Lettres du P. Lacordaire, 354

57 Lettres du P. Lacordaire, 86-88; cf. advice to a past pupil from Sorèze going to Paris, 361- 363; to others with strong passions, 392-396,397-399,431-434,435-437; and again to a past

The core supporting idea for this process is proposed in strong term s: form human and Christian characters shaped through obedience, ready to enter the world with persona] and well defined ideas; virtue and intelligence requires character: esto vir! (be a m an!) as their foundation. C haracter is m ade up o f tw o sets o f values:

natural virtues w hich are its foundation; and religion at the top. Religion is o f the greatest importance since it implies knowledge o f God, the soul and its destiny. Religion is the m ost brilliant light for men, the decisive pow er against sensual and spiritual passions.58

These tw o m otives are explained in a speech delivered on A ugust 7, 1856, to the young and their families who were taking part in an award ceremony. Don Bosco may have read an outline o f it in the N ew Y ear’s Galantuomo o f 1865, w hich was also the strenna (souvenir gift) in Catholic Readings. The text from L acordaire’s talk had been inserted in an article entitled II clero e l ’educazione della gioventù (The clergy and the education o f the young).59 The first three short pages are dedicated to recalling the dedication shown to the young by St Jerome Miani, wrongly thought to be a priest, and by St Philip Neri. All the rest deals with Fr Lacordaire and his boarding school at Sorèze.

Particularly interesting is Fr L acordaire’s insistence on w hat he m eans by educational growth, in the first part o f the speech: “the fact o f being able to see the living m arks o f the w ork o f the spirit on their foreheads, the signs o f reason w hich holds prim acy in their life, the gradual appearance o f the beauty which com es from the heart” . The educators, in the evaluation o f their students, were not only guided “by justice, but also by tenderness, by the fatherly tenderness which follows on from their

parents’ tenderness” .60

contd. 57

pupil on bad companions, 425-426, and on the essentail practices o f Christian life, 427-428, 446-448; finally, strong and disturbing words to someone who is weak and shifts between good and evil, 441 -445.

58 G.-G. Montserret, Enseignant,45-46.

59 II Galantuomo e le sue avventure, Almanaco nazionale p e r I'anno 1865. Strenna offerta ai cattolici italiani.Anno XII, (Turin: Oratory Press, St Francis de Sales 1864), 14-21.

Anyone familiar with Don B osco’s style could only believe with great difficulty that this was written by him.

60 Discours prononcé à la distribution solennelle des prix de l ’école de Sorèze le 7 août 1856, in Ouvres du R.P Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, book 5, (Paris, Poussielgue-Rusand 1861 ), 316-317. Concerning tendernessand firm nessin education he writes to a father asking for advice: “Education requires both tenderness and firmness. You have to avoid the idolatry that forgives eveiything and smooths over everything, and inflexible severity that closes hearts and distances them”; he concludes: “I think we have to avoid keeping a child too long in the shadow o f the home” (Lettres clu P. Lacordaire, 335).

This reference leads inevitably to an exam ination o f conscience as far as the identity o f the teacher is concerned. This identity draws its value and power from the world o f thought: “ it com es from w here truth resides, together with beauty, justice, order, greatness and all that contributes to the m aking o f a man, a divine be in g , and o f a child, a being who has the vocation to become a man. And this happens, w hen we recognise that the soul is the country o f true freedom and that this freedom is acquired through know ledge and virtue” .61 Teachers live with their pupils to have them start their journey toward this Kingdom with all o f their dedication. “They continue G od’s w ork and their fam ilies’ w ork, they are the trailblazers o f the w orld” .62

