A concise and essential text concerning those first fifty years - A Plan o f regulations fo r the b o y s’ Oratory o f St Francis de Sales in the Valdocco area o f Turin - which in fact Don Bosco never published, takes us back to the real origins of the first oratory, without all the embroidery, interpreta
tions and comments added to succeeding texts prepared for publicity pur
poses both inside and outside the Salesian society. Because it expresses the intentions he had in mind and the initiatives he was going to take at the outset, without all the later realizations, it gives a better interpretation of the rich pedagogical and practical possibilities:
“U t filio s D ei, qui eran t dispersi, c ongregaret in unum . Jn 1, 52.
It seem s to m e th at the w ords o f the h o ly G ospel w hich en ab le us to kn o w the d i
vine S av io u r w ho h as co m e from h eav en to earth to g a th e r to g eth er all G o d 's c h il
dren scattered o v er the earth, can be applied quite literally to the y o u n g peo p le o f o u r ow n days. «T h is m o st d e licate an d m ost p recio u s p a rt o f h u m an society, on w h ich d ep en d the h o p e s fo r a h ap p y fu tu re, is n o t in its e lf in h ere n tly d ep rav ed . W ere it n ot for the ne g lect o f th eir parents, id len ess, co n tact w ith bad c o m p an io n s (esp ecially on S un d ay s and F east-d ay s), it w ould b e qu ite easy to instil in th eir te n d er hearts the p rin cip les o f order, good m anners, resp ect and relig io n ; if, as so m e
tim es h appens, th ey are already c o rru p te d at th at age it is ra th e r th ro u g h th o u g h t
lessn ess th an d elib erate m alice. W h at these youn g sters need is a k indly h an d to take care o f them , cu ltiv ate th em and lead th em to virtu e and k eep th em aw ay fro m evil.
T he p ro b lem lies in fin d in g w ays to b ring them together, to be able to speak to them and teach them som e m oral p rinciples. T his w as the m issio n o f the Son o f G od, and only his holy relig io n can do it. B ut this re ligion, in itself eternal and u n changeable, w h ich has alw ay s b e en and alw ay s w ill b e the te a ch e r o f m en, c o n tain s a law so p erfect as to be ap p lic ab le to the c o n d itio n s o f all tim es and ad ap tab le to the d iffer
ent ch aracters o f all m en » ” .
a. The preamble to the document and other central parts indicate at once that at the basis of the choice for the oratory was primarily the salvific will of God expressed in the incarnation of the Son, who was sent specifically to gather around him in unity men who were wandering in the labyrinth of errors and false paths of salvation. The Church is called to respond in time to this divine mission of salvation, made possible by a double process of reasoning: one of a theological nature (offered by the solidity and flexibili
ty of religion), and the other of a pedagogical character, consisting in the fundamental educability of the young subject.
In this way the Oratory is inserted in the economy of salvation; it is a human response to a divine call, and not only a work founded on the good will of a person. Don Bosco, at the age of 40, was already aware that God had called and was still calling him to this mission among the young and was convinced, albeit belatedly, that in the Oratory lay the purpose o f his life.
A good example in this connection is the brief life he wrote in the early years of his priesthood (1849) of St Vincent de Paul, which recalls what we were saying yesterday about the “Imitation of Christ”.
“To com p lete this p ictu re o f h im one need only add that h e to o k Jesu s C h rist as his m odel, drew fro m the G ospel all his m oral prin cip les, all his civ il guidelin es, all his d ip lo m acy . [ ...] O n o n e o c c a sio n h e said «I fin d n o th in g I lik e e x ce p t in Jesu s C hrist» . [ ...] V incent w as c o n v in ced that the discip le w as p erfect only w hen he re sem b led his M aster [ ...] w hom he k ep t constan tly before his ey es, [ ...] We m u st be reso lv ed to im itate C h rist and share in his sufferings; o th erw ise w e shall n ev er share in his glory. Qui vult gaudere cum Christo oportet pati cum Christo".
Together with St Francis de Sales, St Vincent de Paul was without any doubt a figure of the greatest significance for Don Bosco, not only at a the
oretical level, but in practical daily life and in the realization of the priestly
ideal. He was a priest o f tireless apostolic activity in all the many different situations o f poverty and abandonment: “a father of the poor because of the promptness, extent and perseverance of his charity, but also because of the sentiments of tenderness and humility with which he accompanied it” . It may be added that the same St Vincent “followed the example of St Francis de Sales, whose extraordinary gentleness and kindness struck him very forcibly the first time they met; through vigilance he eventually became so mild and affable that he would have been his century’s leader in such mat
ters, had it not been for the holy Bishop of Geneva”.
b. But alongside the religious dim ension the social dim ension was equally outstanding: “to instil in their tender hearts the principles o f or
der, good manners, and respect”. Not for nothing had he w ritten some years earlier in a circular letter of 1851: “And so while some of us are praisew orthily w orking to spread the light o f know ledge, trainin g in trades and education in high schools and colleges, in the modest Oratory of St Francis de Sales we are mainly engaged in giving religious and civil instruction to those who, though less endowed by fortune, have neverthe
less the desire to be of use to themselves, to their families and to their country”.
