Regions

EAO Team Visit 2017-03-09 - SSCS (Salesian Social Communication System)

EAO TEAM VISIT – Theme 5: SOCIAL COMMUNICATION
Day 3 – PM Sessions
March 9, 2017

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SSCS (Salesian Social Communication System)
“Our publications tend to form an ordered system, broadly encompassing all classes forming human society” (Don Bosco circular letter on spreading good books, 19 March, 1885)

There is no communication if there is no communicator. Don Bosco was a communicator. He used the best media he had in his time to communicate. Its purpose: the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Our father, teacher and model of Salesian life was an evangelist, educator and communicator. The center of his life was not to do things as an evangelizer, an educator, a communicator. He was. The point is to be, not just to do.
There is no communication if there is no communicator. Don Bosco was a communicator. He used the best media he had in his time to communicate. Its purpose: the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Our father, teacher and model of Salesian life was an evangelist, educator and communicator. The center of his life was not to do things as an evangelizer, an educator, a communicator. He was. The point is to be, not just to do.

Don Bosco was a communicator. His passion for God, his love for the brothers, his passion for the salvation of the young are the center of his communication. He is the message, he is the medium, he is the method.

Its authenticity of life, its unity of life, its vision of society and young people, allow it to use all the means of communication that it has at its reach to achieve its objective.
The theater, music bands, letters, books, magazines, pamphlets, Salesian Bulletin, printing presses, publishing houses, photography, good nights, sermons ... all kinds of means for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.

What was in the mind, heart and decisions of this peasant: clarity of ideas, fire, passion, vision of the future, trends that last more than 150 years.

As time passed, we, the Salesian sons of Don Bosco, wanted to repeat what Don Bosco did in social communication. But repeating we have lost bookstores, printers, publishers, cinemas, presence in the theater and music. Why? Because we did not understand that the problem is to be and not only to do!
It's not just about providing news about what we do, it's not just about producing materials, it's not just about having radios, editorials, magazines, it's not just about using the media or the new technologies. It is about BEING.
I think that in some places or areas, we have locked ourselves in some comfort zones. Good pastoral areas, but comfort. We are doing good, but many times are losing our future! We are called to new forms of pastoral care. We must be where the young are, where the young people live. In the present and in the future they inhabit new continents. The continents of communication.

That is why the main concern of social communication is the integral formation of the new Salesians, it is the continuous formation of all of us to respond to reality and the future.
During this days the Rector Major is calling us to have a vision, Don Cereda calls us to be authentic like consecrated people, Don Fabio invites us not to improvise the Mission, Don Guillermo is pushing us to go out with missionary spirit, Br Jean Paul challenges us not to repeat the same as in times of Don Bosco… Why?
Because everything changes, only the love of God remains forever (=First line in the presentation of SSCS); also Christ is the same: yesterday, today and forever. God and Jesus Christ are the center of our life, and our mission are the young and poor people.

Look at that: 
Society is changing…
The culture is changing…
Technologies are changing…
Modes of communication are changing…
Young people are changing…
Is the Church changing?
Is the Congregation changing?
The provinces are changing?
Are our communities changing?

Our mentality and way of living the Salesian mission is changing?
Is our language for communicating with young people changing?
If we lose the origins, if we are not like Don Bosco, we will also lose the future.
What we need to find the path of greater fidelity to the Salesian charism: passion for God and passion for the salvation of souls. With this we will find different ways of actualizing our lives and our works.

In our days every person who has a cell phone, is an author, a writer, is a communicator. That is why Pope Francisco in the bicentennial asked us to be where the youth are, to accompany them: in social networks.

Some good practices in the region EAO

Common platform for the mission: in some provinces the year is planned with all the Delegates of the sectors.

Animation and training: in some houses of formation the introduction to communication is given.

Information: Almost all the provinces, vice-provinces and delegations have official web site. The Region is the most active of the Congregation in the dissemination of news within itself and towards the Congregation. This creates unity, strength, sense of belonging and participation.
It is also the most active region in the translation of documents and information from the Salesian magisterium into the local language (Translators' Group, the Ministry of Translation). The Salesian Bulletin, as an institutional magazine, in many provinces is of good quality.

Enterprises and production: in some provinces of the region there are editorials, printing houses, bookstores, radio transmissions.

Art and culture: area that is beginning.

Fr. Filiberto Gonzalez, SDB
General Councilor for Social Communication