India – Fr Basanes SDB concludes the Extraordinary Visitation in the Province of Guwahati

31 May 2016

(ANS – Guwahati) – After three month of visiting the thirty three houses and personal tete-a-tete with the confreres, Fr Guillermo Basanes, SDB General Councillor for the Missions, concluded the extraordinary visitation on 25 May in the Province of Guwahati, in the name of the Rector Major, Fr Angel Fernandez Artime.

On 22 May 2016 he concluded the visit to the community of the Provincial House and spent the last two days preparing the report and the evaluation of the state of the province. Fr Basanes addressed the members of the provincial council and shared his evaluation of the Province on 23 May 2016.

On the same day the Salesians in Assam prayed for the northeastern Indian state’s chief-minister-designate Sarbananda Sonowal, one of their former students. “This is a historic moment for the state and the Salesian family when one of our own illustrious Alumni is taking the reins of the state,” Guwahati Salesian Provincial and national president of the Conference of Religious of India, Fr V.M. Thomas, said on the occasion. The prayer meeting at the Salesian Provincial House Guwahati was attended by some 80 Salesian priests and brothers, sisters, alumni office bearers and Salesian cooperators. Fr Thomas recalled also Sonowal addressing some 60 leaders of the province during their provincial chapter on 20 February when he spoke about the moral values he had learned at school. “I have become what I am because of the education I received at Don Bosco,” the provincial quoted the chief-minister-designate as saying.

On 24 May 2016, the visitor met the Salesian family members. He addressed those present and asked them to work together in close collaboration as members of the family. On 25 May at 11:00 am Fr Basanes met the rectors, parish priests and leaders of communities and presented his report to the gathering which included the Provincial Council Members.

During the interaction with community leaders, Fr Basanes urged each confrere to become a spiritual person. “Utmost care needs to be taken of Spirituality in communities, especially of younger confreres” he said. He encouraged the head of institutions to remember that Rectors were chosen in consultation with the Rector Major and their role is important as heads of the community. “You are the fatherly figure in community and so you need to show that the confreres are loved by you.” The visitor added that daily assistance and Salesian presence should be encouraged among the younger confreres with the youth in our centres.  He encouraged the rectors to have frequent personal conversation with the younger confreres.

Fr VM Thomas, the Provincial, thanked the Rector Major for sending Fr Basanes as the extraordinary visitor. He thanked Fr Basanes for taking a keen interest in listening to individual confreres, for his friendly way of creating communion and for the focused evaluation of Salesian life and mission in the Province. A special Assamese pholan gamocha was offered to Father Basanes by Fr VM Thomas.

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