What do you bring with you from the GC28?
Gratitude for the lived experience. I must say that I was surprised by the form of communication, fast and unconventional. It quickly became clear what was important, what needed to be addressed and who needed to do what. Furthermore, the presence of young people underlined their priorities, which must also be our priorities. They motivated us to work harder to support their dreams of a more just and honest world, with less waste, a world without discrimination.
In the past six years, what were the fundamental axes of your work?
We worked to find a good balance between the Salesian mission, which is always changing, and the financial means to be found in a totally changed fundraising market. It was a challenge for the local and provincial communities and requests for help from the Headquarters increased.
There was also the challenge of closing several legal disputes that accompanied the Congregation for years: we can say that we have reached a situation that has brought "a little light into the tunnel". Without forgetting another positive sign of our economy, the reduction of debts.
Finally, the fact that many Provinces have managed to open new and costly structures for the benefit of young people in difficulty is for me proof that Divine Providence is always close to us.
In six years, what do you dream of for your Sector?
Now we must ask ourselves how to continue to work adequately for the future, with the expenses for the Salesian mission and the income, largely donations, which must be balanced in the long term.
Responsibility in our Congregation is "decentralized and subsidiary". This requires basic mutual trust, an elevated willingness to dialogue and also allows investigations and checks to be carried out.
The strength and weakness is the individual Salesian (and lay) individual, and his often poor understanding of the economy. The Planning and Development Offices, the Provincial Supervisory Bodies and the advisory concepts established in the last six years were necessary and I am convinced that we can achieve even greater professionalism in our administrations (at local, provincial and global levels).
Faced with global problems, if it is up to superiors to find the right vocations in a missionary spirit, it is up to the economy to create the framework conditions so that those ideas can be fulfilled. Market and values, money and mission, the fight against poverty, everything is linked and part of the Salesian charism. And what a single individual cannot accomplish, many of us are capable of doing together.
A tool that will serve to verify that the General Bursar works in harmony with the Provinces and that the whole Congregation reflects on the major issues, will be the "SDB.change.congress2022" congress to be held at the Salesian Pontifical University.
