2018-2019 to Be Important Year in the Province

2018-2019 to Be Important Year in the Province

Yesterday (July 7), Fr. Tim Zak sent out a letter to leaders in the New Rochelle Province (and thru them to the rest of the confreres) about 2 major events of the coming pastoral year, "an extraordinary year for our province," with mention also of a lesser event and one more major event on which he didn't elaborate.

(ANS)

The 1st of the 2 major events is the visit of the Rector Major to the province, which is scheduled for Sept. 3-12 this year.  Fr. Fernandez will make stops in Surrey, B.C., Toronto, Haverstraw, Port Chester, North Haledon, New Rochelle, and Tampa.  His visit will be a "fraternal" one with the aim of showing his closeness to each confrere as well as to all the members of the Salesian Family (including the FMAs, Cooperators, ADMA, and alumni).  Every confrere has been strongly encouraged to be present at one of his 4 gatherings with the SDBs to meet with and hear from Don Bosco's 10th successor, and the RM also hopes to meet with as many Salesian Family members as possible--a bit of a challenge, obviously, given the vast distances of the province.

(Bollettino Salesiano)

The 2d event will be the extraordinary visitation of the province by our regional councilor, Fr. Tim Ploch, from Feb. 8 to May 27, 2019.  Fr. Tim, who is a member of our province and a former provincial (1991-1997) but was elected to the general council at our last general chapter (2014), will visit each SDB presence and meet with each confrere, and meet with many members of the Salesian Family, parishioners, students and teachers, friends and supporters of our work, et al., in order to gauge how well the province and its individual presences are carrying out Don Bosco's mission, to commend our strengths, and to make suggestions for further growth.  Extraordinary visitations are carried out every 6 years (instead of the regular annual visitation of the provincial) in the name of the Rector Major by a major superior whom he nominates.  Unlike previous visitors, Fr. Tim knows the province and most of our members inside out, which is an obvious advantage to the visitation's success.  He'll also be present at the provincial chapter in March.

A lesser event will be Fr. Tim Zak's own brotherly visits to the communities between September and January to see how they're doing with province priorities, meeting various recommendations, etc., and to meet with members of the Salesian Family and some of the people whom we serve in our apostolates--the same sorts of things that he'd do in a full-scale annual visitation, but not in the same detail because of Fr. Ploch's forthcoming visitation.  Obviously, it's important for the provincial to see each work and each confrere from time to time, even informally.

One major event that he mentioned but didn't speak of in detail is the 2019 provincial chapter, scheduled for March 19-23 at Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw.  He plans to publish a separate letter about that this week.