lord to live their Salesian vocation in this particular form: being available to be Salesian missionaries “ad gentes, ad exteros, ad vitam” (“to the peoples”, “abroad”, “for life”). My appeal is a voice that must resound in all the Provinces and Salesian presences in the world in order to favour generous responses.
The fundamental reason for this appeal is threefold:
- The Evangelizing mission in the world requires from us, Salesians of Don Bosco, that we go beyond.
- There are some presences of the Congregation we can no longer sustain because in some nations of the five continents there are no Salesians who can offer their service, whereas in other places the apostolic strengths are more numerous: in particular the youth are waiting for us in the context of Project Europe, in the Middle East, in countries with a Muslim majority, in the islands of Oceania, in South Sudan, in Mongolia, in Siberia, Cambodia and Malaysia, as well as among the young migrants of the American continent… and in many other places!
- The third motivation is intimately linked to the missionary passion of Don Bosco, who explicitly says: “Foreign missions were always a subject cherished by the Salesian Congregation”.
On the occasion of the journeys to 44 Provinces in past 3 years, I often said that we have to reflect on this fact: if Don Bosco had decided to limit the field of the pastoral educative activity of the Salesians only to the needy youth of Italy – and if he had not had the great passion and the great missionary vision that spurred him at every moment, today the Salesian Congregation would be a small congregation, limited to one nation.
Dear Confreres, for the above reasons, I now address to you this strong appeal and invite you all to generosity. First of all I ask the generosity of those confreres who hear this explicit call from the Lord. Then I ask the generosity of the Provinces, Rectors and, in particular, of Provincials, that they do not stifle in any way the missionary unrest of young confreres and of no other confrere, confining their view and their interest only to their own Province. We cannot forget our origins and our charismatic identity.
You know well how we proceed in these cases. As soon as the Rector Major receives a call, a letter or an email from a confrere who expresses this wish, the Councilor for the Missions begins a serene, serious and profound discernment with the confrere and with his Provincial. Everything is then brought to the knowledge of the Rector Major. Discernment often highlights the suitability of the candidate; but sometimes it is not so. In any case, we only look for the good of the persons and of the mission.
I invite you to pray for this intention in the entire Congregation. Many are the persons who have not yet been reached by the announcement of the Gospel. Many young people need a friend, a brother, a father whom they will be able to find in the Salesians they will meet. May Mary Help of Christians bless this generosity of yours and may Don Bosco continue to accompany us in our commitment to being true missionary disciples of Jesus.
DOWNLOAD the full text (PDF format) of the RM's Missionary Appeal 2016