2. “The problem lies in finding ways to bring them together, to be able to speak to them and teach them som e m oral principles”
So wrote Don Bosco: he found difficulties in the apostolate, in financial matters and in the environment; he experienced objective personal prob
lems in drawing up a list of regulations which could be reduced to “Unity of spirit and discipline” in various educative styles. We read in the docu
ment of 1851 from which we have already quoted:
"A m o n g the m eans suitab le fo r spreading the spirit o f relig io n in u n ed u cated and a b an d o n e d h e arts, th e O ra to rie s h a v e a high re p u ta tio n . T h e y are p lac es w h e re y oung peo p le can g a th er fo r pe ac efu l and h o n e st recreatio n a fte r b ein g p resen t at the sacred fu n ctio n s o f the C hurch. T he support I re ce iv e d fro m civil and e cc le sia s
tical au th o rities, the en th u siasm show n by m any m erito rio u s perso n s w ho cam e to help m e by th eir toil and co n trib u tio n s, are a sure sign o f the b lessin g s o f G o d and the p ublic satisfactio n o f m en. It is now a m atter o f d raw in g u p som e R e g u latio n s that can serve as a norm fo r the adm inistration o f this part o f the sacre d m inistry, and as a guide fo r sec u la r and ecclesiastical p ersons, m an y o f w h o m w o rk in this
field w ith ch arity and zeal. O ften 1 b egan to w rite [the R eg u latio n s], b ut I alw ays g av e it up b ecau se o f the n u m ero u s difficu lties th at h ad to b e o v erco m e; b u t now, to p reserv e un ity o f spirit and co n sisten cy o f discip lin e, and to satisfy several au th o ri
tativ e perso n s w ho h av e ad v ised m e to do so, I h av e d ecid ed to tack le this w ork, h o w ev er it m ay turn o u t” .
Here we may deduce at once a picture of the situation of the citizens of Turin in the 1840s: the parish model, inherited from a rural culture and in use at that time, was no longer capable of gathering together the masses of urban youngsters living mainly in the city’s outskirts in a state of aban
donment, often materially, but more frequently from a moral and religious aspect.
In consequence a new pastoral strategy was adopted, a kind of form a
tion never tried before as a response to the radical transformation of the ur
ban situation of Turin. Between 1838 and 1848 the population had in
creased by about 17% (from 117,000 to 136,000), and with a still higher percentage increase in dwellings (up from 2,600 to 3,200) and in the num
ber of families (up from 26,000 to 33,000), without taking into account a large floating population of military personnel, students, seasonal workers, etc. O f the total population not more than 10% could speak and understand Italian correctly. 20% (22,000) were youngsters, increasing in number with the passing of tim e, especially because of their em ploym ent as cheap labour in the textile and building trades.
The response of the Christian com m unity was often dogm atic, even when it did not go as far as outright condemnation of the immigration from the rural areas to the towns as a dangerous innovation, with the loss of the old system of reference points and hence also of faith and religious prac
tice. The common opinion of the city was that it was an evil place which destroyed Catholic cultural values and prevented the simple personal rela
tionships so much fostered and so useful in rural areas. In face of such a situation Don Bosco did not give in, but rather reacted strongly. Economic development is not in itself a cause of vice or a school of perdition; educa
tion of the lower classes - longed for by the liberals but regarded with ap
prehension in conservative circles - is not necessarily an evil to be exor
cized but a valuable resource to be revised for the overall hum an and Christian advancement of the young.
But it was not so much the incipient trends of the liberal era that stirred up his apostolic zeal and his spirit of a “missionary of the young” who had
no parish, but the specific motivations of traditional Catholic charity, in
spired by the gospel and solicitous for the material and spiritual needs of the poor, the orphans and the abandoned. Don Bosco was a son of his time and him self felt deeply this gospel call. He noted the fact that the ecclesias
tical structures, as then organized, failed in confronting the social imbal
ance and cultural changes of the time; in agreement with the ecclesiastical authorities to whom he suggested new ways and more courageous educa
tive perspectives, he tried new methods, opened new horizons for young
sters uprooted from their natural habitat and left defenceless.
3. E volution of the O ratory: from the first festive oratory to a vast