DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR WORKS DON BOSCO
Via della Pisana, 1111, CP 18333 - 00163 ROME
The General Councilor for Formation
Rome, 25 November 2013
Prot. 13/0630
To the Reverend
Your Headquarters
For knowledge of the
Reverend
Your Headquarters
Dear Delegate,
after the annual meetings of the regional formation Commissions, I indicate to you, as is now customary, some commitments that you will be able to face with the Provincial Formation Commission and possibly with the Provincial and his Council for the year 2014.
We have now reached the final months of the six-year period 2008-2014 and we are almost at the beginning of the new sex period 2014-2020; I therefore propose to you some commitments that can facilitate the transition and handover to the new General Councilor for formation.
The Formation Commission can contribute to the preparation of the Bicentenary of the Birth of Don Bosco in its third year, which focuses on Salesian spirituality and helps formulate the local, provincial and national program for the celebration of the Bicentennial itself.
This year sees all the Provinces concentrated on following the progress of the General Chapter 27 . At the end of the GC27 with the Provincial Commission, it is necessary to study the final document and reflect on how to train the confreres to be "witnesses of evangelical radicalism".
We are about to complete the process of approval of the " Criteria and norms for Salesian personal accompaniment". With the Commission you can begin to deepen the contents, to assimilate the operational lines and to see how to communicate them to all the confreres.
Finally the Letter of the Rector Major " Vocation and formation: gift and task " must be resumed and become a tool for study and implementation at various levels; it is a programmatic letter for training and cannot be neglected.
The most important commitment of this period concerns the verification of the functioning of the Provincial Formation Commission and of the work it has carried out in the six-year period 2008-2014. I ask you to have this work given to Fr Chrys or Fr Horacio by 31 May 2014 . The verification of the Provinces will be delivered to the new Councilor for formation.
Furthermore, the Province will carry forward the implementation of the processes startedregarding the itinerary of affective maturation and formation in chastity, the formation of Salesian brothers according to the revision of the "Ratio" carried out in this regard, the qualification of the confreres, the Guidelines for intellectual formation in initial formation. You will certainly continue your commitment to the care of the aspirantate experience, the trainees and the confreres of the "five years".
I have now reached the end of my term as Councilor for formation; I therefore wish to express my heartfelt thanks for your collaboration, for your predecessors and for the Provincial Formation Commission.
I cordially greet you in Don Bosco.
Don Francesco Cereda
