SAFCAM Communique #74 - English

SAFCAM Communique #74            23/10/2021          

Dear Subscribers

Tomorrow is Mission Sunday!!! Just google ‘mission Sunday message’ and links to the three-page message of Pope Francis for 2021 will pop up. As for us, we also have the theme - One Father, One Family – but also the over-arching motive of Missionary Solidarity as Initial Proclamation, and the encouragement of our RM to “journey together towards missionary conversion through a pedagogy of faith, to move from closure to openness, from individualism to solidarity, from isolation to authentic encounter, and from mere philanthropy to initial proclamation as a profound expression of our love for Jesus Christ.” (p.7-SMD booklet)

The suggestion from our Mission Department is that around the 11^th November annually, the date of the first missionary send-off in 1875, we try to promote missionary animation within our Salesian Family, just as the Universal Church does during the missionary month of October. Should this date really not be opportune, Provinces can choose a date more suitable to their own rhythm of life and calendar. It would be good to organize an educative and pastoral campaign lasting a week or more, and of which the Salesian Mission Day (SMD) is the culminating point. SMD needs to be the expression of the missionary spirit of the whole Educative and Pastoral Community, and is kept alive throughout the year by various initiatives.

BTW, tomorrow is also the memorial of Blessed Louis Guanella!

CIVAM commissions meet in Nairobi

The two CIVAM commissions of Formation and Youth Ministry met this past week. It was so much more pleasant to be able to do so face to face than ‘virtually’ as had become the custom for the past 18 months.

Interesting matters were exchanged, from various experiences of the pandemic, to statistics which show that Africa is the fastest growing region in the congregation now, to opinions regarding issues of formation.

We agreed that it is unfortunate that most (too many at least) confreres are allergic to reading!… especially when it comes to Salesian materials. And also that confreres generally are also allergic (or is it just plain laziness) to writing, from books to blogs, and simple news reports… We were reminded that Don Bosco, despite being such a man of action, gave time to writing; in fact, prolifically! He produced 314 publications in the 40 years from 1848-1888.

We also were encouraged to make use of two very useful websites among many others: www.salesian.online  and www.sangiovannibosco.net which are like all-inclusive archives where you can find all the ACTS of the General Council since 1920 to the latest, biographies of Don Bosco and all his letters, Salesian Bulletins, besides a lot more useful material. Maybe our SAFCAM website is superfluous! But we have no excuse for not reading and writing!

By the way, the Salesian ‘Proper’ of feasts is available within the free to download App – iBreviary .

Let us not forget the feast of Bl Michael Rua on Friday of this week! And next weekend, we have a chance to be part of an online historical congress on Don Paul Albera taking place at the UPS. He is also the focus of the RM’s latest letter in the ACTS-436 and an exhibition summarising his life. He died 100 years ago tomorrow!

A response to a challenge in last week’s communique

Dear SAFCAM

In the last issue of your communique you provided some YouTube info regarding views and subscribers, and challenged readers for any info regarding ‘Salesian YouTubers’. Well I’m happy to let you know my channel has 842 subscribers and 26 videos. My videos are all congregation, AFE province and mission related, dealing with mission, stories of former street boys, refugees etc. I have many more video plans about the pioneers of AFE, and other stories. Only time is preventing me from doing them. Thanks for the weekly updates in the communiques.    Sebastian Koladiyil sdb                (Any other confreres with similar useful news?)

Have a look at this on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/bdkG2-JXKas - African Synodality 2021 – 2023 - Jesuit Initiative in response to Pope Francis

“For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission”

The objective of this Synod of Bishops is not thematic, as previous synods on the Amazon, the Youth, the Family, among others had been. This synod hopes to introduce the people of God to a fundamentally different way of organizing and expressing ourselves as the Catholic Church in this third millennium.

Pope Francis, quoting Yves Congar, OP, a great theologian of the Second Vatican Council, has said that “there is no need to create another church, but to create a different church.”

But to create a different church, the pope says we need to be open to doing things in new ways. We need to learn a fundamental skill of human interaction: the ability to listen to each other with courage and openness, without prejudice, discrimination or fear. The principal objective is to listen together, to find the ways the Holy Spirit of God is at work in each person’s life, and to discern commonalities in our experiences.

We are called “to become experts in the art of encounter,” the pope challenges, and to take “time to look others in the eye and listen to what they have to say, to build relationships, to be sensitive to the questions of our sisters and brothers, to let ourselves be enriched by the variety of charisms, vocations and ministries.”

To whom does our particular Church “need to listen to”?

How are the Laity, especially young people and women, listened to?

How do we integrate the contribution of Consecrated Men and Women?

What space is there for the voice of minorities, the discarded, and the excluded?

Do we identify prejudices and stereotypes that hinder our listening?

How do we listen to the social and cultural context in which we live?  These are some basic issues to consider.

https://youtu.be/JrUZyv6HSlM - ‘Reverend’ Victor Githu is a 10-year-old very articulate confident preacher, who – if only he was catholic – could be a present-day Don Bosco maybe. Watch 10 minutes of this 50-minute clip, and notice the other clips of his in the side bar… Even though we do not endorse him as role model, he sure is impressive in his enthusiastic cheerful passion to evangelize everyone especially young people… Could we ever transform any young person in our context into a similar young apostle?

DBGYFF

Over a thousand videos were submitted from all parts of the world, the First Salesian Global Youth Film Festival. It exceeded expectations. Now the organization of the festival enters the final phase. The juries have begun the arduous task of the selection of finalists. The actual festival days will include the projecting of those selected for consideration will take place simultaneously on 18 and 19 November, in multiple locations around the globe. The ultimate goal of the festival, to make young people ambassadors of hope in their realities, seems to have already been achieved in the preparatory phase of the work.

Now the most difficult work is that of the adjudicators. Since the beginning of the month, the coordination team of the Festival, led by the Director, Fr Harris Pakkam, together with the Coordinator of the Juries, Fr Tadeusz Lewicki, has been contacting the approximately 100 members of the preliminary jury - a varied group of representatives of all continents and countries, of different languages, cultures, ethnic groups and backgrounds. They have the task of viewing sets of 25 films each, and carrying out a first phase of screening among the videos to select those deserving to reach the final phase. To ensure the fairest and most objective judgment possible, each video will be viewed by at least three jurors.

Subsequently, the Grand Jury, composed of film producers and screenwriters, film critics and influencers, reviewers, artists, actors, composers, sound engineers, editors and visual effects experts, bloggers and Salesian celebs. They will be the ones who will identify the winners of the various categories.

It will be possible to watch the live streaming on the official website of the festival - www.dbgyff.com  - which will also broadcast the official award ceremonies from Turin – 18 & 19 November.

The organizers recommend that all Social Communication Delegates and Salesians who have collaborated in this initiative, prepare local, provincial or national events and promote this celebration of the Festival of Hope and the Young.

In union of prayer, (especially with you the 62 new subscribers of the past fortnight!)

God bless.  Camiel and François