Minutes of the Provincials Meeting in Hua Hin, Thailand

Minutes of the Provincials Meeting in Tigaraksa, Indonesia 9 – 10 September 2003 , Present the Regional, all nine Provincials and Delegate PNG Second Session: 9 September 6:00-7:15 pm

INCULTURATION OF THE SALESIAN CHARISM (ISC)

1. Exercise: in two minutes identify the scripture passage which links to the ISC 1.1. “Go in the whole world. Teach and make disciples of all nations”. Emphasis is on the going to the people as the initiative 1.2. “Moses, take off your shoes” because culture is something sacred and deserve to be respected 1.3. “Walk a straight path in line with the truth of the Gospel and do not make the Gentiles live like Jews.” Related to St Paul in terms of being an apostle of the good news, wherever one goes the gospel is the guiding truth 1.4. “And the word was made flesh” because God emptied himself so that man can be elevated 1.5. “Abram, leave your country” Heed the call of missions means shedding off one’s original lifestyle in order to enter into the new cultural setting (omnia omnibus factus sum) 1.6. “As the Father has loved me so I have loved you.” because in inculturation, God’s love is what matters 1.7. “He shall be called Emmanuel” Not only working for the young but also with the young and so like what the young like 1.8. “Let the little children come to me” because today many young people are being exploited and the salesians are tasked to be concerned about them 1.9. “Go to the end of the world…among the Greeks act like a Greek one must be ready to shed off one’s worldview to take another 1.10. “Living water, and the deer that yearns”

2. Short Essay by Savio Hon: confer paper (Inculturation of the Salesian Charism) 3. Dyadic Exercise 3.1. What is clear: 3.1.1. Value-system 3.1.2. A question not of facsimiles of Valdocco but the re-embodying of the salesian charism in the culture 3.1.3. Good insight on da mihi animas and coetera tolle on page 3 3.1.4. Necessity to know Don Bosco in his Italian context and realize the universality of Don Bosco today and therefore the process of inculturation 3.1.5. Gift of the Holy Spirit as the living water = salesian charism, however that living water depends also in the environment where this water arrived (the context) 3.2. What is not clear 3.2.1. Too drastic dichotomy on page 2 regarding the charism as wholly of the Holy Spirit and the inculturation as wholly a human effort

4. Non-negotiable elements to do inculturation work on the salesian charism 4.1. Inculturation of the Salesian Charism is not a question of re-producing Valdocco facsimiles, but to let the salesian charism be embodied in the salesian work concerned, in a way that is enriching 4.2. The mission comes from Christ, the living water himself 4.3. By one’s witness of life, the gospel values are transmitted. 4.4. The divine element of the salesian charism - the living water – can take different shapes according to the shape of the container (situations and localities) 4.5. Inculturation is not a work of an individual but of a community according to adequate criteria. 4.6. Openness to Don Bosco: deep knowledge of Don Bosco and the accurate reading of Don Bosco in his historical context so that one can truly identify the universal, perennially valid elements of the charism 4.7. Skill / knowledge of the science or process of inculturation 4.8. Knowledge of the local language in order to express Don Bosco’s charism in the local language 4.9. Interaction between those provinces because of their Chinese-culture substratum 4.10. Process of mutual enrichment whereby culture is both affirmed and challenged. 4.11. Touching-the-heart as a sure gauge that the salesian charism is being transmitted properly to the culture 4.12. Due to changes of the times and of people, inculturation is an unending task.

