Saturday, October 19, 2024

Updates on the Salesian Plan of Formation

Updates on the Salesian Plan of Formation

by Fr. Ivo Coelho, SDB
General Councilor for Formation


Archive photo

(ANS – Rome – October 17, 2024) – A group of 14 Salesians is meeting at Salesian headquarters in Rome from October 18 to November 3 to work on the draft of the 5th edition of Ratio Fundamentalis, the basic plan for formation for Salesians of Don Bosco. The group consists of representatives from each of the regions, the Pontifical Salesian University, and the members of the Congregation’s Formation Department.

The improved text will be presented to the new Rector Major during General Chapter 29. He will decide how and when to promulgate it.

After having studied the text over three sessions (summer 2023, winter 2023-2024, and summer 2024), the Rector Major at the time, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, and his general council decided to submit it to the scrutiny of a team of confreres (cf. letter of the Rector Major to provincials, July 13, 2024, prot. 24/0362) for fine-tuning and final drafting.

The work on the Ratio is a response to the Rector Major’s invitation to the Formation Department to carry out “a serious and demanding work of updating the Ratio” (GC28, p. 34). The department has been working since 2020, with multiple consultations over the whole Congregation. It currently has versions in two languages, English and Italian.

The last major revision of the Ratio dates back to 2000. The two partial revisions carried out in 2009 and 2012 were incorporated into the 4th edition, 2016.

The 2000 booklet "Criteria and norms of Salesian vocational discernment" is now incorporated into the new draft of the Ratio. The "Guidelines on Salesian Studies" (2005), duly updated, will be included as one of the 10 appendices.

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