Today I bid you farewell for the last time from this page of the Salesian Bulletin. On 16 August, the day we commemorate Don Bosco’s birth, my service as Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco ends.
It is always a reason to give thanks! First of all to God, to the Congregation and the Salesian Family, to so many dear people and friends, to so many friends of Don Bosco’s charism, the many benefactors.

            On this occasion too, my greeting conveys something I have experienced recently. Hence the title of this greeting: A mixture of admiration and sorrow. Let me tell you about the joy that filled my heart in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, wounded by an interminable war, and the joy and testimony I received yesterday.
            Three weeks ago, after visiting Uganda (in the Palabek refugee camp which, thanks to Salesian help and work in recent years, is no longer a camp for Sudanese refugees but a place where tens of thousands of people have settled and found a new life), I crossed Rwanda and arrived at the border in the region of Goma, a wonderful area, beautiful and rich in nature (and precisely for this reason so desired and desirable). Well, because of the armed conflicts, there are more than a million displaced people in that region who have had to leave their homes and their land. We too had to leave our Salesian presence in Sha-Sha, which was occupied militarily.
            This million displaced people arrived in the city of Goma. In Gangi, one of the districts, there is the Don Bosco Salesian work. I was immensely happy to see the good that is being done there. Hundreds of boys and girls have a home. Dozens of teenagers have been taken off the streets and are living in the Don Bosco house. It was there, because of the war, that 82 newborn babies and young boys and girls who lost their parents or were left behind (‘abandoned’) because their parents could not look after them, found a home.
            And there, in that new Valdocco, one of the many Valdocco’s around the world, a community of three Sisters from San Salvador, together with a group of women, all supported by the Salesian house with aid that arrives thanks to the generosity of benefactors and Providence, take care of these little boys and girls. When I went to visit them, the Sisters had dressed everyone up, even the children sleeping in their cots. How could I not feel my heart filled with joy at this reality of goodness, despite the pain caused by abandonment and war!
            But my heart was touched when I met several hundred people who came to greet me on the occasion of my visit. They are among the 32,000 displaced people who left their homes and their land because of the bombs and came to seek refuge. They found it in the fields and grounds of the Don Bosco house in Gangi. They have nothing, they live in shacks of a few square metres. This is their reality. Together every day we look for a way to find food for them. But do you know what struck me most? What impressed me most was that when I was with these hundreds of people, mostly elderly people and mothers with children, they had not lost their dignity and had not lost their joy or their smile. I was amazed and my heart was saddened by so much suffering and poverty, even though we are doing our part in the name of the Lord.

An extraordinary concert
            I experienced another great joy when I received a testimony of life that made me think of the teenagers and young people in our presence, and of the many children of parents who may be reading me and who feel that their children are unmotivated, bored by life, or have no passion for almost anything. Among the guests in our house these days was an extraordinary pianist who has toured the world giving concerts and has been part of great philharmonic orchestras. She is a former pupil of the Salesians and had a Salesian, now deceased, as a great reference and model. She wanted to offer us this concert in the atrium of the Sacred Heart Church as a homage to Mary Help of Christians, whom she loves so much, and as a thank you for all that her life has been so far.
            And I say the latter because our dear friend gave us a wonderful concert, with exceptional quality at the age of 81. She was accompanied by her daughter. And at that age, perhaps when some of our elders in the family have long since said that they no longer want to do anything, or do anything that requires effort, our dear friend, who practises the piano every day, moved her hands with wonderful agility and was immersed in the beauty of music and its performance. Good music, a generous smile at the end of her performance, and the handing over of orchids to Our Lady Help of Christians were all we needed on that wonderful morning. And my Salesian heart could not help but think of those boys, girls and young people who perhaps have had or no longer have anything to motivate them in their lives. She, our concert pianist friend, lives with great serenity at 81 years of age and, as she told me, continues to offer the gift God has given her and every day she finds more and more reasons to do so.
            Another lesson in life and another testimony that does not leave one’s heart indifferent.

            Thank you, my friends, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the good we are doing together. However small it may be, it contributes to making our world a little more human and more beautiful. May the good Lord bless you.

The series of Don Bosco’s ‘dreams’ begins with the one he had at the age of nine, around 1824. It is one of the most important, if not the most important, because it points to a mission entrusted by Providence that takes concrete form in a particular charism in the Church. Many others will follow, most of them collected in the Biographical Memoirs and taken up in other publications dedicated to this subject. We propose to present the most relevant ones in several subsequent articles.

            When I was about nine years old I had a dream that left a profound
impression on me for the rest of my life. I dreamed that I was near my home, in a very large playing field where a crowd of children were having fun. Some were laughing, others were playing and not a few were cursing. I was so shocked at their language that I jumped into their midst, swinging wildly and shouting at them to stop. At that moment a Man appeared, nobly attired, with a manly and imposing bearing. He was clad with a white flowing mantle and his face radiated
such light that I could not look directly at him. He called me by my name and told me to place myself as leader over those boys, adding the words:
“You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows, but with gentleness and kindness. So begin right now to show them that sin is ugly and virtue beautiful.”
Confused and afraid, I replied that I was only a boy and unable to talk to these youngsters about religion. At that moment the fighting, shouting and cursing stopped and the crowd of boys gathered about the Man who was now talking. Almost unconsciously I asked:
“But how can you order me to do something that looks so impossible?”
“What seems so impossible you must achieve by being obedient and  by acquiring knowledge.”
“But where, how?”
“I will give you a Teacher, under whose guidance you will learn and without whose help all knowledge becomes foolishness.”
“But who are you?”
“I am the Son of Her whom your mother has taught you to greet three times a day.”
“My mother told me not to talk to people I don’t know, unless she gives me permission. So, please tell me your name.”
“Ask my mother.”
“At that moment I saw beside him a Lady of majestic appearance, wearing a beautiful mantle glowing as if bedecked with stars. She saw my confusion mount; so she beckoned me to her. Taking my hand with great kindness she said:
“Look!”
I did so. All the children had vanished. In their place I saw many animals: goats, dogs, cats, bears and a variety of others.
“This is your field, this is where you must work,” the Lady told me. “Make yourself humble, steadfast and strong. And what you will see happen to these animals you will have to do for my children.”
“I looked again; the wild animals had turned into as many lambs, gentle gamboling Iambs, bleating a welcome for that Man and Lady. At this point of my dream I started to cry and begged the Lady to explain what it all meant because I was so utterly confused. She then placed her hand on my head and said: “In due time everything will be clear to you.”
After she had spoken these words, some noise awoke me; everything had vanished. I was completely bewildered. Somehow my hands still seemed to ache and my cheeks still stung because of all the fighting. Moreover, my conversation with that Man and Lady so disturbed my mind that I was unable to sleep any longer that night.
In the morning I could barely wait to tell about my dream. When my brothers heard it, they burst out laughing. I then told my mother and grandmother. Each one who heard it gave it a different interpretation. My brother Joseph said: “You’re going to become a shepherd and take care of goats, sheep and livestock.” My mother’s comment was: “Who knows? Maybe you will become a priest.” Dryly, Anthony muttered: “You might become the leader of a gang of robbers.” But my very religious, illiterate grandmother, had the last word: “You mustn’t pay any attention to dreams.”
I felt the same way about it, yet I could never get that dream out of my head. What I am about to relate may give some new insight to it. I never brought up the matter and my relatives gave no importance to it. But in 1858, when I went to Rome to confer with the Pope about the Salesian Congregation, Pius IX asked me to tell him everything that might have even only the slightest bearing on the supernatural. Then for the first time I told him the dream that I had when I was nine. The Pope ordered me to write it in detail for the encouragement of the members of the Congregation, for whose sake I had gone to Rome.
(Memoirs of the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales. John Bosco; BM I, 95-96)

The Holy Spirit unceasingly continues the hidden work in souls, leading them to holiness. Not a few members of the Salesian Family have led lives worthy of the title of Christian: consecrated men and women, lay people, young people, have lived their lives in faith, bringing God’s grace to their neighbours. It is up to the General Postulation of the Salesians of Don Bosco to study their lives and writings and propose to the Church that it recognise their holiness.
A few days ago, the new headquarters for the Postulation was opened. We hope that the new facilities will be an opportunity for a renewed commitment to the causes of canonisation, not only on the part of those who work directly on the causes, but also for all those who can make a contribution. Let us be guided in this by the Postulator General for the Causes of Saints, Fr Pierluigi Cameroni.

It is necessary to express deep gratitude and praise to God for the holiness already recognized in the Salesian Family of Don Bosco and for that in the process of being recognized. The outcome of a Cause of Beatification and Canonization is an event of extraordinary importance and ecclesial value. In fact, it is a matter of discerning the reputation of holiness of a baptized person, who has lived the Gospel Beatitudes to a heroic degree or who has given his life for Christ.
From Don Bosco to the present day, there is evidence of a tradition of holiness to which attention should be given, because it is the incarnation of the charism that originated from him and was expressed in a plurality of states of life and forms. These are men and women, young people and adults, consecrated persons and lay people, bishops and missionaries who, in historical, cultural and social contexts of different times and space, have made the Salesian charism shine with a singular light, representing a patrimony that plays an effective role in the life and community of believers and for people of good will.

