Vojtas-Pedagogy after DB digital


Vojtas-Pedagogy after DB digital



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Part of the series:
Pubblicazioni del
CENTRO STUDI DON BOSCO
Studi e strumenti - 8

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SALESIAN PEDAGOGY
AFTER
DON BOSCO
from the first generation up to the Synod on Young People (1888–2018)
MICHAL VOJTÁŠ

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Published by LAS - Libreria Ateneo Salesiano
Piazza dell'Ateneo Salesiano, 1 - 00139 Rome, Italy
www.editricelas.it
Copyright © LAS 2022
All rights reserved. Other than for the purposes and subject to the conditions prescribed under the Copyright
Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the publisher or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Design and Patents
Act 1988 or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing
Agency
ISBN 978-88-213-1551-0
Cover design by Cyril Uhnák
Translation and typesetting by the Australia-Pacific SDB Province
Set in EB Garamond

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Contents
Preface
13
Introduction
16
Abbreviations
24
1. Statements on pedagogy by the first Salesian generation (1888–1917) 25
The first generation of Salesians
26
The challenge of anticlerical “free thinking”
26
The Church's reaction: new balances and conservatism
29
Identity and evolution of the Salesian school
31
Second industrial revolution in the final decades of the 19th century
33
Rerum Novarum and the growing social sensitivity of Salesians
34
The birth of Salesian vocational and agricultural schools
36
Other social works: oratories, kindergartens, worker accommodation
38
Superiors’ pedagogical guidelines at a time of expansion
41
Michael Rua: creative fidelity to Don Bosco's preventive system
41
Kindness and zeal of the educator for deep and enduring education
45
Guidelines for oratories and past pupils
48
Applications of Rerum Novarum
50
Initial statements on Salesian pedagogy by the first Salesians
52
Giulio Barberis's Pedagogia sacra as a basic formation text
53
Francesco Cerruti, first Councillor for Schools
61
Giuseppe Bertello: transformation of workshops into vocational schools
66
Tools and resources
70
Chronological table
70
Select bibliography
71
Online resources
75

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
2. A practical pedagogy of osmosis (1902–1931)
76
Oratory in mass society and missions during colonialism
76
Leisure time and its implications
77
Mass society and the growth of interest in associations
78
The adaptation of Salesian oratories in the early twentieth century
79
Guidance from the centre: the Bollettino, congresses and regulations
81
The concrete situation of the oratories
85
Development and tensions around Salesian groups
87
Salesians and the First World War
90
The post-war period and the advent of fascism
93
The golden age of colonialism and Salesian missions
95
Birth of the Salesian approach to the missions in Latin America
96
Development of the missionary approach after the First World War
98
Efforts at inculturation
100
New kinds of Salesian presence
102
The Rectors Major on adapting to conditions
105
Paul Albera’s balances around fidelity and piety in education
105
Philip Rinaldi and the practice of “healthy modernity”
109
Pedagogical approach of the novelty of the preventive system
112
Fatherliness and union with God as the basis of Salesian education
113
Education by osmosis and the importance of practical training
117
Salesian sodalities, Catholic Action, other youth organisations
120
Writers on Salesian pedagogy in the 1920s
123
Fascie and experience-based Salesian pedagogy
123
Cimatti and Don Bosco educatore compared with positivism
126
Francophone reflections: Scaloni and Auffray
131
Tools and resources
135
Chronological table
135
Select bibliography
136
Online resources
141

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3. Adverse times call for disciplined fidelity (1929–1951)
142
The boarding school “as an island of prevention”
143
Authoritarian and totalitarian regimes educating the “new man”
143
The Church’s educational mission and Divini Illius Magistri
146
Salesian compromise and balance: Don Bosco’s canonisation
149
The Salesian boarding school – dominant educational paradigm
151
Some changes in the actual life of the boarding schools
152
Consequences – a more military than family style discipline
156
Ricaldone’s guidelines – fidelity, catechesis and study
158
Unity, formation and research in the Higher Institute of Pedagogy
159
Love as inspiration and discipline as a general means of education
162
The Crusade: developments in catechetics
166
Extremes in the question of entertainment
170
Summary: the paradigm of the “boarding school under siege”
174
Writers on Salesian pedagogy
174
Leôncio da Silva and the neo-Thomist inspiration of the Higher
Institute of Pedagogy
176
Don Bosco educatore: ‘magisterial’ pronouncement and paradox
180
Albert Caviglia – a dissenting voice with future potential
187
Tools and resources
191
Chronological table
191
Select bibliography
192
Online resources
195
4. Vatican II: Before, during, after (1952–1978)
196
Social, educational and ecclesial context around Vatican Council II
196
Post-war reconstruction and growing world consciousness
197
Developments in Catholic pedagogy until the mid-1960s
199
The Higher Institute of Pedagogy
201

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
Gravissimum Educationis: Vatican II's turning point in education
207
Vatican II and the dialogue approach of the General Chapters
210
The Congregation after the Council
213
The Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum’s new headquarters in Rome
216
Salesian pedagogical guidelines around the time of Vatican II
221
Renato Ziggiotti’s letters and the globalisation of the charism
221
The partial, unimplemented breakthrough of GC19
225
GC19 regarding education and pastoral activity
226
GC19’ s application in the educative and pastoral area
230
The Special General Chapter’s rethinking process
235
The Special General Chapter on educative and pastoral issues
238
The effects of the SGC in practice
241
Fr Ricceri and the handling of conflict
245
Salesian writers and pedagogical movements around Vatican II
247
Loving-kindness as the key to “early Braido’s” interpretation of Don Bosco 247
Braido’s second edition and greater historical-critical sensitivity
252
Braido and the dual educational method of “love-discipline”
254
Conferences on updating Salesian pedagogy
256
Don Bosco as the educator for today (1960)
257
Don Bosco’s system: both ancient and new (1974)
260
The Salesian Colloquiums
262
Gino Corallo – thinking outside the box
266
Tools and resources
269
Chronological table
269
Select bibliography
270
Online resources
273
5. Planning and animation (1978–1998)
274
Consolidation guided by Viganò and Vecchi
274
Increasing globalisation
275

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Church and youth ministry with John Paul II’s imprint
277
Organisational consolidation of the Congregation (1978–2000)
280
Final approval of the Constitutions (1984) and systematic
organisation of formation (1981–85)
282
Project Africa and the dynamics of development
284
Personnel and works: a case of numbers and rhetoric
285
From pedagogy to the sciences of education: was an interdisciplinary
pursuit possible?
289
Educational planning and its supporting theories
291
Pedagogical guidelines of Salesian magisterium
294
Concepts of educative and pastoral planning in GC21 (1978)
294
Linear planning: situation-objective-means
295
Wholistic planning: educators’ attitudes and the educational setting
297
The Project as an operational tool
299
Project, a term whose semantic field is (too) broad
300
Egidio Viganò: planning and new education and evangelisation
302
Juan Edmundo Vecchi, a leader in how the SEPP should be
conceptualised (1978–80)
308
Methodology of Salesian planning (1978)
308
Insights and applications of planning in different educational
settings (1979–1981)
312
The practical nature of planning in the Eighties
314
The Nineties: education to the faith and Salesian spirituality
317
Revision of provincial plans and shared responsibility with the laity
320
Pedagogical guidelines from major Salesian writers
325
The later Braido, founder of the Salesian Historical Institute
325
A summary of Prevenire non reprimere (Prevention not Repression)
327
Scientific rigour and the problem of dependencies
330
Updating the Preventive System
332
Collaboration between the YM Department and the UPS
335

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
The Seminar on Planning education today with Don Bosco (1980)
335
The Progetto Educativo Salesiano. Elementi modulari (1984)
338
The conference on Educative and Pastoral Praxis and the Sciences
of Education (1987)
343
Pedagogical reflection by the FMA
345
Social-cultural animation as seen by Tonelli, Pollo and Ellena
351
Mario Pollo’s cultural animation
352
Educational implications of Riccardo Tonelli’s animation
355
Aldo Ellena’s social animation
358
The methodological split between religion and education
360
Tools and resources
367
Chronological table
367
Select bibliography
368
Online resources
372
6. New evangelisation and education for the third millennium
(1998–2018)
373
Postmodernity and the Salesian Congregation
373
The precariousness and fluidity of the third millennium
373
The Salesian Congregation shifting to non-Western interculturality
375
Benedict XVI and Francis – different but complementary emphases
on education
380
Digital as tool, space and symbol of a generation
383
Young adults and IUS as a new field of action
386
Post-industrial education and transformational leadership
389
What kind of youth emerges from the 2018 Synod
391
Pedagogical guidelines from Rome at the turn of the millennium
394
Domènech and the syntheses of the Frame of Reference (1998 and 2000) 394
The first edition of the Frame of Reference (1998)
395
The dilemma of a unified whole and the SEPP’s division into dimensions 396
The educative and pastoral community in the service of the project
399

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Methodology for drawing up and verifying the SEPP
400
Methodological additions to the second edition of the Framework
401
Holines, spirituality, evangelisation in Pascual Chávez Villanueva’s
magisterium
403
Chávez: focus on new forms of poverty and human rights
407
New projects and the method of discernment
409
Attard and the third edition of the Frame of Reference
413
The bicentenary and first years of Fr Fernández Artime’s term of office 418
Salesian currents of pedagogical thinking in the third millennium
422
The historical-critical approach to Salesian education
422
Youth ministry and the priority of evangelisation
426
Accompaniment, the new paradigm for postmodern education
431
Features of Salesian accompaniment
434
Contemporary challenges and responses
436
A global and realistic look at accompaniment
438
Transformative and virtuous pedagogy that goes beyond planning
by objectives
442
Salesian formation of adult educators
447
Variations and innovations in different areas
451
An open conclusion between the Synod and Covid-19
455
Tools and resources
459
Chronological table
459
Select bibliography
460
Online resources
464
Afterword
465
Bibliography, indexes and further online materials
480

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Preface
Some of the action guidelines for the six-year period from 2020-20261 offer the context
for interpreting this work on Salesian pedagogy that connects the founding experience
of the first Salesian generation with the various periods of time up until our own. Since
the author, Michal Vojtáš, intends to deal with a range of pedagogical mindsets, with a
view to current and future updating, let me point to the virtue of hope as the principle
guide for interpretation. Only with hope can we tackle the future, confident that the
Lord will bring our humble contributions of thought and action to fulfilment. Hope
has a privileged relationship with time. In fact, on the one hand it allows us to look to
the future with faith and with the attitude of entrustment to Providence so dear to Don
Bosco, while on the other it is anchored in a view of the past that is filled with gratitude
for the journey made. The history of Salesian pedagogy is part of this – it responds to
the challenges and welcomes the stimuli of the different eras, gives continuity to some
prophetic intuitions that were part of the experience of the Valdocco oratory. It brings
thinking into practice, offering pointers to method that bring balance, order and system
to the actual intuitions resulting from so many best practices around the Salesian world.
As the Pope said in his message addressed to the Salesians who had gathered at the
28th General Chapter: “Neither pessimist nor optimist, the Salesian of the 21st century
is someone filled with hope because he knows that his centre is the Lord who can make all
things new (cf. Rev 21:5). Only this will save us from living in an attitude of resignation
and defensive survival. Only this will make our life fruitful.” The developments in
Salesian pedagogical thinking teach us how “living the charism faithfully is something
richer and more stimulating than simply abandoning, retreating or readjusting houses or
activities; it involves a change of mentality in the face of the mission to be carried out.”2
This book demonstrates that statements about pedagogy are never definitive; indeed,
when there have been attempts at completeness, definitiveness, or extreme rigour, usually
the achievements or reception of such statements have been less satisfactory than
expected.
The first action guideline for the next six years, Growing in Salesian Identity, reminds
us of the need to take care of sufficiently solid roots to build a future with openness to
1 Cf. “What kind of Salesians for the youth of today?” Post-Chapter reflection of the Society of St Francis de
Sales, in “Acts of the General Council” 102 (2020) 433, 13-54.
2 Francis, Message to GC28, in “What kind of Salesians for the youth of today?”, 57-58.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
dialogue. We are part of an absorbing and fascinating history, but one that is dramatic
and not straightforward, with its highs and lows accompanying Salesian personalities
who have dedicated their life to education and to educational thinking. Our identity,
indeed, has its roots in a current of thought and action which has been able to combine
concreteness with flexibility, soundness with creativity, methodology with a lifestyle,
the logic of faith with reasoned planning. Salesian identity is not made up of concepts
and pedagogical coordinates alone but, just like it is for believers, it is anchored in an
encounter with Christ and this in an attitude of gratitude for the mission he entrusts to
us. Salesian pedagogy is not just a human project, the invention of a clever individual,
but it is the fruit of the initiative of God who sends us among the young to accompany
them and to think about educational proposals that are consistent, sound yet flexible
and creative.
The second action guideline, the one about formation for being Salesian pastors
today, asks for commitment to “overcoming the gap between formation and mission by
encouraging in the Congregation a renewed culture of formation in the mission today
throughout the Salesian world, with measures and decisions of great significance”.3 In
fact, our formation model can only be the Preventive System and Salesian pedagogy. The
more we succeed in reflecting critically on how things have been formulated in the past,
the more we will be able to appreciate the permanent cornerstones of Salesian education
and avoid the short cuts in thinking and action bound up with stereotypes of the era and
standardised, dualistic styles of thinking.
The formation of Salesian pastors is inextricably linked to the third action guideline,
the one about mission and formation together with lay people. The road for overcoming
the separation between study and mission lies not in adjustments within the old
“studentate mentality” but in the setting up of radically different processes that link the
new identity with newer approaches to ongoing formation that take place in the vital
context of a community of faith, learning and educational practice.
Almost a quarter of a century ago, Fr Juan Vecchi prophetically traced out this route
in a circular letter entitled “For you I study”. The features of the figure of the “new
Salesian” he was thinking of correspond to the demands of the “new evangelisation” and
“new education”. He was not dealing with some light retouches but with something
much more radical. The Salesian is called to fit into a “new model of operation”, one
of being pastoral guides, primarily responsible for the Salesian identity of initiatives
3 “What kind of Salesians for the youth of today?”, 34.

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and works, animators, leaders of other educators within the animating nucleus.4 In
accordance with the reflections of GC28, I am convinced that this model is the road to
the future, and needs to be sustained, studied and made concrete.
I congratulate Michal Vojtáš for this broad pedagogical overview and I hope that
this work becomes a tool for forming our ability to interpret culture creatively, animate a
broad educational environment, accompany processes of maturation and growth, orient
Salesian educators and interact in the social context. My wish for the reader is that they
get used to contextualising educational thinking and projects in order to be able to
recognise the different pedagogical directions included in them. This is a prerequisite
for being able to be like the disciple of the Kingdom of Heaven who “brings out of his
treasure what is new and what is old” (Mt 13:52), forming the new mindset needed for
the change of era we are going through. “In this way Salesianity, far from being lost in
uniformity without nuance, will be expressed in a more beautiful and attractive way...
it will be able to express itself ‘in dialect’.”5 The Salesian Family will thus speak the
same language of the preventive system with variations, nuances, imagery and new and
original practices.
Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, SDB
Rome, 8 December 2020, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
161st anniversary of the foundation of the Salesian Congregation
4 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, “For you I study...”( C 14) Satisfactory preparation of the confreres and the quality of our
educative work, in AGC 78 (1997) 361, 3-49.
5 Francis, Message to GC28, 63.

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Introduction
“What would Don Bosco do today?” is often the explicit or implicit refrain that goes
with educational planning in Salesian houses. The question, beyond being almost
cliché-like, reveals a very common way of proceeding when addressing the issue of
updating, even in academic circles: first of all we need to get to know the historical roots and
the original educational insights. Then we need to understand the current context with its
challenges and opportunities. And finally, it becomes natural to plan educational activity
so as to embody Don Bosco's ideal today.
This concept of updating has its roots in the period that followed the Second Vatican
Council, when religious orders were invited to explore their charismatic roots more
deeply and open themselves up to current challenges so they could then plan for updated
pastoral activity. The three aforementioned phases of updating refer to specific scientific
disciplines: historical science for critically understanding Don Bosco in his context; the
humanities for staying in touch with today's society; the organisational sciences for
planning education seriously, incisively and effectively.
Even if this scheme of post-Vatican II ‘aggiornamento’ seems convincing at first
sight, some serious difficulties emerge half a century or more later. The first comes from
the practical insignificance of developments that took place in the periods between the
founding of the Congregation and today. If we were to take this kind of reasoning
to an extreme, we would not, for example, take into consideration the formative
model of the beginnings, the missionary approach in Patagonia, the development
of oratories in the early twentieth century or the events of the catechetical crusade
during Fr Ricaldone's time. A wealth of experience, reasoning and experimentation
would be lost and we would be doomed to repeat mistakes very similar to those of
our predecessors. The second difficulty comes from the subdivision between different
scientific fields that find it difficult to communicate among themselves given their
different methods, assumptions, axioms, languages and scientific communities. A
further problem connected with the previous one is the mental separation between
“yesterday” and “today”, between “historians”, “educators” and “planners”, given the
universal difficulty in passing “from paper to life.”

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Introduction
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To illustrate, one could mention the recent and emblematic celebration of the
bicentenary of Don Bosco's birth, prepared for by a three-year period according to
specific approaches: history, educational reflection, decision making... The Salesian
History Congress was organised in 2014, followed by pedagogical reflection on
contemporary issues at the Salesian Pedagogy Congress in 2015. In the meantime the
27th General Chapter promulgated the third edition of the Youth Ministry Framework
and provided strategic planning decisions for the future. It was precisely in the years
around the bicentenary that the idea of this current work you are reading was born,
with the intention of connecting Don Bosco with today through different eras with
their different mentalities. These mindsets reinforce some new pedagogical ideas while
omitting others, preferring certain modes of action, developing reflections. Some
of these were prophetic and courageous, others were rather inclined to the current
mentality or to emergency solutions, or even dictated by a degree of intellectual inertia.
The alternating succession of changes inevitably leads to a pendulum effect, or as Vico
put it, corsi e ricorsi, or as Toynbee put it: withdrawals and returns between different
periods.
Since there is a broad spectrum of approaches to accessing historical data and
pedagogical thinking of the past,1 I think I need to clarify my methodology, which
differs from a purely historical reconstruction in several ways. At the level of general
historiographical reflection, I consider the positions of Henri Irénée Marrou to be both
inspiring and balanced. He is a French historian who has been able to combine the
identity of the historian, the philosopher of history and the Catholic believer within
a stimulating, integral, anti-ideological and humble perspective. Also, and this should
not be undervalued, his ideas are informed by a marked pedagogical awareness and
an appreciation of education. In fact, his most important work tackles the history
and evolution of ancient education in an original way, by going beyond various
Enlightenment stereotypes linked above all to the transition between antiquity and the
Middle Ages.2 The historical and historiographical potential that emerges in the study
1 Cf. G. Loparco – S. Zimniak (eds.), La storiografia salesiana tra studi e documentazione nella stagione
postconciliare, LAS, Rome 2014, 9-142, especially contributions by: M. Nickel, :Grundfragen und Tendenzen
der Kirchengeschichte in der Gegenwart, in Ibid., 27-48 and G. Rocca, La storiografia delle congregazioni
religiose in Europa. Orientamenti e proposte, in Ibid. pp, 73-109. For the history of pedagogy cf. for
example. G. Chiosso, Novecento pedagogico, La Scuola, Brescia 1997 and Id., Profilo storico della pedagogia
cristiana in Italia (XIX e XX secolo), La scuola, Brescia 2001.
2 Cf. G. Tognon, Prefazione per rileggere Marrou, in H.-I. Marrou, Storia dell’educazione nell’antichità,
Studium, Rome 2016, 13-39.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
of transitional periods was enhanced by this author in his De la conaissance historique
and Théologie de l'histoire.3
His investigations into the relationship between historical research and philosophical
reflection led him to transcend the tired and sceptical positivist historiography that he
had learned as a young student at the Sorbonne. Along with the Les Annales school,
he too identified the most immediate limitation of positivistic historiography to be its
atomistic conception of historical fact. We focused too much on the importance of the
“document”, thinking we could reconstruct the facts with evidence, assuming that each
historical moment was complete in itself, extractable from the structure of complexity
and continuity of historical reality.
But there are other more philosophical and theological concepts of history. Universal
laws governing history are hypothesised, laws which often seem to be a distant echo of
Hegelian ideas, sometimes in the guise of historiographical or sociological theories. In
this current of thought, ideas, as the ideal-types, are transformed from provisional modes
of representing history into crystallised laws that pretend to bring the particular into a
unified design, turning into “great machines that prevent us from understanding” and
which, with their “illusory clarity end up impairing the readiness of the historian to see
reality in its authentic and disconcerting multiplicity.”4 Bernard Lonergan, taking up
Marrou's critique of idealistic conceptions of historiography, has this to say about the
use of interpretative hypotheses in his most famous work on method:
Marrou approves the use of ideal-types in historical investigation, but he issues
two warnings. First, they are just theoretical constructs: one must resist the
temptation of the enthusiast that mistakes them for descriptions of reality […]
Secondly, there is the difficulty of working out appropriate ideal-types: the richer
and more illuminating the construct, the greater the difficulty of applying it; the
thinner and looser the construct, the less it is able to contribute much to history.5
Nevertheless, the critique of metaphysical theories of history is not exhausted by
their examination, but opens the way to the understanding of the multifaceted nature
of history itself and of the respective visions of it. The non-linear nature of history does
not atomise historical knowledge in facts gained through documents, but argues for the
3 Cf H.-I. Marrou, Conoscenza storica, il Mulino, Bologna 1997, and Id., Teologia della storia, Jaca,
Milan 2010.
4 Marrou, Conoscenza storica, 192
5 B. Lonergan, Method in Theology, University of Toronto Press 1990, 228.

