Fr. Godfrey D'Souza, the Rector of St Dominic Savio Boys' Home, Andheri, attended the three days meeting for Rectors and those In-Charge of communities at Don Bosco Provincial House, Matunga from the 30th June to the 02nd July 2010.
The Rectors in the crypt readying for mass
The session began with the Eucharist in the crypt of the Shrine of Don Bosco Matunga. Fr. Provincial was the main celebrant and was flanked by new newly appointed Rectors, Fr. Anthony Santarita (Bosco Boys Home Borivili) and Fr. Cletus D'Souza (Don Bosco Lonavla).
Fr. Provincial with the two new Rectors: Fr. Cletus & Fr. Anthony
Fr. Michael in his homily spoke on Don Rua as we are celebrating the 150 death anniversary of Don Rua, the first successor of Don Bosco and a lad from the Oratory of Don Bosco. He spoke of the similarities of Don Rua and how he was known as the Rule of Life. The congregation flourished in the time of Don Rua and expanded. During the time of Don Bosco there were just 700 Salesians while in the time of Don Rua the Salesians were more than 3,000. During the time of Don Rua Salesians also went out of Rome and around the world as missionaries to begin works in different parts of the world, and in Asia and the far East.
After the Eucharist we had a refreshment break and got down to business. Fr. Ajoy Fernandes took us through the programme of the next two days and welcomed Fr. Provincial to the dais.
Fr. Ajoy Fernandes the Vice Provincial
Fr. Michael Fernandes, the Provincial welcomed each and every one present and then shared with us some news of the Province and all the happenings around. He touched on some topics that would help and assist Rectors in animating the communities. The Provincial took the entire morning until 11.00 am.
Fr. Michael Fernandes, the Provincial
Fr. Elson Barretto the Provincial Economer then came up after the Provincial and touched on some important matters concerning Administration and accounting.
Fr. Elson Barretto the Provincial Economer
Fr. Ajoy Fernandes the Vice Provincial then took the floor and we went through the calendar of the year highlighting some of the important features and events that were ahead and that we had to take note of.
Some of the participants during the meeting
At 12.30 pm we broke up for lunch and we resumed our meeting at 2.30pm. For this session the Vice Provincial dealt with issues regarding the Provincial Chapter that we had in February and how we could implement the same on the community level.
Going through the Chapter documents
Fr. Glenford Lowe touched on Salesian Youth Ministry and Salesian Youth Spirituality and very beautifully described to us the process and method of Don Bosco's System through the four aspects of Playground; Home; School and Spirituality.
Fr. Godfrey D'Souza then took on how the Chronicler should maintain records and how the House Chronicles should be kept and what were the salient points that one would have to look at in order to keep a record of the house. He quoted Don Bosco and said that Don Bosco exhorted his Salesians to keep records of their houses as that would help in knowing the history of a particular institution and work. Most of the history of the congregation was obtained from the Salesians who kept proper records of the chronicles.
Fr. Glenford once again came up to inform the gathering about the importance of sending news and articles for BIS (Bosco Information Services) so that our works and activities are known on the National and International level. He asked the communities to keep representatives for this important office.
The gathering dispersed after tea and a good number of Salesians went their way.
On the 01st July we began with Fr. Savio Silveira introducing the speaker of the morning. The topic was Rights-based Approach to Development and Dr. Yogesh Kumar a Pd.D in this took us through the pros and cons of working in this field. His message was loud and clear that if we come across obstacles it is something worth working for, and that we would definitely encounter obstacles.
Dr. Yogesh Kumar on Rights-based approach to Development
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