Salesians no longer an 'Italian Order'

With the election of Angel Fernández Artime, many friends are telling me that the torch has been passed from the Italian leadership to the Spaniards in the Salesian Society.

Well, the last Italian rector major was Father Egidio Viganò, who became Rector Major in 1977 and died in 1995. However, Egidio Viganò, a native of Sondrio, had in fact gone to Chile at age 15 to enter the novitiate. He completed all his studies in Chile and remained a member of the Chilean province until the age of 51 when he was elected to the General Council as the Councilor for Formation.

Egidio Vigano (1920-1995)

I met him in 1975 when I began theology in Torino. As the formation councilor, he came to open the academic year for us theology students with a mass and all-school conference. It was my first week in Italy I had a very difficult time understanding him. Later I discovered the reason: he spoke Italian with a pronounced Chilean accent.

Egidio Viganò had been a peritus at Vatican II, brought there by the Archbishop of Santiago, Raul Cardinal Silva Henriquez -- a Salesian and a strongly pastoral presence in Chile. While at the Council, Fr Viganò served as one of the theologians for the entire Chilean episcopal conference, and became known by many of the bishops of Latin America. As rector major, he brought a theological reading to our charism and vocation during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, with whom he collaborated on many important projects.

Juan Vecchi (1931-2002)

Following Fr Viganò, the next Rector Major was Juan Edmundo Vecchi, the son of Italian immigrants in Viedma, Argentina. He was certainly very Latin American in his thinking and in his pastoral approach. He served as the first councilor for Youth Ministry when the general council was revamped in 1971 (at the time, he was 40 years old), and held that position until 1990 when he was elected vicar of the Rector Major. He promoted volunteerism and stressed the importance of the Salesian Family at work in the territory. Juan Vecchi was elected Rector Major in 1996, notably because the general chapter delegates at the time were looking for a fatherly figure to take the role of the superior, and Fr Vecchi fit that description admirably. He toured the Salesian world and vigorously promoted Salesian spirituality as a way of living "Jesus Yesterday, Today and Forever", for the start of the new Millennium. However, the beloved Fr Vecchi became gravely ill in the year 2000, and died without completing his term on 23 January 2002. His successor was Fr Pascual Chávez, born in 1947 in the northern Mexican town of Saltillo, and a member of the Mexican province of Guadalajara. He completed his term yesterday, when Father Angel Fernández was elected the tenth successor of Don Bosco.

So we really have not had an Italian rector major for a generation.

The new massive majority is in India, and more Salesians world-wide speak English than either Italian or Spanish. I suppose this is a reality that is missed on us in the California province as we are so far from other centers. The truth of the matter is, however, that the Salesian world has changed considerably since I first took my vows in 1968. That was the year when we celebrated the centenary of the dedication of the basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Torino.

Bigger changes are on the horizon during this bi-centenary of the birth of St John Bosco. The new general council, being elected this week, will represent is a totally new mix that will reflect the changed Salesian Society. This augurs well for a relaunch of Don Bosco's charism in 2015.