A Salesian Youth Spirituality Of

SALESIAN PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY INSTITUTE OF SPIRITUALITY A SALESIAN YOUTH SPIRITUALITY OF ACCOMPANIMENT: THE VISION OF JUAN VECCHI AND A NEW MOMENT Thesis for the Licentiate of John ROCHE Moderator: Prof. Joseph BOENZI ROME, 14 MAY 2007 CONTENTS CONTENTS ii ABBREVIATIONS iv INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: THE ROOTS OF A SALESIAN SPIRITUALITY OF ACCOMPANIMENT IN THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF SAINT JOHN BOSCO 3 Premise 3 1. Don Bosco’s Spirituality of Accompaniment: Winning and Guiding Young Hearts 5 2. Human and Spiritual Accompaniment of Don Bosco’s Students 26 3. Don Bosco as Spiritual Teacher and Spiritual Director 44 4. Characteristics of Don Bosco’s Spirituality of Accompaniment 52 Conclusion 58 CHAPTER 2: PROPHECY, INNOVATION, AND CHANGE: THE VISION OF NEW HORIZONS ACCORDING TO DON JUAN EDMUNDO VECCHI 61 Premise 61 1. Don Bosco’s eighth successor 62 2. Fundamental Themes of Salesian Spirituality 72 3. The Accompanied Journey of Faith: GC23 Educating Young People to the Faith 110 4. The Perpetual Demand for Updating: Other Themes and Influences 123 Conclusion: A Crucial Turning Point 135 CHAPTER 3: ACCOMPANIMENT AS A GIFT OF GRACE FOR A NEW MOMENT 138 ii Premise 138 1. A New Cultural Moment and a New Formation 139 2. Tasks and Characteristics of a New Salesian Accompaniment According to Pina Del Core: 168 3. Three Tasks of a New Accompaniment—Other Voices 173 4. New Models for the Act of Accompaniment 182 Conclusion: Holiness, Authentic Experience, and the Return to Don Bosco 192 CONCLUSION 195 BIBLIOGRAPHY 200 INDEX 210 iii ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations of Church Documents DV = Dominum et Vivificantem, Encyclical Letter of the Holy Father, John Paul II, 18 may 1986. EN = Evangelii Nuntiandi, Apostolic Letter of the Holy Father, Paul VI, 8 dec. 1975. IP = Iuventum Patris, in ACG 329, Rome, 24 February, a homily addressed to the Salesian Family on the occasion of the centennial of Don Bosco’s death, 31, January 1988. NMI = Novo Millennio Ineunte, Epistoloa Apostolica of the Holy Father John Paul II to the faithful, 6 January 2001. RM = Redemptoris Missio, Encyclical Letter on the Permanent Value of the Missionary Mandate of the Redeemer, John Paul, 7, December 1990. VC = Vita Consecrata, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of the Holy Father John Paul II to the Bishops and the Clergy, to the Religious Orders and Congregations, to the Societies of Apostolic Life, to the Secular Institutes and to all the Faithful on the Consecrated Life and its Mission in the Church and the World, 25 March 1996. Primary Sources MB = Giovanni Battista Lemoyne, Angelo Amadei and Eugenio Ceria, Memorie Biografiche di Don Giovanni Bosco, 19 vols; index by Ernesto Foglio, S. Benigno Canavese/Torino: Tipografia Salesiana/ SAID/SEI, 1897-1917, 1930-1938, 1948. MO = Giovanni Bosco, Memorie dell’Oratorio di S. Francesco di Sales: Dal 1815 al 1855, critical edition and introduction by Antonio Da Silva Ferreira, Roma, LAS, 1991. In English, Memoirs of the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales: 1815-1855, translation by Translated by Daniel Lyons, with notes iv and commentary by Eugenio Ceria, Lawrence Castelvecchi, and Michael Mendl, New Rochelle, Don Bosco Publications 1989. Abbreviations for Scripture Citations, Serials, and Salesian NAB = New American Bible AAS = Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Official organ of the Holy See, Roma/Città del Vaticano, since 1909. ACG = Atti del Consiglio Generale. Official organ for animationand communication for the Salesian Congretation [ formerly, Atti del Capitolo Superiore, 1920-1965, and Atti del Consiglio Superiore, 1965- 1984], Torino/Roma: Direzione Generale Opere Don Bosco, since 1920. AGC = Acts of the General Council. English edition of ACG. C = Constitutions and Regulations of the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, Rome, SGS, 1984. CEP = Comunità Educativa Pastorale, in English the Educative Pastoral Community. GC = General Chapter. SEPP = Progetto Educativo Pastorale Salesiano, the Salesian Educative Pastor Plan. LAS = Libreria Ateneo Salesiana. LDC = Elle Di Ci: Libreria di Dottrina Cristiana. PGS = Pastorale Giovanile Salesiana SDB = Salesians of Don Bosco. SEI = Società Editrice Internazionale. SEPP = Salesian Educative Pastoral Plan SGS = Esse Go Esse: Scuola Grafica Salesiana. v INTRODUCTION There is a “belief that what is most needed right now to inspire us as missionaries within secularity is a re-inflaming of the romantic imagination within religion.”1 Ron Rolheiser’s words are apt to describe a problem felt throughout the world of faith, and particularly among ministers, religious, and the faithful living, worshipping and ministering in what is known as the “Western World.” It is the conviction of many similar authors and prophetic voices on the current scene that God is purifying the church of the West and calling for a