Seminary life in Chieri

The studies in philosophy and theology atthe seminary in Chieri (1835-1841) do not seem to have had a great impact on Don B osco’s culture and mentality, since by tem peram ent he was not inclined to indulge in theoretical speculations, At any rate, these studies anchored him to thè basic dogm atic and moral theology o f those times.

They were not as significant as the N eo-Thom ism thatfollow ed.

A fter having spoken positively about the discovery o f the Imitation o f Christ, thè following is w hat Don Bosco wrote, without much enthusiasm, about the study o f theology at Chieri:

We only study speculative dogm atic theology in our Seminary. As for moral theology, w e only consider issues o f controversy.14

It seem s that Don Bosco was not influenced in any perm anent w ay by the probabi I iorists ’ teachings, from anti-infallibility theses, the widespread rigourist approach to pastoral ministry, G allican-sym pathising ideas which characterised the theology taught in the seminaries in the Turin Diocese during the first decade o f the 19th century.

" Ibid., 82-84.

12 Ibid., 71-72.

13 Ibid., 64-65,84.

14 MO(1991), 116.

H ow ever the disciplinary and spiritual set-up o f the sem inary seem s, w ith some reservations, to have had a remarkably positive influence on Don Bosco.15

This sem inary regim e provided a fin n basis for his basic spiritual and inorai principies, and provided him with a ciear fram ew ork to support the structure o f his teaching on duty, love and joy. He was later to stress exactness in the performance of one’s duties, such as the following: m orning prayers, with Mass and m editation, the rosary, reading during the meals (Don Bosco quoted specifìcally Bercastel’s Church history), and Confession, every fortnight, Holy Com m union on feast days, the study o f philosophical and theological treatises, while offering options in other disciplines but with a clear preference for historical and apologetic studies. It was to be these lattei*

studies, which would give Don Bosco his im petus to popularise w hatever had to do with history and C atechesis.16

Don Bosco received a scientifìc and university type o f formation at Chieri. The culture he warmed to was not so pretentious; it was free o f speculation and theological dogmatic disputations. Together with the emphasis given to moral and applied theology, especially at the Convitto Ecclesiastico in Turin, this kind o f culture would not fail to give Don Bosco his fundamental orientation towards the creation o f a pedagogy which would be religious and moral, essential and practical. On the other hand, the religious and pastoral spirituality o f two saints, St Philip N eri and St Francis de Sales were to have a deep influence on his preventive educative style. In this way the cleric Bosco, probably at the seminary, rounded up his own theological formation.

We will deal with these tw o saints later when w e write about the years which followed Don B osco’s three-year stay a tth e Convitto Ecclesiastico in Turin and we will also add Don B osco’s encounter with another saint, St Vincent de Paul, whose life he may have glimpsed in his seminary days.

Don Bosco’s culture was not only nurtured by what was on offer in the seminary regim e. He owed m uch to his ow n taste in reading; books on sacred and church history, on apologetics, and certain form ative authors.17 It is probably true to say that Don Bosco m ade no distinction betw een the authors and books he read in later years

15 As for the teaching in the theological faculty and in Turin’s seminaries in the first decades o f the 19th century, it has been written: “As far as moral theology was concerned, probabiliorism was taught; for ecclesiology (out o f spite for the officiai neutrality) there were anti-infallibility texts and criticism o f primacy. In pastoral practice there was rigourism; amongst the clergy, especially learned ones from whom bishops were mostly selected, Francophile thinkingw as com m on”, that is, jiirisdictional material. G. Tuninetti, L. Gastaldi 1815-1883, voi 1 Teologo, pubblicista, rosminiano, vescovo di Saluzzo:1815-1871, (Turin, Edizioni Piemme

1983), 33.

16 M O(1991),91-93,106-108.

17 MO(1991), 107.

and those read during his days at the Convitto Ecclesiastico, and during the period when he wrote on religious history, on apologetics and on the type o f piety suited for young people.

How ever, it is evident that Don Bosco preferred authors, like Bossuet, who interpreted history in atheological, providential, hagiographical and moralistic way and were loyal to the Church. Don Bosco would never depart from the road followed by Berault-Bercastel:

This is my intention, to make people recognize the unfailing protection o f God over his people, the sanctity as well as the infallibility of the church, its beauty and its splendour even during the times o f the greatest darkness.18

This intention resounds throughout Don B osco’s education system. He him self stresses this very point in The Memoirs o f thè Oratory w hen the features o f the Preventive System which he put into practice during a thiity year period, were already defined. The sem inary education system had been evidently m odelled on the institutiones ad universum seminarii regimen pertinentes (The educational system to be used by seminaries) issued by Charles Borrom eo, and with objectives and methods defìnitely leaning towards austerity.19 On the whole it was a repressive system.

The rector and the other superiors carne to see us when we got back from our vacation and when we were leaving for our vacation. No one ever went to speak with them, except in cases when someone had to be reprimanded. The superiors took turns, each week in supervising us in the dining room and during the walks. And that was all.

How ofiten I would have liked to talk to them, to aslc them for their advice or for the solution o f some problem, and I could not. Besides, whenever a superior happened to pass by through the seminary, without knowing why everyone would hurry away as if they were avoiding a black cat.20

,s A. H. Bérault-Bercastel, Storia del cristianesimo d e ll’anate Bèrault.Bercasteltranslated in Italian with notes and essays by Abbot Giambattisa Zugno, voi 1, (Turin, tip. Cassone, Marzorati and Vercellone, 1831), 30.

19 Cf. Institutiones a d universum sem inarii regim en pertinentes, in A cta E cclesiae Mediolensis,ed. A. Ratti, (Milan: 1982), voi 3, col. 93-146.

20 MO (1991), 91. Many impressions atthe moment ofhis departure, MO (1991), 110. In a book by priest F. Falcone, Per la riforma'dei sem inari in Italia(Rome, F. Pustet, 1906), Don Bosco’s Preventive System is also proposed for “seminaries, especially for Middle and High schools”, although combined substantially for the particular aims o f ecclesiastical formation, with the “substance ofthe S. Charles educational system”. (ibid., 56-66),