The commitment to spread the knowledge, imitation and intercession of the members of our family who are candidates for holiness

Tips for promoting a Cause.

– Encourage prayer through the intercession of the Blessed, Venerable Servant of God, through images (also relics ex-indumentis), brochures, books… to be spread in families, parishes, religious houses, spirituality centers, hospitals to ask for the grace of miracles and favors through the intercession of the Blessed, Venerable Servant of God.

– The diffusion of the novena Blessed, Venerable Servant of God, invoking his intercession in various cases of material and spiritual need, is particularly effective.
Two formative elements are emphasized: the value of insistent and trusting prayer and that of community prayer. Let us recall the biblical episode of Naam the Syrian (2 Kings 5:1-14), where we see several elements: the signalling of the man of God by a maiden, the injunction to bathe seven times in the Jordan, the indignant and resentful refusal, the wisdom and insistence of Naam’s servants,

Naam’s obedience, the obtaining not only of physical healing but of salvation. Let us also recall the description of the first community of Jerusalem, when it is stated: “All these persevered and with one accord in prayer, together with some of the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren” (Acts 1:14).

– It is advisable, every month, on the day of the date of death of the Blessed (Venerable) Servant of God, to take care of a moment of prayer and commemoration.

– Publish quarterly or quarterly a Sheet that informs about the journey of the Cause, particular anniversaries and events, testimonies, thank you… to emphasize that the Cause is alive and accompanied.

– Organize a Commemorative Day once a year, highlighting particular aspects or anniversaries of the figure of the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God, involving groups that are particularly “interested” in his or her witness (e.g. priests, religious, young people, families, doctors, missionaries…).

– Collect and document the graces and favors that are attributed to the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God. It is useful to have a notebook in which to write down and report the graces asked for and those received, as a testimony to the reputation of both holiness and signs. In particular, if it is a matter of healings and/or alleged miracles, it is important to urgently collect all medical documentation that proves the case and evidence attesting to intercession.

– To set up a committee that undertakes to promote this Cause also in view of the Beatification and Canonization. The members of this Committee should be persons particularly sensitive to the promotion of the Cause: representatives of the diocese and parish of origin, leaders of groups and associations, doctors (for the study of alleged miracles), historians, theologians and experts in spirituality…

– Promote knowledge through the writing of biography, critical editions of writings and other multimedia productions.

– Periodically present the figure of the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God in the Parish Bulletin and in the diocesan newspaper, in the Salesian Bulletin.

– Have a website or a link dedicated to the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God with his/her life, data and news relating to the Cause of Beatification and Canonization, request for prayers, notification of graces…

– Review and tidy up the environments where he/she has lived. Organize an exhibition space. Develop a spiritual itinerary in his footsteps, enhancing places (birthplace, church, living environments…) and signs.

– To organize an archive with all the catalogued and computerized documentation relating to the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God.

– To create an economic fund to support both the expenses of the Postulation of the Cause and the work of promotion and animation of the Cause itself.

– To promote works of charity and education in the name of the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God, through projects, twinnings…

Pay special attention to alleged miracles!

– To take care of our “theological” gaze to grasp the miracles that take place every day in our lives and around us.
– To pray and to have others pray for the various cases that arise and to ask that through the intercession of a Servant of God or Venerable or Blessed, the Lord intervene with his grace and work not only a miracle objectively concerning bodily health, but also a true and sincere conversion.
– To make people better understand what a “demonstrable” miracle is and what it is used for in a Cause of canonization, showing not only the scientific, medical but also the theological aspect.
– Appoint a person in charge to communicate and report graces and alleged miracles. Following a Cause to certify a miracle is a very great commitment for a promoter who must demonstrate true love for the Servant of God.
– To raise awareness that we must have more faith in the intercession of our saints.
– Communicate when we ask for a grace to unite in prayer. Don’t get tired of praying.
– Follow better and personally the people to whom you give the material (novenas, holy cards, etc.) and also carefully choose the places where to do it.
– It is important to sensitize the faithful to continuous prayer sustained by great faith and always ready to accept God’s will. We can learn by looking at the lives and sufferings of our Saints.
– In addition to prayers, it is important to be close to families who have great problems and to give them some relics.
– In the case of an alleged miracle, it is necessary to proceed rigorously by using a scientific methodology in collecting evidence, testimonies, medical opinions, etc., and possibly by ordering all the information in chronological sequence.

A miracle is composed of two essential elements: the scientific and the theological. The second, however, presupposes the first.

You need to prepare

1. A brief and accurate report on the particular circumstances of the case; This consists in a chronological case of all the elements of the prodigious fact, both those concerning the scientific and the theological elements. The chronological case involves: generality of the healed; symptoms of the disease, chronology of medical-scientific events; indication of the decisive hours of recovery, clarification of the diagnosis and prognosis of the case, highlighting all the research performed. Outline the therapy followed, explain the mode of healing, i.e. when the last observation was made before healing, the completeness of the healing, presented in great detail, and the permanence of the healing.

2. A list of texts that can contribute to the search for the truth of the case (healed, relatives, doctors, nurses, people who have prayed…).

3. All documents related to the case. Medical, clinical, and instrumental documents (e.g., medical records, medical reports, laboratory tests, and instrumental investigations) are required for alleged miraculous healings.

Initial discernment before initiating a cause

First of all, it is necessary, on the part of the Provincial and his Council or of the Superior or Head of a group, to investigate and document with the greatest diligence about the fama sanctitatis et signorum of the candidate and the relevance of the Cause, in order to verify the truth of the facts and the consequent formation of a reasoned moral certainty. Moreover, it is essential that the Cause in question affects a significant and significant portion of the People of God and is not the intention of only some group, if not even of some person. All this involves a more motivated and documented initial discernment, to avoid dispersion of energies, forces, times and resources.
It is then essential to identify the right person (Vice Postulator) who takes the Cause to heart and has the time and opportunity to follow it in all its stages.
It should also be remembered that starting and continuing a Cause requires a considerable investment of resources in terms of people and financial contributions.

Conclusion

Sanctity recognized, or in the process of being recognized, on the one hand is already the realization of evangelical radicalism and fidelity to Don Bosco’s apostolic project, to which we look as a spiritual and pastoral resource; on the other hand, it is a provocation to live one’s vocation faithfully in order to be available to bear witness to love to the extreme. Our Saints, Blesseds, Venerables and Servants of God are the authentic incarnation of the Salesian charism and of the Constitutions or Regulations of our Institutes and Groups in the most diverse times and situations, overcoming that worldliness and spiritual superficiality that undermine our credibility and fruitfulness at the root. The saints are true mystics of the primacy of God in the generous gift of self, prophets of evangelical fraternity, servants of their brothers and sisters with creativity.

The path of holiness is a journey to be made together, in the company of the saints. Holiness is experienced together and attained together. The saints are always in company: where there is one, we always find many others. The sanctity of daily life makes communion flourish and is a “relational” generator. Holiness is nourished by relationships, by confidence, by communion. Truly, as the Church’s liturgy makes us pray in the preface of the saints: “In their lives you offer us an example, in intercession a help, in the communion of grace a bond of fraternal love. Comforted by their testimony, let us face the good fight of faith, to share the same crown of glory beyond death.”

(continuation from previous article)

Chapter XIII. Institution of the Feast of Mary Help of Christians.

