3. SPECIALIZED SERVICES OF CHRISTIAN FORMATION AND OF VOCATION MINISTRY

The young are looking for spirituality, especially the older ones and the animators. In the SYM an effort has been made to deepen and share the values of Salesian youth spirituality to the extent explicitly called for by the GC 23.

The GC 24 endorsed the conviction that spirituality is the source of communion between SDBs and laity and has proposed Salesian spirituality as the central element of the process of formation.

In the light of these expectations, the last ten years have seen the rise in the Congregation of various initiatives of services of Christian formation and of education to spirituality, such as retreat experiences, schools of prayer, houses of spirituality, centers of pastoral and catechetical formation, Sanctuaries, etc. These initiatives have also a strong influence on vocations; nowadays a vocation can come to maturity in a young person only if he/she lives a deeply practical spirituality.

These services constitute a new form of Salesian work among the young, which is becoming ever more necessary and urgent.

3.1 Services of Christian experience and formation

These include retreat houses, spirituality centers, schools of prayer, centers of pastoral and catechetical formation, etc.

To give greater quality and consistency to these initiatives it is desirable that they be set up in line with certain criteria:

• Ensure the presence of a team of SDBs and other members of the Salesian Family; organize the house or center not just as a place of hospitality but as a community or team of persons who welcome, accompany and share with the young people one and the same spiritual experience.
• Provide a precise program of deepening spiritual pedagogy, with various proposals and levels according to the needs of the different groups who use the house; overcome the simple offering of isolated initiatives so as to present a specific process of spiritual initiation and greater depth.
• Give special importance to the pedagogy of prayer and listening to the word of God; offer experiences of prayer, of listening to the word, and of participation in the sacraments in line with the values of Salesian youth spirituality; attend particularly to the aspect of initiation and accompaniment, to help the young participants to gain a true lived experience in a personal form.
• Offer all the young people the possibility of a personal dialogue with a Salesian or animator during the encounter, and of a systematic follow-up if they so wish.
• Always develop the theme of vocation, helping the youngsters to live their lives in the presence of the Lord and his plan of salvation.

There exist also other pastoral services, less directly connected with a specific Salesian work or institute, either in the local Church (e.g. SDBs working in the pastoral vocation work of the diocese, or following non-Salesian movements) or in non-Salesian places (e.g. in charge of the formation of the educators of a particular area). Pastoral services of this kind should be taken up in agreement with the provincial and should be consistent with the provincial SEPP.

3.2 Vocational services and communities

In an effort to find new ways of pastoral work for vocations, some experiences of animation and vocational guidance have been started and consolidated ("come and see" communities, centers for vocational guidance, etc.), which in general offer young persons the opportunity of gaining concrete experience of the Salesian life and mission, of systematically sharing and getting a deeper knowledge of the vocational theme and a more detailed follow-up. It is important to ensure in these services:

• the presence of a Salesian community which is open and welcoming, and which provides an effective vocational witness for the young, an experience of fraternal life and Salesian mission, and a systematic accompaniment to the vocational maturing process of those involved;
• a close relationship and collaboration with the other communities of the province in their responsibility for vocational animation in line with the provincial plan;
• specialized participation in initiatives of pastoral animation, with special attention to the vocational dimension;
• collaboration with the vocational pastoral centers of the local Church and of other religious institutes.

3.3 Sanctuaries

A Sanctuary is a center of popular spirituality which can be of considerable importance in evangelization and in the process of education to the faith of the people and also of the young.

Many of the Sanctuaries in our care are significant centers for the development and experience of Salesian spirituality: centers for the spreading of Marian devotion, like the Sanctuary of Mary Help of Christians at Turin and very many others all over the world; places of communication and sharing of the Salesian spirit through the figure of Don Bosco; centers of revitalization of Christian life through the liturgy, the Eucharist, the sacrament of Reconciliation, and prayer; reference points and places of pilgrimage for individuals and groups, large and small.

This means that we must see to it that the work of the Sanctuaries is of high quality and based on a pastoral project which is strongly motivated and effective for the evangelization of people in general and of youth groups in particular. In any renewal the following aspects should be kept especially in mind:

• the quality of the welcome given, which gives to those who are estranged from religion the possibility that they will be listened to, understood, and encouraged to develop the seed of faith which has led them to the Sanctuary;
• a strong proposal of evangelization, which opens visitors to a meeting with Jesus Christ and his Gospel through an experience of conversion: for this, time and possibility for prayer and the sacraments, especially reconciliation, must be provided;
• opportunity for dialogue and serious spiritual follow-up; the Sanctuary can become an important means for the Christian maturing of many youngsters in their vocational seeking;
• A dynamic and creative synthesis between evangelical quality and the language and sensitivity of popular devotion; between religious practice and the preoccupations, hopes and needs of the family and of the community and social lives of the people.

4. PASTORAL WORK IN THE UNIVERSITY WORLD

The new demands of Youth Pastoral Ministry lead us to be ever more open to the needs of young people, among whom university students form a considerable part as animators, volunteers, catechists, collaborators, etc. But youth ministry among them and, still more, pastoral work in the university world and that of culture offers new possibilities for the development of our mission to the young:

• The youth period has become longer, and university studies are now accessible to young people from working-class families; the entire category of university students is now in a situation which makes students more abandoned and at risk.
• Our presence is called for by the principle of educative continuity, which requires educative follow-up to be prolonged beyond the years of adolescence.
• It facilitates the care and formation of vocations in both a wide and more specific sense, and for this the university world is a privileged place.
• University campuses are also places of pastoral importance which enable us to offer a contribution of quality to the world of culture, of education and of work, and to provide a synthesis between faith and culture.

