The Nostalgic Beginnings of Salesians of Don Bosco
Don Bosco with Mr. Rattazzi
Barberis writes:
In those days Don Bosco would not speak overtly of a religious congregation in order not to frighten us away. He kept it under wraps. When inviting someone to be part of the Society, he would carefully avoid even the least reference to its being a religious congregation. Anything more explicit would have scared us all away. The four of us [Salesians chatting with Don Bosco] agreed, and so would all other first-generation priests and brothers, that if Don Bosco had openly proposed to us life in a religious order, none of us would have entered. In those days Don Bosco would simply use such expressions as, “Do you love Don Bosco? Would you like to do your seminary studies here at the Oratory? Would you like to help Don Bosco when the time comes? [...] This is how we were baited and hooked. And fortunate are we for allowing Don Bosco so to deceive us [...]
“Don Bosco,” I asked, “You tried to deceive us and draw us in against our will, didn’t you?” “I had to be cautious,” Don Bosco explained. “I did it that way so as not frighten anybody. Now things have changed, and religious life is seen in a different light. For a long time I carefully avoided using the very word novitiate, for example, so as not to arouse people’s suspicion about our being a religious order. Now I see that the word is used as a matter of course. But only two years ago using the word novitiate would have been, shall we say, counterproductive. We’ve come a long way!
Don Bosco continued: “Things have changed also with respect to external discipline. Seminarians in those days carried on with great freedom. You could hear them shouting and arguing about literary or theological points at all hours. They would raise a din in the study hall when the boys were not there. They might stay in bed in the morning and, without warning, fail to appear in class. They would skip meditation and spiritual reading as a matter of course, and the boys’ spiritual retreat was enough retreat for them. I was well aware of all this, and would have liked to put a stop to it, but I preferred to let things be. The situation gradually improved, and order and discipline were established. If I had acted to enforce religious discipline all at once my seminarians would have walked out, and I would have had to send the boys home and shut down the Oratory. But I could see that most of those young men had a lot of good will and were very good at heart. I knew that once the wild days of youth were behind them, they would settle down and be a great help to me. A number of priests in our congregation are of that vintage, and they are exemplary for their dedication to their work and for their priestly spirit.”
From the humble beginnings of eighteen young men, today the Society of St Francis De Sales, the Salesians of Don Bosco, span the world over with works for the welfare of the young. In 132 countries world wide which includes 42 countries of Africa, the Salesians of Don Bosco dedicate their lives to the young, finding holiness in journeying with them. Anyone who wants to change the world especially of the young by dedicating their lives will find a big family of large hearts. A casual search on the internet for ‘Don Bosco’ will bring the name of an institution close to you, to liaison with.
“In Don Bosco, in contrast with other saints, the human element did not disappear, absorbed into the divine, but rather it kept its own place, its own relative autonomy” (C. Colli). Gifted with a practical temperament and with the innate realism of country people, he had a natural inclination for action, and indeed “it would be difficult to find another saint who, in the way Don Bosco did, conjugated the word “to work” and got others to do the same” (E. Ceria)
Research by Fr Paul Felix
Ceferino Namuncura Prenovitiate, Nairobi
Edited by Tom Kunnel