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Introduction
19
existence of links and interdependent relationships between various periods, mentalities,
or historical sets. Institutions, mentalities, arts, educational styles are not realities that
appear like meteors in the sky of history, but arise after a long period of incubation and
can be perceived only in their evolution and continuous transformation.6
For Marrou, history is not a succession of measurable facts that must be reconstructed.
It is always the knowledge of the complex past of a human reality that has “already
been”. To put it as Heidegger put it, history, insofar as it is dagewesenes Dasein, influences
our present and future Being-in-the-world.7 The cognitive claims of this discipline are
therefore placed at a more modest level than the pride of the idealist (who possesses “the
laws”) and the scrupulous myopia of the positivist (who possesses “the fact” and “the
document”).8 Inspired by this balanced, humanistic and believing position, I would like
to place Salesian pedagogical thinking within historical coordinates. By this operation I
am not trying to relativise Salesian educational thinking by dissolving it within a given
socio-cultural environment. On the contrary, I would like to understand the flow and
evolution of ideas and educational applications over time.
History, understood as the human past reconstructed and interpreted by other
human beings, implies a methodology that takes the position of “otherness” seriously:
otherness in terms of temporal, mental or cultural distance. Marrou refers to the
phenomenology of Edmund Husserl in suggesting the attitude of epoché as a fundamental
paradigm so as not to fall into the “philosophical history of philosophy” which
uncritically traces the past back to the present as the point of arrival.9 Our author
writes: “the historian is someone who, through the epoché, succeeds in going out of
himself to encounter others.”10 The experience of history, precisely because it involves
encountering the other, puts the historian in an attitude of profound humility. If he or
she genuinely puts themselves into relationship with the otherness of the past, then they
experience a greatness that leaves us bewildered; in fact, the people of the past revealed
by it were often superior to us. Marrou also insists on psychological affinity, the empathy
6 Cf.G. Guglielmi, Critica alla storiografia positivista e alla filosofia della storia. Lonergan interprete
di Marrou, in E. Cibelli – C. Taddei Ferretti (Eds.), Ricerche lonerganiane offerte a Saturnino
Muratore, Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, Napoli 2016, 356.
7 Cf. Marrou, Conoscenza storica, 208.
8 Cf. Marrou, Conoscenza storica, 56.
9 The interpretative procedure of this philosophical historiography consists in considering historically relevant
only what is echoed in one's own ideology. Cf. For example E. Piovani, Filosofia e storia delle idee,
Edizioni di Storia e di Letteratura, Rome 20102, 200.
10 Marrou, Conoscenza storica, 99. Cf. also 89-92.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
that the historian must necessarily have in view of achieving a knowledge of the past that
he or she is reconstructing. Just as the history of art demands of the scholar a strong and
subtle aesthetic sensitivity, the history of Christianity supposes that one has a sense of
spiritual values and of the religious phenomenon.11
Investigation in an attitude of phenomenological epoché accepts events and the
succession of historical periods as they occur, without a fixed and predetermined pattern.
At certain moments we find an influential educational theorist or a strong superior, while
at other times the Church (Vatican Council II) or a socio-political event (totalitarian
regimes) leads to reflection on education. Or there are the dynamics of personnel and
generations that could be decisive (the first generation formed by Don Bosco or the
generational conflict of the 1960s), etc.
In certain periods the Salesians based themselves on the direct evidence of the
founder's educational way of doing things, while in others they were influenced by
the pedagogical thinking of outside writers of their times, or in changed conditions
or adverse situations they took greater care of their own traditions and identity. For
pedagogical reflection, the influence of the experiential and daily context is decisive,
linked as it is to the different interactions that are created in certain typical educational
structures (boarding school, oratory, vocational school, sodalities, groups, universities,
etc.). This latter influence is particularly relevant for Salesians as members of a
Congregation of practical educators rather than scholars of education. In this way the
challenges of the time, the thinking of some superiors, the organisational logic that was
part of formation and educational structures, and the consequences of the previous
periods all come together to create an “ideal-type”, that is, the traits of the typical
mentality of a generation. The alternation of generations and pedagogical paradigms
over different historical eras will be summarised in the following six chapters:
1. Statements on pedagogy by the first Salesian generation (1888-1917) between the
beginnings of Fr Michael Rua's terms of office as Rector Major and the death of
Francesco Cerruti, the first General Councillor for Schools.
2. A practical pedagogy of osmosis (1902-1931) capable of adapting to modern society.
This can be ideally located as beginning with the Congresses on the oratories,
including the terms of office of Fr Paul Albera and Fr Philip Rinaldi.
11 Cf. Marrou, Conoscenza storica, 104. In the context of Christian education, I consider the arguments
to be important that are contained in the preface to J. Ratzinger Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth,
Doubleday, New York 2007, 8-20.

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Introduction
21
3. Discipline, fidelity, to a saint in difficult times (1929-1951), which characterises the
period that begins ideally from Don Bosco's Beatification and includes pedagogical
systematisation by Fr Peter Ricaldone.
4. Before, during and after Vatican II (1952-1978), that is, the impact of the
momentous ecclesial reflection on education and pedagogy, giving priority to the
innovative stimuli of the respective General Chapters.
5. Planning and animation (1978-1998), two core elements of pedagogical synthesis
that developed during Fr Egidio Viganò's time as Rector Major with significant
pedagogical contributions from Fr Juan Edmundo Vecchi.
6. New evangelisation and education for the third millennium (1998-2018). A period
that begins with the systematisation of youth ministry frameworks and ideally ends
with the Synod on Youth.
The understanding of Salesian pedagogy in this book is placed within the context
of the phenomenological and historiographical principles presented and will be
understood as a systematic and critical reflection on education inspired by the style and
educational work of St John Bosco. By respecting Salesian history as it is presented, the
concepts of a systematic and critical nature will be understood in a broad and inclusive
sense, therefore also accepting approaches with different degrees of scientific value and
influence on education. Because there is so much material available and because of
the need to limit the field of research, the most significant items in terms of thought
and dissemination will be chosen. Methodological choices are also reflected in how
individual chapters in our text are structured, as follows:
• to begin with, we will look at the social, educational and pedagogical characteristics
of an historical period, the corresponding church context and how Salesian education
has responded by adapting its typical educational structures;
• then come the pedagogical guidelines, other governing guidelines in educational
matters coming from Congregational leadership and that interpret fidelity to Don
Bosco's educational model in a given period;
• a deeper exploration of reflections by some of the most significant Salesian scholars
in the pedagogical field at the level of influence and spread. The contributions of
the authors will be analysed synchronically (in their context) and diachronically
(studying the continuities and discontinuities between pedagogical concepts);
• finally comes a proposal for an anthology of texts and materials from each period,
available partly in print and largely online. Hundreds of documents, sources,
research items and articles can be consulted in full-text on the salesian.online site.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
These choices of method necessarily imply some limitations. Because we have
taken into consideration the pedagogical guidelines issued by Congregational leadership,
and have provided insights into the most influential authors, this entails the obvious
non-exhaustiveness and incompleteness of the work. Some of these authors develop
original or significant syntheses, but since they are not part of the Congregational
mainstream, they have not been analysed in depth, and are just placed within currents
of thought. Even pedagogical reflection by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
appears to be only hinted at in some parts of what I have written. Since there is a need to
contextualise the FMA Institute's animation guidelines, their Superiors and their typical
educational works for women’s and children’s education, I have preferred to leave this
topic to FMA experts in the fields of history and pedagogy.
The choice of giving certain weight to the directives coming from Congrregational
leadership clearly implies an Italian-focused perspective for the first periods up to Fr
Ricaldone, which opens up to other contexts only around the Second Vatican Council,
especially Western Europe and Latin America. Thus it appears that only in the third
millennium would the Salesian Congregation be truly worldwide at the pedagogical
level, albeit at different speeds according to the contexts. In fact, as emerges from
the reports on the state of the Congregation and from various studies, the ideas and
operational guidelines of the various General Chapters were not dealt with by the
provinces in a uniform way. It seems to me important to emphasise that my intention
is primarily to study meaningful and typical pedagogical ideas in the context of their
emergence and evolution, not to evaluate authors, governing styles, or the Congregation
as a whole. I believe that the future of Salesian pedagogy does not lie in sector-specific
syntheses aiming at perfection, but in the continuous and reciprocal enrichment
between historical investigations, studies of theoretical-methodological systematisation,
in-depth regional pedagogical studies and best practices, fruits of the Spirit acting in
history and the practical wisdom of educators.
Heartfelt thanks to Rectors Major Fr Ángel Fernández Artime and Fr Pascual
Chávez Villanueva for their support during the research process and their valuable hints
and pointers.
I would like to thank those whom I consulted for their efforts and much appreciated
observations and suggestions. I would like to mention in a special way Professors Aldo
Giraudo, José Manuel Prellezo and Morand Wirth, all three from the Pontifical Salesian
University; Professor Giorgio Chiosso from the University of Turin and Professor Piera
Ruffinatto from the Pontifical Faculty of Education, the Auxilium.

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23
With gratitude, I would like to mention the Salesian Historical Institute (ISS), the
Salesian History Association (ACSSA) and the staff of the Salesian Central Archives for
providing critical editions, studies and archival materials that made this kind of research
possible. Heartfelt thanks, too, go to my colleagues in the Faculty of Education and the
Don Bosco Study Centre (Centro Studi Don Bosco) at the UPS for the opportunities
for interdisciplinary discussion.
An important work has been carried out regarding linguistic revision with
corrections and suggestions by Massimo Schwarzel and Cristiano Ciferri to whom I am
grateful.
Last, but not least in importance, I want to remember my Salesian pedagogy students
who are continually stimulating me to delve into new aspects and adopt new perspectives
in the pedagogical field. I wish the reader a stimulating read full of inspiration for
educational engagement with today's youth.
Michal Vojtáš, sdb

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Abbreviations
AAS
AGC
ASC
ASC
ASS
EPC
GC
SGC
FMA
FSE
ISP
PAS
SEPP
YM
OPP
SDB
UPS
Acta Apostolicae Sedis
Acts of the General Council
Acts of the Superior Council
Salesian Central Archives
Acta Sanctae Sedis
Educative Pastoral Community
General Chapter
Special General Chapter
Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice (Daughters of Mary Help of Christians)
Facoltà di Scienze dell’Educazione dell’Università Pontificia Salesiana
(UPS Education Faculty)
Istituto Superiore di Pedagogia del Pontificio Ateneo Salesiano (PAS
Higher Institute of Pedagogy)
Pontificio Ateneo Salesiano (Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum)
Salesian Educative and Pastoral Project
Youth Ministry
Overall Provincial Project
Salesians of Don Bosco
Pontifical Salesian University

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1
Statements on pedagogy by the first
Salesian generation (1888–1917)
Don Bosco’s life and the development of his educational style initially find their place in
the Piedmontese rural world of centuries-old Catholic traditions marked by the alliance
between throne and altar reinterpreted in the light of the Napoleonic Restoration. The
changes brought about during his life, and the educational choices he gradually made,
such as the fundamental shift from oratories to boarding schools, nevertheless denote
an adaptation to the development of the liberal and secular society of Italy during the
process of unification.
The subsequent decades of the transition between the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries were different, characterised by great and profound changes at a global level.
Especially in the Western world, these aroused in many the expectation of a new world
heading for unlimited progress under the pressure of positivistic scientism (the view
that science should be the basis for belief and decision-making in all areas of life). Many
observers have shared the perception that the historical period they experienced in the
years before the First World War was something more than a phase of development
like any other. In one way or another, the shift from one century to the other seemed
to anticipate the preparation of a world that would be intrinsically different from the
past. This is the context which a Congregation expanding across continents found itself
working in.1
1 Cf. E.J. Hobsbawm, L’età degli imperi: 1875-1914, Laterza, 2005; G. Martina, Storia della Chiesa.
Da Lutero ai nostri giorni, vol. 4: L’età contemporanea, Morcelliana, Brescia 1995, 13-107; F. Traniello,
L’epoca di don Rua: lineamenti di uno scenario storico, in F. Motto (ed.), Don Michele Rua nella storia
(1837-1910), Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Studi su don Rua (Rome, Salesianum, 29-31 October
2010), LAS, Rome 2011, 27-41.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
The first generation of Salesians
The evolutions of positivist cultural sensitivity were not understood by the majority
of the Salesians, who still lived in a context marked by Catholic traditions and with
an attitude of opposition to secularism. This tendency was further reinforced by the
intra-ecclesiastical argument against modernism at the beginning of the twentieth
century. St John Bosco’s Preventive System, a common term for the typical way of
educating in a Salesian way, created a growing movement between the Congregation of
St Francis de Sales, the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and a
network of charity and assistance that revolved, in organisational terms, around Salesian
houses, the Salesian Bulletin, Salesian Cooperators and the Mary Help of Christians
Association. Since Salesian education was addressed to poor, at risk and abandoned
youngsters from low-income circumstances, not all the new cultural tendencies directly
influenced Salesian education and pedagogical reflection. Since they did not dedicate
themselves to the education of the elite, Salesians were not directly called to tackle
positivism, new philosophies or new artistic expressions which gained strength at the
beginning of the twentieth century.
It would seem that Salesian education adapted creatively at a practical and
organisational level by reinventing some of its activities and structures for the new
needs. It did so by following the strategic guidelines of the founder, despite the
mainstream traditional mentality. In fact, only some challenges of the contemporary
world influenced its educational approaches, perceived above all from an Italian
perspective, along with some European or Latin American problems.
At the level of thought we note the comparison with liberal secularism – the
affirmation of mass state schooling in how schools were organised had to be faced up to.
And finally, at the economic level it was necessary to deal with the consequences of
the second industrial revolution which accentuated the contrasts of the social question,
with growing socialism and the birth of the middle class.
The challenge of anticlerical “free thinking”
In the period that preceded the outbreak of the First World War, the European political
scenario often displayed weak governments, with an all too frequent recurrence of
parliamentary crises. Accusations that there were too many parliamentarians and too
much corruption also increased.

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Statements on pedagogy by the first Salesian generation (1888–1917)
27
Given this lack of strong and clear political direction, there are some common
traits in the governments of the time that defined the parties’ programs: nationalism,
the social question, and their anticlerical orientation. The last-mentioned influenced
Salesian education both for applications in the scholastic field and for the struggle against
the Church. The anti-religious and above all anti-Catholic tendency hid beneath the
label of “free thinking”.
European anti-Catholic liberalism, as well its Masonic strain, manifested itself
differently depending on the context. For example, strong opposition followed the
unification process in Italy; there was a spread of the anti-clerical approach tied to the
specific nature of laïcité française in France; in Germany, the Kulturkampf, even though
already over, marked Church-State relationships across the change of century.2 There
was “a general atmosphere that seemed marked from France to Italy, from Belgium to
Argentina – and this is how it was experienced – by the desire of Masonic propaganda
to drag religious through the mud.”3
Under the guidance of Fr Michael Rua, the Salesian Congregation experienced some
of the effects of European anti-clericalism in tensions with school systems in different
countries. This happened in the attempts to discredit the Congregation that have gone
down in history as the “Varazze affair” in 1907, but especially in the closure of the houses
in France in the first two decades of the twentieth century. According to French law
in 1901, Salesians from the Province in the north of France had requested government
authorisation to be able to continue their activities, and when they did not receive it,
they were expelled and the houses in Paris and Lille confiscated. Instead, the Salesians in
the country’s south had chosen the secularisation and clandestine route, and some works
were saved through patronage and management by Salesian Brothers.4 The Salesians in
Ecuador had to face similar problems after the liberal revolution in 1895.5
2 Cf. M. Flores, Il secolo mondo. Storia del Novecento, vol.1: 1900-1945, Mulino, Bologna 2005; F.
Motto (ed.), L’Opera Salesiana dal 1880 al 1922. Significatività e portata sociale. Atti del 3° Convegno
Internazionale di Storia dell’Opera Salesiana Roma 31 ottobre – 5 novembre 2000, vol. 1: Contesti, quadri
generali, interpretazioni, LAS, Rome 2001, 41–177.
3 J.M. Prellezo, Le scuole professionali salesiane (1880-1922). Istanze e attuazioni viste da Valdocco, in
J.G. González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922. Istanze ed attuazioni in diversi
contesti. Atti del 4° Convegno Internazionale di Storia dell’Opera salesiana Ciudad de México, 12-18
febbraio 2006, vol. 1, LAS, Rome 2007, 97.
4 Cf. F. Desramaut, I Salesiani francesi al tempo del silenzio (1901-1925), in S. Zimniak – G. Loparco
(eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa negli anni difficili del XX secolo. Atti del Seminario Europeo di
Storia dell’Opera salesiana Cracovia 31 ottobre – 4 novembre 2007, LAS, Rome 2008, 115–128.
5 Cf. A. Guerriero – P. Creamer, Un siglo de presencia salesiana en el Ecuador. El proceso histórico
1888-1988, Don Bosco, Quito 1997.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
In the Italian context, and in the context of freedom of teaching, it is useful
to mention the efforts of Turin educationalist Giuseppe Allievo. His actions were
important for the defence of Salesian schools in the period under consideration. His
pedagogical theories influenced the first generation of Salesians such as Cerruti and
Barberis, as did his ideas in defence of the free school against state centralism.6 In
the process of designing the Italian school system, the ruling class, nominally liberal,
was paradoxically conditioned by a certain “suspicion of freedom” which stemmed
from the perception of an Italy profoundly divided from a linguistic, cultural, political
and religious point of view. State centralism was opted for, fearing that a scenario
where there was educational plurality would have harmed the country's unification.7
Allievo, opposed to liberal positivism and Hegelian idealism, affirmed the principle of
personality, understanding the human being as a “living synthesis of a rational soul and
an organic body, together with units of being.”8 His pedagogy affirmed spiritualism as a
primary and irreducible condition for the defence of freedom:
The person is not just an accessory to the will of others, but is a sacred
creature, with rights that must be respected by whatever social power or human
authority:, the right to exist, to truth, to happiness, to virtue, so that if, for
example, the prosperity of an entire people were to mean the enslavement or
destruction of even one human being, this would be enough for it to be detested
as criminal. So then, in the case where the school is a function, a property, a
possession of society subject to its absolute control, its pupils will no longer be
educated as persons who belong to themselves, and who are ordered to an end
from which they have the right not to be diverted. Instead they would just be
the chattels of social will, things or tools in the service of society.9
Thanks to his struggle for the freedom of teaching and defence of Catholic schools
through the Unione pro schola libera (founded in 1907), Allievo was also appreciated
by the broader Catholic public, by Civiltà Cattolica and other Catholic scholars of
neo-scholastic leanings.10
6 Cf. J.M. Prellezo, Giuseppe Allievo negli scritti pedagogici salesiani, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 45
(1998) 267, 393–419.
7 A. Marrone, Giuseppe Allievo e la libertà d’insegnamento, in “History of Education & Children’s
Literature” 7 (2012) 2, 173–176.
8 G. Allievo, Appunti di Antropologia e Psicologia, Carlo Clausen, Turin 1906, 3.
9 G. Allievo, La nuova scuola pedagogica ed i suoi pronunciamenti, Carlo Clausen, Turin 1905, 23.
10 Cf. Marrone, Giuseppe Allievo e la libertà d’insegnamento, 190–191.

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The Church's reaction: new balances and conservatism
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, under the leadership of Leo XIII, the
Church changed its position slightly towards the world of the Belle Époque. From the
condemnations of liberal governments in the time of Pius IX there was a shift towards
an awareness of new balances and the need for some openings and reforms.
Leo XIII gave concrete form to the effort to create convergence at the level of thought
with his Encyclical Aeterni Patris (1879), first of all by urging to “restore the golden
wisdom of St. Thomas, and to spread it far and wide for the defence and beauty of
the Catholic faith, for the good of society, and for the advantage of all the sciences.”11
With Immortale Dei (1885) the Church made it clear that it allowed different opinions
about political systems; in the Encyclical Libertas (1888), the Pope specified the concept
of freedom in the legislative, social and political context, stating that “the growth of
liberty ascribed to our age must be considered apart in its various details”,12 mentioning
liberty of worship as the first of them. Even divine authority is not opposed to human
freedom: “And, so far from this most just authority of God over men diminishing, or
even destroying their liberty, it protects and perfects it.”13 The Encyclical Sapientiae
Christianae (1890), instead, asserted new balances and autonomy between State and
Church that reflected the end of the Papal States. The encyclical appealed to education
and strongly affirmed the right of parents to the education of their children. In his
conclusion, Leo XIII connected the good of society, the importance of family education
and the need for investment in Catholic schools:
Where the right education of youth is concerned, no amount of trouble or
labour can be undertaken, how greatsoever, but that even greater still may not
be called for. In this regard, indeed, there are to be found in many countries
Catholics worthy of general admiration, who incur considerable outlay and
bestow much zeal in founding schools for the education of youth. It is highly
desirable that such noble example may be generously followed, where time and
circumstances demand, yet all should be intimately persuaded that the minds of
children are most influenced by the training they receive at home. If in their early
years they find within the walls of their homes the rule of an upright life and the
11 Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Aeterni Patris (4 August 1897) in ASS 12 (1894) 97-115.
12 Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Libertas (20 June 1888), in ASS 20 (1887) 593-613.
13 Ibid., 599.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
discipline of Christian virtues, the future welfare of society will in great measure
be guaranteed.14
Pius X changed the focus of attention, concentrating on the internal problems of
the Church itself. A catechetical, liturgical and curial reform was promoted,15 while
the controversy with the modernists resumed strongly, culminating in the strong and
polarising tones of the Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis in 1907. The Church's
tension with the liberal world was also projected internally: “the partisans of error are to
be sought not only among the Church's open enemies; they lie hid, a thing to be deeply
deplored and feared, in her very bosom and heart.”16 The consequence was an increase
both in the besieged fortress mentality and in the processes of control within the Church.
The Church preferred not to take the field directly at the political level, and,
while the political potential of Christian parties increased with the expansion of
suffrage and could have been significant as European history has shown from 1945
onwards, the Church did not officially endorse the formation of Catholic political
parties. Church representatives either supported conservative parties of various kinds,
or maintained good relations with nationalist movements not infected by the virus of
liberal secularism.17
The Salesians did not take part in the debate with science or the controversy with
modernism, even if, in the writings of the first generation, there are some reflections of
the cultural climate around the themes of the Catholic school. Generally, Don Bosco's
strategy continued to be followed in a search for practical solutions for the management
of boarding schools, oratories and vocational training centres. Rather than the mentality
of a fortress under siege (which was partially present at the level of thought), the Salesians
existentially and practically experienced a feat of world expansion, and at the level of
central government what they really had to face were the problems of balance between
numerical growth and the necessary and often poor formation of personnel.18
14 Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Sapientiae Christianae (10 January 1890), in ASS 22 (1889-90) 385-404.
15 Cf. The Encyclical Acerbo Nimis for increasing catechetical activity, and the new catechism published
in 1912 called the Catechism of Pius X.
16 Pius X, Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Pope Pius X on modernist teachings, in Atti della Santa Sede
circa le Dottrine Moderniste, Augustae Taurinorum, Ex Officina Asceterii Salesiani, 1908, 140.
17 Cf. E.J. Hobsbawm, L’età degli imperi, 133–134.
18 Cf. J.G. González, Don Rua e i Capitoli Generali da lui presieduti, in Motto (ed.), Don Michele
Rua nella storia, 176–190.