self-emptying and a living contemplation of the kenotic gift of God in his Son, Jesus. Such voices claim that the world of faith “is lacking fire, romance, aestethetics, as these pertain to our faith and ecclesial lives. What needs to be inflamed today inside of religion is its romantic imagination, and this is not so much the job of the theologian as it is the job of the artist and the saint.”2 This work opens with this need and applies it particularly to the important Salesian mission to youth of the world. Something inflamed the youth who met Don Bosco and propelled them into commitments that have shaped one of the largest and growing missions to youth throughout the world into this day. Yet, the fire seems to be weakening quickly in the West. Among the many voices that have raised the alarm was the clear and resounding voice of Don Juan Vecchi, the late and beloved eighth successor to St. John Bosco, the Rector Major of the Salesian Family. He saw that the youth situation had taken on very complex and perilous dimensions in the explosive machinations of globalization. The response to this lack of fire is particularly urgent for reaching the youth in the most dangerous situations of this new reality. More than merely rousing enthusiasm or stoking religious sentiment, the commitment to the young could only be sustained by a gift of the Spirit inflaming the hearts of those called to bring a living and authentic experience of God for a spiritually starving world of the young. 1 Ron ROLHEISER, Secularity and the Gospel: Being Missionaries to our Chuldren, author and editor, New York, The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2006, 19-20. 2 ROLHEISER, Secularity and the Gospel, 20. 1 This work takes to heart the call of Don Bosco’s ninth successor, Don Pascual Chavez in his convocation of the 26th General Chapter of the Salesians Society of Saint Francis de Sales: “Return to Don Bosco!” His intention to inspire is strong and clear: Each Salesian represents Don Bosco today; through each one of us Don Bosco returns to be among the young. This requires on the part of each one a greater knowledge of him and of the Constitutions and the taking up of his plan of life, expressed in the motto da mihi animas, coetera tolle. This will help us to rediscover our charismatic identity, especially as regards Salesian pedagogy and Salesian spirituality, fan the flames of our apostolic zeal, and encourage us to be present among the young, increase our sense of belonging and make our lives credible. (AGC 394, p.53-54) The mission of the Salesian Family is to inflame the hearts of the young as Don Bosco did in his day. The task at hand is to illustrate a very specific spirituality lived by Don Bosco that is our heritage and the source of our fire! The first turn in this effort will be, in fact, a return to Don Bosco to examine who and what inspired him. How was he accompanied to sanctity? The subsequent turn will focus on the special gift of renewal and insight offered to the Salesian Family in recent years in the person of Don Juan Vecchi. His efforts to offer new models of Salesian presence offered from an organic community of religious, lay, and the young will draw lines of connection and inspiration from Don Bosco into our own day. Finally, this work will bring to these reflections many current voices throughout the church to reveal in greater detail the special call for spiritual accompaniment. Offering models new and old, new mentalities, and pathways for a new evangelization, this work hopes to offer an integrated and reflective return to Don Bosco! 2 Chapter 1: The Roots of a Salesian Spirituality of Accompaniment in the Lived Experience of Saint John Bosco Premise Much has been written on the life and the legacy of Saint John Bosco in the intervening years since his death in 1888. His particular style of education has been and remains the subject of great analyses and speculation. The stories and images of his life, from his childhood through his remarkable response to God’s call as an apostle to the young, are rich and familiar to peoples and cultures throughout the world. The twentieth century introduced Salesian scholars dedicated to the spiritual life of this founder, educator, and saint seeking to uncover a distinctive spirituality for study and imitation. To harness the greatness of this figure has posed a tremendous challenge in all of this time. Students and scholars alike return again and again to the experiences of this man and to Saint John Bosco’s personal record of his own encounters. This is the stuff of spirituality— the lived experience of God. Much more than simple stories, spirituality is participation and mediation. Christian faith, to be grounded in reality, “is not ritual, dogma, religion, or spiritual weirdness. It’s authentic experience made personal through our full participation in what God is doing.”3 Participation reverberates throughout the Gospel revelations of Jesus—the fullness of encounter with God.

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