RMG – Our mission is to bring God into the world

28 April 2016

(ANS - Rome) - Meeting with Fr Ivo Coelho, Councillor General for Formation.

What is the role of the Councillor for Formation?

The job of the General Councillor for Formation – that’s a good question. I see it very much as assisting the Rector Major in his task of promoting “the constant fidelity of the members to the Salesian charism” (C 126). The Constitutions clearly talk about “furthering the integral and ongoing formation of the members”, with special care of initial formation. This is interesting – when the Constitutions say “formation,” they mean the whole of formation – the formation that ends only with death, and that includes initial formation as one of its moments. This is quite a challenge: how to get the whole congregation, all the members, to undertand, accept, and live this, while also taking special care of initial formation.

In your opinion, what is the level of formation in the Salesian Congregation?

We have great documents, documents that are much admired and appreciated by many other religious congregations. Our challenge is to know them, digest them, and above all implement them. It is interesting that we have a radically new perspective on ongoing formation right from 1984. In the Constitutions promulgated in 1984, the word “formation” means ongoing formation, within which initial formation is but one, if crucial, moment. God’s call is permanent and ongoing, and formation, which is our response to this call, is equally permanent and ongoing (see C 96). We might say that ongoing formation is a permanent attitude of discernment (C 98), the ability to discern the voice of the Spirit in the events of daily life (C 119), the capacity to see God in those to whom we are sent (C 95).

What would spiritual formation for the Salesian Family be like?

Don Bosco taught us that formation is a matter of the heart, and I think this is the other great challenge: to make sure that initial formation, especially, is a matter of the heart. There is no formation if the heart is not touched. There is no formation if we remain only on the level of external conformity, leaving our hearts to be moved by all sorts of other motivations. And here we feel the need of a true preparation of our formators and our rectors – making use of all the help that the human sciences can give, and drawing from the simple but formidable tradition that Don Bosco has left us.

How many novitiates and studentates are there in the world at present?

At present we have something like 40 novitiates in the Salesian world, with an average of 450 novices every year. We have just finished a course for the novice masters of the Italian-, Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, and they were about 20 of them. In November 2016 we will have another course for the novice masters of the English-speaking world, and there will be another 20 of them. Then there are the postnovitiates of various types: some which have their own centre of studies, others which frequent a centre run by other religious congregations or by the diocese, and so on. Finally we have the phase of specific formation.

Here we have various centres for Salesian Brothers, among which “CRESCO” in Guatemala City, “Sandor House” in Paranaque, Philippines, and others for candidates to the Salesian priesthood. Besides these, practically every province maintains its own prenovitiate community. The prenovitiate is a phase which, in our opinion, should be treated with as much seriousness as the novitiate, but this has still to become a living reality in our congregation, despite all the insistence of the last many years. In several regions, the prenovitiate lasts a whole year, but the formation teams have to be strengthened and better prepared, and programs have to be fine tuned. In other places, we have to examine whether it is really helpful to combine this phase with civil studies. In still other places, we need to move to a clearer implementation of the requirement of our Regulations that the prenovitiate phase should last at least 6 months within the setting of a Salesian community.

What are the main reasons for satisfaction?

My greatest joy has certainly been that of being able to visit formation communities in different parts of the world, and to discover there young Salesians and candidates who can only be described as marvellous. I can only say that God continues to send us wonderful young people. And with this, I believe he is inviting us to be better prepared to welcome them and accompany them.

The Salesian Family: a treasure yet to be discovered in many parts of the world. I remember here the invitation of Fr Chávez: to move from the attitude of an association to the attitude of a movement. The latest documents pertaining to the Family have, in effect, broadened the scope of the Family enormously, so that in some way it embraces all the many people who are friends and admirers of Don Bosco – which means all the many laypeople who share in the mission of Don Bosco. I remember the experience I had some years ago at Valdocco, when Fr Ángel, then a new Rector Major, was meeting the participants of the Quito formation program: it was simply extraordinary to see layperson after layperson getting up and speaking, simply and proudly, about “my Salesian vocation.” Quito is one of the great pathbreakers in the formation of Salesians and laity together, but there are also many other wonderful experiences that we have to discover and learn from, like those in Belgium and in Spain.

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