(ANS – Rome – November 3, 2026) – As part of the ongoing process of becoming familiar with and embracing the first five chapters of the new edition of the Ratio, the Salesian Congregation has presented the first four chapters at two-month intervals and invited feedback on their content. Now, attention turns to the Fifth Chapter: “Walking Together: Accompaniment and Discernment.”
This is a central theme that brings together the most characteristic and fundamental elements of the Salesian charism with what is required of Salesians on today’s ecclesial journey (see the Synod on “Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment”).
The experience of the first oratory is distilled and understood as a new way of becoming neighbors and traveling companions. As Father Juan Edmundo Vecchi explains in the text quoted by Father Fabio Attard in the epilogue to the six-year plan following General Chapter 29 (GC29):
“Valdocco, home to an original community and a well-known, extensive, open pastoral space… Within this community, a new culture was taking shape, not in an academic sense, but in the direction of new internal relationships between young people and educators, between lay people and priests, between craftsmen and students – a relationship that had an impact on the neighborhood and the city…” (Father Juan Vecchi, Now Is the Favorable Time, AGC 373, 2000).
The Synod’s final document states in paragraph 95: “There is an inherent complementarity between personal accompaniment and community accompaniment, which every spirituality or ecclesial sensibility is called to articulate in its own way.”
To introduce this chapter, a video interview is offered with Father Michal Vojtas, a full professor of Salesian History and Pedagogy at the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS), director of the Don Bosco Study Center, and a leading expert and promoter of Salesian pedagogy.
He maintains an ongoing dialogue between the charismatic inspiration drawn from Salesian history and the challenges and opportunities of our time, across the many contexts and cultures in which Don Bosco is present throughout the world today.
“This is a key Salesian insight: three-dimensional accompaniment. Community, group, and personal accompaniment. The Salesian community is a privileged space for growth. We walk together and learn to be traveling companions, experiencing the support of the community firsthand” (Father Michal Vojtas).
On the online platform hyper-ratio.org, created and managed by a group of young Salesian confreres studying theology, visitors will find the video in five languages, available for download, along with videos accompanying the four previous chapters. The platform also includes an interview with the Rector Major on the promulgation of the document, the video transcript, the Ratio in PDF and Word formats, and other useful resources for understanding, dissemination, and community formation.
The following links provide access to the video interview with Father Michal Vojtas in the five main languages: