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(ANS – Bangalore) – The South Asia Team Visit 2011, involving the ten Provinces of India and the Vice-Province of Sri Lanka, began on 1 March and concluded on 5 March with a Eucharist presided over by the Rector Major, Fr Pascual Chavez. The Team Visit brought together 99 Salesian leaders from South Asia to study, reflect and deliberate on a series of issues ranging from Salesian Mission in its global context, the Centrality of God, Evangelisation and Faith formation, New Frontiers, Religious Discipline, Networking and growing as a Region.

In his concluding address to the assembly the Rector Major, in the light of the discussions and deliberations of the five-day exercise, said “the Salesian mission in South Asia requires people full of passion, fire and mysticism.” The call of the hour, he said, is to become mystics, prophets and servants. As a mystic, a Salesian is one who has deep thirst for God, seeks intimate union with Him, sees things with His eyes, lives and acts under the promptings of the Spirit. As a prophet, he challenges the prevalent values of the secularised society and thus becomes counter-cultural. As a servant, he is willing to give up his privileges in order to respond to the needs of others in imitation of Jesus who humbled himself and came to serve and not to be served.

The Rector Major then outlined the priorities and a vision for the future and stressed the role of the Salesians in responding to the challenges facing India and in its transformation. At the same time, he urged them to give visibility to the primacy of God in their life by living by Gospel values and through a total commitment to the demands of the Kingdom of God.

He reminded the Salesians that evangelization is the expression of a passion for the salvation of others, the joy of sharing an experience of the fullness of life in Jesus. “Someone who has met the Lord cannot remain silent; he has to proclaim the Lord,” he said.

The IX Successor of Don Bosco called for the fostering of missionary vocations through missionary aspirantates and by rekindling in the younger generation the spirit of sacrifice, generosity and service. He urged them to be in the forefront of new, daring and creative ventures to respond to the needs of the times. New frontiers, he said, invite us to respond to new questions and new needs of the people. The legitimacy of our works, he said, is to be gauged by the way they address the needs of the poorest of the poor.

Fr Chávez urged the Salesians to find an adequate response to the problem of migrant youth in the region through effective inter-provincial collaboration. Drawing attention to the new challenges that families are facing, he wanted family ministry to become a dimension of Salesian works in various settings.

Religious discipline, he said, is about being a faithful disciple, and not merely about following some rules and regulations and the “mission”, he pointed out, “is not mere activities, initiatives, or works. It is passion for the salvation of the young”.

The next major activity for the Region is the pilgrimage by the Casket of Don Bosco, an event alluded to in the Rector major`s concluding moments at the Mass, trusting that the Region will reap a plentiful harvest from this singular occasion.

Published 07/03/2011