My dear confreres and friends of SC,

During the second half of August I am carrying out an animation visit to the four provinces in Poland. I already knew from reading and hearsay of an experience which arose in the formation houses and which little by little has expanded and gained strength beyond these provinces. It has reached other countries and regions where Salesians are.

The experience and the name these young Salesians have given it speaks for itself: ART.43 or in other words article 43 of the Constitutions which says: "We work in the social communication sector. This is a significant field of activity which constitutes one of the apostolic priorities of the Salesian mission. Our Founder had an instinctive grasp of the value of this means of mass education, which creates culture and spreads pattersn of life; he showed great originality in the apostolic undertakings which he initiated to defend and sustain the faith of the people. Following his example we utilise as God's gift the great possibilities which social communication offers us for education and evangelisation".

I was able to meet with a group of them and I see they are convinced, as was Don Bosco, of the power and great possibilities that media and new technologies offer for evangelisation and education of the young and ordinary people. It seems to me that beyond congratulating them and supproting them, we should imitate them.

I invite you to foster in initial and ongoing formation this same belief and initiative: let us evangelise, educate and comunicate the love of God to the young as Article 43 invites us to do.

Your friend and brother,
    
Fr Filiberto González, Councillor for SC

The steady effort required to produce the 'Salesians' Magazine (which always bears the current year of distribution in its title, hence it will be 'Salesians 2013' this time around) has almost come to a conclusion.  The 'editio tipica' in one language is already complete, and it is now just a case of completing the five other languages, now that all the layout has been settled upon, before sending it all out to the printers.
    'Salesians' is produced at the direct behest of the Rector Major who wishes, through its colourful and professionally produced 120 pages, to present the living charism of Don Bosco through the concrete activities of Salesians and communities around the world.
     The intended readership, the Rector Major insists, is not the Salesians themselves but society as a whole, especially that part of society which can be made sympathetic to the cause of needy youth through such means, and can be encouraged to help the Salesian mission. This follows directly in the footsteps of Don Bosco who sought every means possible to attract society to such a cause.
     As one can easily imagine, it is no simple task to collect up to 50 well-written articles with press-ready illustrations of high quality, find translation for them in five languages other than the original they arrive in, then settle on an appropriate thematic layout, all of which has to be followed up by careful proof-reading in six languages: English, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Polish.
     That of course is not all. With the additional novelty this year that certain language editions will be published in a number of Provinces ( to help reduce costs, especially of transport and distribution), there are the negotiations that need to take place with Salesian Print Shops, and the balancing out of overall transport and distribution costs, which includes at times difficult negotiations with authorities responsible for import duties where the magazine has to cross borders. And all of this presumes a solid response from Salesian Provinces and communities who are essential for ensuring that the magazine reaches its intended wider readership.
     Salesians 2013, produced under the auspices of the Social Communication Department, Rome, with the assistance of too many people to list them here, will be ready for distribution in late November 2012 or at the latest, mid-December.  

Valerio Bocci, ELLEDICI 2012
(the book is only available in Italian)

Sr Valerio Bocci sdb is currently the director of Elledici Publishers, Turin. He has a degree in catechetics and ran the kids magazineMondo Erre for 21 years. He brings his experience to this new book on catechetics in a digital age.
      "In response to a real situation and to invitations from the Magisterium we offer a method that presents yesterday's message with today's communicative and educative sensitivity. 'Yesterday', the past, tradition, is a taboo for 'kids 2.0' who are deeply anchored in the present, the here and now. We offer a way of revitalising the content by adopting a linguistic approach which they can easily decode. The 'how', the linguistic format becomes fundamental to handing on the 'what', the contents of the faith, following one of the classic principles of communication theory.
      Starting from this then, herewith a rethinking of the act of catechesis. From the traditional scheme:

• Truth-Christian experience (message) - communicated by the Church (sender, via catechists) - with keyword (catechesis) - through life(witness) - in a particular culture(context) - to pre-adolescents (receivers of the message).

we move to a more interactive and multimedia model where the youngsters become the key players:

• Church (catechists become the senders) - paying attention to media culture(media context as life and culture) - tapping into pre-adolescents (receivers, senders) - in their lifestyle - reformulates the communications process for proclaiming the Gospel (message) - formalised in a linguistic code more suited to their receptive capacity - recreating a context with many proposals from within the community and connected with educational agencies (family, school, group, media)...
  

     The linguistic code which respects both contents and those to whom they are addressed is, in our view, hypertext on paper*. 
     Today the book and other materials on paper are the normal way of doing catechetics.
     Why hypertext on paper? Because it is something based on something which is solid, such as the book, still very much part of the dynamics of multimedia communication.  Yet hypertext on paper is an innovative proposal, a work in progress which does not pretend to resolve all the problems of catechetics for kids. Firstly because it is not a multimedia form in the full meaning of the term and secondly because every medium is just that - a means, not the solution.
     Experiments conducted in recent years with materials adopting this formula, and the relections in this book guarantee, nevertheless, that our idea has at least a right to citizenship, with one warning - that it not be made an absolute or used in every case. it needs to be integrated with other media. And it needs imagination, passion and the witness of the Christian community, under the action of the  Holy Spirit who inspires every activity of communication and education in the faith. Without these, any means, no matter how modern or beautiful, will not pass on the Good News of Christian existence.
* Hypertext on paper: inspired by the online model, it is made up of words and images, 'nodes' (pages of text), links (a key word, a 'button') and information sections.

Ahere are several innovations regarding production of the Salesian Bulletin worldwide: 
     (1) We welcome the first edition (after 30 years) of the AFM (Southern Africa) Salesian Bulletin, which also carries the title Don Bosco Echo.    
      (2) Salesian Bulletin Editors have begun to circulate the pdf versions of their SB to all other editors. This decision was made at the SB Editors meeting in Rome earlier this year and has the benefit of reducing postage costs (where the choice is not to also send the paper edition) and to ensure increased interaction amongst editors and their teams.
     (3) Space has been opened on the SDL (Salesian Digital Library) server and every SB editor has been given a username and password to enable FTP access to that space, after which the digital versions of the SB from each province are then loaded into a 'Salesian Bulletins worldwide' collection on SDL. So far 15 SBs around the world have availed themselves of this opportunity.  Others, who may have overlooked their username and password, can easily contact the Department in Rome to receive that information again.
     (4) We welcome an additional 'integrated' website, where the SB now forms an integral part of the Province site, while also retaining its distinctive character and URL.  We speak of the new CAM (Central America) Province website.