            The marvellous way in which Pius VII was freed from his imprisonment is the great event that gave occasion for the institution of the feast of Mary Help of Christians.
            The Emperor Napoleon I had already in several ways oppressed the Supreme Pontiff, stripping him of his possessions, dispersing Cardinals, Bishops, Priests and Monks, and likewise depriving them of their goods. After this Napoleon demanded things from the Pope that he could not grant. To Pius VII’s refusal, the Emperor responded with violence and sacrilege. The Pope was arrested in his own palace and with Cardinal Pacca, his secretary, taken on a forced journey to Savona where the persecuted but still glorious Pontiff spent over five years in severe imprisonment. But since where there is the Pope there is the Head of Religion and therefore the concurrence of all true Catholics, so Savona became in a certain way another Rome. So many demonstrations of affection moved the Emperor to envy, wanting the Vicar of Jesus Christ humiliated; and therefore he commanded that the Pontiff be moved to Fontainebleau, which is a castle not far from Paris.
            While the Head of the Church groaned as a prisoner separated from his advisers and friends, all that remained for Christians to do was to imitate the faithful of the early Church when St Peter was in prison, to pray. The venerable Pontiff prayed, and with him all Catholics prayed, imploring the help of She who is called: Magnum in Ecclesia praesidium: Great Presidium in the Church. It is commonly believed that the Pontiff promised the Blessed Virgin to establish a feast to honour the august title of Mary Help of Christians, should he be able to return to Rome on the Papal throne. Meanwhile everything smiled on the terrible conqueror. After he had made his dreaded name resound throughout the land, walking from victory to victory, he had taken his weapons to the coldest regions of Russia, believing he would find new triumphs there; but divine Providence had instead prepared disasters and defeats for him.
            Mary, moved to pity by the groans of the Vicar of Jesus Christ and the prayers of her children, changed the fate of Europe and the whole world in a moment.
            The rigours of winter in Russia and the disloyalty of many French generals dashed all of Napoleon’s hopes. Most of that formidable army perished frostbitten or buried in snow. The few troops spared from the rigours of the cold abandoned the Emperor and he had to flee, retreat to Paris and deliver himself into the hands of the British, who took him prisoner to the island of Elba. Then justice was able to take its course again; the Pontiff was quickly set free; Rome welcomed him with the greatest enthusiasm, and the Head of Christendom, now free and independent, was able to resume the administration of the universal Church. Having been freed in this way, Pius VII immediately wished to give a public sign of gratitude to the Blessed Virgin by whose intercession the whole world recognised his unexpected freedom. Accompanied by some Cardinals, he went to Savona where he crowned the prodigious image of Mercy that is venerated in that city; and with an unprecedented crowd in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel I and other Princes, the majestic function was held in which the Pope placed a crown of gems and diamonds on the head of the venerable effigy of Mary.
            Returning then to Rome, he wished to fulfil the second part of his promise by instituting a special feast in the Church, to attest to posterity that great prodigy.
            Considering, then, how at all times the Blessed Virgin has always been proclaimed the help of Christians, he relied on what St Pius V had done after the victory of Lepanto by ordering the words to be inserted into the Loreto Litany: Auxilium Christianorum ora pro nobis; explaining and expanding more and more the fourth feast day that Pope Innocent XI had decreed when he instituted the feast of the name of Mary; Pius VII, in order to perpetually commemorate the prodigious liberation of himself, the Cardinals, the Bishops and the freedom restored to the Church, and so that there might be a perpetual monument to it among all Christian peoples, instituted the feast of Mary Help of Christians to be celebrated every year on 24 May. That day was chosen because it was on that day in the year 1814 that he was set free and was able to return to Rome to the liveliest applause of the Romans. (Those who wish to learn more about what we have briefly set out here can consult Artaud: Vita di Pio VII. Moroni article Pius VII. P. Carini: Il sabato santificato. Carlo Ferreri: Corona di fiori etc. Discursus praedicabiles super litanias Lauretanas by Fr. Giuseppe Miecoviense). As long as he lived, the glorious Pontiff Pius VII promoted the cult of Mary; he approved associations and Confraternities dedicated to Her, and granted many Indulgences to pious practices done in Her honour. One fact alone is enough to demonstrate the great veneration of this Pontiff towards Mary Help of Christians.
            In the year 1817 a painting was completed that was to be placed in Rome in the church of S. Maria in Monticelli directed by the Priests of the Christian doctrine. On 11 May that painting was brought to the Pontiff in the Vatican so that he could bless it, and impose a title on it. As soon as he saw the devout image, he felt such great emotion in his heart, that without any prevention, he instantly burst out in the magnificent preface: Maria Auxilium Christianorum, ora pro nobis. These words of the Holy Father were echoed by the devout Sons of Mary and at the first unveiling of that (15th of the same month) there was a real rapture of people, joy and devotion. The offerings and fervent prayers have continued to the present day. So that it can be said that that image is continually surrounded by devotees who ask for and obtain graces through the intercession of Mary, Help of Christians.

Chapter XIV. Finding of the image of Maria Auxilium Christianorum in Spoleto.

            In recounting the story of the discovery of the prodigious image of Maria Auxilium Christianorum in the vicinity of Spoleto, we literally transcribe the report made by Monsignor Arnaldi Archbishop of that city.
            In the Parish of St Luke between Castelrinaldi and Montefalco Archdiocese of Spoleto, in the open countryside far from the town and off the road, there existed on the summit of a small hill an ancient image of the Blessed Virgin Mary painted in fresco in a niche in the attitude of embracing the Child Jesus. Next to this, four images representing St Bartholomew, St Sebastian, St Blaise and St Roch appear to have been altered by time. Exposed to the elements for a long time, they had not only lost their vividness, but had almost entirely disappeared. Only the venerable image of Mary and the Child Jesus has been well preserved. There is still a remnant of a wall that shows that a church existed there. For as long as anyone can remember, this place was totally forgotten, and was reduced to a den of reptiles and particularly snakes.
            For several months already, this venerable image had somehow encouraged veneration by means of a voice repeatedly heard by a not-yet-five-year-old boy named Henry, calling him by name and addressing him in a way not well expressed by the boy himself. However, it did not attract the public’s attention until 19 March in the year 1862.
            A young peasant from the surrounding area, aged thirty, subsequently aggravated by many ills which had become chronic, and abandoned by his doctors, felt inspired to go and venerate the above-mentioned image. He declared that, after commending himself to the Blessed Virgin in this place, he felt his lost strength restored, and in a few days, without the use of any natural remedy, he returned to perfect health. Other people likewise, without knowing how or why, felt a natural impulse to go and venerate this holy image, and they reported reported graces from it. These events brought back to memory and to discussion among the people of Terrazzana the by now dormant voice of the above-mentioned child to whom no credit and importance had naturally been given, as it should have been. It was then that it became known how the child’s mother had lost him in the circumstances of the supposed apparition and could not find him, and finally found him near a high, crumbling little church. It is also known how a good living woman, afflicted by God with grave afflictions, announced at her death a year ago that the Blessed Virgin wanted to be venerated there, that a church would be built and that the faithful would flock there in great numbers.
            In fact, it is true that a great number of people, not only from the diocese, but also from the neighbouring dioceses of Todi, Perugia, Fuligno, Nocera, Narni, Norcia, etc., flock to the place, and the number grows from day to day, especially on feast days, to five or six thousand. This is the greatest miracle that has been truly reported, since it is not seen in other prodigious discoveries.
            The great concourse of the faithful who flock from all sides as if led by a light and a celestial force, a spontaneous concourse, an inexplicable and inexpressible concourse, is the miracle of miracles. The very enemies of the Church, also those whose faith is weak, are forced to confess that they cannot explain this sacred enthusiasm of the people…. Many are the infirm who are said to have been healed, the prodigious and singular graces bestowed are many, and although it is necessary to proceed with the utmost caution to discern rumours from facts, it seems undoubtedly true that a civilised woman lay afflicted with a mortal illness and was healed by invoking that sacred image. A young man from the Villa of St James, who had his feet crushed by the wheels of a cart and was forced to stand on crutches, visited the holy image and felt such an improvement that he threw away his crutches and was able to return home without them, and is perfectly free. Other cures also occurred.
            It must not be forgotten that some unbelievers, having gone to visit the holy image and mocked it, came to the place and, against their better judgement, felt the need to kneel down and pray, and returned with completely different feelings, speaking publicly of Mary’s wonders. The change produced in these corrupt people of mind and heart made a holy impression on the people. (Archbishop Arnaldi so far).
            This Archbishop wanted to go himself with numerous clergy and his Vicar to the place of the image to ascertain the truth of the facts, and he found thousands of devotees there. He ordered the restoration of the effigy, which was broken in various parts, and having already collected the sum of six hundred scudi in pious donations, he commissioned skilful artists to design a church, insisting that the foundations be laid with the utmost care.
            To further the glory of Mary and the devotion of the faithful to so great a Mother, he ordered that the niche where the miraculous image is venerated be temporarily but decently covered, and that an altar be erected there to celebrate Holy Mass.
            These dispositions were of indescribable consolation to the faithful, and from then on the number of people from all walks of life grew daily.
            The devout image had no title of its own, and the pious Archbishop judged that it should be venerated under the name of Auxilium Christianorum as seemed most suitable to the attitude it presented. He also provided that there should always be a priest in custody of the Sanctuary or at least some layman of known probity.
            This prelate’s report ends with an account of a new trait of Mary’s goodness worked behind the invocation at the ‘feet’ of this image.
            “A young girl from Acquaviva was a postualnt at this Monastery of St Mary of the Star, where she was to wear the habit of a conversa. She was struck down by a general rheumatic illness so that all her limbs paralysed, and she was forced to return to her family.
            “No matter how many remedies were tried by her good parents, she could never be cured; and four years had passed since she had been lying in bed, the victim of her chronic condition. On hearing the graces of this miraculous effigy, she wished to be taken there in a carriage, and as soon as she found herself before the venerable image, she experienced a remarkable improvement. Other singular graces are said to have been obtained by people from Fuligno.
            “Devotion to Mary is always growing in a way that is most consoling to my heart. May God always be blessed who in his mercy has deigned to revive the faith throughout Umbria with the prodigious manifestation of his great Mother Mary. Blessed be the Blessed Virgin who with this manifestation deigned to point out in preference the Archdiocese of Spoleto.
            Blessed be Jesus and Mary who with this merciful manifestation open the hearts of Catholics to a more lively hope.

            Spoleto, 17 May 1862.”

† GIOVANNI BATTISTA ARNALDI.

