In the first part of his study on the “Bosco-Gastaldi conflict”, Arthur Lenti drew attention to another figure similarly involved in a painful controversy with the Archbishop of Turin, namely Sr. Marie-Louise-Angelique Clarac, foundress of the Sisters of Charity of St. Mary, also known as the Sisters of Charity of Good Counsel.
Thus the approval of the Salesian Constitutions in April 1874 was followed by a second and more bitterly fought phase of the conflict.
A young Italian immigrant, Angelo Petazzi, watched anxiously as the English steamship, the Werra, approached New York harbor. Clutched in his hand was a letter from the then Salesian superior general, Father Michael Rua, which informed him of the impending arrival of a group of four Salesians in New York. At their head was Father Raphael Piperni.
“If Don Bosco during his student years had one special preference, it was for reading history,” noted Father Alberto Caviglia in his exhaustive study of Don Bosco’s Storia d’ Italia. “In fact, one can say he had a predilection for historical studies”.
Peter Ricaldone was a major superior of the Salesian Society for forty years, half of them as rector major.
The conflict between Archbishop Lawrence Gastaldi and Don Bosco may at first sight appear to have been, to put a facile contemporary label on it, a typical confrontation between institution and charism.
Turin’s EXPO ’84 was to become the bittersweet culmination of Don Bosco’s remarkable and varied career as publisher, author, and printer. For almost 40 years he had been active in the cause of the Catholic press and as editor of educational publications.
In Part One of the present installment (Part Four overall), we shall discuss the last two dreams in a similar manner to the first article. Part Two (Five) will deal with the significance of the missionary dreams, with interpretative comments.
Included in the copious documentation that comprises the chronicles and annals of the early history of the Salesian Society in the Salesian archives in Rome, there is a treasure trove of diaries, journals, memoirs, and daybooks which chart the ebb and flow of the early years of the Oratory of Saint Francis of Sales.
Continue reading “Michael Ribotta – “Peter Enria Remembers” in “Journal of Salesian Studies””
Because of the vastness of the subject and of the amount of material involved, this essay will be presented in two installments.
The reader may be surprised to learn that at the first canonical assembly of Salesians, Don Bosco was equating fidelity to our Society with the broad road of “Salesianity” mapped out in such a human and holy way by Saint Francis of Sales himself.
One spring day in 1860 Don Bosco was startled by a newsvendor’s cry. “Read all about it! Don Bosco in jail!” He was both amused and bemused.
Don Bosco then goes on to describe the nature and purpose of the Convitto. It was a kind of ‘ finishing school’ where (he says) “one learnt to be a priest.”
Father Philip Rinaldi was my granduncle on myfather’s side. For us youngsters he was the tall, smiling priest who, when visiting our home, would dig into his pockets and invariably come up with all sorts of goodies.
During the years following the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the Italian immigrant made his way, educated his children, and contributed his many talents to the great melting pot, not only in New York City, but in the whole of the United States.
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