31 January 2009
TO : THE FEDERATION OF DON BOSCO ALUMNI IN THE PHILIPPINES
RE : CONDUCT OF ALUMNI HOMECOMING 2009
FROM : THE RECTORS OF DB-FIN
To our dear former students and co-members of the Salesian Family:
It is with the spirit of Salesian joy that we, your former mentors and now, your fellow members of the vast Salesian Family, and partners in mission to the world of the young, greet you a HAPPY FEAST DAY of our revered father and teacher, St. John Bosco!
It is in the spirit of the 2009 Strenna of the Rector Major to the whole Salesian world that we address this concern to you: "Let us commit ourselves to making the Salesian Family a vast movement of persons for the salvation of the young." (Fr. Pascual Chavez, SDB)
We address you no longer as the young person who once stayed in the school of Don Bosco. You are already adults. This defines your relationship now with your alma mater and your responsibility to those who come behind you, our students now and the next generations of Don Bosco alumni.
YOU BELONG TO A BIGGER WORLD
We stand witness to the growing number of followers and recipients of the worldwide movement by, with, and for youth that Don Bosco, our Father, has begun, and still continues, in 130 countries and territories all over the world. As alumni of Don Bosco you are part and parcel of this WIDER WORLD.
In his letter to Salesians all over the world on the situation of our works in the East Asia-Oceania Region, our rector major, Fr. Pascual Chavez, mentioned: "As everywhere in the Church of Asia and Oceania strategic importance is given to formal educational structures. This is one reason why the majority of the confreres are involved in the school sector. There are 282 schools with 100,900 pupils, 350 Salesians and 4,200 lay collaborators. (Acts 397, p.23)
Collectively, you are the crowning glory of our mission as Salesians, when you have imbibed that resolve to discover your own niche in the building of God's kingdom (SDB General Chapter 23, 1990) and to contribute to changing the world for the coming of this kingdom on earth (SDB General Chapter 24, 1996).
Salesian education, therefore, should have formed you to embrace a world bigger than your own, for a purpose greater than yourself. You are children not only of Don Bosco, but also children of the Church. Anything you do collectively reflects your being a part of this Salesian education and Catholic faith.
Some of you represent the best fruits of our mission. We are mystified and humbled by the simple unassuming holiness shown by the likes of Roderick Flores and Sigmund Ocasion, two young men who died with such heroism and holiness as to stand side by side the likes of St. Dominic Savio in the worldwide list of the Fruits of the Salesian Preventive System.
We cannot but thank God for many of you who, in ways big or small, continue to work unheralded at the Armed Forces, in and out of government, in your parishes, communities, and in your respective advocacies and various selfless concerns. To hear that some of you have committed themselves as lay missionaries or volunteers in various causes all over the world is definitely music to our ears, trained as we are to always be attentive to the voice of the Christ the Good Shepherd. Some of you have penetrated the world of media, the arts, the world of business and the academe. The very palpable values that you espouse as Bosconians and as Catholics remain to be sterling qualities in you that we can only be proud of.
Hence, any collective act as Bosconians that falls short of the high standard of ethical values you have been taught in your alma mater becomes a cause not only of concern for us your mentors, but also a reason for scandal for fellow Bosconians, in the vast Salesian and Catholic world.
YOU BELIEVE THAT SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
It is in this same spirit of BELONGING to a Chruch and to a Salesian Family, and the culture and ideals they all represent, that we take up our role once again as the "educators" and "evangelizers" that St. John Bosco expects us all to be.
As Bosconian alumni and Salesian educators, we uphold certain timeless values even in the midst of unfavorable conditions of the times. The Church has always been countercultural. She has always sought to "preach in season and out of season," and does not get carried away by fads and fashion, especially when it comes to faith and morals. One cannot call himself a believer and at the same time refuse to belong to that community that upholds a culture concomitant to that faith.
One of the values we believe in as Salesians is that of MODESTY, which Don Bosco used to refer to as "delicatezza." Among others, it refers to a sense of propriety, a sense of good, clean, honest, and wholesome fun that gives ample latitude to the young to "run, jump, and make noise but not sin." Behind all this is a healthy and sound respect for the dignity of the human person, the total person, including the physical body which is, in the words of St. Paul, "the temple of the Holy Spirit."
This sense of propriety is not to be confused with prudishness. The former is a value that approximates a virtue. The latter masquerades as one, but really has to do with being morally uptight. The value remains despite the prevailing spirit of the times. The value finds expression in the shows we see and create, and the programs we design and execute, especially in the public arena.
It is in this light that we, your mentors and now your partners and colleagues in Don Bosco's and the Church's mission approach you to voice a particular concern. Take note that we do not come to you as moralists who sit in moral judgment over your persons, but as fellow educators and members of the vast Salesian Family.
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