            Thus, the venerable image of Mary Help of Christians near Spoleto painted in 1570, which remained almost three centuries without honour, has risen to the highest glory in our times because of the graces that the Queen of Heaven bestows on her devotees in that place: and that humble place has become a true sanctuary, where people from all over the world flock. The devout and beneficent children of Mary gave signs of gratitude with conspicuous donations through which the foundations of a majestic church could be laid, which will soon reach its desired completion.

(continued)

(continuation from previous article)

The market for young workers
            The historical time in which Don Bosco lived was not one of the happiest. In the neighbourhoods of Turin, the saintly educator discovered a real “market for young workers”: the city was becoming more and more full of inhumanly exploited minors.
            Don Bosco himself remembers that the first boys he was able to approach were “stonemasons, bricklayers, plasterers, flint makers and others, who came from distant towns. They were employed everywhere, unprotected by any law.” They were “peddlers, match sellers, shoe shiners, chimney sweeps, stable boys, street sweepers, shopkeepers at the market, all poor boys living by the day.” He saw them climbing on bricklayers’ scaffolds, looking for a job as an apprentice in the shops, wandering around calling themselves chimney sweeps. He saw them playing for money on street corners: if he tried to approach them, they would turn away wary and contemptuous. They were not the boys from the Becchi, looking for tales or sleight of hand. They were the “wolves” of his dreams; they were the first effects of a revolution that would shock the world, the industrial revolution.
            They arrived by the hundreds from small towns in the city, looking for work. They found nothing but squalid places in which the whole family was crammed, without air, without light, fetid from dampness and sewers. In the factories and workshops, no hygienic measures, no regulations except those imposed by the master.
            Escape from the poverty of the countryside to the city also meant accepting poor wages or adapting to a risky standard of living in order to have something to gain. It was only in 1886 that early legislation was made, thanks also to the zeal of the artisans’ priest, which in some way regulated child labour. In the building sites under construction, Don Bosco saw “children from eight to twelve years old, far from their own country, serving the masons, spending their days up and down unsafe scaffolding, in the sun, in the wind, climbing steep ladders laden with lime, with bricks, with no other educational help than rude ramblings or beatings.”
            Don Bosco quickly drew the line. Those boys needed a school and a job that would open up a more secure future for them: they needed to be boys first and foremost, to live the exuberance of their age, without moping on the pavements and crowding the prisons. The social reality of our own times seems to resonate with that of yesterday: other immigrants, other faces knock like a river in flood at the doors of our consciences.
            Don Bosco was an educator gifted with intuition, a practical sense, reluctant towards solutions arrived at around a table, abstruse methodologies and abstract projects. The educational page is written by the saint with his life, before it was by his pen. It was the most convincing way to make an educational system credible. To deal with injustice, with the moral and material exploitation of minors, he created schools, organised trade workshops of all kinds, invented and promoted contractual initiatives to protect children, encouraged consciences with qualified proposals for job training. He responded to empty palace politics and street demonstrations with efficient reception structures, innovative social services, the object of respect and admiration even of the most ardent anticlericals of the time. And today’s story is not so different from yesterday’s; moreover, history wears the dress that its tailors make with their own hands and ideas.
            Don Bosco believed in the boy, he relied on his abilities, whether they were few or many, visible or hidden. A friend of so many street children, he knew how to read the hidden potential for goodness in their hearts. He was able to dig inside the life of each one and pull out precious resources to tailor the dress to the dignity of his young friends. A pedagogy that does not touch the essence of the person and does not know how to combine the eternal values of each creature, outside of all historical and cultural logic, runs the risk of intervening on abstract persons or only on the surface.
            The impact he made was crucial. He looked around, everywhere: he saw and created the impossible to realise his holy utopias. He came into contact with the extreme realities of juvenile delinquency. He entered prisons: he was able to look inside this scourge with courage and a priestly spirit. It was the experience that marked him deeply. He approached the city’s ills with keen and active involvement: he was aware of the so many youngsters waiting for someone to take care of them. He saw with his heart and mind their human traumas, he even cried, but he did not stop at the prison grill; he managed to shout with the strength of his heart, to those he met, that prison is not the home to be received as a gift from life, but that there is another way of living. He shouted this with concrete choices to those voices coming from the unhealthy cells, and with gestures of closeness to the multitude of boys on the streets, blinded by ignorance and frozen by people’s indifference. It was the nagging of a lifetime: to prevent so many from ending up behind bars or hanging from the gallows. It is not even conceivable that his Preventive System had no connection with this bitter and shocking youthful experience. Even if he wanted to, he could never have forgotten that last night spent next to a young man condemned to be hanged, or the escorting of condemned men to death and the fainting spell when he saw the gallows. How is it conceivable that his heart did not have a reaction, as he passed among the people, perhaps smug, perhaps pitying, and saw a young life snuffed out by human logic, which settles the score with those who have ended up in a ravine and do not bend down to reach out a hand to pull them out? The farmer of the Becchi, with a heart as big as the sand of the sea, was a hand always stretched out towards poor and abandoned youth.

