(ANS - Rome)- The Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime,   has sent all the Provincials and Superiors of Vice- Provinces a letter "which is official in nature but informal in style”, containing items of "family news, animation and government," to be shared with their Councils and communities.

As well as providing an update on developments in the Congregation, this communication is itself something of a novelty. The official version comes in eleven different  languages​​, both national and local - Italian, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, German, Korean, Vietnamese, Polish, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Russian, Guaraní, Catalan, Galician, Basque.

In the text, the Rector Major shares some echoes of the 27^th General Chapter as experienced in the first three months since it ended. Fr Fernandez Artime speaks of “the prophetic value of our fellowship that can make our witness irresistible.”  He quotes the documents of GC27, and reminds us of what he likes to call “the constitutive element of our Salesian DNA, namely, our passion for young people, especially the poorest among them”. “Dear confreres, we find our Tabor among the young! This is our conversion and this is what it means, today as always, to return to Don Bosco.”

The letter goes on to deal with other topics:

• The contributions of the Rector Major Emeritus, Fr Pascual Chávez, who has been assigned to the community of San Tarcisio in Rome, and of the former Vicar of the Rector Major, Fr Bregolin, who has been appointed Rector of the Community in Florence; also of the other members of the previous General Council who have completed their service
• The coordination of sessions of the General Council and of the different sectors, their traditional services and the demands raised during the GC27.
• The appointment of Fr Pier Fausto Frisoli as Coordinator of the Juridical Office of the Congregation.
• The appointment of Bro. Giampietro Pettenon, SDB as the new Director of the Mission Office in Turin.
• Other decisions relating to personnel for the Salesian Places for the celebration of the Bicentenary of Don Bosco, and help given to the provinces and the request for help for the Generalate and the Direzione Generale.

The full text of the letter is available on the website sdb.org.

Published 16/07/2014