and the Pope
Interview with the Rector Major
During the retreat he led for the North and
South American provincials at Campos do Jordão, Brazil, Fr. Pascual Chavez gave
an interview that was published in the Santa Teresinha Parish bulletin. He
spoke of the Salesian Family’s relationship with Pope Benedict XVI and the role
of the Holy Father, as well as the challenges that await Benedict’s successor.
Fr. Chavez, in his capacity of president of the Union of Superiors General, addressing Benedict XVI in 2010 |
In your message responding to the Pope’s
stepping down, you said that Benedict XVI had been very generous to the
Salesian Family. Can you give me an idea of some of the things Benedict XVI did
during his pontificate for the Salesian Family?
The Holy Father, Benedict XVI, was a person who
appreciated the Congregation and the Salesian Family very much. In a personal
meeting with him, when I drew his attention to Mama Margaret, he demonstrated
his knowledge of Don Bosco’s life and his mother’s life too. I had the chance
to meet him often when he was vacationing at the Salesian house at Les Combes
and each year at our parish at Castel Gandolfo, on the Feast of the Assumption.
I always found him a man and a father of great kindness and gentleness; a true
icon of God’s love.
The Holy Father showed us a gesture of particular
predilection for our general chapter in 2008, receiving us and offering us a
very significant message from a charismatic point of view. He greeted each one
of the general councilors. Benedict XVI knows our Congregation well, and
several times in his letter addressed to our 26th General Chapter he expressed
his esteem for the life and apostolic activity of our Family.
Don Bosco always asked that the Salesian Family
give unconditional obedience to the Pope. Do you think this request is still
valid today, when dialog is very much to the fore? Why?
Don Bosco’s attitude had its roots in faith. He
saw, and we share this view, the Holy Father as the Vicar of Christ, and his
unconditional obedience was an act of love for both the Lord Jesus Christ and
the Church, and the Pope. Don Bosco’s attitude is a fine legacy for us. We too
are ready for total obedience to what the Pope asks us to do, even if such
requests today follow the path of discussion, dialog, and the common search for
truth.
For the Salesian Family what would be the ideal
features of the next Pope?
We know that the Holy Spirit is at work and that
the Pope to be elected will be someone who can best interpret the role of the
Petrine ministry according to God’s heart. Looking at the Church today, we want
to ask the Lord for a Pope who is open to all the situations experienced by
Christians and Catholics, as found across all the continents in their cultural
circumstances. We hope for a great openness to the least, the poor, the little
ones who have always been the first beneficiaries of the Kingdom of God. We ask
the Lord that the Holy Father will be attentive to young people, who as always
are the hope of the Church. We also hope for a new and generous attention to
women, recognizing that women in the Church have always been generously committed
to the service of catechetics, charity, and many other ministries on behalf of
the ecclesial community. I would also hope for greater consideration of consecrated
life on the Church’s part. Today, tried as we are by secularism and religious
indifference, religious men and women are testimony to the living God, and this
means that their most important mission is to interpret the Gospel radically,
incarnating the very life of Jesus in their being and action.
What do you think are the main challenges
awaiting the Pope to help young people become active players in their own
lives?
I believe that the biggest challenge today is,
first of all, a profound renewal of evangelization. The Church needs to be
close to all people, especially the young, and be able to communicate joyfully the
“good news” that God loves the world, loves mankind.
We have to remove the suspicion by the young that God is someone opposed to
their happiness, and invite them instead to discover that the God who reveals
himself in Jesus is Love. Young people themselves need to become active
witnesses of authentic freedom by choosing values that incarnate the Gospel; by
dedication to building a new society; by accepting active responsibility for
committed citizenship; by living their lives as a positive response to great
matters of love, family, solidarity, life understood as a specific calling to
build the Kingdom of God.
In what way can the Salesian Family contribute
to the success of the next pontificate?
The Salesian Family is a Christian entity
forever at the Church’s service following a particular charism, the salvation
of the young. In all its circumstances and through its various groups; it works
to “build up the Church” at local and global level. It is committed especially
to the field of education; which is always the primary element in forming today’s
young people to authentic human and Gospel criteria. A further basic point is
its commitment to evangelization addressed not only to people who do not know
the Gospel, but also those who want to undergo a journey of growth in faith and
charity as indicated in the Gospel.
Education and evangelization are inseparable
activities. One cannot educate authentically without anchoring the person in
the great gift of Christ’s humanity – Christ who is both Son of God and Son of
man.
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