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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Michael Ribotta – The “Big Rat” and the “Mad Priest of Turin”- Don Bosco’s relationship with Prime Minister Rattazzi

Perhaps of all the leading political personages of the Italian Risorgimento with whom Don Bosco enjoyed some measure of friendship, Urbano Rattazzi’s name, like Abou Ben Adam’s, led the rest.

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Pietro Stella – Don Bosco e le trasformazioni sociali e religiose del suo tempo

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”

Pietro Stella – Per una storia del profetismo apocalittico cattolico ottocentesco. Messaggi profetici di don Bosco a Pio IX e all’imperatore d’Austria (1870-1873)

D. Bosco, per certi atteggiamenti, è come tutti coloro che interpretano come male, come eticamente riprovevole, socialmente e pedagogicamente infecondo quanto avvertono prescindere dalla religione o quanto trovano dichiaratamente avverso alla Religione Cattolica, vista nel suo aspetto storico di società gerarchicamente costituita e con prerogative di valore socio-politico. Fatti luttuosi nei quali incorrono Pio IX, l’arcivescovo Fransoni, da lui vengono interpretati come prove di Dio o come insidia diabolica permessa per purificare e fortificare i buoni. Lutti invece che toccano Vittorio Emanuele II o altri che appaiono persecutori della Chiesa o conniventi con le forze avverse, vengono giudicati come tremendi castighi di Dio. Continue reading “Pietro Stella – Per una storia del profetismo apocalittico cattolico ottocentesco. Messaggi profetici di don Bosco a Pio IX e all’imperatore d’Austria (1870-1873)”

Arthur Lenti – Don Bosco’s love affair with “poor and abandoned” young people and the beginnings of the oratory

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.

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Michael Ribotta,Natale Cerrato – EXPO’ 84 and Don Bosco’s peerless-to- paper-to-print presentation

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.

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