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Statements on pedagogy by the first Salesian generation (1888–1917)
31
Identity and evolution of the Salesian school
Straddling the two centuries, the developments of Salesian schools are connected with
Fr Francesco Cerruti, the Congregation’s Councillor for Schools from 1885 until 1917.
He was described at the end of his service as “the real organiser of the schools and
studies of the Pious Salesian Society.”19 The specific context in Italy led Fr Cerruti to
the strengthening of the preferential choice for classical, humanistic education within
Salesian institutes. It was a choice motivated above all by the wish to be faithful to
the teachings of Don Bosco. Such an attitude is confirmed by this extract from the Fr
Cerruti’s Ricordino educativo-didattico:
Every day that passes, I am ever more convinced of the need, that for us is
a duty, to remain very much attached, mordicus, to the teachings of Don
Bosco, including in matters of instruction and education and we must never
depart from these teachings, not even in a single point, nec transversum quidem
unguem. Far be it from us to be innovators.20
Another reason, no less important and in line with Allievo's pedagogy, was to see
education in the school as religious and moral, scientific and literary formation, so as
not to divide the human and the Christian aspects of education. Those who separate
them, according to Fr Cerruti, do not educate, but ruin things; they do not build, but
destroy; they do not practise, but betray his mission. He was attentive in his circular
letters both to problems related to the quality of language teaching, and to the Christian
and Salesian aspect of education.
The latter reason for this preferential humanistic choice was linked to the specific
nature of the Italian tradition and “genius”, more in harmony with the classical school
than with the vocational or technical school.
The polarisation between the modern technical world and the classic traditional
world during Pius X's pontificate was highlighted precisely in debate over the technical
school. This topic came into lively discussion at the 1907 General Chapter and the
conclusion was: “The opening of boarding establishments is granted by way of exception
– boarding for technical schools – but individual cases must be subjected to the Superior
Chapter [understand “Council”] which will examine each in turn.”21 In 1911 there
19 A. Luchelli, Don Francesco Cerruti consigliere scolastico generale della Pia Società Salesiana, SAID
Buona Stampa, Turin 1917, 22.
20 F. Cerruti, Un ricordino educativo-didattico, SAID Buona Stampa, Turin 1910, 7.
21 Verbali (11 November 1907), in ASC D270.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
were already a dozen or so technical schools in Italy. By contrast with this development,
the General Chapter then adopted a more rigid position that would have aroused
opposition: “In compliance with the will of the Venerable Don Bosco and the late
Fr Rua – opposed to the introduction of internal technical classes in our colleges –
the current superiors confirm the principle and declare that they too do not intend to
admit the internal technical classes.”22 The discussion continued and some exceptions
were granted but generally, technical instruction was not considered proper to the
Salesian charism. The school reform of the neo-idealist Giovanni Gentile in 1923 further
strengthened this Salesian schools setup.23
In Latin American countries the situation was different. Positivism appears to have
more penetrated the ruling classes of society. The científicos were considered the new
prophets of the progress of a backward society that revolved around the dynamics of
agriculture. The first institute with “scientific” education was the Colegio Pío which
came into existence in 1877 at Villa Colón in Uruguay under the direction of Fr Luigi
Lasagna. In addition to the curriculum which integrated natural sciences with literature,
morality and religion, Lasagna opened laboratories, biology and geology museums, a
meteorological, astronomical, seismic and magnetic observatory within the institute, the
first in the whole country.24
In Brazil, too, the Salesians were able to meet the needs of society by building up a
Republic that sought to be modern, orderly and “progressive”. Religious, moral, literary,
scientific, artistic and civic education was offered within Salesian schools (integrated
with military education). Their educational proposal was positively evaluated by the
representatives of the Republic, and the Holy See also hoped for collaboration between
the Government and the Congregation for the construction of a new Christianity in the
Brazilian state.25
22 Verbali (3 and 4 May 1911), in ASC D270.
23 J.M. Prellezo, Linee pedagogiche della Società Salesiana nel periodo 1880-1922. Approccio ai documenti,
in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 23 (2004) 44, 128–130.
24 Cf. S. Boix – F. Lezama, Las ciencias en la propuesta educativa del Colegio Pío de Villa Colón (Uruguay)
entre 1877 y 1895, en el marco del debate Iglesia-positivismo, in J.G. González et al. (eds.),L’educazione
salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 361–384. It is interesting to note the clash of two “school cultures”.
Lasagna writes that “the 11 or 12-year-olds have already advanced to equations, logarithms, etc., all of
which none of us know how to explain or continue”, in A. da Silva Ferreira (ed.), Mons. Luis
Lasagna. Epistolario, vol. 1 (1873-1882), LAS, Rome 1995, 113.
25 Cf. R. Azzi, A educação salesiana na emergência da burguesia brasileira, in J.G. González et al.
(eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 121–143.

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Cooperation with state authorities was obviously not without its risks. The Salesians
in some Provinces managed to obtain grants for the running of schools. Salesian Belgium
was the first country to benefit from this for its boarding schools in Liège, Tournai
and Ghent starting from 1896. The recognition of qualifications and requirements for
state grants, however, implied eventual inspection and meant a real influence of the
state on the Salesian school. The Belgian Salesians, who were paid by the state, were
trained in specific subjects but their typically Salesian formation was not organised
systematically.26
Second industrial revolution in the final decades of the 19th century
At the end of the nineteenth century, the economic system underwent profound
transformations with social implications such that we can speak of a second industrial
revolution. Thanks to technological inventions, new industry sectors were born, the
relationship between state power and business management changed, giving the world
economy a new configuration. In the second half of the nineteenth century science
made many discoveries in the field of physics and chemistry which were the basis of
the industrial development of the time. The real novelty, however, was a new type of
relationship between science, technology and production. Engineers and scientists also
took on the role of business owners by making their findings available. Names like
Edison, Siemens, Bell, Dunlop and Bayer became the icons of the period.
The progress of medicine together with the successes of the food industry, which
freed the most developed countries from the nightmare of famine, had the effect of a
population boom. In Europe, the average age went from 35 years halfway through the
century to 50 years by the end of the nineteenth century. The population of the old
continent increased by 60% in the second half of the nineteenth century, not counting
the 30 million emigrants who moved to America. At the same time, the demographic
growth of non-industrialised nations, despite the high mortality rate, was between 20
and 30%.27 Consequently, the number of metropolises also increased, but urbanisation
showed up above all in the proliferation of large and medium-sized urban centres around
industrial centres: “We can define the ‘advanced’ world as a world in the process of rapid
26 Cf. H. Delacroix, Cent ans d’école salesienne en Belgique, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 9 (1990)
16, 23–24.
27 Cf. G. Sabatucci – V. Vidotto, Il mondo contemporaneo. Dal 1848 a oggi, Laterza, Rome-Bari 2005,
107–116.

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urbanisation, and even in extreme cases, as an unprecedented ‘city-oriented’ world.”28 In
this context, the preferential beneficiaries, concepts and methods of Salesian education
“of the children of the people” also changed.
Relying on both humanitarian and utilitarian considerations, such as the maintenance
of social peace, the state was concerned with implementing more widespread social
services for everyone. Social services such as accident insurance, old-age pensions and
benefits for the unemployed spread, starting from Bismarck's Germany in the 1880s.
Although not always effective, rules and controls were established for safety and hygiene
in factories, to eliminate child labour, establish weekly rest and a working day with a
duration of around ten working hours.29
Latin America is the part of the world that endured most European influences,
first from colonisation and then from massive immigration. Although most countries
gained independence in the early nineteenth century, there remained a strong influence
of the so-called First World. However, it can be said that the period between 1880
and 1914 represents one of the few periods of political stability in contemporary Latin
American history, stability essentially due to the fact that the ruling oligarchy dominated
unchallenged.30
Rerum Novarum and the growing social sensitivity of Salesians
The self-awareness of the masses began to be felt in eighteenth-century Europe, grew
throughout the following century and culminated in the explosive events of the
twentieth century. Three strong interdependent elements contributed to the increase
of this phenomenon: literacy, the industrial revolution, urbanisation. There were
significant changes in the economic, social and political fields directly attributable to the
increasingly marked presence of the masses on the scene of public life. The emergence of
the “social question” was also considered in new light by the Church, therefore in Rerum
Novarum in 1891, Leo XIII hoped that Christians would move from charitable action
to a more incisive social commitment.31 Socialist parties had clearly different positions,
28 Hobsbawm, L’età degli imperi, 30.
29 Cf. Flores, Il XX secolo, 101.
30 Cf. A. Gutiérrez, Contexto historico de Latinoamérica (1880-1922), in Motto (ed.), L’Opera Salesiana
dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 53–70; D. Pompejano, Storia dell’America Latina, Mondadori, Milan
2012.
31 Cf. G. Chiosso, Profilo storico della pedagogia cristiana, La Scuola, Brescia 2004, 89.

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including the Italian Socialist Party, founded in Genoa in 1892, which is characterised
in Italy as the first major organisation with the aim of representing the interests of the
proletariat in the political field.
The changed context also gave the impetus to a number of Salesians to take an
interest in social and economic issues.32 Importantly, we mention some writings by
significant personalities who worked in the formation of young confreres and who
thus contributed to creating a new mentality. The Councillor for Schools, Fr Francesco
Cerruti, broadened his views by opening up to the consideration of social issues under
the influence of Giuseppe Toniolo, Professor of Political Economy at the University
of Pisa. In 1893 Cerruti published De’ principii pedagogico-sociali di S. Tommaso and
five years later a tome aimed at young Salesians entitled Nozioni elementari di morale e
d’economia politica.33 Around the turn of the century, Fr Carlo Maria Baratta, called to
teach sociology to the young clerics at Foglizzo, published La libertà dell’operaio and the
Principii di sociologia cristiana.34 Baratta developed his thinking around the theories of
agronomist Stanislao Solari, who hoped for a return to the fields through a new rational
agriculture in a cycle of interactions between the social classes of farmers, artisans and
landowners. A final exponent who influenced young Salesians through the teaching
of morals was Fr Luigi Piscetta, with his four volumes of Theologiae moralis elementa.
Especially in the third volume, which deals with questions of justice, the author relies not
only on St Thomas, but reflects the arguments of Rerum Novarum on socialist positions,
private property, a just salary and women’s work.35
Salesian publications, similar to the Catholic sociology of the time, were located
within a context of reaction to positivists and socialists. There was an effort to identify
intellectual, philosophical approaches able to offer answers different from those of a
materialistic kind, similar in scientific credibility but alternative in terms of content.
On the whole, a substantially normative deductive logic was adopted, characterised by
a strongly preceptive attitude. Publications following on from Rerum Novarum sought
to be a “science of ‘what ought to be’, whose interests were aimed primarily at the ‘end’,
32 Cf. J.M. Prellezo, La risposta salesiana alla “Rerum Novarum”. Approccio a documenti e iniziative
(1891-1910), in A. Martinelli – G. Cherubini (eds.), Educazione alla fede e dottrina sociale della
Chiesa. Atti XV Settimana di Spiritualità per la Famiglia Salesiana, SDB, Rome 1992, 39–91.
33 Cf. F. Cerruti, De’ principii pedagogico-sociali di S. Tommaso, Tipografia Salesiana, Torino 1893; F.
Cerruti, Nozioni elementari di morale e d’economia politica, Tip. e Libreria Salesiana, Turin 1898.
34 Cf. M. Baratta, La libertà dell’operaio, Fiaccadori, Parma 1898; Id., Principii di sociologia cristiana,
Fiaccadori, Parma 1902.
35 Cf. L. Piscetta, Theologiae moralis elementa, vol. 3, Ex Officina Salesiana, Augustae Taurinorum 1902.

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then at the ‘causes’ and only finally at the ‘facts’.”36 As a whole, they were presented
as discipline-based considerations on ethics from a teleological perspective (obviously
ultra-worldly, unlike positivism) with applications that could be used in pastoral and
exhortative terms. An example of a typical interpretation could be the address by
Peter Ricaldone, the Councillor for Vocational Schools, entitled Noi e la classe operaia
(The Working Class and us). His keys to interpretation, which would remain valid for
interpreting his actions as Rector Major, revolve around the fundamental cause of all
evils which is the estrangement of the masses from God. The remedy was educational
effort to uplift the mind, general culture, professional technique and artistic sense.37
The birth of Salesian vocational and agricultural schools
At the beginning of the 1880s, a significant shift began from arts and trades workshops to
Salesian vocational schools. The reasons were substantially three: industrial development
required competent workers and thus the vocational school category began to be part
of the programs of political parties; the implications of the new laws on vocational
education required changes (in Italy the law of 1878 and in France of 1880) and, finally,
but not least in order of importance, the needs of the artisan (working boys) sections in
different houses required restructuring.38 Before the Second General Chapter in 1880,
the heads of the artisans section at Valdocco sent Chapter members a project that spoke
of the need for the opportunity to introduce classes for all tradesmen (artisans) regardless
of age, ability, condition, together with the need to have teachers for the various subjects.
In addition, a change in the lesson timetable was requested, because no profit was to
be drawn from evening classes due to the tiredness resulting from a full day of manual
work.39
From 1893 onwards, the working class in Salesian institutes was entrusted to
the Professional Councillor [understand this to mean the Councillor for Vocational
36 M.M. Burgalassi, Itinerari di una scienza. La sociologia in Italia tra Otto e Novecento, FrancoAngeli,
Milan 1996, 122; In the passage quoted the sociologist Marco Burgalassi also includes the Salesian Fr
Baratta among the exponents of Catholic sociology. See similar ratings in M. Wirth, Orientamenti e
strategie di impegno sociale dei salesiani di don Bosco (1880-1922), in Motto (ed.), L’Opera Salesiana
dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 83–84.
37 Cf. P. Ricaldone, Noi e la classe operaia, Scuola tipografica salesiana, Bologna 1917, 24.
38 Cf. J.M. Prellezo, La «parte operaia» nelle case salesiane. Documenti e testimonianze sulla formazione
professionale (1883-1886), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 16 (1997) 31, 357.
39 Cf. Prellezo, Le scuole professionali salesiane, 54–55.

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37
Schools] who had to introduce the necessary improvements. Indeed, what was
highlighted was the lack of educational benefit, the causes of which could be found in: a
lack of trades teachers with Christian qualities, the scarcity of work to practise with, and
then finally the lack of instruction and prudent assistants, insofar as the student section
naturally attracted clerics while the working boys were left abandoned.
Important deliberations were reached during the 1886 Chapter, which defined
a threefold orientation to be given to young apprentices: religious-moral, intellectual,
and professional. The duration of the apprenticeship internship was set at five years,
classifying the working boys into sections. The General Council was entrusted with
the task of drawing up a school curriculum and, even though the Chapter made some
decisions, the processes of change from workshops to vocational schools went ahead
only slowly. Only in 1898 did the new General Councillor for Vocational Schools, Fr
Giuseppe Bertello, take the first steps for the transformation from workshops (relating
only to technical details) to vocational schools intended as places to educate and form
good and competent workers. The basic document saw the light of day in 1903 and was
titled Programma scolastico per le scuole di artigiani della Pia Società Salesiana.
To all this was added the influence of the Cenacolo Parmense formed around Fr
Baratta, who, together with Stanislao Solari, and exploiting the possibilities opened
up by donations of land to the Salesians in Europe and America, influenced the
“agricultural turning point” in Fr Rua's thinking in the early years of the twentieth
century. Agricultural schools began to grow in number, and issues relating to agriculture
became more frequent in the pages of the Bollettino Salesiano. Fr Rua saw agricultural
schools as a way of countering the depopulation of the countryside, aimed at a return to
farming life and the consequent re-Christianisation of society.40
A significant impetus for the change of mentality was connected with the 1902
Carcano law on the work of women and minors in factories and industrial workshops.
One fundamental rule was that for children under the age of fifteen, school time
equal to or greater than that of work had to be provided in the daily timetable, a
balance not yet practised within Salesian institutes.41 Another tool for the promotion
of vocational schools occurred in 1901 in Valsalice with the first “Triennial exhibition
of vocational and agricultural schools of the Pious Society of St Francis de Sales.” The
aim was to present a picture of what was being done in the many institutes for the
40 Cf. Lettera del R.mo D. Michele Rua ai Cooperatori ed alle Cooperatrici Salesiane, in Bollettino Salesiano
26 (1902) 1, 6–7.
41 Cf. Prellezo, Le scuole professionali salesiane, 63–65; P. Bairati, Cultura salesiana e società industriale,
in F. Traniello (ed.), Don Bosco nella storia della cultura popolare SEI, Turin 1987, 343–344.

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good of working youth and to show the products of the young tradesmen themselves.
The second exhibition in 1904 and the subsequent one in 1910 testified to an even
greater presence of Salesian vocational schools. The shift of tone in the evaluations of
subsequent exhibitions is interesting: from a mainly celebratory outlook on the second
exhibition to a more critical one with the aim of improvement by the new Councillor
for Vocational Schools, Fr Peter Ricaldone in 1910.42
Other social works: oratories, kindergartens, worker accommodation
Pietro Braido notes how the Salesian oratory in this period adapted to the Italian
situation of a country “which shifted with growing acceleration from the rural
sector towards industry, with the consequent urbanisation and the often traumatic
displacement of young people, men and women, from fields to factories.”43 The
situation of low-income neighbourhoods, the worker question and encouragement
from Rerum Novarum created attention to social issues in Salesian oratories with a
number of implications. The broadening of the educational perspective of oratories was
remarkable and a stronger convergence was created around the educational purpose of
“preparing young people for life.” This expression meant not only religious and moral
preparation but also social integration and assistance while working. The opening of
the oratory to the social dimension was expressed through a wide range of proposals,
involved the study of sociology, and finally contributed to an extension of the age range
of beneficiaries to prevent their exodus from the oratory in the most important years for
their future.
In addition to proposals of General Chapters and Fr Rua's pedagogical guidelines,
which we will analyse in this and the next chapter, we can see an increase in general
attention, a social commitment of Catholics and the focus of efforts towards a
broadening of insights from the oratories.44 Issues of the Salesian Bulletin [the Italian
Bollettino Salesiano] in 1918-1919 are an interesting testimony to the developments of
the oratory at a time of post-war recovery. A column on the oratories was introduced
under the heading “For the education of the children of the people” that reported on
42 Cf. Terza esposizione generale delle scuole professionali e agricole della Pia Società Salesiana, Scuola
tipografica salesiana, Torino 1912.
43 P. Braido, Per una storia dell’educazione giovanile nell’oratorio dell’Italia contemporanea. L’esperienza
salesian, LAS, Roma 2018, 74.
44 Cf. Ibid., 49–126.

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39
experiences of the oratories. The Bollettino also presented the activities of the model
oratory at Valdocco, which provided for initiation into active Christian life and the
religious and social apostolate for older youngsters, making the oratory an “educational,
religious, social training ground and [...] an experimental field for the early trials of life.”45
In the context of the debate with other lines of thought, the Bollettino suggested activities
with an economic, social and cultural bent to supplement the usual oratory activities,
similar to those put in place by “Anti-Christian Groups and Institutions”:
Cultural groups; social conversations; vocational classes; work secretariats; registration
office for Provident funds; workers insurance; conferences on hygiene in the
workplace; instruction on work legislation; initiation into the St Vincent de Paul
Conferences; preparation to fit into military circles; assistance to young migrant
workers.46
The FMA faced up to the changes resulting from industrialisation by evolving their
typical work, the kindergarten. The transition from the rural patriarchal family to more
modern forms linked rather to life in the city and the work of women in factories changed
the educational dynamics in families. This is where childhood education works that go
beyond simple kindergartens fit in. They were designed in the first half of the nineteenth
century as “shelter” and care facilities for the children of the most needy families.47 As the
new century began, we move to them being called “infant schools”, which emphasises
the educational dimension.
Pedagogical and practical guidance for daycare management was offered through
the Regolamento-Programma per gli Asili d’infanzia written by the FMA, reviewed
by Fr Francesco Cerruti and published in 1885.48 The pedagogical guidelines giving
direction to kindergarten teachers educational practice in the infant schools followed
Aporti in dividing things into two large areas: the physical and intellectual, and the moral
45 Per l’educazione cristiana dei figli del popolo. L’anno catechistico 1917-18 nel l° Oratorio festivo di D.
Bosco, in Bollettino Salesiano 42 (1918) 12, 242.
46 Per le adunanze mensili. Sosteniamo e moltiplichiamo gli Oratori Festivi, in Bollettino Salesiano 42
(1918) 2, 22.
47 Cf. e.g. T. Faletti di Barolo, Sull’educazione della prima infanzia nella classe indigente. Brevi
cenni dedicati alle persone caritatevoli, Chirio e Mina, Turin 1832.
48 Cf. Regolamento-Programma per gli Asili d’infanzia delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, Tip. e Libreria
Salesiana, S. Benigno Canavese 1885. Cf. also P. Cavaglià, Il primo regolamento degli Asili infantili
istituiti dalle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice (1885), in Rivista di Scienze dell’Educazione 35 (1997) 1,
23–25.