Valuable legacy
            Everyone always leaves a trace of their passage on earth. Don Bosco left history with the embodiment of an educational method that is also a spirituality, the fruit of an educational wisdom experienced in daily toil, alongside the young. Much has been written about this precious inheritance!
            The educational field today is as complex as ever, because it moves in a disjointed cultural fabric. There is a very wide methodological pluralism of operational interventions, both socially and politically.
            The educator is faced with situations that are difficult to decipher and often contradictory, with models that are sometimes permissive, sometimes authoritarian. What is to be done? Woe to the uncertain educator, held back by doubt! Those who educate cannot live undecided and perplexed, wavering one or other way. Educating in a fragmented society is not easy. With a large class of marginalised people divided into so many fragments it is not easy to shed light; subjectivity, the self-interest, the tendency to take refuge in ephemeral and transitory ideals prevails. From the years when the tendency towards active involvement prevailed, we have moved on to rejection of or disinterest in public life, in politics: little participation, little desire for involvement.
            In addition to the absence of a centre providing stable points of reference, there is the absence of a foundation of certainties, giving young people the will to live and the love of service for others.
            And yet, in this world of provisional hegemonies, lacking a unified culture, with heterogeneous and isolated elements, new needs emerge: a better quality of life, more constructive human relations, the affirmation of solidarity centred on voluntary work. Needs for new open spaces for dialogue and encounter emerge: young people decide how, where and what to say to each other.
            In the age of bioethics, of remote control, of the search for beautiful and simple things of the earth, we are looking for a new face for pedagogy. It is the pedagogy that dresses itself in welcome, in availability, in the spirit of family that generates trust, joy, optimism, sympathy, that opens propositional horizons of hope, that searches for the means and ways to work the newness of life. It is the pedagogy of the human heart, the most precious inheritance that Don Bosco left to society.
            On this fabric, open and sensitive to prevention, a better future for today’s disturbed children must be built with courage and will. It is always possible to make Don Bosco’s pedagogical intervention present, because it is founded on the natural essence of every human being. These are the criteria of reason, religion and loving-kindness: the threefold approach on which so many young people have been formed “as upright citizens and good Christians”.
            It is not a method of study, we repeat, but a way of life, the adherence to a spirit, which contains values that come from the human being created in the image and likeness of the Creator. Extraordinary predilection for the young, profound respect for them as individuals and their freedom, the concern to combine material needs with those of the spirit, the patience to live the rhythms of growth or change in the child as an active, not passive, subject of every educational process, are the sum total of this “valuable legacy”.
            And there is another aspect. There is an open account with society: the young people of the future demand a “universal” Don Bosco, beyond the margins of his apostolic family. How many of our youngsters have never heard of Don Bosco!
            There is an urgent need to re-launch his message, which is still alive: to disregard this natural process of re-actualisation, one also runs the risk of killing off the positive signs found in today’s culture, which, albeit with different sensitivities and opposing goals and motivations, has at heart the human promotion of the child.
            Don Bosco’s pedagogy, before being translated into reflective documents, into systematic writings took on the face of the very many young people he educated. Every page of his educational system has a name, a fact, an achievement, perhaps even failures. The secret of his holiness? The young people! “For you I study, for you I work, for you I am willing to give my life.”
            To young people without love, Don Bosco gave love back. To young people without a family, because it did not exist or was physically and spiritually distant from them, Don Bosco sought to build or rebuild the family atmosphere and environment. A man endowed with a profound willingness to improve through continuous change, Don Bosco allowed himself to be guided by the certainty that all young people, practically speaking, could become better. The seed of goodness, the possibility of success was in every young person; all that was needed was to find the way: “He took to heart the fate of thousands of little vagabonds, thieves because of abandonment or misery, starving and homeless boys and girls.”
            Those whom society put on the margins, were in first place for Don Bosco; they were the object of his faith. The youngsters rejected by society even represented his glory; it was the challenge at a time in history when the attention and educational care from society and organisations was directed towards good children, in fact as much as possible.
            Don Bosco sensed the power of the educator’s love. He was not at all concerned with adapting and conforming to the systems, methods and pedagogical concepts in use at his time. He was an open enemy of an education that emphasised authority above all, that preached a cold and detached relationship between educators and pupils. Violence punished the bad ones momentarily, but did not cure the bad ones. And so he did not accept and never allowed punishment just to give an “example”, which was supposed to have a preventive effect, instilling fear, anxiety and anguish.
            He understood that no education was possible without winning the youngster’s heart; his was an educational method that led to consent, to the youngster’s participation. He was convinced that no pedagogical endeavour would bear fruit until it had its foundation in the readiness to listen.
            There is one characteristic that concerns the sphere in which education takes place and is typical of Don Bosco’s pedagogy: the creation and preservation of “joyfulness” whereby every day becomes a celebration. It was a cheerfulness that only exists, and it could not be otherwise, by virtue of creative activity, which excludes all boredom, all sense of ennui at not knowing how to occupy time. In this area Don Bosco possessed an inventiveness and skill that allowed him, with extraordinary ability, not only to entertain, but to draw young people to him through games, recitations, songs, walks: the sphere of cheerfulness represented an obligatory passage for his pedagogy.
            Young people, of course, have to discover where their error lies, and for this they need the educator’s help, including through disapproval, but this need not at all be accompanied by violence. Disapproval is an appeal to conscience. The educator must be the guide to values, not to his or her own person. In educational intervention, an excessively strong bond of the pupil to the educator can threaten the favourable effect of the educator’s educational activity; a myth, generated by emotionalism, can easily arise to the point of making an absolutised ideal. Young people must not be willing to do our will: they must learn to do what is right and meaningful for their human and existential growth. The educator works for the future, but he cannot work on the future; he must accept, therefore, to be continually exposed to the revision of his work, of his methodologies and above all he must be continually concerned to discover more and more deeply the reality of the one being educated, in order to intervene at the right moment.
            Don Bosco used to say: “it is not enough for the first circle, that is the family, to be healthy, it is also necessary for the inevitable second circle, which is formed by the child’s friends, to be healthy. Start by telling him that there is a big difference between companions and friends. Companions he cannot choose; he finds them in the school desk and in the workplace or at gatherings. Friends, on the other hand, he can and must choose…. Do not hinder the natural vivacity of the child and do not call him bad because he does not stand still.”
            But this is not enough; play and motion may occupy a good part, but not all of the child’s life. The heart needs its own nourishment, it needs to love.
             “One day, after a series of considerations on Don Bosco, I invited the boys at our centre to express with a drawing, with a word, with a gesture the image they had made of the Saint.
            Some reproduced the figure of the priest surrounded by boys. Another drew a set of prison bars: a boy’s face was sketched on the inside, while from the outside a hand tried to force a bolt. Yet another, after a long silence, sketched two hands clasping. A third drew hearts in a variety of shapes and in the centre a half-bust of Don Bosco, with lots and lots of hands touching these hearts. The last one wrote a single word: father! Most of these boys don’t know Don Bosco.”
             “I had long dreamed of accompanying them to Turin: circumstances had not always been favourable to us. And after several unsuccessful attempts, we had managed to put together a group of eight boys, all with criminal convictions. Two boys had been allowed out of prison for four days, three were under house arrest, the others were subject to various prescriptions.
            “I wish I had an artist’s pen to describe the emotions I read in their eyes as they listened to the story of their peers helped by Don Bosco. They wandered around those blessed places as if reliving their stories. In the Saint’s rooms they followed the Holy Mass with moving recollection. I see them tired, leaning their heads against Don Bosco’s casket, staring at his body, whispering prayers. What they said, what Don Bosco said to those boys I will never know. With them I enjoyed the joy of my own vocation.”
            In Don Bosco we find a supreme wisdom in focusing on the concrete life of every boy or young man he met: their life became his life, their sufferings became his sufferings. He would not rest until he had helped them. The boys who came into contact with Don Bosco felt they were his friends, they felt he was at their side, they perceived his presence, they tasted his affection. This made them safe, less alone: for those who live on the margins, this is the greatest support they can receive.
            In a primary school handbook, yellowed and worn by the years, I read a few sentences, written in ink, at the bottom of the story of the Becchi juggler. Whoever had written them was the first time he had heard of John Bosco: “Only God, his Word, is the immortal rule and guide for our behaviour and actions. God is there despite the wars. The earth despite the hatred continues to give us bread to live on.”

            Fr Alfonso Alfano, sdb

In the common imagination ‘missions’ are about the south of the world, in reality it is not a geographical criterion at the basis and Europe is also a destination for Salesian missionaries: in this article we talk about the Netherlands.

When Don Bosco dreamt, between 1871 and 1872, of “barbarians” and “savages”, according to the language of the time, tall in stature and with fierce faces, dressed in animal skins walking in an area completely unknown to him with missionaries in the distance, in whom he recognised his Salesians, he could not have foreseen the enormous development of the Salesian Congregation in the world. Thirty-five years later – 18 years after his death – the Salesians would found their first province in India and 153 years later India became the first country in the world in terms of number of Salesians. What Don Bosco could not have imagined at all is that Indian Salesians would come to Europe, particularly the Netherlands, to work as missionaries and to live and experience their vocation.

Let us meet Fr Biju Oledath sdb, born in 1975 in Kurianad, Kerala, southern India. A Salesian since 1993, he arrived in the Netherlands as a missionary in 1998, after studying philosophy at the Salesian college in Sonada. After his practical training, he completed his theological studies at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2004, he was ordained a priest in India and served as a young priest in the parish of Alapuzha, Kerala, before returning the following year to the Netherlands as a missionary. He currently lives and works in the Salesian community in Assel.

In Fr Biju’s heart, when he was young, was the seed of the mission ad gentes and, in particular, the desire to be destined for Africa, inspired by his Indian brothers who left for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. This missionary dream was fuelled by their stories and all the material they wrote, letters and articles about Salesian work in Africa. However, his superiors thought he was still too young and not yet ready for this step and his family also thought it was too dangerous for him to leave at that time. Fr Biju tells us, “Looking back, I agree with them: I had to complete my initial formation first and I really wanted to study theology at a good university. It would not have been so easy in those countries at the time.”

But if the missionary desire is sincere and comes from God, the moment of the call always arrives: the Salesian missionary vocation, in fact, is a call within the common call to consecrated life for the Salesians of Don Bosco. So in 1997 Fr Biju was offered the mission ad gentes in Europe, in the Netherlands, certainly a very different project from missionary life in Africa. After his practical training, he would study theology at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). “I had to swallow for a moment, but I was still happy to be able to leave for a new country”, Fr Biju admits. He was determined to travel the world for the sake of young people.

It is not obvious to know the place where one is sent as a missionary, perhaps one has heard something about the country or some story about it. “I had already heard about the Netherlands, I knew it was below sea level and I had read a story about a child who put his finger in a dam to prevent a flood, thus saving the country. I immediately started looking for a world atlas and at first I had some difficulty finding it among all the other big European countries.” Fr Biju’s father was still against it, worried about the distance and the long journey, while his mother urged him to obey his vocation and follow his dream of happiness.

Before reaching Europe, there was a long wait to obtain a visa for the Netherlands. Thus, Fr Biju was destined to work with street children in Bangalore. In mid-December 1998, on a cold winter day, he finally arrived at Amsterdam airport, where the provincial and two other Salesians were waiting for the Indian missionary. The warm welcome compensated for the culture shock of approaching a new place, very different from India, where it is always hot and many people live in the streets. Enculturation takes time to get used to, getting to know and understand dynamics that are totally unknown at home.
Fr Biju’s first year was spent getting to know the different Salesian houses and works: “I realised that there are really nice people and I started to adapt to all these new impressions and habits. The Netherlands is not only cold and rainy, but also beautiful, sunny and warm. The Salesians were very kind and hospitable to Fr Biju, concerned to make him feel comfortable and at home. Certainly the way the Dutch live their Christian faith is very different from India, and the impact can be shocking: big churches with few people, mostly elderly, different songs and music, a more humble style. On top of that, Fr Biju tells us, “I really missed the food, the family, the friends… especially the closeness of young Salesians my own age around me.”  But as the understanding of the situation improves, the differences begin to make sense and make sense.

To be an effective Salesian missionary in Europe, working in a secularised society often requires adaptability, cultural sensitivity and a gradual understanding of the local context, which cannot be obtained overnight. This work requires patience, prayer, study and reflection that help to discover the faith in the light of a new culture. This openness allows missionaries to dialogue with sensitivity and respect with the new culture, recognising the diversity and plurality of religious values and perspectives.
Missionaries must develop a deeply rooted personal faith and spirituality in the place where they are, as men of prayer, in the face of declining rates of religious affiliation, less interest or openness to spiritual matters, and the absence of new vocations to religious/Salesians life.
There is a great risk of getting lost in a secularised society where materialism and individualism are prevalent and there may be less interest or openness to spiritual matters. If one is not careful, a young missionary can easily fall into religious and spiritual scepticism and indifference. In all these moments, it is important to have a spiritual director who can guide one to the right discernment.

