That is part of the well known talk which Don Bosco gave to his boys when they were forced to move from place to place for their Sunday gatherings. That became known as the wandering oratory. This is the story of another transplanting, another wandering.
Continue reading “Philip J. Pascucci – Out of our past an american venture into seminary training”
Esiste una profonda differenza tra il modo di vedere nostro e quello di quanti studiavano D. Bosco anni or sono. Attorno agli anni ’50 ancora si discuteva sul grande punto: fu D. Bosco un pedagogista o fu soltanto un educatore? fu un teorico o fu soltanto un pratico? Oggi la realtà è diversa. titolo di saggio vorrei proporre oggi alcuni interrogativi: 1) che cosa significò D. Bosco nella geografia umana in movimento del suo tempo? 2) che cosa significò in una storia di trasformazioni sociali? 3) quale funzione ebbe nelle grandi trasformazioni spirituali (o, se si vuole, religiose e culturali)? Continue reading “Pietro Stella – Don Bosco e le trasformazioni sociali e religiose del suo tempo”
In an article which appeared in an earlier issue of this Journal, I described some of Don Bosco’s concerns, as he expressed them in meetings of his council and in sessions of General Chapters held during the last decade of his life.
The present study aims, not at any new interpretation, but simply at describing some aspects of the actual circumstances of the origins on the basis of fresh documentation now available. In particular, restricting the field of inquiry, I will focus on the young people who were protagonists in Don Bosco’s work at its origin.
In retrospect, one can appreciate why Don Bosco had become so distraught by the message that was played out in his dream (reverie?) during his Roman sojourn of 1884. His old friends, Joseph Buzzelli and Ferdinando Valfre, had demonstrated all too realistically what he could expect when the educational principles of his Sistema Preventivo and the “love environment” he strove so hard to cultivate for 40 years at the Oratory had been allowed to dissipate.
Continue reading “Michael Ribotta – The Roman Letter of 1884 and its aftermath”
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.
Don Bosco’s biographer, Father John Baptist Lemoyne, notes that most of the boys who attended Don Bosco’s evening classes were hard-working young apprentices or youths who worked wherever they could find a job.
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.
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.
Continue reading “Peter Rinaldi – Blessed Philip Rinaldi as I knew him”
In carrying out his humble apostolate on behalf of poor and abandoned boys, Saint John Bosco (1815-1888) came into frequent contact with the wealthy and the powerful of Piedmontese society.
Continue reading “Michael Mendl – St. John Bosco’s dealings with the Cavour family”
Don Bosco’s vocation dreams hold an important place in Don Bosco’s vocational development and in the process by which his lifework was determined and specified.
Continue reading “Arthur Lenti – Don Bosco’s vocation – mission dreams”
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.