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and religious. The Regolamento was introduced by an historical note on kindergartens
in Italy written by Cerruti, which enhanced the contributions of Aporti and Fröbel,
integrating them and giving greater importance to the religious part. It distances itself
clearly, at least in theory, from any precociousness in the scholastic approach, recalling
the nature of children unable to apply themselves to a task for a considerable length of
time, and so it was hoped that the day's activities would alternate between gymnastic
exercises, singing and prayer, taking the age and abilities of the children as their starting
point. However, we see a tension in the text between the Salesian tradition and a
scholastic approach that implies a degree of discipline-based inflexibility.49
In the 1912 Regolamento per i Giardini d’infanzia instead, we see a greater emphasis
given to the Fröbelian approach, also adopted in the course for kindergarten teachers
at Nizza Monferrato beginning from 1906. The pedagogical developments in the
thirty years that elapsed between the two regulations are reflected in an approach that
accentuated the role of enjoyable entertainment and a more particularised division of
educational roles: kindergarten director, teachers, assistant teachers and other helpers.50
The process of gradual industrialisation also required female workers and drove
young girls to move to large factories, thus finding themselves in risky situations.
The FMA met the need of the young women who were often forced to live in
unsafe environments both from the point of view of accident prevention and from
a moral perspective. The first boarding establishment for young female workers was
opened in 1897 near Cannero on Lake Maggiore and gradually their number grew,
reaching nineteen houses in 1908 and increasing in the following years.51 The boarding
arrangements presented itself to them as a family in which to find help, understanding
and religious formation in a context where they were working for ten or more hours
under rigid discipline and with a meagre wage. In some of these boarding arrangements
annexed to large establishments with hundreds of boarders, the Sisters also had the task
of assisting at work.52
49 Cf. P. Ruffinatto, L’educazione dell’infanzia nell’Istituto delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice tra il
1885 e il 1922. Orientamenti generali a partire dai regolamenti, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione
salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 149–153.
50 Cf. Regolamenti e Programmi per gli Oratori festivi e per i giardini d’infanzia, Tip. Silvestrelli e Cappelletto,
Turin 1912; P. Ruffinatto,L’educazione dell’infanzia, 156–159.
51 Cf. Rosanna, Estensione e tipologia delle opere delle FMA (1872-1922), 170.
52 Cf. G. Loparco, L’apporto educativo delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice negli educandati tra ideali e
realizzazioni (1878-1922), in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1,
161–191.

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41
The opening of these works was therefore supported by an educational and not
just a welfare purpose, and was particularly appropriate for supporting, guiding and
forming young women in this delicate social transition. In fact, in the Regolamento per
i Convitti published in 1913 it was pointed out that the acceptance of these works must
be subordinate to the real possibility of pursuing educational and not just welfare aims,
that is. the religious and moral formation that meant preparing “excellent daughters of
a family, upright and conscientious workers, worthy and honourable citizens.”53
Superiors’ pedagogical guidelines at a time of expansion
For Don Bosco's successor, the evolving context and the dynamics of the rapid
development of the Salesian Congregation were three elements that strongly influenced
the guidelines coming from Fr Michael Rua. His lengthy collaboration with Don
Bosco as his vicar, the charm of the founder and educator of the first generation of
Salesians, and the vividness of memories determined the main governance guideline
of the Congregation and Salesian pedagogy: fidelity to Don Bosco. The challenges of
the Mediterranean and Latin American context, the two centres of Salesian educational
activity, took on secondary importance in the configuration of pedagogical ideas, even
if the same cannot be said for practical educational choices in the period of transition
between the nineteenth and the twentieth century.
Michael Rua: creative fidelity to Don Bosco's preventive system
After Don Bosco's death, the atmosphere among the Salesians of the first generation
was well expressed by Cardinal Alimonda in his sermon at the month's mind: “I will
therefore look on him with more respect than before, but always with the same tender
affection, always with the same heart in love.”54 The strong relationship between Fr Rua
and Don Bosco and their sharing of life in Valdocco for decades prepared Rua to strive
to be another Don Bosco and to lead the Congregation hopefully in the same direction.
53 Regolamenti pei Convitti diretti dalle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, Tip. Silvestrelli e Cappelletto, Turin
1913, 3–4.
54 Giovanni Bosco e il suo secolo. Ai funerali di trigesima nella chiesa di Maria Ausiliatrice in Torino il 1°
marzo 1888. Discorso del cardinale arcivescovo Gaetano Alimonda, Tipografia Salesiana, Turin 1888,
6.

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For months he had the Superior Council gather in the same room where Don Bosco had
spent his last moments, and among the first topics dealt with was the introduction of the
cause for the beatification of the founder. In his first letter as Rector Major, Fr Rua spelt
out his program:
We need to consider how fortunate we are to be the sons of such a Father.
Therefore, our concern must be to sustain and in due course develop the works
he started more and more, faithfully follow the methods he practised and taught,
and in our way of speaking and acting endeavour to imitate the model that the
Lord in his goodness has given us in him. This, my dear sons, will be the program
I will follow in office; Let this also be the aim and study of each of the Salesians.55
The fusion of pedagogical, educational and spiritual aspects was strongly evident
in the first generations of Salesians, as it was transmitted and assimilated by experience
and direct contact with Don Bosco through a “formation of osmosis”, albeit poorly
developed at the level of thought.56 The model of formation through life sharing had the
advantage of not differentiating itself from the “Christian education of youth”57 in many
dimensions, areas or approaches that later tended to be separated or opposed. Education
was a vital whole, transmitted through experience and communicated through a lively
and optimistic narrative in the context of the exponential growth of the Congregation.
In addition to the advantage of the integral life experience shared with Don Bosco,
there are various difficulties and traps inherent in this experiential approach to the
Salesian educational tradition. They are easily imaginable and were also recognised by
some of those who governed the first Salesian generation. The first limitation was the lack
of a secure textual reference, both for the formation of new Salesians and for situations
of unforeseen educational difficulty.
A second limitation was the tendency to uncritical repetition of traditions handed
down by osmosis, without adequately distinguishing the fundamental elements from
the secondary ones linked to the particularities of situations and temperaments. Calogero
Gusmano, who accompanied the first Extraordinary Visitor, Paul Albera, to Latin America
55 M. Rua, Prima lettera del Nuovo Rettor Maggiore. Circolare del 19 marzo 1888, in Lettere Circolari
di don Michele Rua ai salesiani, Scuola tipografica don Bosco, San Benigno Canavese 1940, 18.
56 Cf. P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica, vol. 2: Mentalità religiosa e spiritualità,
LAS, Roma 1981, 470–474; P. Braido, Don Bosco prete dei giovani nel secolo delle libertà, vol. 2, LAS,
Rome 2003, 233–271.
57 The term “Christian education of youth” comes from Don Bosco and is an integral concept that summarises
catechesis, moral education, literary and professional preparation, voluntary work, artistic and expressive
education, etc. in a traditional Christian vision of reality and society. Cf. P. Braido, Il progetto operativo
di Don Bosco e l’utopia della società cristiana, LAS, Rome 1982; A. Giraudo, Educazione e religione
nel sistema preventivo di don Bosco, in A. Bozzolo – R. Carelli (eds.), Evangelizzazione e educazione,
LAS, Rome 2011, 271–274.

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in the early years of the twentieth century, sums up this mentality well by saying: “very
often to decide even the slightest question, people say: ‘at the Oratory it is done like this’
and this is enough to cut off any further discussion.”58
The limitations of the practice of imitating Valdocco were not yet felt for a number
of reasons. There were many Salesians who remembered and could interpret their
experience of life with Don Bosco from different points of view. And Fr Rua's various
governance interventions attest that fidelity to Don Bosco was not a question of
repetitiveness for him but one of fidelity to a model that he himself had seen evolve.
The forty years of life in close contact with Don Bosco and the lack of a “definitive
treatise” on Salesian pedagogy with particular provisions for each situation, were the
coordinates that would urge that the choice of fidelity be integrated with the necessary
pole of creativity. The choice of being faithful to a model which is innovative and flexible
in itself, in a creative way – knowing the diversity of one's character, one's beliefs and
the new and unforeseen situations to be faced – favoured the conditions for an important,
though not easy to maintain, balance. In addition to some changes imposed by the Holy
See,59 the management of which meant that only obedience, not creative fidelity, was the
essential attitude, he had to deal with the difficulties brought about by strong geographical
growth and expansion of the Congregation.
In the 22 years of Fr Rua's term as Rector Major, the number of confreres increased
from just under 800 to more than 4000, the number of houses multiplied six times over,
with the consequent multiplication of the provinces, which went from 6 to 34. A period
of such intense growth, with the debts left by Don Bosco and diminishing donations,60
formation that gradually became less a case of osmosis as in the early days but still not
58 C. Gusmano, Lettera a D. Barberis (20 settembre 1900), in P. Albera – C. Gusmano, Lettere a
don Giulio Barberis durante la loro visita alle case d’America (1900-1903) Introduzione, testo critico e note
a cura di Brenno Casali, LAS, Rome 2000, 84.
59 Above all, it is a question of the prohibition of Salesian superiors from hearing the confessions of
people dependent on them, in 1901, and of the legal and administrative separation of the FMA Institute
from 1906 onwards. Cf. M. Canino Zanoletty, Las “pruebas” de D. Rua. La prohibición al superior
salesiano de confesar a sus súbditos, in G. Loparco – S. Zimniak (eds.), Don Michele Rua primo
successore di don Bosco. Tratti di personalità, governo e opere. Atti del 5° Convegno Internazionale di
Storia dell’Opera Salesiana Torino 28 ottobre – 1 novembre 2009, LAS, Rome 2010, 103–137; G.
Loparco, L’autonomia delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice nel quadro delle nuove disposizioni canoniche,
in Motto (ed.), Don Michele Rua nella storia (1837-1910), 409–444.
60 Cf. F. Desramaut, Vita di don Michele Rua, primo successore di don Bosco (1837-1910). Edizione a
cura di Aldo Giraudo, LAS, Rome 2009, 164–165.

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very regularised,61 ended up both contextualising and relativising Fr Rua's insistence on
fidelity to the tradition in contrast to any “itch for reform”. From the point of view
of the novelty of the educational context that posed new questions, interesting is the
opening of new presences: in the Middle East, connected to the fusion with Fr Belloni's
Congregation;62 in Central Europe in the midst of the debate between Frs Rua and
Markiewicz about true fidelity to Don Bosco;63 in the United States with works focused
almost exclusively on assistance to Italian emigrants;64 and in the new and unfamiliar
contexts of East Asia (India, Macau, China).
The huge growth of the works in Latin America also shows some interesting
experiences of inculturation with the Shuar tribes in Ecuador, initially not very
successful,65 and with the Bororo in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The last-mentioned experience
is important as it shows us Fr Rua's attitude of creative fidelity more clearly. When Luigi
Lasagna opened the Mato Grosso mission, he had a real program of action, based on the
knowledge he had acquired about the situation in the region. For his part, Fr Rua had
outlined wise criteria for missionary activity in his letters to Fr Balzola. Starting from the
experience of the reducciones in Tierra del Fuego, he gradually addressed various issues
such as the role of the missionary, work, health, hygiene education, the nudity of the
natives, the condition women were in, marriage, religious education etc. looking at the
Amazonian context and adopting a fairly flexible and gradual logic.66
Apparently, but for some rare exceptions, those running the reductions in Brazil
ignored much of his advice, insofar as they wanted the indios, who were shifting from
a nomadic to sedentary lifestyle, to learn how to earn what they needed for their own
61 The main emphasis was on the regularisation of novitiates, but the other stages of formation were
still far from an ordinary pace, a situation that would require subsequent attention from Fr Rinaldi
and Fr Ricaldone. Cf. Deliberazioni del quinto Capitolo Generale della Pia Società Salesiana tenuto in
Valsalice presso Torino nel settembre 1889, Tipografia Salesiana, S. Benigno Canavese 1889, 25.
62 Cf. P.G. Gianazza, Don Rua e la fondazione salesiana di Alessandria d’Egitto, in Loparco – Zimniak
(eds.), Don Michele Rua primo successore di don Bosco, 805–878.
63 Cf. S. Zimniak, Salesiani nella Mitteleuropa. Preistoria e storia della provincia Austro-Ungarica della
Società di S. Francesco di Sales (1868 ca.-1919), LAS, Rome 1997, 69–110.
64 Cf. F. Motto, “L’Italia degli Stati Uniti” chiama, don Rua risponde, in Loparco – Zimniak (eds.),
Don Michele Rua primo successore di don Bosco, 993–1011; M. Mendl, Don Michele Rua e il lavoro
salesiano nell’Est degli Stati Uniti 1898-1910, in Ibid., 1013–1035.
65 J. Botasso, Los salesianos y la educación de los Shuar 1893-1920. Mirando más allá de los fracasos y
los éxitos, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 237–249.
66 Cf. A. Ferreira da Silva, La missione salesiana tra gli indigeni del Mato Grosso nelle lettere di don
Michele Rua (1892-1909), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 12 (1993) 22, 48–54.

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subsistence. In terms of self-sufficiency, the rectors were pressured by the need to survive
and in many cases the commitment to management and work replaced the concern for
the evangelisation and Christian education of the population.67
Kindness and zeal of the educator for deep and enduring education
Fidelity to Don Bosco was expressed by Fr Rua in some typical ways. A first emphasis
was linked to the typically Salesian educational approach: kindness. Just as the previous
matter of creative fidelity was located within a context of global expansion, so the
matter of kindness was interpreted within a framework in which the Salesian boarding
school predominated. As a structure it preferred a regulated and disciplinary approach
to education.68
There were often references to the application of the preventive system in the
disciplinary context of Salesian boarding schools. In the letter on the spirit of Don Bosco
we read: “So that the preventive system does not remain a dead letter, let [the rector]
see that the golden pages that Don Bosco wrote about it be often read. See to it that
punishments which are too long, painful and humiliating are banished, and that no
Superior, teacher or assistant goes so far as to beat the young.”69 Fr Rua comments on the
results of the 8th General Chapter with a reminder of the “strict duty to possess the spirit
of and live Salesian life. And this consists in working, especially for the benefit of youth,
with the spirit and system of Don Bosco, all marked by gentleness and kindness.”70
The application of the preventive system in terms of kindness was not only expressed
in the anti-repressive context of disciplinary issues, but was also stressed by the use of
67 A. da Silva Ferreira, La crisi della missione tra i Bororo e l’apertura al nuovo campo di apostolato
nel sud del Mato Grosso (1918-1931), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 11 (1992) 21, 177–185.
68 Fr Rua is in tune with Don Bosco's latest calls to practice the Preventive System in a boarding school
context. Cf. Istituto Storico Salesiano, Fonti Salesiane. 1. Don Bosco e la sua opera, LAS, Rome
2014, 442–256.
69 M. Rua, Santificazione nostra e delle anime a noi affidate. Circolare del 24 agosto 1894, in Lettere di
don Rua, 119–120; Cf. also other references to the discipline issue: J.M. Prellezo, Le scuole professionali
salesiane (1880-1922). Istanze e attuazioni viste da Valdocco, 76–80; W.J. Dickson, Prevention or repression.
The reception of Don Bosco’s educational approach in English Salesian Schools, in González et al. (eds.),
L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 215–236; F. Casella, Il contesto storico-socio-pedagogico
e l’educazione salesiana nel Mezzogiorno d’Italia tra richieste e attuazioni (1880-1922), in González et
al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 310–313.
70 M. Rua, Felice esito dell’VIII Capitolo Generale. Come apprezzano le opere nostre. Circular in the Octave
of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception 1898, in Lettere di don Rua, 195. For the development of
the idea of the Preventive System in the period studied cf. Prellezo, Linee pedagogiche della Società
Salesiana, 101–104.

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two proactive educational principles: the zeal that animates educational activity and
education of the heart. The zeal of Don Bosco's da mihi animas caetera tolle was evoked.
He “took no step, said no word, nor put his hand to any undertaking that did not
have the salvation of the young as its aim.”71 However, one must also bear in mind the
numerical and geographical development of the Salesian Congregation:
With immense consolation I was able to assure myself that you are all animated
by the best will to do good. Clear proof of this is also the ardour that I sometimes
even felt it was my duty to restrain, with which you try to extend the circle of the
Salesian apostolate […] May the Lord hear my plea and always keep alive in our
hearts that holy fire that was lit when we heard Don Bosco launch that powerful
cry: da mihi animas, and we saw him consume his strength and his life in the
practise of charity. But you, my dear sons, for your part, watch out that this
good will is always combined with great purity of intention, is not open to any
discouragement, and is always guided by obedience.72
The zeal that animates Salesian activity was connected by Fr Rua with the prototype
of Don Bosco's “good-natured character always radiant with charity and kindness”
which is an imitation of the “divine model Jesus Christ.”73 In Fr Rua's magisterium,
the basis of loving and zealous educational activity is the virtuous person of the Salesian
educator who puts himself in the situation of being the disciple of Christ inspired by
Don Bosco as his model. Directors of oratories are often reminded to attract the young
more through zeal and charity than the attractions of the modern oratory settings which
offer an abundance of amusements.74
Another typical theme of Fr Rua’s, linked to zeal and charity, was the education of
the heart. The first successor of Don Bosco used the term frequently in the vocabulary
of the circulars and in the Bollettino Salesiano. The “heart” appears more than eight
hundred times, surpassing other religious and educational terms such as God, Jesus,
Mary, Help of Christians, oratory, missions, etc. In his letters he speaks more frequently
only of Don Bosco and the Salesians. In continuity with Don Bosco, Rua does
not intend “heart” to mean either a synonym of sentimentality or the education of
emotions. Rather, the term refers to the core of personal identity, deep convictions,
71 Rua, Santificazione nostra, 110.
72 M. Rua, Disastro Brasileno. Avvisi vari e consigli. Circular, 29 January 1896, in Lettere di don Rua,
145–146.
73 M. Rua,Lo spirito di D. Bosco – Vocazioni. Circular, 14 June 1905, in Lettere di don Rua, 524.
74 Cf. M. Rua, Vocazioni – Militari - Oratorii Festivi. Circular, 29 January 1894, in Lettere di don Rua,
474–475; M. Rua, Gli Oratorii Festivi. Circular 29 January 1893, in Ibid., 461.

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motivations, moral action and therefore relational qualities.75 Understood this way, the
education of hearts characterises the educational method in the sense of kindness and
patience without softening the teleological core of the Salesian proposal to educate good
Christians and upright citizens:
Let us remember then that we would miss the most essential part of our task
if we were limited only to imparting literary instruction, without combining
it with the education of the heart. We must aim at this above all, to form our
students as good Christians, upright citizens, while also cultivating the vocations
we encounter among them.76
In addition, education of the heart also has an aspect of depth and durability. Rua
recommends educating the convictions rooted in the heart, which will bear fruit even
when the pupils are no longer present in the Salesian houses. Through loving kindness
“the truths sown in their hearts were deeply rooted and did not remain fruitless.”77
Connected with this is devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so dear to Fr Rua,
presented in the emblematic letter of November 21, 1900, in which he recommends the
consecration of all students and Cooperators to the Sacred Heart.78 In the wake of the
practical tools so dear to Don Bosco for preventive education of the heart, in addition
to the sacraments and spiritual exercises,79 he proposes seeing to good reading and the
removal of books contrary to “morality or the sound principles of religion and piety, of
which the hearts of our employees and students must be informed, if we are to be true
educators of youth and good Christians.”80
75 For "the anthropology of the heart" in Don Bosco cf. the summary in P. Stella, Don Bosco, Bologna,
Il Mulino, 2001, 59–62 which picks up P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia, vol. 2: Mentalità religiosa
e spiritualità, 37–50.
76 M. Rua, Studi letterarii. Circular of 27 December 1889, in Lettere di don Rua, 45–46.
77 Rua, Vocazioni – Militari - Oratorii Festivi, 473.
78 Cf. M. Rua, La consacrazione della nostra Pia Società al Sacro Cuore di Gesù. Circular of 21 November
1900, in Lettere di don Rua, 231–279. For a better understanding of the context cf. A. Giraudo,Linee
portanti dell’animazione spirituale della congregazione salesiana da parte della direzione generale tra
1880 e 1921, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 23 (2004) 44, 85–89.
79 Cf. M. Rua, Il Sacramento della Penitenza. Norme e consigli. Circular of 29 November 1899, in
Lettere di don Rua, 198; M. Rua, Norme per gli esercizi spirituali dei giovani. Circular of 1 March
1893, in Ibid., 97.
80 M. Rua, Convocazione del Capitolo Generale [5°] ed Avvisi, in Lettere di don Rua, 34.