Third Session: 10 September 9:00-10:30

INCULTURATION OF THE SALESIAN CHARISM 5. Presentation of of the ISC Statement 5.1. Biblico-theological underpinning 5.1.1. Inculturation is to be seen in the context of mission, like God’s call to Abraham to go and found His people, or to Moses before the burning bush or to Paul – above all, to God’s own Son, Jesus, sent to be Emmanuel: God-with-us 5.1.2. The principal similarity of these calls lies in the need to leave one’s former way of life (self- emptying, shedding off) and to adopt the lifestyle of the context where one is sent (Greek to the Greeks); in Jesus’ paradigm we call it the incarnational model and this is the most important principle of inculturation. 5.1.3. Inasmuch as there is a sending off on the part of God, inculturation recognizes that there is a gift that comes wholly from God – the living Water, (in our case, the salesian charism) which seeks to evangelize the culture it encounters. The deepest motivation and the guiding principle of ISC is ‘Da mihi animas, coetera tolle.’ 5.2. ISC definition 5.2.1. The inculturation of the salesian charism means that the perennial gift of the Holy Spirit, originally poured down on Don Bosco and which found its historical shape and expression in the educative and pastoral needs of his time, continues to be poured down on the sons and followers of Don Bosco, this time found in the 128 countries where they are engaged in the work of education and evangelization. 5.2.2. The inculturation of the salesian charism entails that the local salesians of these countries assume the task of expressing and living the perennial and universal elements of the salesian charism – preventive system - in a manner that touches the heart of the young in their specific and present-day contexts. 5.2.3. This effort of inculturation which is a never ending process due to the continuous changes occurring in a living culture, specially that of the young, produces a mutual enrichment between the divine element and the human historical context. The salesian charism is enriched by the way it finds new expression and life-contact in the new context it is found; the culture is purified and evangelized by the new way the Spirit makes himself present in that culture – in our case, through the gift of the salesian charism: an inculturated preventive system of education. 5.3. Pre-requisites to do inculturation work 5.3.1. Deep and scientific knowledge of Don Bosco, the salesian charism and the local piedmontese culture where it originally grew: its roots, its values, its value-system, its historical expressions and traditions 5.3.2. Deep respect and extensive knowledge of the local culture where the salesian charism is to be inculturated: its worldview, its anthropology and sociology, its semina verbi, its legends, poetry, songs, proverbs, and dramas, its language and gestures 5.3.3. This work is not a matter of an individual researcher but of a whole salesian community engaged in its daily life and work for and with the young; it concerns not only the SDBs but the whole gamut of persons enamored by Don Bosco’s system of education and whose lifestyle and life-vision show that they desire to be deeply engaged in the education and the evangelization of the young of the locality. 5.4. Pause to consider whether what was shared and expressed in yesterday’s meeting regarding the non-negotiables of ISC are present in this statement 5.5. Reactions 5.5.1. Two things: (a) all salesians that is, not just the local salesians, in fact the foreign confreres must be part; (b) respectful of the inculturational model used by the local Church 5.5.2. Not just SDBs as salesians and neither the others as merely helpers 5.5.3. What about the mission that is really not encompassed in the salesian work and this becomes conflictual: discernment in content 5.5.4. “This is not salesian” objectively means it was not done before 5.5.5. Different understanding by this concept 5.5.6. Place two anchors for ISC: cross-refer to Ratio (Salesian) and to Ecclesia in Asia/in Oceania 5.5.7. Chinese substratum in several provinces

Continued in the Sixth Session: 10 September 5:00-6:00 6. Towards some doables in the Province regarding ISC 6.1. Presentation: 6.1.1. Write a circular letter to all confreres to bring about an awareness on ISC 6.1.2. Study the values of the local culture 6.1.3. Call the help of the Salesian Family and make a serious study of the Japanese culture; similarly, call the young Salesians to see the contact of cultures: between SC and culture of Japanese youth 6.1.4. Establish the ‘Oratorian heart’ in the local settings 6.1.5. Breaking the 2004 Strenna and inculturate the meaning of holiness in the Australian culture; use the SB articles of the Rector Major and then tap youth leaders on this theme 6.1.6. Deepen the understanding of the needs of the people 6.1.7. (a) try-out what we did as Provincials with the Rectors of the province; (b) forming a team of those who have undergone courses of salesianity and map out the process; and (c) due to few materials on salesianity in the local communities, establish a good salesian resource materials 6.1.8. Reading about the culture 6.1.9. Review knowledge on Filipino culture as well as the youth culture according to the recent studies about them; to set up a salesianity study center included in the curriculum of foreign confreres who intend to learn the English language 6.2. summary 6.2.1. do something about the study of the salesian charism 6.2.2. deepen the knowledge about youth culture with the view of inculturating spirituality 6.2.3. set up a team / some confreres in bringing about the ISC 6.3. Suggestion for the next meeting in Japan – Chofu 2004, February: report on any experience on these three summaries of our suggestions of doables. ©