My dear confreres and friends of SC,
ANS has provided information concerning the two communications meetings that have been held in the course of this month: the Salesian Publishers, Europe,in Rome and the Multimedia Enterprises in Europe, at Ostrava, in the Czech Republic. These meetings have also served as a preparation for us for meetings on similar issues in the Americas in April.
According to one of Spain's national daily papers, El Pais, "3,500 years later, the book is going through a fifth mutation, into electronic form (after stone tablets, scrolls, the codex, the printed book as we know it from Gutenberg) and is tackling an electronic 'big bang' accompanied by a spectacular competitive scenario". The article also states that communications products have to deal with a fourfold crisis of convergence: economic, workforce, digital change, and the presence of new players in the field like Amazon".
Aware of such a globalised situation as this, we have concluded, in our meetings, that: Social Communications are at the heart of the Salesian mission and integrated into other sectors of the Province; the education and evangelisation of the young, their families, and of teachers and educators are the reason for our decisions and actions; we will overcome individualism, regionalism and fragmentation through collaboration, teamwork and unity; we will survive if we invest in formation and updating Salesian and lay personnel; we will confront the crisis with intelligence and hope as an opportunity and not just as a threat; we will opt for quality in our processes and products and for professionalism, transparency and solidarity in our enterprises; we will offer policies which encourage belonging, participation and promotion of the Province in its communications processes, enterprises and products.
I take this opportunity to thank the Provincials and Delegates for their positive engagement with, presence at these meetings and invite them to make the results known.
Best wishes and a promise of my prayers for each one of you.
Fr Filiberto González, Councillor for SC

Translation, properly understood, is a special case of the arc of communication....[and] inside or between languages, human communication equals translation" .  George Steiner, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation (Oxford University Press, 1975):

Translation is a mission and a ministry
Two prominent religious figures in today's world have promoted the idea that translation is a divine mission. The view taken by both Lammin Sanneh (Gambian born Muslim, now professor of Missions, World Christianity and history at Yale Divinity School, and a practising Catholic), and Andrew Walls (Scotland) is that the Incarnation was an act of translation, Christianity is a translated religion and has been a force for translation throughout history - most languages have grammars and dictionaries because of the work of Christian missionaries.
     Anybody who knows anything about Salesian missions and missionaries around the world over 135 years knows that despite being Johnny-come-latelies in the history of Christian missions, this contribution to languages and cultures has been notable. Think north-east Indian hill tribes, the Shuar of Ecuador, Achuar of Peru, the Xavantes in Brazil, just for starters.
     Thus translators be proud! Yours is a metaphor for mission, a ministry, and maybe the Congregation could tackle the issue from this perspective rather than from any day-to-day emergency one.

Translation is a professional activity
     Translation is a professional activity in terms of the degree of competence, knowledge, experience it requires, as well as its need to adhere to professional standards. Almost any text which translates the Salesian charism today is an 'open' text and likely to appear in digital form. This simply reinforces the fact that our translations must adhere to standards.
     Every year translators of all faiths and none, celebrate World Translators Day on 30 September. It happens to also be the Memorial of St Jerome, Patron Saint of translators.
Translation is essential to the Congregation's current emphasis...
The Rector Major, in his recent letter on inculturation (AGC411) states, quoting JPII: "there is no salvation without incarnation, nor is there incarnation without inculturation. Affirming, therefore, 'the natural missionary role of the Church means essentially bearing witness to the fact that the task of inculturation, as the total spreading of the Gospel and its subsequent translation in thought and life still continues today and constitutes the heart, the means and the scope of the new evangelisation'.” This, however, in the context of a letter on inculturation of the Salesian charism.
     At a practical level there is simply no doubt: key texts of the Salesian charism, the Congregation's major websites, international meetings of the Salesian Family have all required translation and interpretation services, and the need is increasing. It also runs the risk of being haphazard, stressful, and based on emergency rather than good planning.