Like Fr Biju, there are some 150 Salesians who have been sent all over Europe since the beginning of the new millennium, to this continent in need of re-Christianisation, where the Catholic faith needs to be reinvigorated and sustained. Missionaries are a gift for the local community, both Salesian and at the level of the Church and society. The richness of cultural diversity is a reciprocal gift for those who welcome and for those who are welcomed, and helps to open horizons by showing a more “catholic”, i.e. universal, face of the Church. Salesian missionaries also bring a breath of fresh air to some Provinces that are finding it difficult to make a generational change, where young people are less and less interested in vocations to the consecrated life.

Despite the trend towards secularisation, there are signs of a revival of spiritual interest in the Netherlands, particularly among the younger generations. In recent years, an openness to religiosity and a decline in anti-religious sentiments can be noted. This manifests itself in various forms, including alternative forms of being church, the exploration of alternative spiritual practices, mindfulness and the re-evaluation of traditional religious beliefs. There is an increasing need to assist young people, as a significant group of young people suffer from loneliness and depression, despite the general well-being of society. As Salesians, we must read the signs of the times to be close to young people and help them.

We see signs of hope for the Church, brought by migrant Christians arriving in Europe and by demographic, cultural and life changes in many local communities. In the Salesian community of Hassel, young Christian immigrants from the Middle East often gather, bringing their vibrant faith, their opportunities and contributing positively to our Salesian community.
“All this gives me a great feeling and makes me realise how good it is to be able to work here, in what is initially a foreign country for me.”

Let us pray that the missionary ardour may always remain burning and that there will be no lack of missionaries willing to listen to God’s call to take his Gospel to all continents through the simple and sincere witness of life.

by Marco Fulgaro

            The oldest pillar in the Becchi area appears to date back to 1700. It was erected at the bottom of the plain towards the “Mainito”, where the families who lived in the ancient “Scaiota” used to meet. It then became a Salesian farmstead, which has now been renovated and converted into a youth house that hosts groups of young pilgrims to the Church and the Don Bosco House.
            This is the Consolata pillar, with a statue of Our Lady of Consolation, always honoured with country flowers brought by devotees. John Bosco must have passed by that pillar many times, taking off his hat and murmuring a Hail Mary as his mother had taught him.
            In 1958, the Salesians restored the old pillar and, with a solemn religious service, began the renewed worship of the community and the population, as recorded in the Chronicle of that year kept in the archives of the “Bernardi Semeria” Institute.
            That statue of the Consolata could therefore be the first image of Mary  that Don Bosco venerated in his boyhood at his home.

At the “Consolata” in Turin
            Already as a student and seminarian in Chieri Don Bosco must have gone to Turin to venerate the Consolata (BM I, 200). But it is certain that, as a new priest, he celebrated his second Holy Mass precisely at the Shrine of the Consolata “to thank the Great Virgin Mary for the innumerable favours she had obtained for me from her Divine Son Jesus.” (MO 96).
            In the days of the wandering Oratory with no fixed abode, Don Bosco went with his boys to some churches in Turin for Sunday Mass, and mostly they went to the Consolata (BM II, 104, 193).
            In  May 1846-47, in order to thank Our Lady for having finally given them a stable home, he took his youngsters there to receive Holy Communion while the Oblate Fathers of the Virgin Mary, who officiated at the Shrine, were available to hear their confessions.
            When, in the summer of 1846, Don Bosco fell seriously ill, his boys not only showed their grief in tears, but fearing that human means would not suffice for his recovery, they took turns from morning to night at the Shrine of the Consolata to pray to Our Lady to preserve their sick friend and father.
            There were those who even made childish vows and those who fasted on bread and water so that Our Lady would hear them. They were heard and Don Bosco promised God that even his last breath would be for them.
            The visits of Don Bosco and his boys to the Consolata continued. Invited once to sing Mass in the shrine with his youngsters, he arrived at the appointed time with the improvised “Schola cantorum”, bringing with him the score of a “mass” he had composed for the occasion.
            The organist there was the famous maestro Bodoira whom Don Bosco invited to play the organ. The latter did not even take a look at Don Bosco’s score, but when he was about to play the music, he did not understand it at all and, leaving the organist’s post in a huff, he left.
            Don Bosco then sat down at the organ and accompanied the Mass following his composition studded with signs that only he could understand. The young men who had previously been lost trying to follow the famous organist, continued to the end without a cue and their silvery voices attracted the admiration and sympathy of all the faithful at the service.
            From 1848 until 1854 Don Bosco accompanied his boys in procession through the streets of Turin to the Consolata. His youngsters sang praises to the Virgin along the way and then participated in the Holy Mass he celebrated.
            When Mamma Margaret died on 25 November 1856, Don Bosco went that morning to celebrate the Holy Mass of suffrage in the underground chapel of the Consolata, stopping to pray at length before the image of Our Lady, begging her to be a mother to him and his boys. And Mary fulfilled his prayers (BM V, 374).
            Don Bosco at the Shrine of the Consolata not only had occasion to celebrate Holy Mass several times, but one day he also wanted to serve Mass there. Entering the shrine to pay a visit, he heard the signal for Mass to begin and realised that the altar server was missing. He got up, went to the sacristy, took the missal and served Mass with devotion (BM VII, 57).
            And Don Bosco’s attendance at the Shrine never ceased especially on the occasion of the Novena and the Feast of the Consolata.

Statuette of the Consolata in the Pinardi Chapel
            On 2 September 1847 Don Bosco bough a statuette of Our Lady of the Consolata for 27 lire, placing it in the Pinardi Chapel.
            In 1856, when the Chapel was being demolished, Fr Francis Giacomelli, a seminary companion and great friend of Don Bosco, wishing to keep for himself what he called the most distinguished monument of the foundation of the Oratory, took the statuette to the family home to Avigliana.
            In 1882, his sister had a pillar with a niche built at the house and placed the precious relic there.
            When the Salesians came to know about the pillar in Avigliana, after the Giacomelli family home was being demolished, they managed to get the ancient statuette back. On 12 April 1929 it returned to the Turin Oratory after 73 years from the day Fr Giacomelli had removed it from the first chapel (E. GIRAUDI, L’Oratorio di Don Bosco, Torino, SEI, 1935, p. 89-90).
            Today the historic little statue remains the only reminder of the past in the new Pinardi Chapel, as its dearest and most precious treasure.
            Don Bosco, who spread devotion to Mary Help of Christians throughout the world, never forgot his first devotion to the Virgin, venerated from his childhood at the Becchi pillar under the effigy of the “Consolata”. When he arrived in Turin as a young diocesan priest, during the heroic period of his “Oratory”, he drew light and advice, courage and comfort for the mission that the Lord had entrusted to him from Our Lady of the Consolata in her Sanctuary.
            This is also why he is rightly considered one of Turin’s saints.

In the biography of a famous abbot, the emotion of meeting Don Bosco.

Today it is quite easy to meet a Saint, as has happened to me several times. I have met several: the Cardinal of Milan Ildefonso Schuster (who confirmed me) and Popes John XXIII and Paul VI; I spoke with Mother Teresa, and even had lunch with Pope John Paul II. But a century ago it was not so easy, so to have personally approached a saint was an experience that remained etched in the mind and heart of the lucky person. Such was the case with the French Trappist abbot Dom Edmond Obrecht (18521935). Way back in 1934, when Don Bosco was canonised, three days after the solemn ceremony he confided to the editor of the US Catholic weekly, the Louisville Record, his great satisfaction at having personally met the new saint, having shaken his hand, indeed having had lunch with him.
What had happened? The episode is recounted in his biography.

Four hours with Don Bosco
Born in Alsace in 1852, Edmond Obrecht had become a Trappist monk at the age of 23. As soon as he was ordained a priest in 1879, Father Edmond was sent to Rome as secretary to the Procurator General of the three Trappist Observances, which in 1892 were to be united into a single Order with the General House the Trappa delle Tre Fontane in the Italian capital.
During his stay in Rome he had Sunday off and took advantage of it to go and celebrate with his Cistercian brethren in the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The titular celebrant was the Vicar of Rome, Cardinal Lucido Maria Parocchi, so Father Edmond had the opportunity to serve him several times at solemn pontifical services and to get to know him well.
Now on 14 May 1887 the consecration of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Rome, next to what is now Termini station, was scheduled: a magnificent church that had cost Don Bosco a fortune and for which he had given “body and soul” in order to succeed in completing it. He succeeded and in spite of his health, by then decidedly compromised (he would die eight months later), he wanted to attend the solemn consecration ceremony.
For this very long celebration (five hours behind closed doors), Card. Parocchi was accompanied by Father Edmond. It was a decidedly unforgettable experience for him. He would write 50 years later: “During that long ceremony I had the pleasure and honour of sitting next to Don Bosco in the sanctuary of the church and after the consecration I was admitted to the same table as him and the Cardinal. It was the only time in my life that I came into close contact with a canonised saint and the deep impression he made on me has lingered in my mind for all these long years.” Father Edmond had heard a lot about Don Bosco, who, at a time when the Holy See’s diplomatic relations with the new Kingdom of Italy were breaking down, was held in high esteem and high regard by the politicians of the time: Zanardelli, Depretis, Nicotera. The newspapers had spoken of his interventions to settle some serious questions concerning the appointment of new bishops and the taking possession of the property of individual dioceses.
Dom Edmond was not content with that unforgettable experience. Later on a trip he passed through Turin and wanted to stop and visit the great Salesian work of Don Bosco. He admired it and could only rejoice on the day of his beatification (2 June 1929).