The teach er’s first task is to:

hold on to faith and make it grow to the point o f opening up the minds o f the young to the understanding o f the invisible world; to hold on to the hope which strengthens the heart with a view to well-deserved happiness; to hold on to love which makes the young feel G od’s presence in life’s cold shadows and, in spite o f them, still feel the warm temperature o f eternity.. .Therefore religion has reclaimed, through the school, a command which will be never taken away from it; religion reigns not through constraint or ju st with the prop o f worship, but thanks to a unanimous sincere conviction, to duties secretly carried out, to aspirations known only to God, and thanks to the peace which comes from doing good and from remorse for the wrong which has been done...W here there is no God you may, at most, have a ray o f light on rubble. W henever God is present, even the rubble comes back to life and in time even the rubble will be built up again from the foundations.63

“Love, which extends the work o f a family together with affection, is inseparable from G od’s p resen ce.. .It is G o d ‘s w ill” . Lacordaire insists:

that no good may be accomplished on behalf o f man unless he is loved. God has infused that love into the parents and the educators cannot but be clothed in something o f the affection shown by parents: this is the second love created by G od...Should the contrary take place, then, the school will be cold, sad, alienated, like a prison. It entails a total involvement in the life o f the pupils and this involvement is summed up in this single expression: We Love them. In fact, from the moment God became incarnate among us, the care o f souls, which was already so great, has become a love which is far superior to any other love and a fatherliness which has no rivals. The skilled teacher is no more a skilled

61 H.-D. Lacordaire, Discours prononcé, 319-320.

62 Ibid., 320-321.

63 Ibid., 322-323.

teacher but a father. The scholar is no more a scholar but a priest. Therefore it is not difficult to love the pupils. It is enough to believe in their souls, in God, who created them and redeemed them, in their origin and in their destiny”.64 Religion and affection are the two colum ns o f the educative structure.

Lacordaire does not fail to mention the third element. “It is essential for justice to have a stern demeanour. Affection without justice is weakness and without justice even religion would veil the more harm ful, the m ore outstanding corruption o f the heart. By rew arding the good and by striking the evil done, hum an society can be safeguarded”. W ithout this element, “the child who has not yet come to know w hat it is and in a way suited to his weakness, will inevitably have neither the fear o f what is evil nor the understanding o f w hat life is. One needs to experience the w eight o f justice to learn how to bend o n e’s will to accept the laws o f duty: one m ust taste the jo y o f a rew ard w ell-deserved to acquire a feeling for honour” . “H ere, on the very threshold o f the school, a child finds justice. B ut he does not find it alone, separated from religion and affection; he will find it by getting accustom ed to the law o f the world in which he is going to live, according to which any crime calls for atonement, every fault calls for a reprimand, every failure calls for being ashamed o f it, and every weakness calls for dishonour”.65

The text published in the Galantuomo referred only to the sections which dealt with religion and love. It remains improbable, as it has been pointed out, for the article to have been penned by Don Bosco himself: it is not his style. However, the fact that m any o f Don B osco’s ideas coincide with L acordaire’s and that som e o f these are related to ideas o f religion and affection w idely diffused in the world o f C atholic education before and after the Restoration, does not perm it us to speak about Don Bosco’s dependence on Lacordaire’s.

That religion is the basis o f all moral and social life and therefore o f every educational action, is a conviction w hich Don Bosco m ade abundantly evident throughout his priestly ministry. The sam e m ay be said for the m ethod o f charity expressed in affection, loving kindness practised, proclaimed and recognised from the outset o f his com m itm ent to caring for young people.66

64 Ibid., 323-326.

65 H.-D. Lacordaire, Discoursprononcé,pp. 326-327.

66 Conclusions drawn by F. Desramaut, Don Bosco en son temps (1815-1888),(Turin: SEI 1996), 656-658, seem at least a bit loose. Don Bosco had no need to take not o f the “seductive formulae o f Lacordaire” to know what had been for decades the pillars o f his activity and beliefs as an educator, religion and affection. (696): c f Braido, “Il sistema preventivo di Don Bosco alle origini (1841-1862). Il cammino del ‘p reven tivo’ nella realtà e nei docum enti”, RSS14(1995): 255-320.