(ANS - Rome) - The Province of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Germany has 277 confreres, with a mean age of 66 years, in 27 canonically erected houses in Germany and 1 in Switzerland. There are also 2,000 employees and lay collaborators who are jointly responsible with the Salesians for the educative ministry.

In 2005 the two previous provinces were united to form the present province of Germany. The Provincial is Fr Josef Grünner, now attending his sixth General Chapter.

All the work of the Province is guided and directed by the Provincial Plan. In it priority is given to the ongoing formation of Salesians and laity, planning for the future and work with disadvantaged young people.

The province has seven works on behalf of underage refugees from African and Asian countries. Another new ministry is the work with young people with criminal records. The most notable project in this area is the educational centre at Sannerz which for the past year has been working with a group of eight boys aged between 10 and 14 who are in trouble with the law.

It's a real challenge, says Fr Josef: "These boys are not accepted in other schools because of their behaviour, but they receive a second chance from us Salesians.” In some of our vocational training centres we also welcome young people with psychological disabilities.

There is an interesting new work in Berlin and Würzburg Burgstädt that offers accommodation and training for young mothers and their children. The Don Bosco Centre in Berlin in the former German Democratic Republic is totally new. It is now well established as a centre of social assistance for unemployed young people, who are often with no education, no family and no home.

In the territory of the former German Democratic Republic four new works were started.  In this region 85% of the population have no religion and only 2-3% are Catholic .

Fr Grunner explains: "In this area we work with many partners who are not even baptized. Only a handful of the young people in these works are Christian (either Catholic or Protestant). Even in the houses in Western Germany we notice an ever diminishing number of young people with experience of Church. In almost all our works we find young Muslims, and not only among refugees. It is our priority, but also a great challenge, to develop different forms of pastoral ministry."

Something must be said about Benediktbeuern. The departments of philosophy and theology closed in 2013. The department of social pedagogy continues and the course is much in demand.  Soon it will be possible to do a bachelor's degree in pedagogy of religion in Benediktbeuern. There are also other formation programmes for Salesians and lay members of the Salesian family.

Referring to the future, the Provincial concluded: "Given the diminishing number of active confreres, we consider it essential to give the laity a greater role of responsibility at local and provincial level."

Published 4/4/2014