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RMG – A Good Night …on the Good Night

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(ANS – Rome) – At the conclusion of the Summer plenary meeting of the General Council (6 – 30 July) the Rector Major gave the traditional `Good Night` thought yesterday evening (29 July), describing the various fruits of the meeting.

This year several significant events led up to the plenary meeting: the meeting for Salesian Bishops (Turin-Valdocco, 21-25 May), the Assembly of the Union of Superiors General (USG) on the theme `Consecrated Life in Europe`, which will continue in the November Assembly, and the beginning of the General Chaper of the Don Orione Fathers, also taking place in Valdocco because of the the great closeness between the families of Don Orione and Don Bosco.

The summer meeting came, therefore, at the end of a particularly intense period of activity, but was also able to bring together what had come out of these various meetings: taking part in the meeting of the Salesian Bishops had helped the Councillors, especially the Regional Councillors, to prepare reports on their visitations and consultations.

The General Council gave great attention to the study of the 80 Provincial Chapters which required the analysis of the implementation of the General Chapter 26, the Salesian Pastoral Plan (PEPS) and the Provincial Plan (POI) of each province. Careful thought was also given to the reports of the 9 Extraordinary Visitations (Uruguay, Philippines North, India-Calcutta, Myanmar, Colombia-Medellin, France-Belgium South, the vice Province of Tropical Equatorial Africa, the Eastern Circumscription and the Lombardo-Emiliana Circumscription).

There was also significant work regarding leadership of the provinces: nine new Provincials were taking part in a course preparing them for their responsibilities and Provincials were appointed for Peru, India-Panjim and Hungary, together with Superiors for the vice-provinces of Myanmar, Indonesia-East Timor and Sri Lanka.

Besides preparing the theme and the spiritual and pastoral programme for the 2011 Strenna `Come and See`, on the need to call young people together, the Council members considered the themes studied in the intermediate meeting of the Council held in April, concerning the Regions of Italy-Middle East and Europe West. These were also addressed in view of the important meeting of Provincials on Project Europe, scheduled for next November.

A matter of special importance was the distribution of funds to the Mission Offices, taking into account especially the reconstruction programme in Haiti. In this regard the Council approved the sending of three new missionaries to this Caribbean country.

The restructuring of the Salesian presence in Spain was among the most eagerly awaited of the summer plenary meeting. The Council agreed on the need for a strategy not of survival but of prophecy, social significance and spiritual, pastoral and vocational fruitfulness. Because of this the Rector Major, following the assessments which were made during the meeting, decided to have further meetings with the Spanish Provincials during the autumn and to finalise decisions about the reorganising of the provinces during the winter plenary meeting.

The Council ended by planning themes, places, dates and participants for the `Visite d`Insieme` due to take place between February 2011 and February 2012. It redefined the nature, objective and structure of `Don Bosco International`, the civil face of the Congregation for European institutions. It appointed the new Postulator for the Causes of Saints, Don Pierluigi Cameroni, and the new Regional Councillor for Europe North, Don Marek Chrzan. It also approved the draft constitution of the Press Office for the Generalate.

Published 30/7/2010