On-going Work of the General Council
On-going Work of the General Council
Rome (Italy). With the arrival of the new Councillors in the Generalate, the meetings started on January 19th on themes inherent to the animation and government of the Institute. They will involve Mother, Mother Yvonne Reungoat, and the whole Council for more than two months. The conclusion of the plenary sessions is planned for March 28, 2015.
Particularly demanding and important issues involve the discernment for the nomination of new Provincials and the elaboration of the General Council Program for the six-year term 2015-2021. In the course of these months, some specific meetings and the visit to the communities dependent on Mother are planned.
The two General Councils, FMA and SDB, met for the first time on January 21 at the SDB Generalate on Via Pisana. The day was spent getting to know each other, in sharing, listening, and discussion with particular attention and study on the life and future of the charism in all the Salesian realities of the world.
On Sunday, February 15, Mother and the Council went to visit the communities of Auxilium and Sr. Teresa Valse Pantellini for a time of sharing and fraternity.
On February 17-23, the first meetings of the General Council with the Department Collaborators were held at the Generalate. The objective of these encounters was that of reflection and discussion to plan together the journey of the General Council for the 2015-2021 term and the animation activities of the Departments. The involvement and exchange of ideas was an experience of ‘coordination for communion’, facilitating the building of meaning, from the why to the how of the proposals, to reach a shared awareness and the elaboration of a convergent and unitary program for the General Council.
The Councillors worked with the Collaborators in small groups and then shared in assembly. Some points emerged: pastoral and missionary conversion, the strategy of encounter, indispensable choices and elements of processes to activate. The work calls for study and research in the light of the Acts of GC XXIII, of the directives of the Church, of the Magisterium of Pope Francis, of the Institute, and of the reality of the world of youth in this historic moment.
In characteristic family climate, prayer and fraternity enriched what was shared with dedication and simplicity, and with the strong desire for Councillors and Collaborators to continue to work in synergy, so that coordination for communion and working together may be an ever more concretely lived reality.
On the afternoon of February 23, Mother and the Sisters of the Council met the young people in the Period of Evaluation and Orientation (PVO) of the Italian Provinces who were at Castelgandolfo to live together a strong period of prayer and Salesian spirituality. It was a time of getting to know each other, of listening and dialogue lived in joy and fraternity.
In the following days, Mother and the Councillors will proceed with the work planned for the Plenary Meetings.