Post Scriptum
The day before the consecration of the Sacred Heart Church, 13 May 1887, Pope Leo XIII had given Don Bosco an audience for an hour in the Vatican. He had been very warm with him and had even joked that Don Bosco, given his age, was close to death (but he was younger than the pope!), but Don Bosco had a thought that perhaps he did not dare express to the pope himself. He did so a few days later, on 17 May, on his departure from Rome: he asked him if he could pay all or part of the cost of the church façade: a handsome sum, 51,000 lire [230,000 euro]. Courage or impudence? Extreme confidence or simple impudence? The fact remains that a few months later, on 6 November, Don Bosco returned to the task and asked for the intervention of Monsignor Francesco della Volpe, the Pope’s domestic prelate, to obtain – he wrote – “the sum of 51,000 francs, which the Holy Father’s charity made him hope to pay himself… our Bursar is going to Rome to settle the expenses of this construction; he will come to you for the best answer he can get.” He guaranteed that “Our over three hundred thousand orphans pray every day for His Holiness.” And he concluded: “Please forgive this poor and ugly writing of mine. I can no longer write.”
Poor Don Bosco: in May in that church, celebrating in front of the altar of Mary Help of Christians, he had wept several times because he saw his dream when he was nine come true; but six months later his heart was still in anguish because at the death he felt was near he left a heavy debt to close the accounts of that same church.
He truly spent several years, “until his last breath” doing it. Very few of the tens of thousands of people who pass by it every day on their way out of Termini station on Via Marsala know this.

Following the paths of the heart
            Don Bosco wept at the sight of the boys who ended up in prison. Yesterday, as is the case today too, evil’s timetable is relentless: fortunately, so is the schedule for good. And even more so. I feel that yesterday’s roots are the same as today’s. Like yesterday, others today find a home on the streets and in prisons. I believe that the memory of the priest for so many boys without a parish is the irreplaceable thermometer for measuring the temperature of our educational intervention.
            Don Bosco lived at a time of striking social poverty. We were at the beginning of the process of large groups of youths coming together in the great industrial metropolises. The police authorities themselves denounced this danger: there were so many “young children brought up without principles of Religion, Honour and Humanity, who were ending up rotting totally in hatred”, we read in the chronicles of the time. It was the growing poverty that drove a great multitude of adults and young people to live by expediency, and in particular by theft and from alms-giving.
            The urban decay caused social tensions to explode, which went hand in hand with political tensions; disorderly boys and misguided youth, towards the middle of the 19th century, drew public attention, shaking governmental sensibilities.
            Added to the social phenomenon was a clear lack of education. The breakdown of the family caused concern above all in the Church; the prevalence of the repressive system was at the root of growing youthful unease and it affected the relationship between parents and children, educators and those being educated. Don Bosco had to confront a system made up of “bad traits”, proposing loving kindness instead.
            The life of so many parents lived on the borders of illegality, the need to procure the necessities for survival, would lead a multitude of youngsters to be uprooted from their families, and to leave the place they lived in. The city became more and more crowded with boys and young adults on the hunt for a job; for many who come from afar there was also a lack of a corner to sleep in.
            It as not uncommon to meet a lady, such as Maria G., begging, using children artfully placed at strategic points in the city or in front of church doors; often, parents themselves entrusted their children to beggars, who used them to arouse the pity of others and receive more money. It sounds like a photocopy of a tried and tested system in a large southern city: the renting out of other people’s children, so the passer-by would take pity and begging become more profitable.
            However, theft was the real source of income: it was a phenomenon that grew and became unstoppable in 19th century Turin. On 2 February 1845, nine young urchins aged between eleven and fourteen appeared before the police commissioner of the Vicariate, accused of having robbed a bookseller’s shop of numerous volumes … and various stationery items, using a picklock. The new breed of borsajuoli’attracted constant complaints from the people. They were almost always abandoned children, without parents, relatives or means of subsistence, very poor, chased away and abandoned by everyone, who ended up stealing.
            The picture of juvenile deviance was impressive: delinquency and the state of abandonment of so many boys was spreading like wildfire. The growing number of “rascals”, “reckless purse-snatchers” in the streets and squares was however only one aspect of a widespread situation. The fragility of the family, strong economic malaise, the constant and strong immigration from the countryside to the city, fuelled a precarious situation which the political forces felt powerless to tackle. The malaise grew as crime organised itself and penetrated public structures. The first manifestations of violence by organised gangs began, acting with sudden and repeated acts of intimidation designed to create a climate of social, political and religious tension.
            This was expressed by the gangs known as the cocche, which spread in various numbers, taking different names from the neighbourhoods where they were based. Their sole purpose was “to disturb passers-by, mistreat them if they complained, commit obscene acts on women, and attack some isolated soldier or provost.” In reality, it was not a question of criminal associations, but more of gangs formed not only by people born in Turin, but also by immigrants: young people aged between sixteen and thirty who used to gather in spontaneous meetings, especially in the evening hours, giving vent to their tensions and frustrations of the day. It was in this situation in the mid 19th century that Don Bosco’s activities were inserted. It was not the poor boys, friends and childhood companions of his place at the Becchi in Castelnuovo, not the valiant young men of Chieri, but “the wolves, the squabblers, the unruly types” of his dreams.
            It is in this world of political conflict, in this vineyard, where the sowing of darnel is abundant, among this market of young arms hired out for depravity, among these youngsters without love and malnourished in body and soul, that Don Bosco was called to work. The young priest listened, went out into the streets: he saw, was moved, but, as practical as he was, he rolled up his sleeves; those boys needed a school, education, catechism, training for work. There was no time to waste. They were young: they needed to give meaning to their lives, they had a right to have time and means to study, to learn a trade, but also time and space to be happy, to play.

Go, look around!
            Sedentary by profession or by choice, computerised in thought and action, we risk losing the originality of “being”, of sharing, of growing “together”.
Don Bosco did not live in the era of test-tube preparations: he left humanity the pedagogy of ‘companionship’, the spiritual and physical pleasure of living next to a youngster, small among the small, poor among the poor, fragile among the fragile.
            A priest friend and spiritual guide of his, Fr Cafasso, knew Don Bosco, knew his zeal for souls, sensed his passion for this multitude of boys; he urged him to go out into the streets. “Go, look around.” From the first Sundays, the priest from the countryside, the priest who had not known his father, went out to see the misery of the town’s suburbs. He was shocked. “He met a large number of young people of all ages,” testified his successor, Fr Rua, “who were wandering around the streets and squares, especially in the outskirts of the town, playing, brawling, swearing and even doing worse.“
            He entered building sites, talked to workers, contacted employers; he felt emotions that would mark him for the rest of his life when he met these boys. And sometimes he found these poor “bricklayers” lying on the floor in a corner of a church, tired, asleep, unable to tune into meaningless sermons about their vagabond lives. Perhaps that was the only place where they could find some warmth, after a day of toil, before venturing off in search of somewhere to spend the night. He went into the shops, wandered around the markets, visited the street corners where there were many boys begging. Everywhere, badly dressed and undernourished boys; he witnessed scenes of malpractice and transgressions: all carried out by boys.
            After a few years, he moved from the streets to the prisons. “For a full twenty years I assiduously visited Turin’s city prisons. I continued
my visits later, though not as regularly. …”. (BM XV, 600)
            How many misunderstandings at the beginning! How many insults! A “cassock” was out of tune in that place, frowned upon. He approached those abid and distrustful “wolves”; he listened to their stories, but above all he made their suffering his own.
            He understood the drama of those boys: clever exploiters had pushed them into those cells. And he became their friend. His simple and humane manner restored dignity and respect to each of them.
            Something had to be done and soon; a different system had to be invented, to stand by those who had gone astray. “Whenever he had the time, he would spend entire days in the prisons and several times he conducted spiritual retreats there. He regularly visited the inmates on Saturdays, his pockets bulging with tobacco or bread. He was especially interested in the juveniles whom misfortune had brought there. … By helping and befriending them, he sought to draw them to the festive oratory after their release from prison.” (MB II, 136-137)
            In the “Generala”, a House of Correction opened in Turin on 12 April 1845, as stated in the regulations of the Penal House, “young people condemned to a correctional sentence for having acted without discernment in committing the crime and young people supported in prison by paternal love” were “gathered and governed by the method of working together, in silence and segregated by night in special cells.” This was the context for the extraordinary excursion to Stupinigi organised by Don Bosco alone, with the consent of the Minister of the Interior, Urban Rattazzi, without guards, based only on mutual trust, a commitment of conscience and the fascination of the educator. He wanted to know the “reason why the State does not have the influence” of the priest over these young people. “The force we have is a moral force: unlike the State, which knows only how to command and punish, we speak primarily to the heart of the youth, and our word is the word of God.”
            Knowing the system of life adopted inside the Generala, the challenge thrown down by the young Piedmontese priest took on incredible value: to ask for a “Free Release” day for all those young inmates. It was madness yet such was Don Bosco’s request. He obtained permission in the spring of 1855. The whole thing was organised by Don Bosco alone, with the help of the boys themselves. The consent he received from Minister Rattazzi was certainly a sign of esteem for and trust in the young priest. The experience of leading boys out of that House of Correction in complete freedom and managing to bring them all back to prison, despite what ordinarily took place inside the prison structure, was extraordinary. It was the triumph of an appeal to trust and conscience, the testing of an idea, an experience, that would guide him throughout his life to rely on the resources hidden in the hearts of so many young people doomed to irreversible marginalisation.