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Guidelines for oratories and past pupils
For Rua, oratory education was one of the major areas of the application of the principle
of creative fidelity. The 3rd General Chapter in 1883 recalled the oratory tradition,
saying that “the first exercise of charity of the Pious Society of St Francis de Sales
is to gather poor and abandoned youngsters, to instruct them in the holy Catholic
religion, particularly on Sundays and feast days.”81 In the period of the Congresses on
the oratories, Fr Rua proved to be a key player in their development, and he loved
and supported their foundation and growth, their prudent and creative management,
tireless improvement and opening them up to older youth through religious groups and
classes.82 During his term of office GC7 (1895) made some decisions and proposals of
no small importance:
1. the choice of a member of the Superior Council in particular in charge of festive
oratories;
2. the opening of oratories separate from Salesian houses, with daytime and evening
classes;
3. organising a religion class in them;
4. the desirability of having oratories open for the whole day;
5. seeing to due assistance.83
The insistence on this topic and, in particular, references and clarifications
concerning certain aspects, leads us to believe that there was not always unanimous
acceptance of the guidelines indicated. In 1896, giving a quick report on the last Chapter,
Fr Rua took the opportunity to reveal sentiments he had long wanted to express: first
of all his consolation “at seeing the development of festive oratories. In fact, since I
encouraged you on several occasions in recent years to be ever more zealously involved
in this regard, I have seen the number of said oratories increase considerably.”84
81 Deliberazioni del Terzo e Quarto Capitolo Generale della Pia Società Salesiana, tenuti in Valsalice nel settembre
1883-86, Tip. e Libreria Salesiana, S. Benigno Canavese 1887, 22. Cf. also M. Rua, Viaggio di D. Rua
in Ispagna. Antichi Allievi - Consigli. Circular of 2 January 1900, in Lettere di don Rua, 500–501.
82 Cf. E. Ceria, Annali della Società Salesiana, vol. 3, Turin, SEI, 1946, 791–802. Fr Rua's insistence
on the importance of the oratories also reflects the widespread marginalisation of the oratories and a
certain mistrust of the conclusions of the congresses. Cf. P. Braido, Per una storia dell’educazione
giovanile nell’oratorio, 122–124.
83 Cf. Deliberazioni del Settimo Capitolo Generale della Pia Società Salesiana, Tip. e Libreria Salesiana,
S. Benigno Canavese 1896, 90–104.
84 M. Rua, Resoconto del VII Capitolo Generale. Disposizioni varie. Circular of 2 July 1896, in Lettere di
don Rua, 484.

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On many occasions, Michael Rua underscored the priority of the catechism lesson:
“According to Don Bosco's mind, those oratories in which catechism was not taught
would be nothing more than recreation centres; those institutes where religion was
not properly taught, especially with catechism lessons, would cease to be Salesian.”85
He also recommended the spread of best practices: the proposal for retreats with an
explicit vocational emphasis, the formation of young oratory helpers in Salesian schools,
catechetical competitions, making it easy to approach the sacraments, founding workers'
clubs and joining savings banks...86
The success of the increased number of open oratories and the encouragement towards
education in the oratories was often accompanied by a shortage of premises, resources,
and personnel. In this context, the Rector Major pointed out the priority of love and
zeal: “Elsewhere we would find huge rooms, large courtyards, beautiful gardens, games
of all kinds: but we much prefer to come here where there is nothing, but we know that
we love each other”; and he continued: “The zeal of the confreres has made up for the
lack of these means.”87
The oratory was also seen by Fr Rua as the environment for a solid formation:
“Good principles, sown in their hearts, strike deep roots”88 and help maintain Christian
identity in settings adverse to faith. But it was more than this, since the youngsters
were seen as people who carry out a real apostolate in their families.89 At this point
the Salesian oratory was considered to be a diffusion centre and was explicitly linked
to the Past Pupils Association: “It is a short step from the oratories to the Past Pupils
Association.”90 Mentioned among the various educational purposes of the Association
are: mutual support in the world, the maintenance of the zeal of Christian life, benefit
to their families, creation of a support network including material aid, seeking work and
help when sick.91
85 Rua, Lo spirito di D. Bosco, 528.
86 Cf. Rua, Gli Oratorii Festivi, 460–461; Id., Vocazioni – Militari - Oratorii Festivi, 473–474; Id.,
Resoconto del VII CG, 485.
87 Rua, Gli Oratorii Festivi, 461.
88 Ibid.
89 Rua, Vocazioni – Militari - Oratorii Festivi, 473.
90 Rua, Viaggio di D. Rua in Ispagna, 501.
91 M. Rua, Carità fraterna – Vari fatti consolanti. Circular of 24 June 1893, in Lettere di don Rua,
494–495.

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Applications of Rerum Novarum
In the Sixth General Chapter held in Valsalice in 1892, a year and a half after the
publication of Rerum Novarum, there was an interesting expansion of the tasks of
the oratories. The central question around which the proposed schemes revolved was:
“How do we apply papal teaching on the worker question in our hospices and oratories,
especially the Encyclical Rerum Novarum (de conditione opificum)?” Many proposals
were put forward during the pre-Chapter process; we see from the official text of the
deliberations that the following were approved:
1. “In order to protect the pupils of our hospices and festive oratories from modern
errors, let them be given conferences from time to time on capital, labour, wages,
holidays, strikes, savings, property, etc., while avoiding entering into politics. It
would be very useful to propagate the following books: Il lavoratore cristiano [The
Christian Worker], Il portafoglio dell’Operaio [The Worker’s Wallet] by Cesare
Cantù. Take note! Common sense and a good heart;
2. it is advised to give savings bank booklets as prizes;
3. Where there are Catholic Worker Societies and other Catholic Societies, the young
people who leave our houses or attend our oratories should be personally taken along
to them or accompanied with a letter. The St Joseph's Sodality would be preparation
for these societies;
4. let these kinds of Catholic associations be encouraged and helped as far as we can,
and a greater number of individuals sent in their direction thus conforming with
the wishes expressed by Leo XIII in his Encyclical Rerum Novarum and by Don
Bosco.”92
These deliberations were echoed in comments by the Rector Major and also in the
following Chapter. In his 1896 letter, Fr Rua did not dwell on all the reasons but once
more suggested associations as a way of social advancement:
I would like it to be studied whether having young people join some Catholic
workers' club, or starting up other sodalities and clubs in the same oratory,
or promoting and facilitating the joining of a savings bank among them, or
anything else, might be useful for this purpose. I have mentioned the savings
92 Deliberazioni dei sei primi capitoli generali della Pia Società Salesiana precedute dalle Regole o Costituzioni
della medesima, Tip. e Libreria Salesiana, S. Benigno Canavese 1894, 313–314.

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bank in particular, because it seems to be one of the most useful institutions for
train the tradesman in economy and therefore in temperance, good morals and
gaining him wealth and wellbeing, and because it is an institution beneficial to
our times and recommended by the Holy Father Leo XIII and because it was
already promoted by Don Bosco in some way in the primitive Oratory together
with the mutual aid society, something that brought about great good at the
time and that I hope will continue to do so.93
The Rector Major did not speak so often on social issues and the worker question.
In his preferring to act and involve others in cooperation we can nevertheless note an
event that catalysed attention to society: the first International Congress of Salesian
Cooperators in Bologna in 1895. This assembly, over which Fr Rua presided, was
a sign of good will in working for the good of the workers especially in terms of
religious education with the connected issue of Sunday rest, improvement in the
workshop environment and promotion of workers’ associations.94 Describing the
congress, Salesian historian Francis Desramaut evaluated the Salesian attitude on the
social question: “There is nothing revolutionary in these motions and their moralising
tenor. The word justice does not appear; what predominates is the idea of charity.”95 In
fact, the Salesian response to the social question was above all educational, religious and
practical, with the ability to mediate between the working world and the business world.
In addition to the development of Salesian vocational schools, social associations
in the oratories and the foundation of boarding arrangements for female workers by
the FMA, Fr Rua supported the creation of a Mutual Aid Society for Young Catholic
Workers. By supporting Miss Cesarina Astesana, an enterprising laywoman, a work of
alliance was born between the patronesses and the workers in a constant and solicitous
effort addressed to the young workers for them to overcome their apathy, become aware
that their condition of life was abnormal and therefore commit themselves to their social
redemption. The patronesses had to be “there not to represent worldly philanthropy,
which strives to make itself known and to have its name in print, but [...] to show
progress in our current times, a fruit of the harmony between capital and work.”96 For
Fr Rua, the peaceful and preventive path towards the social question was to be preferred
in a turbulent environment in which Marxist ideology was making its way through the
93 Rua, Resoconto del VII CG, 485.
94 Atti del primo Congresso Internazionale dei Cooperatori Salesiani, Tipografia Salesiana, Torino 1895,
186–188.
95 Desramaut, Vita di don Michele Rua, 350.
96 “Lavoratrice” 1 (1902) 1, 2; For references to Astesana’s Salesianity, cf. G. Drago, La promozione della
donna, in R. Spiazzi (ed.), Enciclopedia del pensiero sociale cristiano, Studio Domenicano, Bologna
1992, 843

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socialist movement. A concrete case that can help us understand Fr Rua's mindset was
his mediation in the lengthy workers strike at the Anselmo Poma plant in 1906, described
by the newspaper Momento as “the triumph of the fatherly work of the venerable priest
Fr Rua.”97
Initial statements on Salesian pedagogy by the first
Salesians
An implementation of the principles we have indicated, principles of fidelity to Don
Bosco, zeal and education of the heart to form good Christians and upright citizens,
took place through the collaboration of the first generation of Salesians educated by Don
Bosco. Among these, the first novice master Fr Giulio Barberis, the General Councillor
for Schools, Fr Francesco Cerruti, and the General Councillor for Vocational Schools,
Fr Giuseppe Bertello, stand out, all of whom left a strong imprint on the formulation of
Salesian educational ideas and structures.
Interesting and important is the harmony of views in the pedagogical field and the
effective collaboration in the government of the Congregation. Indicators of this are the
exchange of views and feedback that took place between Barberis and Cerruti, Fr Rua's
appreciation of them and his recommendations to read what Cerruti and Barberis had
written, including the circulars that Cerruti and Bertello had written together.98 The
reasons for their common mode of thinking can easily be traced back both to the strong
formative experience they had with Don Bosco in the oratory at Valdocco and their study
of the same sources and same pedagogues.
97 Desramaut,Vita di don Michele Rua, 354.
98 Rua, Studi letterarii, 38; M. Rua, Spirito di povertà – Formazione religiosa. Circular of 5 August
1900, in Lettere di don Rua, 221; F. Cerruti – G. Bertello, Circular of 29 January 1899, in G.
Bertello, Scritti e documenti sull’educazione e sulle scuole professionali. Introduzione, premesse, testi
critici e note a cura di José Manuel Prellezo, LAS, Rome 2010, 131–133; Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio
Barberis (1847-1927). Introduction, critical text and notes by José Manuel Prellezo. Aftwerword by
Dariusz Grządziel, LAS, Rome 2017, 30.

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Giulio Barberis's Pedagogia sacra as a basic formation text
A school of sacred pedagogy was established in Valdocco in 1874, the purpose of which
was to form future educators and not so much the systematisation of pedagogical
thinking.99 Giulio Barberis, the first director of novices and who was in charge of the
pedagogy school, noted Don Bosco's instructions thus: “Regarding pedagogy, I really
want it to be a study made especially for us. For example, it should be entitled: The
Salesian Teacher and the Salesian Assistant. One section will say how the assistant
should behave in the dormitory, another: the assistant on walks, the assistant in church,
the assistant in school, etc. How the Salesian teacher should behave with regard to
punctuality, being in class on time, with regard to discipline, rewards, punishments, etc.
These things should be taught during the probationary year and they should also be in
print so that they can serve as a textbook for us. Teach these things in the probationary
year; and also have them printed to serve as a textbook for us.”100
In 1897 the Rector Major, Fr Rua, wanted these Notes [Appunti] to be printed,
justifying this decision with the expansion of the Congregation which had also led to a
decentralising of formation. Barberis wrote in his introduction: “However, they should
be exclusively for our own use, and are not suitable for publication for others, since we are
not aiming to make a complete treatise on pedagogy with them but to consider the young
as they are in our various homes, and without lots of theories, to help our confreres in
the difficult task of educating them well.”101 Subsequently and importantly, the book of
Notes on Sacred Pedagogy was widely diffused throughout the Salesian world in a number
of translations, and this created a departure point for “doing” Salesian pedagogy.
In drafting the Appunti, Barberis chose a particular method for compiling them.
Since he himself was not an education theorist but rather someone who formed
vocations, he put himself in the position of being a significant witness: “Our great father
left us a system of education only very partly in writing, mostly imprinted on the minds
and hearts of those of us who had the good fortune to be with him for several decades.”102
Given this procedure of compiling his ideas around an experience-based educational
99 J.M. Prellezo, Valdocco nell’Ottocento tra reale ed ideale (1866-1889). Documenti e testimonianze, LAS,
Rome 1992, 193.
100 Cronichetta, quaderno 11, 4 in Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis, 7. Cf. also M. Fissore, Il
ruolo di don Giulio Barberis nell’organizzazione del primo noviziato salesiano, in “Ricerche Storiche
Salesiane” 34 (2015) 65, 189.
101 Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis, 31.
102 Ibid., 33.

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tradition, three points in his approach become quite interesting: 1. the choice of authors
of reference, 2. how the topics were put together, and finally, 3. the image of Don Bosco
that emerges from what he wrote.
The decisive basis for compiling these Notes are two works by pro-Rosminian Turin
educationalists: Della pedagogica (About Pedagogy) by Giovanni Antonio Rayneri103
and Studi Pedagogici (Pedagogical Studies) by Giuseppe Allievo.104 Barberis followed the
same structure of argument and subdivision of topics. G.A. Rayneri (1810-1867) was a
priest educationalist, a lecturer at the University of Turin, who followed the approach
of Antonio Rosmini and Ferrante Aporti. He was a dominant figure in the group that
arose around the journal known as the Educatore Primario (Primary Educator) which
kept in contact with the Salesian setting, recognising the value of the establishment of
Don Bosco's Oratory (especially in the first period of its existence between 1847 and
1850) and the special quality of his educational skills. The meeting point between the
priest of the Valdocco oratory and this group of pedagogues was the sensitivity they
had for grassroots education, especially with regard to the importance of reason and
kindness, thus affirming the principle of the heart that was the common thread joining
St Philip Neri and St Francis de Sales with Rosmini. On a practical level they appreciated
the pupil-oriented style school textbooks published by Don Bosco, (Storia ecclesiastica,
Storia sacra, Il sistema metrico decimale) and shared his thinking on the educational value
of play, music and theatre.105 Giuseppe Allievo (1830-1913) was Rayneri's successor at
the University of Turin and continued his master's approach, completing and finalising
the last two books on Della pedagogica. From various testimonies and materials available
to us, it can be said that Barberis was most likely his student in the seventies in pedagogy
courses at the University of Turin.106
As secondary sources followed, especially in certain parts of the Notes, are
L’educazione by the Bishop of Orléans, Félix Dupanloup, and the writings of Antoine
Monfat, a French religious and educationalist, both of whom were known at Valdocco.
103 Cf. G.A. Rayneri, Della pedagogica libri cinque, Grato Scioldo, Turin21877.
104 Cf. G. Allievo, Studi pedagogici in servigio degli studenti universitari delle scuole normali e degli
istituti educativi, Tipografia subalpina S. Marino, Turin 1893.
105 G. Chiosso, Carità educatrice e istruzione in Piemonte. Aristocratici, filantropi e preti di fronte all’educazione
del popolo nel primo ‘800, SEI, Turin 2007, 194–195.
106 J.M. Prellezo, Introduzione, in Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis, 8–9.

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Figure A: Salesian Pedagogy in Barberis's Appunti di pedagogia
Barberis describes pedagogy and education by starting from the idea of perfection which
is the mainstay of Rayneri and Allievo's approach:107
The word pedagogy (from the Greek παίς, child, and άγω, I lead, guide, direct),
according to its etymology means leading/guiding the child; and it consists
essentially in guiding the child to his (or her) perfection, developing the faculties
as best as possible. In fact the usual definition is: The science and skill of
perfecting the man-child through the harmonious and general development
of his strengths. The word pedagogy, coming from the Greek, corresponds to
the word education, coming from the Latin educere, which literally means to
extract, to bring out, and indicates the operation whereby others bring out of
the person a value, a quality, anything that is latent and not conspicuous within
the individual.108
Hence, pedagogy is a science, a system of knowledge dependent on a certain principle
(perfectibility); but it is also an art, a skill, as a system of actions ordered to an end (to
perfect the pupil). Immediately afterwards, it is specified that man consists of a soul
and a body: the soul is seen as the principle, the cause and the source of man’s actions,
while the other human strengths or faculties are considered instrumental to it.109 Then
continuing, the treatise divides education by following the distinctions of the human
faculties and also structuring the Appunti into four parts corresponding to physical,
intellectual, aesthetic education and finally, the most important, religious and moral
education. The last part also contains the Preventive System and most of the Salesian
educational traditions.
107 Rayneri, Della pedagogica, 2ff; Allievo, Studi pedagogici, 23ff.
108 Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis, 35.
109 Cf. Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis, 36ff.

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Two unconvincing problem areas are noted in Barberis' setup and choice of
arguments,: the first deals with the individuality of the pupil and the other deals with the
issue of freedom. In the part dealing with general concepts, Barberis takes up Allievo's
argumentation regarding human nature and makes it the principle from which he
deduces the foundations of his concept of pedagogy. Similarly, the different “kinds of
education” derive from the faculties or strengths of man as man: physical, intellectual,
aesthetic, moral and religious. The student’s individuality is not constitutive of, but
rather functional to a winning strategy, in the sense that education “attunes itself to
the personal individuality of the student, not restricting his calling, but enhancing
his particular innate aptitudes. The education is all the more perfect the more it suits
the student's dispositions and the relationships that accompany him. Individuality is
different in different pupils, and as a consequence, the way in which they are treated is
different. When this is not done, then it is educational intent that fails.”110 There is a
fragile balance between attention to individuality and the basic axiom: “the foundation
of educational skill is nature.”111 Allievo's spiritualism, in his argument with positivism
from the earliest pages of his work,112 is not found in Barberis' approach and, lacking
the clarifications on the concept of nature, there is the risk, in Allievo's words, of falling
into a “naturalistic determinism [...] so much so that the free activity of our person must
give way to universal fatalism, and the work of the spirit is worth as much as the work of
nature and nothing more.”113
The second question, the one of freedom, is an even thornier one and would have
powerful repercussions for the future of Salesian education. Barberis introduces the
notion of freedom as deriving from the notion of perfectibility, which includes both the
idea of development and that of freedom, without delving into the subtle balances of
their relationships.114 Rayneri, faithful to the Rosminian approach, distinguishes two
types of human perfection. The first is that of nature, which occurs when the strengths
that it contains within itself are perfected. The second kind is the qualitatively different
improvement that takes place when “the highest and noblest of human faculties, that
110 Ibid., 46.
111 Ibid., 47; Cf. The deeper treatment in Allievo, Studi pedagogici, 75–82.
112 Cf. Allievo, Studi pedagogici, 1–49.
113 Ibid., 18.
114 Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis, 37.

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is, moral freedom, in the right exercise of which virtue consists, receives an increase.”115
Rayneri’s work is introduced by a ten-page mini-treatise on freedom and the role of
authority in education, containing the definition of the latter as “the art of exercising
authority in favour of human freedom.”116 Barberis reduces it by limiting the perspective
and simplifying the argument.117 References to the value of freedom are lacking, while
complaints about the lack of authority in educational practice and pedagogical science
are stronger. Paradoxically in our authors, authority is not declared theoretically on the
basis of a positive principle, but is instead derived “from the natural inequality of men in
their faculties and their development and in their social relations.”118 Barberis therefore
proposes harmony between authority and freedom in these terms:
Authority and freedom are by no means two irreconcilable and exclusive terms,
as might seem at first glance, but rather correlative and concordant. What is
certain is that authority, if abused, is irreconcilable with freedom and that
freedom, if unrestrained, is contradictory to authority. But human reason
recognises that above both there is a higher and more sublime principle founded
on the intrinsic order of things and on the dignity of human nature, a principle
in which they have their common foundation and from which they draw every
virtue and efficiency. This principle is the will of God, the holy law of God; it
moderates authority so that it does not transmute into despotism and regulates
freedom so that it does not degenerate into licence. […] The excellence of
freedom is showing oneself to be obedient to this principle as to the urgent and
solemn voice of duty. […] However, it should be noted in practice that human
dignity and happiness matter much more than the right to freedom and confers
the ability to use it well.119
Rayneri’s and Allievo’s interest in pursuing a line of thinking that is in contrast
to liberalism and Rousseau's naturalism finds its place in their effort to promote the
115 Rayneri, Della pedagogica, 5 referring to the fourth book on Antropologia by Rosmini. Cf. also
G. Grandis, La prospettiva personalistica dell’etica rosminiana, in “Studia Patavina” 56 (2009) 3,
617–626; G. Allievo, Il ritorno al principio della personalità. Prolusione letta all’Università di Torino
il 18 novembre 1903, Tipografia degli Artigianelli, Turin 1904.
116 Rayneri, Della pedagogica, XLV.
117 Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis, 48–50.
118 Ibid., 48. Cf. The same idea in Rayneri, Della pedagogica, XLII and instead a more balanced argument
in Allievo, Studi pedagogici, 86–89.
119 Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis, 49 [italics ours].

