Nella Torino di metà Ottocento la difficile situazione economica aggravò il disagio sociale incrementando immigrazione e pauperismo. I giovani dei ceti poveri mostravano segni di irrequietezza e preoccupavano opinione pubblica e autorità.
Francesco Motto – Start afresh from Don Bosco. Meditations for a Spiritual Retreat
And so the main object of our reflections will be the figure of Don Bosco, a figure we shall try to make contact with, not so much to understand his external actions which we all know about already, but rather to understand the conditions, the motivations, the spirit which led him to make specific choices, to work in a specific way, to write about particular matters, to reach a particular form of holiness which is specifically his own, different in some ways from that of other saints.
Francis Desramaut,Mario Midali – L’impegno della Famiglia Salesiana per la Giustizia. Jünkerath presso Colonia (Germania) 24 – 28 agosto 1975
Il settimo colloquio internazionale sulla vita salesiana, presieduto questa volta da Don Raffaello Farina, si è svolto a Jünkerath, presso Colonia, in Germania, dal 24 al 28 agosto 1975. Il tema scelto riguardava l’ « impegno per la giustizia e la Famiglia salesiana », questione non certo familiare per un corpo nato nel secolo XIX in un contesto gerarchizzato, dove la civilizzazione dei bianchi e dell’occidente dominava sovrana, dove la sicurezza sociale non era che un’utopia e dove l’uguaglianza dell’uomo e della donna era ignorata tanto nella famiglia che nello Stato.
Aldo Giraudo – «Il cotanto utile istituto detto oratorio di San Francesco di Sales». Motivi dell’interesse suscitato dall’opera di don Bosco nel decennio preunitario
Intendo illustrare, con l’appoggio di documentazioni archivistiche e testimonianze coeve, alcuni dei fattori che nel decennio preunitario catalizzarono sull’opera educativa e religiosa di don Giovanni Bosco simpatie e favori, anche in campo liberale, permettendole di decollare più rapidamente rispetto ad iniziative analoghe, nonostante l’accusa di conservatorismo e di diffidenza nei confronti dell’unificazione nazionale mossagli da alcuni esponenti del liberalismo radicale e anticlericale polarizzati attorno alla Gazzetta del Popolo di Felice Govean e al periodico satirico-caricaturale Il Fischietto.
Aldo Giraudo – Ragioni e prospettive del conservatorismo moderato di Cesare d’Azeglio in un memoriale al re Carlo Felice (1821)
I fatti del 1821 rappresentarono, nelle loro riflessioni, la presa di coscienza della necessità di un approccio diverso e più realistico alla situazione politica che, abbandonate aspirazioni velleitarie, favorisse un’azione di consolidamento istituzionale e di graduali riforme e un paziente lavoro di formazione dell’opinione pubblica, sulla linea perseguita da Prospero Balbo.
Michal Vojtáš – Un passaggio epocale: dalla repressione allo stile preventivo
L’opera educativa di don Bosco si sviluppa in un contesto caratterizzato dall’inquietudine preventiva, che ha attraversato la vita politica, sociale, familiare ed ecclesiastica di molti paesi d’Europa.
Continue reading “Michal Vojtáš – Un passaggio epocale: dalla repressione allo stile preventivo”
Pascual Chavez Villanueva – “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10, 10b). Presentation of the Africa-Madagascar Region
Contents:
- The Africa-Madagascar Region
- 1. Africa-Madagascar today
- 1.1. Salesians in the Continent of Africa
- 1.2. Salesian works
Pascual Chavez Villanueva – “We’ve been waiting for you. We’ve been waiting for you so long. Now at last you’re here. You’re among us and you won’t get away from us!” (MB XVIII,50). PRESENTATION OF THE REGION OF SOUTH ASIA
Contents:
- Introduction
- 1. A great dream fulfilled
- 2. The Region of South Asia.The political, social and religious situation of the Region: India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Kuwait,Yemen
Arthur Lenti – Don Bosco’s political and religious concerns during the liberal revolution
Fr. Arthur Lenti, in a second article, invites us to enter the political and ecclesiastical world of Don Bosco through his letters never published before in English. The letters add insight to the always intriguing question of Don Bosco’s involvement in the naming of bishops.
Arthur Lenti – Politics of the “Our Father” and the holy father: Don Bosco’s mediation in Church-State affairs
Fr. Arthur J. Lenti tells the story of Don Bosco’ s efforts to mediate between the Holy See and the Italian government during the tense years of Italian unification. Of special importance was the appointment of bishops. After offering background on the historical events leading to the estrangement between the Church and state in Italy, the author goes to the sources in an effort to answer the question why someone so politically unimportant as Don Bosco, should become involved in a capacity of “negotiator.”
Giovanni Bosco – Interventions to solve the matter of Bishops’ ‘Temporalities’ (1872-1874)
The Law of Guarantees on 13 May 1871 and decrees applying to this required that for newly appointed bishops to enter into possession – the so-called temporalities – they had to present the Minister with the original decree of appointment and formally ask for the exequatur to be granted. This act, in the Holy See’s judgement, implied recognising the Kingdom of Italy which came into being in 1861, and included part of the Papal States ‘illegally’ taken from the Pontiff.
Giovanni Bosco – Confidential letters to the Pope concerning the political situation (1858-1867, 1873)
In the years immediately preceding and following Italian Unity (1858-1866), Don Bosco kept constantly in touch with Pius IX by letter. He did this not only for interests directly relating to his work, but also in reference to the worrying situation the Church was going through in Piedmont, to encourage him in his defence of the faith against the enemies of religion, and to pass on to him any likely reserved information in his possession. As already indicated, Don Bosco was with Pius IX and his Secretary of State, Card. Antonelli, on the Roman question. Slowly however, he became convinced that a too vigorous resistance to the “revolution” was becoming ever more pointless, even risked worsening the situation, so after the capture of Rome he chose, also politically, the principle of doing whatever good could be done.
Arthur Lenti – Community and mission. Spiritual insights and salesian religious life in Don Bosco’s Constitutions
The present article is not concerned with the new constitutions. No comparative study will be attempted, nor any reference will be made to them. This would be carrying coal to Newcastle. I shall instead attempt simply to identify and briefly discuss some of the spiritual insights and principles for religious life and action which Don Bosco embodied in his constitutions.
Paul Formosa – Historical sketch of the oratory of Don Bosco in Malta
In this article, I will attempt to trace how Don Bosco’s original experience was translated in such a way that his work could be established in Malta – an island country in the Mediterranean with a distinct tradition and culture from that in which the Salesian story first began and developed in Turin, Italy. I will place special emphasis on the Salesian Oratory, Sliema.
Continue reading “Paul Formosa – Historical sketch of the oratory of Don Bosco in Malta”
Luc Van Looy – Bringing Don Bosco into the mainstream. Lecture in San Francisco, February 24, 1997
Congratulations on your hundred years of faithful work with and for Don Bosco, with and for young people and with and for so many good people of this great country, to bring the message of the Lord to the young in their own context.