(ANS – Rome) – The Councillor for Social Communications, Fr Filiberto González, has embarked on a series of animation visits to five provinces over the past year, in view of unifying organisational criteria at province and national levels, as indicated in the Salesian Social Communication System (SSCS). The five provinces have, in his view, a marked Salesian character as evangelisers, educators and communicators in the Church and in society. They are: Spain, Italy, Poland, India and Brazil.

From 8th to 24th November he visited six Provinces in India which he had not visited before: Kolkata, Guwahati, Silchar, New Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. The most important meetings were, undoubtedly, those with the Provincials and their respective Councils, and with Delegates of Social Communication (SC) and their teams. Fr González reports: " On behalf of the Rector Major, I met the Provincials and their Councils, because that's where the change of mindset begins and can start a new way of looking at communication in the Congregation. That's where you reflect and take decisions for the good of the Province and of the Mission”.

Fr González adds, "The SC Delegate and his team are the soul,  life of SC in each Province. Areas of the Salesian mission without a dedicated full-time person will weaken or even cease to exist, because they do not have a presence nor work together with others in the Province. The areas into which Salesian activity is divided, arise from the mission and are at the service of this mission. Their coordination, as also the coordination within each sector, is essential ".

In agreement with the General Councillor for Formation, Fr. González also visited the Houses of Formation: "For the past 6 years, the General Councillors for Formation and SC have developed the 'Guidelines for the Formation of the Salesians in Social Communication'. Now it is a case of aware of being aware of their importance and putting them into practice”.
 
Aware of the importance of formation for the future of the Congregation and SC, in his meetings with the Houses of Formation the Councillor reiterated that "every Salesian, today more than ever, must learn to be a good communicator, ta good evangeliser and educator. These are three inseparable processes and attitudes. Some might think that in the past you could evangelise and educate without communication, but it is not so; and much less will it be in the new era, in which technologies have changed relationships, education and evangelization. And as far as new technologies are concerned, India is a leader in their production and use”.

With regard to the strengths of the six Provinces visited, Fr González maintains: "the Salesians in India have done and are still doing a great job of education, evangelization and communication. Their reality is rich and complex due to their cultural, linguistic and religious heritage. The first strength in Indian communication lies in educating and evangelizing in the various local languages, committing themselves to this in Scripture translation, dictionaries and catechesis on the basis of the needs of the recipients. I think it is a nation whose people have deeply developed the visual communication aspect and indeed our Indian Salesian confreres are very skillful in making videos and short films, winning national and international awards. Maybe they don't have the best services or equipment, but they have a great creative ability and quality of imagination ".

As for the challenges, he says: "unity, cooperation and coordination in each Province and in the country and with the Congregation, is the main challenge. Hence the importance of understanding and applying the SSCS in the Houses of Formation and in decision-making bodies. Another challenge is overcoming narrow viewpoints of SC, such as the idea of being only users or consumers of media and technology or simply being happy to work alone in production, without coordination with the Provincial Overall Project or with the other sectors. The most important thing is that every Salesian needs to learn to be a Communicator of God's love for the young and ordinary people, always putting the Mission of Don Bosco at the centre, and never themselves. The correct choice of message, media and type of production is the result of good formation and coordination in overcoming individualism and activism ".

The Councillor has also indicated to the various communities some attitudes needed for religious to be effective communicators today: "I consider three aspects: authenticity, given that we communicate who we are and not what we pretend to be; a deep spiritual life, given that we are loved, called and sent on a mission that has been entrusted to us because we belong to God; and, finally, professional communicative skills, because we live in a society that demands transparency, honesty and ability to present things in a language understandable to today's human being, and rightly so".

Published 27/11/2012