The Regulations of Apostolic Life were drawn up in 1986. Faithful to the ideas of the Founder, they followed the Magisterium of the second Vatican Council and set out the identity of Cooperators as humanly mature people; convinced practising Christians; laity aware of their vocation as baptised Christians called to take part in the mission of the Church in the world; authentic Salesians striving for holiness, sharing and bringing their concern for education everywhere, a key element in Don Bosco's apostolic project. The founding element of their experience of faith and the way they live and conduct themselves is "being Salesians", namely, possessing that heritage of spiritual and educational values bequeathed by Don Bosco and by Mother Maria Domenica Mazzarello (co-foundress with Don Bosco of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians) which leads them to give pride of place to the following areas of action: the family, to foster its growth as a community of persons founded on love and educational relations; the school and educational institutions, to provide a comprehensive education to young people through a pedagogy imbued with the Salesian spirit; youth centres, to promote the healthy and creative use of free time, receptive to such values as friendship, solidarity, and commitment to others; the parish and the oratory, to cooperate in animating youth groups, combining education with evangelisation; social communication, which creates culture and disseminates models of living among the people so as to bring the love for truth, concern for education, and preference for positive messages into the world of the mass media; politics, social services, voluntary service, to make the institutions more attentive to the common good, to young people, to the idea of prevention in order to solve problems; the world of labour, to bear witness and promote an ethic of service, solidarity with the weakest and concern for the needs of the unemployed, moving beyond the rationale of pure economic efficiency.
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