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freedom of teaching from the time of the Boncompagni Law onwards.120 Barberis, with
his different mindset, is quite fascinated by Don Bosco’s example (therefore he does
not question the “home” traditions) and is looking for practical applications of the
preventive system in the ‘boarding school’ context. The pedagogical concepts of these
Turin authors are the intellectual context into which Don Bosco’s examples are inserted.
It has to be noted that Salesian traditions with abundant specific details on roles and
assistance that Barberis often terms “surveillance” is not linked to Allievo's theory of
physical, aesthetic and intellectual education.
Assistance is linked to the principle stated by Don Bosco in his Trattatello (Little
Treatise) on the preventive system on the “impossibility of doing wrong”,121 which
presents the risk of being applied in a very restrictive manner to the pupil's freedom;
this is a typical problem of boarding school education that would drag on through
the decades of Salesian education up to the Second Vatican Council. The theoretical
balances of educationalists such as Rayneri and Allievo were not valued by Barberis
to their full potential and were replaced with references to Don Bosco's founding
experience as the norm. As Dariusz Grządziel, a contemporary Salesian educationalist,
rightly notes, in the Appunti di pedagogia sacra we are still a long way from the notion of
pedagogy as a science that offers the educator criteria and tools for orientation but does
not prescribe the applied course of concrete actions.122
Locating “Salesian” writings in the part of the Appunti dealing with moral and
religious pedagogy is understandable if we consider the Rosminian approach of the
Turin authors mentioned. For Rosmini, the ordering principle of education is the
Christian religion and the summit of the educational process is religious morality.123
The section of the Appunti on religious and moral education is in fact the longest
one, exceeding the sum of the remaining sections on physical, intellectual and aesthetic
education. After the part on the general principles of moral education strongly
inspired by Allievo and Rayneri, come Don Bosco’s writings: the Sistema preventivo
nell’educazione della gioventù (The Preventive System in the Education of Youth)
and the Articoli generali (General Articles) which preface the Regolamento delle Case
(Regulations for the Houses). Added then is some of Monfat's La pratica della
educazione cristiana (The Practice of Christian Education) that deal with important
120 Cf. Marrone, Giuseppe Allievo e la libertà d’insegnamento.
121 G. Bosco, Il Sistema preventivo nella educazione della gioventù, in Istituto Storico Salesiano, Fonti
Salesiane, 434.
122 D. Grządziel, Postfazione, in Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis, 267–268.
123 Cf. Chiosso, Carità educatrice e istruzione, 133.

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issues in a boarding school, such as discipline, surveillance, punishments;124 then the
virtues of the good educator, taken from Dupanloup’s De l’éducation.125 On the
centrality of practical religious education to the preventive system, Barberis says right
from the outset of his work:
It should not be thought that Don Bosco’s method consists of high-sounding
theories, or lengthy arguments or lots of precepts. His whole secret lay solely
in this: Jesus came to educate the world and founded the true principles and
practice of all education: we follow the principles of the gospel; we try to do in
our small way what Jesus did; nothing else is needed. All Don Bosco’s teachings
started from this fundamental point: his whole system is based on it. It is all
easy, all natural; however it requires guidance; and it is expressly to facilitate the
practice of this system that these Notes were written.126
This approach of practical Christian education was also confirmed by the Rector
Major, Fr Rua. When speaking of religious formation, he mentions the Appunti,
stressing: “You can also offer a little lesson to end the explanation of sacred pedagogy, and
especially the part that teaches how to do the various tasks of assistance well, teaching the
boys catechism.”127 Even Albera's approach, albeit clearly spiritual and religious, can be
fitted into this line of thinking, which was peacefully accepted by the early generations
of Salesians.
It should be noted that Barberis, by inserting the Salesian part emphasising
surveillance and the educator’s qualities at the end of his Appunti, makes a choice
of approach that distances him from Allievo’s notion of pedagogy. Barberis omits
practically all of the third part of the Studi pedagogici that had a very important purpose:
creating the final synthesis, and this no longer in terms of general pedagogy and the
“kinds of education” of individual “strengths”, but in terms of a synthesis focused on
the person. Allievo marks out the last part of his work as the formation of the character
of the individual and introduces it this way:
124 Cf. A. Monfat, La pratica della educazione cristiana, Tipografia dei Fratelli Monaldi, Rome 1879.
125 Cf. F. Dupanloup, L’educazione, versione italiana di D. Clemente de Angelis, vol. 2: Dell’autorità e del
rispetto nell’educazione, P. Fiaccadori, Parma 1869, 411–412.
126 Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis, 33. For other confirmations about the fundamental religiosity
of Don Bosco's education cf. pp. 29-30. 32. 63 and 203.
127 Rua, Spirito di povertà, 221.

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It brings together in final synthesis all the pedagogy that has been discussed and
is, so to speak, the point to which it all gravitates, its highest point, since the
general educational principles descend from the abstract reasoning of theory to
take life and movement in the field of reality, explaining the fecundity of their
applications in the service of the living person of the pupil […] Thus the whole
procedure of this part of pedagogy passes through these three points, one after
the other: 1st, recognition of the pupil's own character; 2nd, cultivating it as it
has been recognised, which is carried out by applying the general principles to it
with wise discernment and with the intention of corroborating it through the
social status proper to him; 3rd, choice of state in accordance with his personal
vocation. However, these three points not only follow one another, but are in
intimate continuity with each other and condition each other.128
This final part of Allievo's treatise is his own (in Rayneri it remains unfinished)
and it is very important, as we were saying, for the personalised imprint of the final
synthesis. The difference in mindset is clear: where Barberis is most concerned about
the practical problems of assistance that revolve around the boarding school structure,
Allievo is focused on formulating his pedagogical synthesis around the concrete nature
of the character and vocation of the individual young person. I believe that the lack of a
serious discussion on the principles of personalisation, on discernment in the application
of the principles and on vocational choice, influenced the Ricaldone period in the 1930s
and ‘40s, when the memory of Don Bosco’s creativity and resourcefulness had faded and
an adverse environment pushed for clear, unified and strong measures.129
In conclusion, we can see how the vivid memory of Don Bosco also plays a role
in how Barberis established his approach between principles and applications. Don
Bosco had applied the Preventive System in practical terms under the eyes of the first
generation, supervised how it was carried out and gave it all necessary development. For
the founder, the principles served rather as an introduction to any clarification of an
educational perspective. They are explained and commented on later, subdividing topics
or describing roles. Then finally, detailed applications (sometimes in minute detail) are
proposed that need to be faithfully carried out. We are talking about a mindset that is
128 Allievo, Studi pedagogici, 322–323.
129 It is interesting to read Allievo who also addresses the differences in education in different nations,
cultures and historical periods, a logic that the Salesians took seriously much later. Cf. Allievo,
Studi pedagogici, 345-357.

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applied both to how he narrated his dreams and how he published his regulations: first
the principles, the accounts and then the applications.130
Similarly, in Barberis’s “applicative” mentality, we can sense an echo of Don Bosco’s
way of proceeding. It would seem that he is not so interested in all of Allievo’s theory:
in fact, for the purposes of his work, Allievo’s text of the final “Summary” is decisive,
summarising the entire treatise in thirty pages. The first consists of Allievo’s pedagogical
theory; the second, more important, it is a vital context of the optimistic experience of
the beginnings, of the grand horizon of an important mission for the world, of trust in
education and of a relatively flexible organisational culture located as it is in a phase of
exponential development.
Within these two contexts emerge the two “souls” of the work, one consisting of the
pedagogical syntheses, the other formed around the conviction of possessing a method
that makes the pedagogical principles concrete through applications of the Preventive
System and in the practice of assistance. As long as memories remained fresh, optimism
lasted and demographic growth continued, there was no need to invest in refinements
of theoretical balances and it was still sustainable to be “educationalists-compilers” who
combined writings of others in search of consensus.
Francesco Cerruti, first Councillor for Schools
Formation in Salesian institutes took place primarily in the school context. In the period
we are looking at, the evolution of Salesian schools is linked to the person of Fr Francesco
Cerruti, the Congregation’s Councillor for Schools from 1885 until 1917, already
described at the end of his service as “the true organiser of the schools and studies of
the Pious Salesian Society.” His classical,-humanistic approach and orientation was in
fact generally followed in Salesian schools in the following period as well. Fr Arturo
Conelli, called to the office of School Councillor in 1917, spoke of Fr Cerruti as a faithful
interpreter of Don Bosco’s educational thinking, saying that he felt: “the duty to remind
himself, and to invite confreres never to forget his directives and ideas on education and
teaching, directives and ideas that are more those of our venerable Father Don Bosco.”131
130 Cf. M. Vojtáš, L’uso educativo dei sogni da parte di don Bosco. Contesti, processi, intenzioni, in A.
Bozzolo (ed.), I sogni di don Bosco. Esperienza spirituale e sapienza educativa, LAS, Rome 2017,
471–496.
131 Capitolo Superiore Circolari (17 September 1917), in ASC E212.

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Indeed, Francesco Cerruti’s program started above all from the concern to faithfully
follow the teachings of Don Bosco. With this intention he wrote two letters to Fr
Rua, then the Vicar, to submit his ideas to him and have his opinion on the matter.
These letters were then published in an agenda-setting booklet Le idee di D. Bosco
sull’educazione e sull’insegnamento e la missione attuale della scuola, (Don Bosco’s
thinking on education, teaching and the mission of the school today) that describes
the fundamental approach of Cerutti’s interpretation of Don Bosco. In his first
circular letter as School Councillor addressed to Salesian provincials and rectors, Cerruti
explained: “You will ensure that […] the maxims contained therein are translated into
practice everywhere, prudently and zealously, so that they become like the last will and
testament for schools left us by our beloved Don Bosco."132 Sensing difficult times and
dangers from without, Cerruti affirms a balance between fidelity and creativity in both
the educational and teaching fields:
As for education, these ideas are essentially based on Christian charity, which
wants evil to be prevented if possible, rather than having to be committed then
repressing it, using in this so noble and delicate mission the vigilant and prudent
assistance, gentleness of words and ways, patience and constancy of purpose
which alone can conquer wills and soften hearts [...] It is not the desire for good,
but self-love that would sometimes make us believe that the teachings contained
in those few but sublime pages on the preventive system in education, the preface
to the Regulations of the houses filled with so much pedagogical wisdom, are not
always, nor everywhere translatable into practice, and that in any case yesterday's
things no longer attach themselves to today's youth [...] It is true that dangers
from the outside are on the increase; all kinds of seduction are on the increase; the
principle of authority is diminishing every day unfortunately, far too effectively;
but youth, let us not forget, is substantially the same in every time and in every
place, just as substantially the same therefore is and must always be the method to
be used in their education. For our part then, everything boils down to a growth
in our techniques, doubling our vigilance, increasing our zeal.133
The same principle of continuity, set out here in the educational field, also applies in
the field of classical education, the mainstream of what Salesian schooling offers. Cerruti
132 F. Cerruti, Circular of 28 December 1885, in F. Cerruti, Lettere circolari e programmi di Insegnamento
(1885–1917). Introduction, critical text and notes by José Manuel Prellezo, LAS, Rome 2006, 57.
133 F. Cerruti, Le idee di D. Bosco sull’educazione e sull’insegnamento e la missione attuale della scuola.
Lettere due, Tip. e Libreria Salesiana, S. Benigno Canavese 1886, 6–7.

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supported the validity of Don Bosco’s approach to the classical school, since the purpose
of his teaching system “could not be more in keeping with the spirit of Christianity
or more leading to religious, moral and intellectual advantage, the true, real, practical
advantage of youth.”134
However, while proposing substantial continuity with the founder’s approach,
Cerruti did not lock himself into mere repetitiveness, but kept in contact with
changing society. As for the intellectual climate, Cerruti noted a transition from a
combative criticism of the Catholic religion to another, perhaps more fatal because more
hypocritical, adopting an attitude of ironic indifference towards religious issues. They do
not want to deny Christ, “however, they want him to be absolutely excluded from civil
society. We secularise things, that is, we take Christ out of the laws, education, charity,
government, marriage itself, in short, from everything.”135 In this situation, a “return to
the ancient form of the early centuries by claiming the necessary relationship of Jesus
Christ with all created things seems even more relevant.”136 In reading the situation one
can perceive clear influences of the thinking and political polemics of Allievo in defence
of the Catholic school.
If teaching the classics corresponds perfectly to the end purpose of integral education,
in Cerruti’s approach this is made concrete in the contents and methods proposed. In
fact, with regard to the use of pagan and Christian authors, following a neo-scholastic
logic,137 a unification in distinction applies: the contents should favour “mixed teaching”
in which “the profane classics, in what they have substantially of good, serve as a
preparation or propaedeutic” and subsequently the study of the Christian classics makes
“the natural beauty of the former draw new light of a higher nature, receive new
divinely perfecting light from the supernatural beauty of the latter.”138 With too much
expectation Cerruti then speculates that this kind of education “will restore the intimate
bond between the natural order and the supernatural order, the necessary coherence even
in literature and the arts, essentially distinct from each other, as if they were necessarily
134 Ibid., 7.
135 Ibid., 16
136 Ibid.
137 For neo-scholastic references cf. Cerruti, De’ principi pedagogico-sociali di S. Tommaso, already mentioned
and the second extended and updated edition published in Turin by SAID Buona Stampa in 1915.
138 Cerruti, Le idee di D. Bosco sull’educazione, 15. Cf. the series on Latin and Greek writers commented
on for schools, by the SEI publishing house in Turin. The classics were published, omitting some
parts considered immoral, creating a very widespread method of “censorship” and later also applied
to cinema.

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united, on which rests not only education alone, but the whole Christian edifice.”139
The method of teaching that harmonises the end purpose with the contents should be
the method known as the preventive system. Cerruti characterises this as follows:
It is necessary, therefore, to come down from the clouds once and for all; it is
necessary to leave behind all that only grazes on vanity or is founded on lies, and
to provide for the reality of life, not the disgusting or clumsily sentimental reality
of the modern so-called veristi [realists, those who prefer contemporary subjects
to classical ones] but rather the true reality of the Gospel. Our words, our works
must always have a true, real, practical purpose, leading to the moral and material
well-being of the human family.140
The summary of Cerruti’s proposal is “to make school a mission”141 and is in tune
with Fr Rua’s approach, when in 1894 he said, “the education and instruction of youth
without a religious spirit, this is the plague of our century, God forbid that our schools
should ever be infected by it!”142 The School Councillor, during the thirty years in
which he held this position, was responsible for realising his vision through teaching
programs, provisions for the formation of young Salesians and the implementation of
the preventive system in its practical articulations.143 Cerruti, with the seriousness of his
proposal of integral education, was thus reacting not only to the ideological problems
between positivism and spiritualism, but also to the internal situation of Salesian
personnel, that is, to the “tendency, which is frighteningly growing and threatens to
misrepresent the work of Don Bosco, to neglect the education of youth which is to be
left in the hands of young Salesians and new priests, in order to give themselves to adults
with social activities, parishes, preaching, etc.”144
In his longest circular in 1910, that became the basis for his Ricordino
educativo-didattico, he specified that “instruction is not education […] therefore
instruction is auxiliary to education.”145 All the Salesians must strive “so that these
students of ours, happily growing and praiseworthy in their studies, may grow no less
139 Ibid.
140 Ibid., 47.
141 Cons. Gen. Circ. Durando-Cerruti (06 October 1886), in ASC E233.
142 Rua, Santificazione nostra, 119.
143 Cf. Cerruti, Lettere circolari, 13–56.
144 Cons. Gen. Circ. Durando-Cerruti (16 March 1916), in ASC E233. Cf. The other circulars of 2 March
1914, 15 November 1914 and 24 December 1915.
145 F. Cerruti, Circular of 24 January 1910, in F Cerruti, Lettere circolari, 328.

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praiseworthy in the full and complete knowledge of our holy religion and in the heartfelt,
firm, and constant practice of the virtues and religious exercises that it requires, so that we
may return them to their families equipped with good diplomas, yes, but also excellent
citizens, sincere, frank, and industrious believers.”146 The proposals and critiques are
in tune with the pedagogical approaches of Rua, Barberis and logically, with Rayneri
and Allievo. The last-named, who was teaching in senior classes (liceo) at Valsalice and
collaborated with Don Bosco on various occasions, inspired the first generation of
Salesians by developing the relationship between education and instruction in this way:
Instructing is not enough, it is also important to educate. In this case, education
is opposed to instruction in that the latter is the cultivation of the heart and will
and aims at working, at virtue, while the latter is the cultivation of intelligence
and aims at thinking and knowing. Nature and the order of things would like
to keep both in perfect harmony, contributing together to true and complete
human perfection, since the intelligence that thinks, the heart that feels, the
mind that knows and the will that works, come together in the unity of the
human ego; but in fact it often goes to extremes.147
As the years went on, Cerruti became more decisive and fought for his view of
things. A passage from the Ricordino educativo-didattico illustrates this: “Every day that
passes, I am ever more convinced of the need, that for us is a duty, to remain very much
attached, mordicus, to the teachings of Don Bosco, including in matters of instruction
and education and we must never depart from these teachings, not even in a single point,
nec transversum quidem unguem. Let's keep innovators far away from us.”148 Whoever
separates them, according to Fr Cerruti, does not educate, but ruins things; he does not
build, but destroys; he does not practise but betrays his mission.
In order to achieve the ideal of an integral formation, the Schools Councillor
recommends the educational principles of exemplariness, charity, assistance, discipline,
gradualness and expediency in teaching; the use of classical literature, recalling Don
Bosco's zeal for the “cult” of Christian literature and art.149 Enthusiastic about classical
education, he speculates: “Language, Latin and Greek, in which Christian dogma and
146 Ibid., 329.
147 Allievo, Studi pedagogici, 65.
148 Cerruti, Un ricordino educativo-didattico, 7.
149 Cf. J.M. Prellezo, Premessa, in Cerruti, Lettere circolari, 52–56; Cerruti, Circular of 24 January
1910.

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morals are accepted; the language slandered and hated for so many centuries by pagan
humanists, is coming back here and there, in schools, even universities, albeit slowly; you
will see, have no doubt, the era of its triumph.”150 His didactic attentions are integrated
with the formation of teachers in the preventive system, putting the accent on assistance,
understood as continuous contact with the students which does not result in them losing
their authority, their patient and benign charity. And indeed, in the wake of the Letter
from Rome, the Schools Councillor writes:
Blessed were those times when priests and clerics, no one excepted, with Don
Bosco at their head, were the life and soul of recreation, as rowdy as it was.
This recreation at such a giddy speed that kept them so busy and preoccupied,
strengthened the body, lifted the spirit, and made sin morally impossible!151
In conclusion, we can say that Fr Cerruti perceives how our “good father” made
the “system understood and taught by the greatest educationalists”152 and in the final
analysis by the Gospel, his own. With his position he aligned himself with the perception
of Italian Catholics of the time of stark disagreement between two pedagogical schools.
One was the traditional Italian classical and spiritualistic school with authors such
as Parravicini, Rosmini, Aporti, Capponi, Tommaseo, Lambruschini, Rayneri, Ferrucci,
Colombini; the other belonged to foreign, materialistic positivism.153
Giuseppe Bertello: transformation of workshops into vocational schools
A similar effort of coordination at a time of great expansion was carried out by Fr
Giuseppe Bertello in the area of vocational schools from 1898 to 1910. It is to him
that we owe the progressive implementation of Fr Rua’s approach, motivated by the
change in the social and legislative context: “I remind you that, both to avoid serious
disturbances and to give them their true name, our workshops must be called vocational
150 Cerruti, Circular of 24 January 1910, 331.
151 Ibid.
152 Ibid., 330.
153 Cf. Allievo, Studi pedagogici, 27–35; F. Cerruti, Una trilogia pedagogica ossia Quintiliano, Vittorino
da Feltre e Don Bosco, in J. Guibert, L’educatore apostolo, Scuola tipografica salesiana, Rome 1908,
279–293.

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schools.”154 In pointers he gave to trade teachers, Fr Bertello not only concretised the
teaching method, but also gave practical indications on how to get young working boys
to grow in religion and uprightness using the preventive system’s components of reason,
religion and loving-kindness. When he spoke of loving-kindness in his circulars, Bertello
often used the concepts of kindness, gentleness or benevolence proposing an educative
approach “without harshness” but also “without being over-sentimental.”155
The Councillor for Vocational Schools proposed a view of education very similar to
Fr Cerruti’s, inspired by Turin's spiritualist pedagogy in which religion plays a decisive
role in the success of educational processes. A special emphasis in his anthropology is
on efficiency and manual dexterity: man is called to “consecrate his mind, his heart, his
arm to God.”156 The “Bertello method”, in addition to the balance between instruction
and education, aimed at a correct relationship between practical preparation for work
and instruction in general culture: “The main point lies in this, that a larger part of
the program should be given to theoretical instruction and to general culture [...] and
people should be committed to this as a worthy work which eminently corresponds to
our mission and to the needs of the times.”157
Bertello's commitment to the change of mentality from workshops in which
the profession was learned and the students catechised, to vocational schools where
he sought to achieve a harmony between practical and theoretical teaching, the
introduction of general culture and the teaching of religion, was something he used
various means to achieve and circular letters were just one of them. Among others,
the 1903 Programmi scolastici e professionali (School and Vocational Curricula) held
an important place. They outlined content for religion lessons, the national language,
geography, arithmetic, geometry, etiquette, hygiene, drawing, history, natural sciences,
French, business maths and sociology.158 Significant too were the “world exhibitions”
of the vocational schools understood by Bertello as a tool of animation, exchange and
improvement:
154 M. Rua, Ringraziamenti-Vicariato di Mendez. Profitto nostro e delle anime. Circular of 27 December
1889, in Lettere di don Rua, 129. Cf. also Prellezo, Le scuole professionali salesiane, 58–84.
155 Cf. G. Bertello, Alcuni avvertimenti di pedagogia per uso dei maestri d’arte della Pia Società Salesiana,
in Bertello, Scritti e documenti sull’educazione, 190–195.
156 G. Bertello, Dio nell’educazione, in Bertello, Scritti e documenti sull’educazione, 47.
157 G. Bertello, Circolare del 1 ottobre 1907, in Bertello, Scritti e documenti sull’educazione, 163.
158 Cf. Programma scolastico per le scuole di artigiani della Pia Società di S. Francesco di Sales, Tipografia
Salesiana, Turin 1903.

