The theme for SYLC 2006 is the theme of the year for the Salesian Province in the western United States…

Celebrate Family! Be Home for Others!

2006 is the Year of the Dog! (according to the lunar calendar)

2006 is the Year of the Mobile Malware (Virus)! (according to CNET News.com)

2006 is the Year of Study Abroad! (according to the United States Senate)

2006 is the Year of Mozart! (according to the Austrians)

2006 is the Year of Sigmund Freud! (according to Medical News Today)

To the worldwide Salesian Family 2006 is the Year of the Family!

It has been a long-standing tradition that the Salesian Family, on an annual basis, is given a theme for the year.  The theme for 2006, proposed by Fr. Pascual Chavez, the 9th successor of Don Bosco as the head of the Salesian Congregation, is “Ensure that special attention be given to the family, the cradle of life and love, where one first learns how to become human.”  The focus of this theme is the family.  The attention given to family is not only to the Salesian Family in the local communities and ministries, but especially to the formation and celebration of families where each and everyone comes from, where the young people we are called to serve reflect their parents’ approach to life.

This theme is obviously not new.  As a matter of fact, in Renewing the Vision, the United States National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ framework for Catholic Youth Ministry, one of the themes of a comprehensive vision of youth ministry is family friendly.  It states, “The home is the Domestic Church, the ‘first and vital cell of society,’ the primary educators of faith and virtues.” It further states, “The family has the mission to ‘guard, reveal, and communicate love.’ The family is the central place where the community of life and love are celebrated.”

To integrate and contextualize this theme into our community and ministerial lives the Salesian Province Community of San Francisco proposes a theme for the ministerial year 2006-2007: Celebrate Family! Be Home for Others!  This is based on the reflection of the province youth ministry team and youth ministry leaders in the province on the proposed theme from Fr. Pascual Chavez.  It also takes into account the school calendar, the cycle that most local communities and ministries in the United States follow.  The ministry year begins in July and ends in June the following calendar year.

Celebrate Family! Be Home for Others!  As a province community, and in our local communities, we are called to celebrate what is right with our world and with our family life.  We are called to focus on one of the dimensions of the Salesian oratory model: HOME.  This dimension invites us and challenges us to be welcoming and open to all members of the Salesian Family, especially young people and their families.  It also challenges us to network and to collaborate in finding ways to form and educate families, the cradle of life and love for all.