(ANS – Rome) – A study seminar on the Salesian parish entitled “The Parish for Those Without” was held from November 14 to 16, 2023, in Rome, at San Tarcisio. This term, “of those without”, comes from the experience of Don Bosco in 1847, when Archbishop Luigi Fransoni issued the formal decree authorizing him, “to instruct and admit to First Communion those young people who come to his pious institution,” specifying to confer on Don Bosco the possibility of admitting the same young people to the Sacrament of Confirmation. In another place the good Archbishop went even further, going so far as to say in the presence of his priests that “the chapels of the Oratories will be the parishes for those children who attend them.” Faced with such clear indications, “Don Bosco was pleased to call the Oratory ‘The parish of abandoned boys’” (BM III, 135). In other words, the parish of young people without a parish, without a community of reference.

This idea of abandonment has led to the inspiration for this seminar as a think tank in which, inspired by the recent teaching of the congregation and accompanied by the Church’s magisterium, by the expectations of the local Churches, the participants sought to reflect on and sketch a shared Italian Salesian style, which can lead us to “do without”: do without personalism, do without individualism, do without sectoralism.

Urged by the publication of the document “The parish and the Shrine entrusted to the Salesians” by the Youth Ministry Sector of the Congregation, through this study seminar we sought to continue the reflection by promoting an exchange between the Italian Provinces on some issues that are particularly significant for the national context. The work carried out during the seminar was not intended to draw up a new document but rather to develop a common sensitivity among all, to offer the Provincials shared perspectives to address some particular situations.

The work was opened by two reflections: one by Fr. Miguel Ángel García Morcuende, General Councillor for Youth Ministry, for the part concerning the Congregation, and the other by Archbishop Luigi Renna, archbishop of Catania, for an in-depth study of the expectations of the local Churches of the Salesians. Then, through the focus groups, an exchange of best practices was made for a national convergence on the theme of the Salesian parish.

“I really hope that these days can be an opportunity to do without, to open up to the possibility of doing with, in an eminently synodal and participative style,” testified one of the organizers.