Follow-up of the Rector Major in Vietnam: Are you happy? In communion - Have a vision! - Clericalism

By Fr. Joseph Nguyen Van Quang, SDB

HCM City, Vietnam, 11 April 2017 -- Probably the first bi-lingual circular letter of VIE (Vietnam - Mongolia) province was send on March 24 as the wrap up and follow up after the historical one week long visit of Fr. Angel F. Artime to Vietnam on February 20-27, 2017.

In the first part of his 4 page long letter Fr. Quang reflects on the main message and pointers of the Rector Major during his visit last February, starting with the impressions left among the 250 confreres met during one week:

"Fr. Angel enjoyed the happiness to be with the young and with all of us. He left us, the Salesians, the message of loving kindness, cheerfulness, friendliness, joyful approachability, familiarity, and also, transparency in facing various problems. He has left so much lovely impacts upon us and also he carried with himself with those affections. Meeting me personally, he repeated not a few times: “Vietnam, how beautiful [very good]!”

Then Fr. Quang shares in four main messages - indications for the growth of the Salesian Charism in the province:

1. ARE YOU HAPPY?

" This was the central question raised by our Rector Major to the young and also to us in the meetings. Am I really happy in my consecration? Do I consider my community as my own home and the confreres as my genuine brothers in the family? Or my life is simply one to be pitifully dragged on without any direction/sense/meaning? .... and my true identity is expressed to be a life without any commitment, or with some hidden agenda of self-compensation."

2. IN COMMUNION

This is the second term repeated frequently by the Rector Major as he met us. This is clearly expressed in our Constitutions.... Nevertheless, the modern and consumerist life of today pulls us to somehow a selfish, individualistic one, more caring for oneself with an easy and comfort life, being difficult to reach out to the young. Individualism detaches oneself from community life, dropping community activities at any pretext, to the point of being absent from community prayer moments as prescribed explicitly in our Constitutions and Regulations....

I plead you to go back to the community life, being strongly aware of my total belonging to the community, committing to build up my community, fighting against individualistic temptations that certainly terminate the validity of my Salesian consecrated life...

The Rector Major assess that the living up to “the sense of belonging” is an actual challenge to our Province; to live a life of belonging to the community and to live up to the demands of community life is vital! ...

3. HAVE A VISION!

The GC 27 insists that the province, local communities and presences should have their respective vision. Each confrere, local community, presence and work should have the planning mentality which is expressed with their strategic, operational plans for the growth and development to the person, community and the whole province...

These strategic and operational plans of the Provincial community, local ones, presences, departments, sectors and works should be specific, practical to serve the young, in particular, the poorer ones. Any plan that does not respond to this goal needs to be revised, since the Rector Major constantly recalls us the requirements of our Salesian Charism, mission and identity.

In that sense, the Salesian parishes should not restrict themselves with regular activities like those in other non-Salesian parishes. The diocese entrusts parishes to the Province with the clear expectation that we actualize our charism, mission and identity ... And according to the Rector Major’s instruction, any Salesian parish priest [pastor] who does not accept this line of action [primarily to serve the young], neglecting youth ministry, needs to be replaced by another one.

In addition, the Rector Major recommends us not to hesitate in inviting lay people to share our mission and services. Let us learn to work with them as co-partners, with co-responsibility, and not as hired employees. Particularly, in the modern world, lay people have their irreplaceable roles.

4. CLERICALISM

This term is frequently repeated with explicit anxiety by the Rector Major in all meetings with the Salesians, in particular, in the recent Team Visit 2017 (Hua Hin). He recalls the Pope Francis..... warning for the Church of today; it is a warning against a distressing situation in the Church life: Clericalism. This is the tendency or option to raise the clerical [priestly] status to a high class in the society, to seek for power and to run after money. This is in fact a lifestyle that causes great damages to the Church; yet, unfortunately it is gradually spreading with various forms."

The Circular reflects faithfully the frank, open, kind and courageous interaction of Fr. Angel during his several meetings with different groups of confreres during the Vietnam visit. The full text of the VIE (Vietnam - Mongolia) provincial letter in Vietnamese and English is available on the BOSCOLINK. The original is uploaded on the VIE new website: http://sdbvn.net.

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