Translators around the Salesian world
Because of the focus on missionary activity in the Congregation, there are certain regions (e.g. America South Cone, South Asia) where translation needs and responses have been prominent. There is a new awareness now in Africa-Madagascar - and in fact this latter Region is providing the bulk of French translation, in organised fashion, for the Congregation. But translation in every Region is significant and important for the inculturation of the Charism. We only get one chance to do it right.

Possible topics for translators to consider
These are not listed in particular order:

•  Why the 'Salesian' translator (who may be and in many cases is, a lay person) is a key player in the Congregation today
•  The translator as an inter-cultural mediator
•  Establishing a database of what has been achieved (major texts, languages) in your Region
•  Noting the (translation) needs of the Congregation as it prepares for the Bicentenary
•  What role does the translator play in preparation and reception of new missionaries (language study, preparation, experience etc)?
•  The difference between translation and interpretation, and skills involved
•  Available aids: termbases and the like
•  Translation in a technological era: the usefulness or otherwise of Google, machine translation, translation memory
• Pooling our experience to help the Congregation and one another

117.
The management of language resources and translation takes into consideration: 
    - ensuring the terminological consistency of Salesian discourse both internally and as addressed to others;
    - seeing to the faithful, communicative translation of messages and communications from the Rector Major and his Council, and other bodies of animation, formation and information; ’faithful’ here means fidelity to the original language and context, ’communicative’ here means understandable to readers in their cultural context; promoting standards, especially in textual products of the General Administration.

118.
The DSC supports the management of the Congregation’s linguistic data in collaboration with the Salesian Central Archives, through the digitisation of text, text memory (TM), etc.. The DSC offers its skills and advice to the Salesian Central Archives and others responsible for the management of linguistic data of the Congregation

119.
The DSC in collaboration with the Secretary-General and/or the Vicar of the Rector Major sees to co-ordination of the ’pool’ of translators and offers support services for their task.

Salesian Publishers from across Europe, from St Petersburgh in Russia to Sliema in Malta, from Celbridge in Ireland to Lviv in The Ukraine, 18 in all, met in Rome at the Generalate from 1-4 March 2012 to consider how best to deal with a changing Europe, a changing global culture, and to remain in the vanguard of their profession, while undergoing inevitable restrictions due to the Euro crisis and world economic downturn generally.
     It was a positive response of the Salesian Congregation based on the conviction that Don Bosco regarded publishing as a lynchpin of his efforts at education and evangelisation.
     The 26 people present (including members of the Communications Department, translators) listened intensely as Dr Marco Romano, a Linked Data expert who has worked with the European Space Agency, explained the importance of each publisher linking into a European and worldwide 'Salesian' pool of public data, the result of which will be a much enhanced visibility with powerful commercial benefits.
     The representatives of the Publishing Houses present agreed to enter into close cooperation amongst themselves and have set up a protected digital space within which they can explore projects together and share their forward planning. They considered issues such as piracy, and sensible proactive strategies to overcome it, and explored new digital directions (other than linked data) through ebooks and apps.  Using the upcoming Don Bosco's Birth Bicentenary and the Project for Europe as particular points of common endeavour, the Publishing Houses have adopted strategies which will see them involved in a range of common products and projects towards those ends.
     Fr Filiberto Gonzalez, the Social Communications General Councillor for the Congregation, listed the main challenges for Salesian Publishing worldwide today, especially the need for a change of mentality from individual effort to team effort, from regional to continental thinking. He urged them to renew human resources, aim at self-financing, transparency and solidarity, and encouraged them to move into a clear phase of technological updating along with the time of rapid development we are in. Fr Filiberto also acknowledged the importance of each publishing endeavour being part of an overall Province plan and receiving strong support from the Province.
     By way of response, the representatives of the Publishing Houses present indicated that this meeting was the best they had attended thus far and gave them fresh impetus to tackle the challenges ahead.