4.1 Different levels and kinds of work

Pastoral work in a university setting develops at three closely related levels:

• as pastoral care of university culture, i.e. attending to the evangelization and Christian animation of university culture on its own account, and also with a view to a personal and community synthesis of faith and culture, and of culture and life;
• as pastoral care of the students themselves and the rest of the university personnel, fostering their Christian formation and human advancement;
• as a dimension of youth ministry and overall pastoral work, which makes us aware of the fact that a consistent bracket of young people, to whom our pastoral activity is directed, are existentially still in this condition even when we meet them in other contexts.

These educative and pastoral perspectives shape the different practical realizations of Salesian work in the university field. They can be grouped in three kinds or forms: university institutions managed by the Congregation; hostels or other places of residence for university students; various services of pastoral animation, e.g. university chaplaincies and similar parish or diocesan structures specifically directed to university students.

4.2 Frame of reference

4.2.1 Pedagogy of the community environment

It is one of the deep convictions of the Salesian spirit that formation takes place primarily through the environment and the atmosphere prevailing in it. In work of this kind the environment must have certain specific characteristics:

• an environment of quality, from a human, cultural and evangelical standpoint, capable of arousing and promoting in young people interests and experiences of high caliber;
• which call for responsibility and common participation, and the personal commitment of the students themselves;
• with a variety proposals (recreational, cultural and religious) adequate for their real personal needs.

4.2.2 Pedagogy of cultural mediation

Our educative and pastoral work in the university context should train the students:

• to integrate knowledge with the overall formation of the person;
• to be open to multiple levels and forms of approach to reality, that of scientific and technical rationality or of economic efficiency and productivity, and those of analogical and symbolic reasoning;
• to engage in intercultural dialogue;
• to develop the ethical dimension of knowledge and profession, through a critical assessment of the conquest of knowledge, and the search for the fundamental elements of culture as the particular field for dialogue between faith and culture and for a synthesis between culture and life;
• to a systematic and interdisciplinary dialogue with the faith, through a Christian mentality.

4.2.3 Pedagogy of commitment and confrontation with the particular cultural, social and ecclesial reality

It is important to avoid a separation between the search for meaning in the intellectual and subjective sector, and the social and community practice, to avoid the risk of falling into individualism and the obsessive search for a success disjoined from personal and community life. This is particularly serious when it is a matter of young people with particular personal abilities and with special tasks in society and in the Church. For this reason we have to foster:

• an education to ethical and civil responsibility and to social and political formation;
• the provision of experiences of the volunteer movement and of gratuitous service to the community and the free neighborhood;
• active participation in initiatives or proposals of a cultural, social or religious kind;
• insertion in and collaboration with other organizations and with civil and ecclesial structures operating in the neighborhood and the local Church.

4.2.4 Pedagogy of personal accompaniment and follow-up

At this period of his life the young university student needs help to be clear in getting Christian and human values more deeply rooted in his/her life, and in seeking in the right direction for adult values. This means that we must:

• offer him/her the possibility of accompaniment through friendly availability, interpersonal rapport, gradual approach, and discernment of concrete situations and their possible improvement;
• point out to him/her different vocational paths in life, to help him/her to become aware of his/her vocation and mission in society and in the Church.

5. PASTORAL WORK IN THE MASS MEDIA

We simply emphasize that we have pastoral works of this kind, and hence they concern the activities of youth ministry, even though their animation and direct responsibility is a matter for the Department of Social Communication.

On the Salesian Youth Movement

DICASTERO PER LA PASTORALE GIOVANILE DELLA CONGREGAZIONE SALESIANA, Il Movimento Giovanile Salesiano come espressione della Spiritualità Giovanile Salesiana. Atti del Convegno Europeo di Sanlucar la Mayor 1992. Rome 1993.

BOSCO G. B., "Il Movimento Giovanile Salesiano", in DICASTERO PER LA PASTORALE GIOVANILE, Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000. Documenti PG 13. Rome 1991, pp. 123-147.

DICASTERO PER LA PASTORALE GIOVANILE SALESIANA, "Gruppi giovanili Salesiani". Dossier PG Esperienze a confronto 6. Rome 1990.

Volunteer Movement

DICASTERO PER LA PASTORALE GIOVANILE, "Esperienze di volontariato Salesiano". Dossier PG 10. Rome 1995.

DICASTERO PER LA PASTORALE GIOVANILE, "Formazione al volontariato Salesiano". Dossier PG 11. Rome 1996.

DICASTERO PER LA PASTORALE GIOVANILE, "Giovani come tutti, ma... Testimonianze di volontari". Dossier PG 12. Rome 1996.

The three dossiers present interesting experiences and material.

Centers for vocational animation

DICASTERO PER LA PASTORALE GIOVANILE, "Pastorale vocazionale Salesiana. ‘Vieni e vedi’". Dossier PG Esperienze a confronto 4. Rome 1989.

PER LA PASTORALE GIOVANILE, "Salesiani ... Come... Perché?" Dossier. Esperienze a confronto 5. Rome 1989.

This has some enlightening experiences and some indications and criteria for activities.

Work in the university field

NANNI C., (a cura) Salesiani e pastorale tra gli universitari. Rome 1988.