(ANS – Berkeley, CA – November 11, 2026) – The Salesian Center for Ongoing Formation in Berkeley (SFCB), located in the Province of St. Andrew (SUO), has released the first English edition of Volume III in the collection The Art of Accompaniment: Developing the Salesian Preventive Competency, authored by Fr. Alejandro Rodríguez Rodríguez, SDB.

This third volume, subtitled The Strategy: Salesian Preventive Leadership (Theory, Model, and Style), serves as the theoretical and interdisciplinary core of a progressive seven-volume series designed for the Americas. The work articulates a paradigm shift: moving from traditional Salesian leadership—often limited to affectionate imitation or artisanal intuition—toward Salesian Preventive Leadership (SPL), conceived as a systemic architecture integrating theory, operational model, and behavioral style.

Addressing the complexities of contemporary BANI environments (Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, Incomprehensible), the text builds upon the Convergence Paradigm, articulating three ontological and interdisciplinary pillars:

• SPL as Theory (Epistemological Foundation): Incorporates Bernard Lonergan’s Generalized Empirical Method (GEM) as a cognitive architecture for the leader’s consciousness (attentive, intelligent, reasonable, responsible, and loving/respectful), grounded in an anthropological optimism centered on the “point accessible to good” and a transcendent intentionality directed toward a Unified Life Project (the Grace of Unity).
• SPL as Model (Operational and Systemic Structure): Configures the Educative Pastoral Community (EPC) as a socio-constructivist learning ecosystem and operationalizes the Oratory Criterion as a dynamic operating system across four cardinal dimensions (Home that welcomes, School that prepares for life, Parish that evangelizes, and Playground for spontaneous encounter), establishing the Salesian Preventive Competency (SPC) as a cross-cutting axis for institutional management.
• SPL as Style (Praxis and Behavioral Competencies): Translates Don Bosco’s classic trinomial into observable competencies: Reason (dialogical rationality and restorative justice in managing error), Religion (deep meaning, ethics, and embodied spirituality), and Amorevolezza (applied emotional intelligence, sacramental presence through assistenza, and affective co-regulation).

With this release, the Berkeley SFCB provides directors, pastoral councils, educators, and lay partners across the Salesian Family with a robust instrument of pedagogical engineering designed to navigate liquid modernity and transform management into a generative school of educative-pastoral accompaniment.