(ANS – Rome) – During their session on December 22, 2025, the Rector Major and the General Council approved the complete text of the fortieth draft of the Ratio, after examining the entire text, divided into 14 units, in 14 previous sessions and approving them individually.

This is the culmination of a long journey that began with the 28th General Chapter in 2020. Pope Francis, in his letter to the Chapter members, had offered a strong message on FORMATION IN MISSION, and in the 4th programmatic proposal for the implementation of the Chapter, ‘formation to be Salesian pastors today,’ the then Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, had given a clear directive: The Formation Sector will carry out a serious and demanding work of updating the Ratio, strengthening what favors the integration between formation and mission and prevents the formation of a gap between the two dimensions.’

This was followed by an intense process of involvement, we might say ‘a Salesian synodal process’ on formation: 3,648 contributions from communities, groups of Rectors, individual Salesians and also a large number of lay people were combined with the results of in-depth reflection, involving some fifty experts from various regions on what most challenges formation today, in four distinct ‘focus groups’ on formation in mission, joint formation, the digital world and formation, affectivity and sexual orientation.

From November 15 to 28, 2021, a first group of 24 Salesians from the seven regions, including seven in initial formation, created an initial outline, distributing many basic core elements of formation (the Ratio tree) within it. Working groups of 3 to 5 members (60 Salesians and lay people) working remotely were able to draw up the first drafts of the chapters, providing material that was gradually enriched and reworked, with new in-depth meetings between experts and progressive revisions. One of the most significant meetings was from October 17, to November 3, 2024, carried out by 13 Salesians from the 7 Regions, with a detailed review of draft 35, line by line.

One can understand the nature of the journey that led to draft 40, which was finally approved on the evening of December 22. It is like a gradual process of kneading and leavening, which allows the basic ingredients to blend harmoniously and finally become bread for the table. If it was an orchestra made up of thousands of instruments and voices, the symphony is undoubtedly also the work of its conductor, Fr. Ivo Coelho, General Councillor for Formation from 2014 to 2025, who followed this process with great dedication, assisted step by step by Fr. Julian Fox, so that today we have a text that has grown together in the two main languages of the Congregation, Italian, the official language, and English, the most widely used.

The work of the present General Council has also been fundamental. From the beginning of July to the end of October, each member engaged in a gradual and constant reading of the text divided into weekly units, while two teams – four members of the 29th General Chapter and the four members of the Formation Sector – carried out a separate synoptic reading of draft 38, which was delivered to the Chapter and from the Chapter to the newly elected Rector Major, Fr. Fabio Attard, and of the final document of GC29. The contributions that emerged from this were incorporated into draft 39, together with an important study of the text and contributions offered by the Rector Major Emeritus, Fr. Pascual Chávez, and what was sent personally by the members of the Council, thus arriving at draft 39, which was examined by the General Council session that began on November 24 and ended on December 23.

Its approval is an important step, as it is the most significant text of the Congregation’s magisterium after the Constitutions and Regulations. While it marks the conclusion of an intense journey, it opens up another no less important one, that of spreading knowledge of it as widely as possible throughout the vast and varied Salesian world and, above all, of assimilating it into life, which is the first and ultimate goal to be achieved.

It is very clear that formation is the daily response to God’s call and that it can therefore only be the fundamental attitude of every Son of Don Bosco, from the beginning of his vocational journey to his last breath, as it was for the Founder and for the many who followed him, thanks to whom today’s Salesians are now continuing the same journey.

In the immediate future: the Italian editio typica will be finalized. The work of the official translators for the main languages has already begun. In January, the text will be promulgated, and when the five versions (Italian, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese) are finalized, the text will be made available in digital format, while the printing process will begin.

A plan for dissemination and appropriation, the result of contributions from the Delegates for Formation at their meetings in 2025, has been part of the work carried out by the General Council and will be shared and further enriched in the coming months, with the contribution of the Provinces and young Salesians who are called to be the prime key players in this process, as they have been from the beginning.