Statistics and character traits

So here I am, back in Rome… for another semester. I arrived on Saturday, the 25th… and the jet lag continues, which is why I am awake so early today, showered, dressed and at my keyboard before the rest of the house comes to life.

Roman dawn

As I have done in previous years, I am living at the Salesian University, where I will be teaching during the Autumn Semester that will begin next week. Actually, ours is a pontifical university, but we are off the beaten track from historic, imperial, medieval, renaissance, risorgimental, and art deco Rome. We are in the northern sector, in district 4, which is totally blue collar (or proletarian, as it is said here). The advantage is that we are situated among the real folks, the immigrants, the workers, families with children, the workshops. Our university is open to the people of our district and the three that surround ours, in the sense that they can access our university library and make use of services that we offer.

Our student body is over 70% laity (which is by far the largest ratio of any of the pontifical universities and academies), and 95% of these are Romans (who are among the most pragmatic, blunt, down-to-earth, no-nonsense, life-loving people on the planet). The 30% religious come from 83 different nations, from every continent (oh yes! Italians count the continents as five: Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Oceania), and from at least 100 different religious communities.

There are some here who are aware of the politics (ecclesial and civil). In fact, one of the professors here has just been named bishop (and he's not the first of our faculty). Yet, most of the people that I know here follow the lead of the true Romans who are never too impressed by a show of power or brilliance. "What do you expect?" one Roman friend likes to tell me. "We've seen it all: Hannibal and his elephants, the Caesars, the lions, the barbarians, the Normans and the Saracens, the French and the Austrians, the Nazis and the Americans, the popes and the pagans. They all came, they all left, and we go onward."

The bulk of our students and instructors take care of cultivating relationships while working hard in the business of studies, out of the limelight but building for the future. And I must say that I appreciate this approach more than any other.

The sun is up and I need to get moving if I'm to join the community for morning prayers and mass.

Advent begins

Storm Clouds over the UPS

The last day of November, and this is the first Sunday of Advent. Again I joined the Don Rua Community for the morning liturgy and breakfast. The conversation centered on the latest terrorist attack in Mumbay. Political groups use religion to fuel unrest so that they can seize power: this seems to be the tactics behind all the recent violence in India, according to some of the Indian Salesians with whom I spoke at table.

At this point I do not know what to think of all this. Still, I need to be more aware of what is happening in India, since yesterday I received an invitation from Fr Joe Almeida, provincial of the Salesians in Guwahati, to come next summer and facilitate three retreats. I need to respond to that invitation… I'll do this in the next couple of days, as soon as I am sure of my calendar and commitments for 2009.

In the meantime, I continue to reflect on the recent presentations that I have been making: in Malta, and yesterday with the Comunità Don Rua. Salesians, young and old, are anxious to receive more input on the Salesian spirit and charism. This is the area that we have worked on for many years at Berkeley and at the Spirituality Institute here at the UPS. I often think that the whole world is immersed in this… but then I find out that very few are hearing these instructions. More outreach is needed.

And since I am part of a group that is deep into all the Salesian sources and traditions, it is imperative that I and all those others who are doing Salesian research respond to those who are asking for more.

This is also why it is very important that we form a team of younger scholars to take up the research and the study. The Salesian world is vast, but too few are engaged in this study and teaching of the charism. We risk losing touch with our roots, losing sight of our goals, losing vigor to serve.

Those were the thoughts coming to me after these interventions. Rain continued to pour today in the morning. This weather keeps us close to home.

Oratorian heart of Don Bosco - model and criteria for Salesian apostolate

The theme of the Salesian Family Symposium at Sliema this year is Educating with the heart of Don Bosco. When Paul Formosa invited me to speak at the conference, he spoke about giving the audience some historical perspective on Don Bosco and his preventive system of education with some applications to the contemporary situation of young people, their families and educators.

At first I worried that I would not have anything to say, and that I should turn this down… but I had turned down other invitations to come to Malta in the past couple of years because of the costs of travel or the time ot the year. I did not want to tell the Salesians in Malta again that I was not able to come. So I thought of building my talk around recent teachings of Pascual Chavez as well as delving into the famous Oratory Criteria for Salesian spirit and mission as outlined in the Salesian constitutions.

And what are the Oratory criteria? Briefly we can speak of them with four phrases. The Salesian educative and pastoral environment, intentionally and charismatically, needs to become:

A home that welcomes

A school that educates

A church that evangelizes

An open space where friends can meet and grow together

The «oratory criteria», outlined in chapter 40 of the Salesian constitutions, are perhaps a more complete way that the traditional labels of «preventive system» with «reason, religion and kindness».

In article 40 of the Salesian constitutions we read:

Don Bosco lived a pastoral experience in his first Oratory which serves as a model; it was for the youngsters a home that welcomed, a parish that evangelized, a school that prepared them for life, and a playground where friends could meet and enjoy themselves.

As we carry out our mission today, the Valdocco experience is still the lasting criterion for discernment and renewal in all our activities and works.

These statement — the oratory model — formed the core of my thought in developing the presentation for the Salesian Family in Sliema yesterday.

Photos: 1) Zambia camping trip, 27 August 2006 [Swavek]; 2) Children missionaries to their peers, San Pedro Carchá, Guatemala, 13 September 2004 [ANS]; 3) Salesian Youth Movement prayer experience, Brazil, 7 September 2008 [ANS]; 4) Zambian youth dance by tradition, 9 December 2006 [Swavek].

Difficult news

During the lunch for the feast of Mary Help of Christians we got news that Jacques Schepens, one of the leading Salesian scholars for the Flemish, French and German contexts, has been struck by a mysterious disease that has left him incapacitated mentally. It is devastating news, not only for what regards Jacques (whom many of us know and love sincerely), but also for the field of Salesian studies and spirituality. Where this leaves the few of us still active in the field is anyone's guess.