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Let us compare one house with another, one nation with another to take what
is good everywhere and make a world school of mutual and fraternal teaching
among us. We also leave here with our thoughts and investigations to see and
compare what other institutes are doing, not disdaining even those who profess
ideas and maxims that are contrary to ours in the field of religion; rather, making
them the object of particular study.159
The process of transformation of arts and trades workshops into vocational schools
was slow and tortuous from the internal perspective of the Congregation. The image
we gain from the circulars of the Vocational Schools Councillor is focused particularly
on the solution to practical problems that emerged. To complete the overall picture of
the development, however, it is necessary to gather some positive external resonances
and evaluations. For example, describing the quality of education in Salesian vocational
schools in Italy, an article in 1910 wrote: “[Generally] in other schools attention is paid
almost exclusively to the technical education of the worker, while intellectual and moral
education very often remains just at the level of intention. [...] And in the curricula of
the Salesian vocational schools we see a well-understood and valid moral education track
running parallel with technical training.”160
Looking at the Salesian world as a whole at the time, it can be seen that in Brazil
the Salesian vocational schools were awarded several times in the first two decades of the
twentieth century in national and international exhibitions and were taken as a model
for building new ones.161 In Bolivia they were the first in the state, much appreciated
in society, and the textbooks used in them were later adopted for vocational teaching
throughout the nation.162 In a context that presented various adverse situations such
as in Shillong in India, where efforts were made to overcome problems of hygiene,
organisation, finance (it is sufficient to know that 85% of the boys were admitted free of
charge) and where it was necessary to face the partial hostility of the environment (Hindu
religion and the presence of Protestant missionaries), one of the first Salesian vocational
schools opened there received the compliments of the Minister of Finance who in 1930
159 La prima Esposizione delle nostre scuole professionale, in Bollettino Salesiano 25 (1901) 11, 306.
160 E. De Giovanni, Le scuole professionali salesiane, in “Antologia per la scuola e per la famiglia. Rivista
pedagogica – Lettere – Scienze ed Arti” 1 (1910) 194.
161 Cf. M. Isaú, A educação salesiana no Brasil sudeste de 1880 a 1922: Dimensões e atuação em diversos
contextos, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 181–182.
162 Cf. T.A. Corona Cortés, La educación salesiana en Bolivia, La Paz y Sucre, 1896-1922. Análisis
histórico de las instancias y acciones educativas, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal
1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 115–117.

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69
declared that he had “not seen a work of this perfection in Assam or Bengal.”163 Again,
in the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s first vocational school in Oświęcim, the commissions
that came several times for examinations said that one could not have wished for
better; and in fact in 1907 the Vienna Ministry of Industry and Commerce granted
Salesian schools of arts and trades the right to issue qualifications equal to those of state
schools.164
Educationalist Giorgio Chiosso described the educational work of Don Bosco and
the Salesians in this period as a combination of tradition and modernisation.165 This
mutual relationship that also characterises the concept of creative fidelity is seen in
an exemplary way in the birth of the Salesian vocational schools, characterised by Fr
Bertello's programmatic motto “With the times and with Don Bosco.”166
163 J. Thekkedath, A history of the Salesians of Don Bosco in India (from the beginning up to 1851-52),
vol. 1, Kristu Jyoti, Bengaluru 2005, 173.
164 Cf. Zimniak, Salesiani nella Mitteleuropa, 184.
165 Cf. G. Chiosso, Novecento pedagogico. Profilo delle teorie educative contemporanee, La Scuola, Brescia
1997, 145.
166 Pia Società Salesiana di D. Bosco, Le scuole professionali. Programmi didattici e professionali,
Scuola tipografica salesiana, Turin 1910, 1.

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Tools and resources
Chronological table
Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco

8 Pages 71-80

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71
Select bibliography
Albera P. – Gusmano C., Lettere a don Giulio Barberis durante la loro visita alle
case d’America (1900-1903), Introduction, critical text and notes by Brenno
Casali, LAS, Rome 2000.
Allievo, G., Studi pedagogici in servigio degli studenti universitari delle scuole normali
e degli istituti educativi, Tipografia subalpina S. Marino, Turin 1893.
Allievo, G., La nuova scuola pedagogica ed i suoi pronunciamenti, Carlo Clausen,
Turin 1905.
Allievo, G., Appunti di Antropologia e Psicologia, Carlo Clausen, Turin 1906.
Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis (1847-1927). Introduction, critical text and
notes by José Manuel Prellezo. Afterword by Dariusz Grządziel, LAS, Rome
2017.
Atti del primo Congresso Internazionale dei Cooperatori Salesiani, Tipografia Salesiana,
Turin 1895.
Bairati, P., Cultura salesiana e società industriale, in F. Traniello (ed.), Don Bosco
nella storia della cultura popolare, SEI, Turin 1987, 331-357.
Baratta, M., La libertà dell’operaio, Fiaccadori, Parma 1898.
Baratta, M., Principii di sociologia cristiana, Fiaccadori, Parma 1902.
Bertello G., Scritti e documenti sull’educazione e sulle scuole professionali. Introduction,
critical text and notes by José Manuel Prellezo, LAS, Rome 2010.
Braido, P., Per una storia dell’educazione giovanile nell’oratorio dell’Italia contemporanea.
L’esperienza salesiana, LAS, Rome 2018.
Canino Zanoletty M., Las “pruebas” de D. Rua. La prohibición al superior salesiano
de confesar a sus súbditos, in Loparco – Zimniak (eds.), Don Michele Rua
primo successore di don Bosco, 103-137;
Cavaglià, P., Il primo regolamento degli Asili infantili istituiti dalle Figlie di Maria
Ausiliatrice (1885), in “Rivista di Scienze dell’Educazione” 35 (1997) 1,
17-46.
Ceria, E., Annali della Società Salesiana, 4 vols., SEI, Turin 1946.
Cerruti, F., Le idee di D. Bosco sull’educazione e sull’insegnamento e la missione attuale
della scuola. Lettere due, Tip. e Libreria Salesiana, S. Benigno Canavese 1886.

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72
Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
Cerruti, F., De’ principii pedagogico-sociali di S. Tommaso, Tipografia Salesiana, Turin
1893.
Cerruti, F., Nozioni elementari di morale e d’economia politica, Tip. e Libreria
Salesiana, Turin 1898.
Cerruti, F., Una trilogia pedagogica ossia Quintiliano, Vittorino da Feltre e Don Bosco,
in J. Guibert, L’educatore apostolo, Scuola tipografica salesiana, Rome 1908,
279-293.
Cerruti, F., Un ricordino educativo-didattico, SAID Buona Stampa, Turin 1910.
Cerruti, F., Lettere circolari e programmi di Insegnamento (1885 - 1917). Introduzione,
testi critici e note a cura di José Manuel Prellezo, LAS, Rome 2006.
Chiosso, G., Novecento pedagogico. Profilo delle teorie educative contemporanee, La
Scuola, Brescia 1997.
Chiosso, G., Profilo storico della pedagogia cristiana, La Scuola, Brescia 2004.
Deliberazioni dei sei primi Capitoli Generali della Pia Società Salesiana precedute dalle
Regole o Costituzioni della medesima, Tip. e Libreria Salesiana, S. Benigno
Canavese 1894.
Desramaut F., Vita di don Michele Rua, primo successore di don Bosco (1837-1910).
Edited by Aldo Giraudo, LAS, Rome 2009.
Ferreira da Silva, A., La crisi della missione tra i Bororo e l’apertura al nuovo campo
di apostolato nel sud del Mato Grosso (1918-1931), in “Ricerche Storiche
Salesiane” 11 (1992) 21, 169-220.
La missione salesiana tra gli indigeni del Mato Grosso nelle lettere di don Michele Rua
(1892-1909), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 12 (1993) 22, 39-137.
Fissore, M., Il ruolo di don Giulio Barberis nell’organizzazione del primo noviziato
salesiano, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 34 (2015) 65, 155-222.
Giraudo, A., Linee portanti dell’animazione spirituale della Congregazione salesiana
da parte della direzione generale tra 1880 e 1921, in “Ricerche Storiche
Salesiane” 23 (2004) 44, 65-97.
González J.G., Don Rua e i Capitoli Generali da lui presieduti, in Motto (ed.), Don
Michele Rua nella storia (1837-1910), 176-190.
González J.G. – Loparco G. – Motto F. – Zimniak S. (eds.), L’educazione
salesiana dal 1880 al 1922. Istanze ed attuazioni in diversi contesti. Atti del
4° Convegno Internazionale di Storia dell’Opera salesiana Ciudad de México,
12-18 febbraio 2006, 2. vols., LAS, Rome 2007.

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La prima Esposizione delle nostre scuole professionale, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 25 (1901)
11, 303-306.
Lettere Circolari di don Michele Rua ai salesiani, Scuola tipografica don Bosco, San
Benigno Canavese 1940.
Loparco G., L’apporto educativo delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice negli educandati
tra ideali e realizzazioni (1878-1922), in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione
salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 161-191.
Loparco G., L’autonomia delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice nel quadro delle nuove
disposizioni canoniche, in Motto (ed.), Don Michele Rua nella storia
(1837-1910), 409-444.
Loparco G. – Zimniak S. (eds.), Don Michele Rua primo successore di don Bosco. Tratti
di personalità, governo e opere. Atti del 5° Convegno Internazionale di Storia
dell’Opera Salesiana Torino 28 ottobre – 1 novembre 2009, LAS, Roma 2010.
Luchelli, A., Don Francesco Cerruti consigliere scolastico generale della Pia Società
Salesiana, SAID Buona Stampa, Turin 1917.
Motto F. (ed.), L’Opera Salesiana dal 1880 al 1922. Significatività e portata sociale.
Acts of the 3rd International Congress on the History of Salesian Work Rome
31 October – 5 November 2000, 3 vols., LAS, Rome 2001.
Motto F. (ed.), Don Michele Rua nella storia (1837-1910), Acts of the International
Congress of Studies on Fr Rua (Rome, Salesianum, 29-31 October 2010),
LAS, Rome 2011.
Pia Società Salesiana di D. Bosco, Le scuole professionali. Programmi didattici e
professionali, Scuola tipografica salesiana, Turin 1910.
Prellezo, J.M., La risposta salesiana alla “Rerum Novarum”. Approccio a documenti
e iniziative (1891-1910), in A. Martinelli – G. Cherubini (eds.),
Educazione alla fede e dottrina sociale della Chiesa. Atti XV Settimana di
Spiritualità per la Famiglia Salesiana, SDB, Rome 1992, 39-91.
Prellezo, J.M., La «parte operaia» nelle case salesiane. Documenti e testimonianze
sulla formazione professionale (1883-1886), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 16
(1997) 31, 353-391.
Prellezo, J.M., Giuseppe Allievo negli scritti pedagogici salesiani, in “Orientamenti
Pedagogici” 45 (1998) 267, 393-419.

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74
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Prellezo, J.M., Linee pedagogiche della Società Salesiana nel periodo 1880-1922.
Approccio ai documenti, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 23 (2004) 44,
99-162.
Prellezo J.M., Le scuole professionali salesiane (1880-1922). Istanze e attuazioni viste
da Valdocco, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al
1922, vol. 1, 53-94.
Programma scolastico per le scuole di artigiani della Pia Società di S. Francesco di Sales,
Tipografia Salesiana, Turin 1903.
Rayneri, G.A., Della pedagogica libri cinque, Grato Scioldo, Turin 21877.
Regolamenti e Programmi per gli Oratori festivi e per i giardini d’infanzia, Tip.
Silvestrelli e Cappelletto, Turin 1912.
Regolamenti pei Convitti diretti dalle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, Tip. Silvestrelli e
Cappelletto, Turin 1913.
Regolamento-Programma per gli Asili d’infanzia delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, Tip.
e Libreria Salesiana, S. Benigno Canavese 1885.
Ricaldone, P., Noi e la classe operaia, Scuola tipografica salesiana, Bologna 1917.
Rua, M., Prima lettera del Nuovo Rettor Maggiore. Circular of 19 March 1888, in
Lettere Circolari di don Michele Rua, 18-26.
Rua, M., Studi letterarii. Circular of 27 November 1889, in Lettere Circolari di don
Michele Rua, 35-46.
Rua, M., Gli Oratorii Festivi. Circular of 29 January 1893, in Lettere Circolari di don
Michele Rua, 457-466.
Rua, M., Vocazioni – Militari - Oratorii Festivi. Circular of 29 January 1894, in Lettere
Circolari di don Michele Rua, 466-475.
Rua, M., Santificazione nostra e delle anime a noi affidate. Circular of 24 August 1894,
in Lettere Circolari di don Michele Rua, 109-122.
Rua, M., Felice esito dell’VIII Capitolo Generale. Come apprezzano le opere nostre.
Circular on the Octave of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception 1898, in
Lettere Circolari di don Michele Rua, 181-196.
Rua, M., La consacrazione della nostra Pia Società al Sacro Cuore di Gesù. Circular of
21 November 1900, in Lettere Circolari di don Michele Rua, 231-279.
Rua, M., Lo spirito di D. Bosco – Vocazioni. Circular of 14 June 1905, in Lettere Circolari
di don Michele Rua, 522-538.

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75
Ruffinatto P., L’educazione dell’infanzia nell’Istituto delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice
tra il 1885 e il 1922. Orientamenti generali a partire dai regolamenti, in
González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1,
135-160.
Silva Ferreira, A. da (ed.), Mons. Luis Lasagna. Epistolario, 3 vols., LAS, Rome
1995.
Terza esposizione generale delle scuole professionali e agricole della Pia Società Salesiana,
Scuola tipografica salesiana, Turin 1912.
Zimniak, S., Salesiani nella Mitteleuropa. Preistoria e storia della provincia Austro-Ungarica
della Società di S. Francesco di Sales (1868 ca.-1919), LAS, Rome 1997.
Zimniak S. – Loparco G. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa negli anni difficili
del XX secolo. Acts of the European Seminar on the History of Salesian Work
Krakow 31 October – 4 November 2007, LAS, Rome 2008.
Online resources
Sources, documents, research, full-text publications, photographic materials, related to
this chapter.167
167 Cf. salesian.online/pedagogia1

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2
A practical pedagogy
of osmosis (1902–1931)
After Salesian work was first established by the generation of Don Bosco’s immediate
collaborators, the Salesians and the FMA were faced with new challenges such as
the dynamics of mass society, the First World War, totalitarian regimes and colonial
nationalism. These events, and the expansion of the work across all continents,
necessarily urged some adaptation, transformation and re-calibration, and this gave rise
to a number of theoretical as well as practical challenges within the Salesian pedagogical
tradition. What seems to have emerged over this period is an attitude of “healthy
modernity” and the way forward seemed to be by way of practical and experience-based
adaptation. This mentality can be identified above all in the development of oratories,
the missions and in the birth of new works, congregations and associations, some of
which became particularly iconic.
Oratory in mass society and missions during colonialism
The initial dynamics of mass society took hold at the beginning of the twentieth
century in Europe. In addition to the political and economic dynamics of the second
industrial revolution, there were important social and demographic implications for the
Salesian oratory, which was configured as an open educational work “halfway” between
society and the Church. Compulsory schooling, the related prohibition of child labour,
more restricted working hours and growth of wages created the conditions for the
emergence of leisure time, which subsequently paved the way for the many forms of mass
entertainment.

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Leisure time and its implications
Given the growth of literacy, there was a need for low-cost literature aimed at the cultural
level of the majority. A new wave of daily newspapers came into being, addressed to
the lower middle class. These dailies had little interest in high politics but instead told
sensational stories, displayed many photos or other images, and were financed through
advertising. Among them we could name the Daily Mail in England with 1.3 million
copies sold daily, the Petit Parisien with a million copies and the Berliner Morgenpost
selling two hundred thousand copies daily at the beginning of the century. As part of the
same phenomenon, various low-cost entertainment works were sold at railway stations
and by street vendors or printed as serial publications.1
These serial publications captured the minds of the young at the beginning of the
century, spreading the image of exotic locations, such as we find with Emilio Salgari, or
focusing especially on the wild west of Buffalo Bill and Nick Carter. Jules Verne’s works
popularised the modern scientific mentality, Edgar R. Burroughs launched the fantasy
genre for youngsters in the English-speaking world, represented in Italy by the accounts
of Carlo Collodi at the end of the nineteenth century.2 This literature was viewed with
suspicion by religious, socialist and nationalist groups, which often tried to compete
with it through their own productions. It wasn’t just about leisure reading: in addition
to the café chantant, the music halls, there were street theatre, dance halls and clubs,
then came cinema, which quickly took on increasing importance. The early films were
still being projected in music halls, but picture theatres soon came into being and already
by 1911 there were some 3000 of them in Great Britain and 1500 in France.
Together with mass literature and cinema, the new exploding sector was sport
in its many forms, practised both in stadiums and on the streets. Team games were
added to traditional athletics. Among the latter, the first to achieve great success were
rugby and soccer (football). In the beginning they had few rules at all, and were even
banned for their violence. However, starting in the 1870s, they were organised with
1 Cf. H-W. Prahl, Geschichte und Entwicklung der Freizeit, in R. Freericks – D. Brinkmann (eds),
Handbuch Freizeitsoziologie, Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, 3-27; M. Flores, Il XX secolo, Corriere
della Sera, Milan 2004, 97.
2 Cf. S. Lerer, Children’s Literature. A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter, University of Chicago
Press, Chicago 2008; A. Nobile, Letteratura giovanile. Da Pinocchio a Peppa Pig, La Scuola, Brescia
2015.

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official rules and structures, at first local and then international.3 Later, other typically
modern sports linked to advances in engineering, such as cycling and motor racing were
added. The Olympics became the most emblematic event of the growing importance of
organised sports. Pierre de Coubertin, who organised the first of the modern Olympics
in Athens in 1896, was convinced that the strong and virile physical and moral education
imparted in the public schools had been the secret of the prodigious expansion of the
British Empire.4 An important component of mass sport for the world and for youth
imagination was organised support, and this broadened the ways of participating in
sport. In addition, sports organisations were often used as a vehicle for ideology and
political struggle by political movements and other associations, with an ever wider
spectrum of social or religious references.
Mass society and the growth of interest in associations
The concept of the masses was debated throughout the nineteenth century, but
it was only at the end of the century that a true mass society began to take
shape. One of the most notable social changes introduced by the dynamics of mass
society was the new social stratification. Some old trades disappeared and new ones
emerged: mechanic, photographer, typist. The civil servant category broadened with the
increasing competencies of the state in the fields of education, transport, services and
public assistance, so as to become a new class. It would later be called the “white collar”
class, to distinguish them from blue-collar workers.
This “middle” class, on the border between the workers and the upper middle
class, found its own consistency and identity, based on the historical values of the
bourgeoisie: individualism, private property, interest in savings, respect for hierarchy,
and nationalism. Its typological connotation became a frequent theme in literature at
the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.5 The mass of workers did not remain
unchanged either. In fact, it was slowly divided into general labour, skilled workers, and
self-employed workers. Self-employed or at least skilled workers participated to a certain
3 The first is the Rugby Football Union which came into being in England in 1871 and among the most
important in 1904 in Paris was the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) for football.
4 Cf. M. Flores, Il XX secolo, 99.
5 Cf. for example Una vita by I. Svevo, Der Prozess by F. Kafka, Messieurs les ronds-de-cuir by G. Courteline
or Les Dimanches d’un bourgeois de Paris by G. de Maupassant.

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79
extent in the advantages of the economic system of the time and formed the middle class
of society together with public employees.6
Another typical phenomenon of the era was mass political parties and trade unions.
These found an important place in the organisation of public life. The new model of
the party was proposed for the first time by the socialists (and to a lesser extent by
Catholics), based on the framing of large strata of the population through a permanent
structure, articulated through local organisations (sections, federations) and headed by a
single executive centre. The identity of these parties was generally based on membership
of a class (socialists), or a nation (nationalists), or a denomination (Catholics). The
trade unions managed, at the end of the nineteenth century, to resist the pressure of
entrepreneurs and fought for the rights of workers not only in Europe and the United
States, but also in Latin America and Australia.
With regard to the theoretical guidelines for their activities, the trade unions
identified themselves as socialists (with reference to the teachings of Marx and Engels),
Catholics (who referred instead to the Leo XIII’s Encyclical Rerum Novarum), liberals
or conservatives. On the eve of the First World War there were four million union
members in Great Britain, three million in Germany, two million in France and five
hundred thousand in Italy.7
The adaptation of Salesian oratories in the early twentieth century
The Church showed its vitality in the strengthening of social and missionary activity
and, not limiting itself to opposing the secular state, developed a strategy that was
expressed through the work of religious congregations, school publishing, popular
educational publications, ascetic literature, oratories and, last but not least, associations
that responded to the questions of the new generations. Bishops, priests, religious and
militant lay people were concerned with protecting the consciences of young people
from the dangers of the liberal revolution, defending their mentality and customs.8
6 Cf. G. Sabbatucci – V. Vidotto, Il mondo contemporaneo. Dal 1848 a oggi, Laterza, Rome-Bari
2005, 167–171.
7 Ibid., 173–175.
8 Cf. L. Caimi, Il contributo educativo degli oratori e dell’associazionismo giovanile dall’Unità nazionale alla
prima guerra mondiale, in L. Pazzaglia (ed.), Cattolici, educazione e trasformazioni socio-culturali in
Italia tra Otto e Novecento, La Scuola, Brescia 1999, 629–696.