Onward, and in shirt sleeves
            Even today, in a different cultural and social context, Don Bosco’s grasp of things is not all all outdated, but still works. Especially surprising, in the dynamics of rehabilitating children and young people who have entered the penal circuit, is the inventive spirit in creating concrete job opportunities for them.
            Today we encounter problems offering employment opportunities for our minors at risk. Those who work in the social sector know how hard it is to overcome bureaucratic mechanisms and gears in order to realise, for example, simple work grants for minors. Don Bosco used agile approaches and structures, having boys “fostered” by employers, under the educational tutelage of a guarantor.
            The first years of Don Bosco’s priestly and apostolic life were marked by a continuous search for the right way to take boys and young men away from the dangers of the street. The plans were clear in his mind, as ingrained in his mind and soul was his educational method. “Not with blows but by gentleness”. He was also convinced that it was no easy feat to turn wolves into lambs. But he had Divine Providence on his side.
            And when faced with immediate problems, he never backed down. He was not the type to enter into discussion about the sociological condition of minors, nor was he the priest for political or formal compromises; he was saintly stubborn in his good intentions, but was strongly tenacious and concrete in realising them. He had great zeal for the salvation of youth and there were no obstacles that could restrain this holy passion, which marked every step and punctuated every hour of his day.
             “In the prisons he saw a great number of boys, ranging between twelve and eighteen years of age, [basically] healthy, sturdy and intelligent. He was horrified to see them inactive, bitten by insects, hungry for both spiritual and material food while they served time, expiating through detention, and even more through remorse, their precocious depravity. They were a blot on their country, the dishonor of their families, an infamy to themselves. They were above all, souls that, redeemed by the blood of Christ, were now reduced to slaves of vice, and in the greatest danger of eternal perdition.Who knows, if these boys had had a friend who had taken loving care of them by helping them and by giving them religious instruction on holy days, perhaps they would have avoided coming and returning to these prisons. Certainly, the number of these young prisoners would be diminished.” (MB II, 49-50)
            He rolled up his sleeves and gave himself body and soul to the prevention of these evils; he gave all his contribution, his experience, but above all his insights in launching his own initiatives or those of other associations. It was the release from prison that worried both the government and private “societies”. It was precisely in 1846 that an associative structure authorised by the government was set up, which resembled, at least in its intentions and in some ways, what is happening today in the Italian juvenile penal system. It was called the “Royal Society for the Patronage of Young People Released from the House of Correctional Education”. Its purpose was to support young people released from the Generala.
            A careful reading of the Statutes brings us back to some of the penal measures that are nowadays provided for as alternative measures to prison.
            The Members of the Society were divided into “operatives”, who took on the office of guardians, “paying members”, and “paying operatives”. Don Bosco was an “operative member”. Don Bosco accepted several, but with discouraging results. Perhaps it was these failures that made him decide to ask the authorities to send the boys to him before they ended up like that.
            It is not important here to deal with the relationship between Don Bosco, the houses of correction and collateral services, but rather to recall the attention the Saint paid to this group of minors. Don Bosco knew the hearts of the young men of the Generala, but above all he had more in mind than remaining indifferent to the moral and human degradation of those poor and unfortunate inmates. He continued his mission: he did not abandon them: “Ever since the Government opened that Penitentiary, and entrusted its direction to the Society of St Peter in Chains, Don Bosco was able to go from time to time among those poor youngsters […]. With the permission of the Director of the prisons he instructed them in catechism, preached to them, heard their confessions, and many times entertained them amicably in recreation, as he did with his boys at the Oratory” (BS 1882, n. 11 p. 180).
            Don Bosco’s interest in young people in difficulty was focused over time in the Oratory, a true expression of a preventive and recuperative pedagogy, being an open and multifunctional social service. Don Bosco had direct contact with quarrelsome, violent youth bordering on delinquency around 1846-50. These are the encounters with the cocche, gangs or neighbourhood groups in ongoing conflict. The story is told of a fourteen-year-old boy, son of a drunkard and anticlerical father who, having happened to be in the Oratory in 1846, threw himself headlong into the various recreational activities, but refused to attend religious services, because according to his father’s teachings, he did not want to become a “mouldy old cretin”. Don Bosco attracted him with his tolerance and patience, which made him change his behaviour in a short time.
            Don Bosco was also interested in taking on the management of re-educational and correctional institutions. Proposals in this sense had come from various quarters. There were attempts and contacts, but drafts and proposals for agreements came to nothing. All this is sufficient to show how much Don Bosco had the problem discarded children at heart. And if there was resistance, it always came from the difficulty of using the preventive system. Wherever he found a “mixture” of the repressive and preventive system, he was categorical in his refusal, as he was also clear in his rejection of any group or structure that brought back to the idea of the “reformatory”. A careful reading of these attempts reveals the fact that Don Bosco never refused to help the boy in difficulty, but he was against the management of institutes, houses of correction or directing works with an obvious educational compromise.
            The conversation that took place between Don Bosco and Crispi in Rome in February 1878 is very interesting. Crispi asked Don Bosco for news about the progress of his work and in particular spoke about the educational systems. He lamented the unrest that was taking place in the correctional prisons. It was a conversation in which the Minister was fascinated by Don Bosco’s analysis; he asked him not only for advice but also for a programme for these houses of correction (MB XIII, 483).
            Don Bosco’s replies and proposals found sympathy, but not willingness: the rift between the religious and political worlds was strong. Don Bosco expressed his opinion, indicating various categories of boys: the unruly, dissipated and good. For the saintly educator there was hope of success for all, even for the unruly, as he then used to refer to what we nowadays call at-risk boys.
            “Let them not become worse.” “…In time let the good principles acquired produce their effect later … many will come to their senses.” This is an explicit answer and perhaps the most interesting.
            After mentioning the distinction between the two educational systems, he determined which children must be considered to be in danger: those who go to other cities or towns in search of work, those whose parents cannot or do not want to take care of them, vagabonds who fall into the hands of the public security’. He points out the necessary and possible measures: “Weekend recreations areas, care of those placed at work hospices and preservation houses with arts and crafts and with agricultural colonies.”
            It proposes not direct government management of educational institutions, but adequate support in buildings, equipment and financial grants, and presents a version of the Preventive System that retains the essential elements, without the explicit religious reference. Besides a pedagogy of the heart could not have ignored the social, psychological and religious problems.
            Don Bosco ascribes their misguidance to the absence of God, to the uncertainty of moral principles, to the corruption of the heart, to the clouding of the mind, to the incapacity and carelessness of adults, especially parents, to the corrosive influence of society and to the intentional negative action of “bad companions” or the lack of responsibility of educators.
            Don Bosco played a lot on the positive: the will to live, the fondness for work, the rediscovery of joy, social solidarity, family spirit, healthy fun.

(continued)

            don Alfonso Alfano, sdb

A master was travelling with a disciple in charge of looking after the camel. One evening, having arrived at an inn, the disciple was so tired that he did not tie up the animal.
“My God,” he prayed as he lay down, “look after the camel: I entrust it to you.”
The next morning the camel was gone.
“Where is the camel?” asked the master.
“I don’t know,” replied the disciple. “You have to ask God! Last night I was so exhausted that I entrusted our camel to him. It is certainly not my fault that it ran away or was stolen. I explicitly asked God to watch over it. He is responsible. You always urge me to have the greatest trust in God, don’t you?”
“Have the greatest trust in God, but first tie up your camel,” replied the master. “For God has no hands but yours.”

God alone can give faith;
you, however, can give your testimony.
God alone can give hope;
You, however, can instil confidence in your brethren.
God alone can give love;
You, however, can teach others to love.
God alone can give peace;
You, however, can sow unity.
God alone can give strength;
You, however, can give support to the discouraged.
God alone is the way;
You, however, can show the way to others.
God alone is the light;
You, however, can make it shine in the eyes of all.
God alone is life;
You, however, can revive in others the desire to live.
God alone can do what seems impossible;
you, however, can do what is possible.
God alone is sufficient for himself;
however, he prefers to count on you.
(Brazilian song)