May 1, 2022 - General Chapter 46

 It was Sunday today, but it certainly was NOT a day of rest. The 46th General Chapter started today, with it 71 voting delegates, 13 Consultants, and a variety of secretaries, translators, and others responsible for making sure that things run smoothly.

Thankfully, the official gathering was scheduled for 9:00 am inthe "Aula Magna" - which is the grand meeting hall that had been fully renovated some years back. It is used by other religious congregations for their international gatherings because it has everyone you need for a meeting space... lots of seats with microphones and voting buttons, a grand dais with room for plenty of "moderators" and important people, four translator booths looming high up in the back like miniature luxury boxes at a football stadium, and a projection and audio system that allows for maximum flexibility. All you have to figure out how to do is operate the portable Snickers Bar sized translation unit that are being charged at the back of the room.

Clearly, I wasn't wise enough to know how they operated. Not only did I report that they weren't working, when I went into the hall to show a Pakistani Brother where his place would be and how to use the equipment (this was 45 minutes before the first session) - that the units weren't lit and that taking them out and pressing the power button produced nothing on the small screen - but later in the day when I was trying to help the French-speaking Brother from Africa who was seated next to me by showing him where and how those translation units worked, the damn things didn't work even, even though the problem to the power units was explained to me (the unit had been turned off... the switch was in an obvious position). It turns out that you need to plug in one of the earphones before the unit even thinks about turning on. One you plug an earphone in, it's as happy as a clam and works very well. Who knew?

By the time we started in the Aula Magna, everyone was there with a quiet sort of excitement. There were the expected instructions - "Here is how you use the translation units!" - and an inspirational short talk by Br. Robert Schieler, the Superior General. Then the General Secretary, Br. Antxon, went through many of the needed details, with slides above his head to match, after which Br. Robert Schieler said: "I now declare this General Chapter officially open" - or words to that effect. One the "rules" that we were told is that photos or recordings of the sessions were not permitted; there were official photographers taking photos. Therefore, the photo below is probably the only photo that you will see from my position among the rows.

It is worth mentioning that the seats are attached in such a way that they swing out and back under the top counter, but the space between you and the person behind you is rather small. If someone seated in the middle wanted (or needed) to leave, they would have to ask the person seated near the end to either move into the aisle or to scrunch up to edge of the top counter so that they could squeeze behind them. Not the most optimal design, in the opinion of some. I was blessed in scoring an aisle seat, as it were. (They are spread out alphabetically from the front row to the back.)

The official preliminaries took a good 60-90 minutes, after which there was a welcome coffee break. When we returned, we tried out the voting system with some imagined resolutions - "Proposition to have a weel-long online session after this three-week in-person session." - and the Preparatory Committee provided an overview of what they proposed for the flow and substance of our time together. The "Capitulants" will vote on this later in the week.

After a decent break for lunch and siesta (Noon to 3 pm) we regathered in the Aula Magna. After lunch, I used the opportunity to to with Br. John Fernando to a nearby grocery store for "supplies" for the Den, which is the English-language lounge in the basement. We are making it available to those Brothers who would like to use it, and I'll let you guess what "supplies" refer to. When the group resumed, they introduced a Salesian Sister from Nicaragua who would be our facilitator, Sr. Leslie Sandigo Ortega. She jumped right into her role and had the Spanish, French, and English groups gather in different parts of the room. First they had to take a selfie, which I could only do with a small part of the group.

After that, we had to come up with a greeting to their Lasallian colleagues back home that would be filmed. Quick creativity was called for. The Spanish and French folks looked like they were organizing themselves well. The English group stood around staring at one another and wondering what to do. Finally, when crunch time came, Br. Armin suggested the word "Animo!" and we ended up shouting that into the camera. It had the virtue of being short, loud, and easy to do.

What followed was a very interesting and rather good process, whereby the participants had to schedule "appointments" for five time periods from 10 to 20 minutes with either one or more Brothers. The purpose was to share the answers to some questions about our hopes, fears, vocation stories, etc. with different English-speakers in the room (in my case). The last task was to decide on a word that represented our commitment to the upcoming session. My small group of four Brothers decided on "Prophetic Encounter" as our best description. 

Then we all met in another location to share out group words and the "whys" behind them. Some three hours later, we had a rather impressive set of words that I unfortunately failed to record but will provide in a later post. Sr. Leslie pointed out that ALL of those words were important, just as all of our contributions were important, and that we should think about and apply those principles as we move ahead with the process.

By now, it was close to 6:00 pm. We were given ten minutes to get into our robes and then to show up at the front steps of the Casa Generalizia where our "first photo" would be taken. The picture taking, along with a swooping drone that we had to wave at several times, took another twenty minutes. Then it was into the main church for our opening Mass. The main celebrant was Cardina Michale Czerny, S.J. , who was just appointed by Pope Francis to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He gave a very nice homily, telling us the the encyclical "Fratelli Tutti" was our very own encyclical since it was part of our vocation to encourage and support sibling relationships within society, which was one of the only ways that the planet might yet be saved. Powerful stuff.

After this, we went to the dining room for a festive opening meal. It ended around 9:30 pm when the dolce (cake) was served. A long long day with lots of activities. And it only the first day!