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In the 1880s it could be said that the Salesian oratory was set up as it was at the
beginning: it was an oratory for Sundays and feast days (hence ‘festive’) defined by
the classic combination of catechism and recreation. Education was imparted primarily
through religious instruction and practice, and recreation in the courtyard was intended
to create a joyful and friendly educational environment, performing the important
function of attracting young people. It was in this context that the sodalities, music and
theatre that gave life to the oratory were inserted. It was aimed mainly at young boys or
teenagers from 8-16 years of age.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, while recreation centres of a secular and
liberal or socialist hue were multiplying in number,9 Catholics saw in the oratory an
important educational institution. It proposed an environment that mediated between
the parish and society, first of all because of the possibility of engaging in preventive
action for young people undermined from many sides, and also because of its greater
flexibility compared to the school. If the traditional parish was the territorial and
established form of church community, the oratory instead represented an innovative
outreach locally as well as to the outskirts. It took the form of catechetical, educational
and recreational activities. Its intermediate position guaranteed it a “sacredness” which
was different from that of the parish, yet a “profane nature” different from the world of
political movements, work and duties.10
After the decisive impetus of Rerum Novarum, attention to social issues grew in
the life of the oratory and in tune with this, the purpose of “preparing for life” was
also reinvigorated. This social emphasis, together with the inclusion of sport and the
strengthening of the associative dimension organised into “sections”, influenced the
nature of the Salesian oratory in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Given its
broader educational offering, the oratory shifted from being a weekend affair to a daily
one. The emphasis on preparation for life led to the launching of activities for those
over 18 years of age, who found an approach addressed specifically to them. They were
9 The recreation centres, established by municipal administrations, had a preventive purpose with respect
to the problem of vagrancy of young people (especially during holidays) developing entertainment for
the students of the city’s popular schools with games, gymnastic exercises, singing and music lessons,
readings, theatre, and possibly the tutoring on school subjects. Cf. D. Pela, L’identità politica tra
pubblico e privato, in P. Sorcinelli (ed.), Identikit del Novecento. Conflitti, trasformazioni sociali, stili
di vita, Donzelli, Rome 2004, 180–223.
10 Cf. G. Tassani, L’oratorio, in M. Isnenghi (ed.), I luoghi della memoria. Simboli e miti dell’Italia
unita, Laterza, Rome-Bari 1996, 67–91.

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offered religion classes linked to specific educational activities for integration into society
and work. This was a step up from basic catechism classes.
In addition to the direct influences of the social context, advances in technology
(such as the cinema) enriched the spectrum of recreational activities and catechesis.
It can be said that a well-structured oratory at the end of the 1920s was no longer
characterised just by catechism and recreation. The new approach to a more wholistic
education meant there was a wide range of activities organised into “sections”. Only
with the “Catechetical Crusade” of the 1940s would there be a return to insisting on
the contrast between catechism and other recreational activities. It should be noted that
despite the many developments, the oratory structure had its weaknesses, especially in
terms of personnel and sustainability. We will take this up later.
Guidance from the centre: the Bollettino, congresses and regulations
At the beginning of the 1920s, Fr Barberis, Catechist General, wrote: “Allow me,
however, to express a fear that sometimes disturbs me, thinking of a danger that could
overwhelm our festive oratories. If we are not more careful there is fully the risk of
transforming the festive oratory into a recreation centre of whatever kind, developing
amusements and attractions in it that will constitute its movement and outer life rather
than religious instruction.”11 Obviously this was not a new question and was one that
had earlier been debated in the congresses on the oratories, during the Fifth Cooperators
Congress in 1906, and further highlighted in the Bollettino Salesiano. The balances
between religious education and recreation, being a question of balance, involved an
open and constant task to settle the two tendencies in practice.
Significant for the life and activities of the oratories was the series of congresses on
the oratory in Italy, which brought the Philip Neri, Charles Borromeo and Don Bosco
traditions into dialogue. The second congress in 1902, which took place at Valdocco,
was felt most strongly at the Salesian level. Fr Stefano Trione, who drafted the subjects
dealt with in a Manuale Direttivo, drew his inspiration from the Regolamento written
by Don Bosco as a way of drafting the first three chapters:
1. Organisation and roles within the oratory: rector/director, prefect, catechist and
other roles;
2. Religious education through catechism, sacraments and preaching;
3. Discipline, amusements, music and theatre.
11 G. Barberis, Il direttore spirituale, in ACS 1 (1920) 2, 38.

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The following chapters brought additions and innovations both at the associative
and activity level: sodalities and clubs for young adults as well, mobile libraries, daily
oratories, evening classes, religious classes, provident societies and job placement offices.
The sporting part was more developed among the activities mentioned in the best
practices section: walks/outings, gymnastics, athletics, running, football and dancing
(the latter for female oratories).12 A year later, the third Salesian Cooperators Congress,
reconfirming and propagating the earlier-mentioned congress on the theme of festive
and daily oratories, went beyond the pure combination of catechism and recreation,
pointing out the importance of the general objective of preparation for social life and
the method of assistance before and after school.13
The third and fifth congresses on the oratory (1907, 1911) and the subsequent
catechetical congress in Brescia (1912) focused on catechetical teaching method. The
third oratory congress suggested “light projections” applied to the teaching of catechism,
not so much in terms of an actual religion class, but to attract those living in suburbs of
the big cities where there was no other pastoral activity going on. It was said that these
film projections offered free of charge, or almost free of charge, would succeed in being
integrated within the catechetical mission, and ways were pointed out for making them
fruitful as a teaching tool.14
Worthy of note are the developments in female catechesis promoted with extraordinary
zeal and uncommon organisational ability and innovative approaches by Sr Maddalena
Morano, the Provincial of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Sicily.15 The
Provincial began to organise religion classes, different from catechism classes in that
12 Cf. Manuale direttivo degli Oratorii Festivi e delle Scuole di Religione. Eco del Congresso di tali istituzioni
tenutosi in Torino i giorni 21 e 22 maggio 1902, Scuola tipografica salesiana, S. Benigno Canavese
1903. NB: It should be noted that the acceptance of sports and gymnastics in Catholic educational
institutions was neither straightforward nor peaceful. In addition to the insights in the third chapter cf. L.
Demofonti, Il movimento sportivo cattolico in Italia fra Ottocento e Novecento, in “Studi Storici” 51
(2010) 651-689 and D. Bardelli, Cattolicesimo, ginnastica e sport. Un percorso storico nel rapporto fra
religione e attività motorie, EDUCat, Milan 2012.
13 Cf. P. Braido, Per una storia dell’educazione giovanile nell’oratorio dell’Italia contemporanea. L’esperienza
salesiana, LAS, Rome 2018, 78–79.
14 P. Braido, L’oratorio salesiano in Italia, “luogo” propizio alla catechesi nella stagione dei Congressi
(1888-1915), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 46 (2005) 1, 62.
15 Cf. M.L. Mazzarello, Sulle frontiere dell’educazione. Maddalena Morano in Sicilia (1881-1908), LAS,
Rome 1995, 141–180. To contextualise the “scuole di religione” cf. “Annali di Storia dell’Educazione
e delle Istituzioni scolastiche” 18 (2011) 11-202 and G. Biancardi – U. Gianetto, Storia della
catechesi, LAS, Rome 2016, vol. 4: Il movimento catechistico, 376-399.

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they were addressed to older girls, the Children of Mary, who needed a more in-depth
approach. These classes also spread beyond Sicily and during the social week of the
Donne Cattoliche d’Italia, that was held in 1913 in Turin, the meaningfulness of
the FMA religion classes was underscored by the didactic director of the Union: “A
well-ordered profound work of apologetics, enlightened by historical criticism, sustained
by rigorous logic, nourished by reading and commentary on the Sacred Texts, especially
the Gospel.”16
A significant and authoritative contribution was offered by the Bollettino Salesiano
from 1903 to 1907 by a certain “Don Simplicio”.17 Assuring the reader that he was
developing his topics in accordance with Fr Rua’s wishes,18 the author disseminated his
teachings, which were inspired by both Don Bosco and updating from the congresses.
His stance in defence of social and sports activities was important. In his “Open Letters
to those who loved the young” he demonstrated the usefulness of sport while at the
same time suggesting various rules of practical importance to prevent the damaging
consequences of taking things too far, recommending that sporting activities also have
an instructive nature and that they should not stop people from attending religious
services on Sundays or feast days.19 Don Simplicio did not hesitate to have recourse to
contemporary educationalists, and defended gymnastics, a strong core of sports clubs in
the oratories, stating:
an institution such as gymnastics... a powerful preventive and protective means
of social hygiene, public economy and national prosperity, keeping people
healthy and active and developing them in productive work, be it of brain or
brawn. […] its organisation is extremely vital.20
16 M. Magnocavallo, Quale istruzione religiosa e formazione morale deve avere la donna per essere
buona maestra, in J.G. González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922. Istanze ed
attuazioni in diversi contesti. Acts of the 4th International Convention of the History of Salesian Work
Ciudad de México, 12-18 February 2006, vol. 1, LAS, Rome 2007, 360.
17 The pseudonym hides a prominent personality linked to the General Council, the work of the Congresses
and the Bollettino. In all likelihood it could be Stefano Trione, key player in the work of the Congresses,
or other personalities gravitating around Valdocco and the Bolletino such as Abbondio Anzini, Giovanni
Minguzzi or Angelo Amadei. Cf. Braido, Per una storia dell’educazione giovanile nell’oratorio, 80.
18 D. Simplicio, Gli oratori festivi. Lettera aperta agli amanti della gioventù, in “Bollettino Salesiano”
27 (1903) 1, 12.
19 Cf. La prima giornata (5 giugno). L’adunanza del mattino, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 30 (1906) 7, 201.
20 M. Jerace, Gli sports nella scienza e nell’educazione, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 30 (1906) 12, 364–365.

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Don Simplicio developed a similar line of thought regarding civics. In his reflection
on the oratory in his pages in the Bollettino, he specified that instruction in the oratory
is split into two complementary branches: “religious and civil, although they can be
imparted equally, and very well, together.” Further on he added: “Everything in the
oratory must instruct. Anyone who pretends to restrict teaching to catechism, or to
prohibit advice on good manners being given even in the chapel from time to time,
perhaps after the services, or for example, encourage good behaviour on the streets,
squares, in the workplace, family, with superiors, with companions, with friends, etc.,
would be making a great mistake.”21
The question of balance between religious education and other activities was not the
only dialectic going on in the oratory. The new sporting, cultural and social activities
were sometimes seen as “the new method” and there was a risk of forgetting the heart
of the Salesian tradition by implementing an update that was just “too convenient.” For
his part, Don Simplicio observed that “there are not a few who, despite being filled with
enthusiasm and admiration for this providential work, then lack the necessary virtue
in practice to sacrifice themselves – yes, that’s the word! – the necessary virtue, I say, to
sacrifice themselves for this mission. We know that poor Don Bosco, while at the Oratory
on the lonely fields at Valdocco, would, at the end of the day, return home so exhausted
that he had no strength left to take a bit of nourishment.”22
In discussions around the renewal of oratory life we can see two typical dynamics
at play: the first related to rethinking the theoretical and practical elements in the new
circumstances; while the second, in some contexts, simply tended to neglect the most
demanding aspects of tradition, failing to provide a proper educational tension between
the proposed ideal and the current situation.23
A final aspect described within developments of Salesian education in the oratory is
the tension between a rigid legalistic attitude when it came to updating the regulations
of the oratories and a creative flexible practice in managing the abundant new activities
of the oratories that filled the Bolletino’s columns. Braido evaluates the two updates to
the Regolamento degli oratori in 1906 and 1922 very clearly: “One gets the impression
of a ‘law’ that has hardened into a fundamental immobility unable to keep pace with the
21 D. Simplicio, Gli oratori festivi. Lettera aperta agli amanti della gioventù, in “Bollettino Salesiano”
27 (1903) 12, 355–356.
22 M. Jerace, Gli sports nella scienza e nell’educazione, 364–365.
23 For the description of change management balances cf. the inspiring interpretation by P.M. Senge,
The Fifth Discipline. The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Doubleday, New York 2006,
103-112 and 391-395.

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oratories in general as referred to in the News sections of the Bollettino.”24 He rightly
notes that the text of the new regulations was still tenaciously anchored to the letter of
Don Bosco’s set of regulations and did not seem to respect the richness of living Salesian
experience. The real oratories had gone beyond this point, however still in line with
indications from superiors at the centre, headed by the Rector Major, always positive
with regard to the openings of the congresses he presided over, and encouraging in his
letters, be they circulars or monthly ones.
The concrete situation of the oratories
Despite the grandeur of the congresses, the innovative experiences and model oratories,
the majority of oratories struggled to pursue their mission. The first problem stemmed
from the precarious financial situation. The testimony of the Bollettino Salesiano in 1903
is an eloquent one: “The festive oratory is not an item of income but rather one of
continuous expenditure: and this is why, in various places, when the Salesians were called
to run an oratory and were then left to themselves, they saw themselves being forced to
open hospices and boarding schools, just to make a living.”25 The financial problems
were generally resolved through recourse to benefactors, with the material support of the
institute or with fundraising and lotteries connected with special occasions of oratory
life: feast days, theatrical recitals or concerts.
Financial difficulties were compounded by the lack of suitable premises for the
oratory. The oratory needed well-defined spaces such as the church, the courtyard, the
hall for the theatre and classrooms for catechism and various cultural and recreational
activities. If it was only a festive oratory, then the premises would not be used for the
rest of the week, so they often used spaces shared with boarding school activities; at
times this resulted in tensions. This separation was also symbolised by the division of the
courtyards in Valdocco between students, working boys and oratory boys.
Among so many practical difficulties, the most important, though not the most
urgent challenge was the lack of trained personnel. Even though the problem of the
lack of Salesian personnel was a general feature of the expansion of the Congregation,
it was felt even more in the oratories, since the latter were placed in the background
compared to the boarding schools. One sign of this was a partial absence of Salesians
in the discussion about the oratories, be it the intermediate authorities (provincials and
24 P. Braido, L’oratorio salesiano in Italia (1888-1915), 56.
25 D. Simplicio, Gli oratori festivi. Lettera aperta agli amanti della gioventù, 108.

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rectors) or those at ground level. The most widespread attitude was distrust of everything
that went on in the congresses, summed up in the report on the fifth congress on festive
oratories (1911): “So! The congresses leave a lot to be desired! They always repeat the
usual things; so many promises that just remain a dead letter; so it is useless me getting
involved.”26 Despite the statement by the second congress on the oratories: “The choice
of a suitable director is therefore of utmost importance. Indeed, it can be said that the
success of a festive oratory depends on the ability of its director,”27 while in the houses it
happened that there was no oratory director, or unprepared people were given the job.
We find an echo of this situation in the Bollettino Salesiano criticising the idea that “any
priest is enough to get a festive oratory going.”28
The different responses to the needs of the time increased the complexity of oratory
management and also implied a growth in the number of people involved. Some Salesian
opinion leaders focused on the formation of young Salesians with the aim of preparing
them for the educational tasks of the oratory, using special manuals and practical training
stints in well-organised “model” oratories. Others called into play the potential of the
laity, who with their practical and vital experience could have been more fruitful than
many pedagogical studies.29 In this context we can also mention the reflections on the
subject of personnel in the Salesian oratories dealt with during the Salesian Cooperator
Congresses in the early decades of the twentieth century. All Cooperators were asked to
take responsibility for establishing festive oratories and for their personal, material and
moral support. Highlighted especially was the role of Cooperators in running sports, art
and social groups:
In fact, the work of the Cooperator congresses was connected at various points
with the reflection of the oratory congresses. In the sector for assisting young
people they were called to take a leading role in the festive oratories, using
many effective ways: culture groups, social conversations, vocational classes,
Labour secretariats and employment offices, social security registration offices,
education on work legislation, occupational hygiene conferences, popular
26 A. Anzini, Gli Oratorî Festivi, in P. Braido, L’oratorio salesiano in Italia (1888-1915), 84.
27 Manuale direttivo degli Oratorii Festivi e delle Scuole di Religione. Echo of the Congress of these institutions
held in Turin on 21 and 22 May 1902, Scuola Tipografica Salesiana, S. Benigno Canavese 1903, 30.
28 A. Brugnoli, Per la salvezza della gioventù: Occorre un provvedimento radicale, in “Bollettino Salesiano”
40 (1916) 6, 165.
29 Cf. G. Chiosso, Educazione e pedagogia nelle pagine del «Bollettino salesiano» d’inizio Novecento,
in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 130.

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workers’ insurance, etc. Following was the list of attitudes and behaviours
demanded by long tradition of Cooperators who wanted to promote the
foundation of religion classes and festive oratories and work in them.30
The diversity of religious and social contexts profoundly conditioned the real
situation of the oratories. The presence or otherwise of a culturally consolidated “oratory
tradition” in a given context significantly influenced the numbers involved, which in
turn influenced the concrete choices and educational methods adopted. Some oratories
had a small number of young people, while in others there were thousands enrolled. For
example, in 1913, two thousand enrolments were recorded at the oratory at Valdocco,
eight hundred of them regularly involved in the many activities.31 In other places in Italy,
especially in the south, the number of youngsters was around the hundred mark.32
The differences between a traditionally Christian cultural context and a mission ad
gentes was even more of an influence, and so, for example, in La Paz, Bolivia, there were a
thousand oratory members, while in Japan Fr Cimatti characterised the oratory situation
in the 1930s as being similar to Don Bosco’s first oratory, because it was the curious
who came first, then there would be a stable group of youngsters and the oratory would
run normally, all apparently very promising, until one fine day the oratory would be
deserted.33
Development and tensions around Salesian groups
The innovative effort to find ways to attract and keep young people in the oratory
developed principally in the direction of new activities organised in “sections”, with a
certain autonomy in the way they were managed. The old games of the mid-nineteenth
century did not always attract, and already during Don Bosco’s lifetime, the Salesians
at Valdocco felt the need to look for new recreational approaches.34 Some traditional
30 P. Braido, L’oratorio salesiano vivo in un decennio drammatico (1913-1922), in “Ricerche Storiche
Salesiane” 47 (2005) 2, 258–259.
31 Cf. Ibid., 218.
32 Cf. F. Casella, Il Mezzogiorno d’Italia e le istituzioni educative salesiane. Richieste e Fondazioni (1879-1922)
Fonti per lo studio, LAS, Rome 2000.
33 Cf. V. Cimatti, Le difficoltà per l’azione missionaria in Giappone, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 56 (1932)
7, 213–215;
34 Cf. J.M. Prellezo, Valdocco nell’Ottocento tra reale ed ideale (1866-1889). Documenti e testimonianze,
LAS, Rome 1992, 254.

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activities like theatre, music, evening classes and sodalities were further developed, and
other new ones, like organised sport, scouting and social activities, sought their place in
the life of the Salesian oratory of the time. In addition to seeing new activities, the way
they were organised was interesting as it moved in the direction of new ways of coming
together – a more modern, articulated, mass approach.
The wide range of activities and their animation within the Salesian oratory was
already consolidated and traditionally linked with the sodality structure. In the early
twentieth century, however, the preferred term was “association” or “youth group”. The
scope of action and the number of associations expanded, and alongside the St Aloysius,
St Joseph, Blessed Sacrament, Altar Boys, Immaculate Conception and Guardian Angel
groups (sodalities), whose purpose was to enliven a section or aspect of oratory life, other
groups were added concerned with the social, self-expression or sports dimensions. The
typical group-sodality activities were connected to formation opportunities, which in
practice were generally a regular conference from the person in charge of the oratory, the
rector or some local authority. In some places the formative aspect of associative life was
emphasised by the whole group attending Mass, preceded by confessions. An important
part of the life of these groups was the yearly outing, discussions on various topics, the
patronal feast, and occasionally even their own little magazine.
A particular category involved groups with no characteristic activity that arose
as a response to the need to come together, sometimes reinforced by the British
tradition of coming together in clubs. Past Pupils associations also arose during this
period, important for accompanying members in their transition to social life with
further educational impact. Individual Past Pupils associations, which came about
spontaneously, were then organised into an international federation through the first set
of statutes in 1911 under Philip Rinaldi’s coordination.
Sports sections began entering Salesian oratories at the beginning of the twentieth
century. Athletics, gymnastics, cycling were the first sports to be practised on oratory
soil. Already in 1905 the first Catholic Sports Conference was organised in Italy and the
Bollettino spoke about it, developing the aspect of the link between sport and education
of the spirit and of virtue. The address by Pope Pius X to participants was most eloquent,
containing so many elements of convergence with Salesian education:
Looking at you I feel the need to tell you that I love you, and you should see me
not just as a father, but as a brother and tender friend. And with these sentiments
I not only approve of all your works in Catholic Action, but I heartily admire and
bless all your games and pastimes, gymnastics, cycling, mountaineering, boating,

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running, walking, competitions and academies to which you dedicate yourself;
provided that the physical exercises of the body admirably influence the exercises
of the spirit; because these entertainments, while requiring work, will take you
away from idleness, which is the father of vices; and just so long as ultimately,
these friendly competitions are an image in us of how we emulate each other in
practising virtue.35
In 1909, the fourth congress on the oratories gave consideration to the sections with
special reference to the sports section. The congress expressed its satisfaction at the birth
of the vast and flourishing Federation of Italian Catholic Sports Associations (FASCI).
In the interventions that followed there was a clear effort by participants to connect the
educational and recreational activities and to keep the direction of the oratory and the
individual sections in harmony. Here we list some of the considerations of the congress:
1. Sections were not an end in themselves, but just an effective way to make older youth
more fond of the oratory;
2. Let the informative spirit of the sections be the same as the oratory’s;
3. The special aim of the sections should be to form and strengthen young people in
Christian life, and not to abandon them at a time when they were in greater need of
assistance;
4. The main effort of all the oratory activities should be aimed at making the youngsters
ever more desirous of living a Christian life;
5. Let the fulfilment of all religious duties in the oratory be required, while easily
granting exceptions for good reasons;
6. At least once a month see that young people in the sections can attend appropriate
conferences and makes use of the sacraments on the main feast days during the year;
7. Absolutely everyone is expected to show outward good behaviour in moral and
religious terms;
8. Emulation is a very strong impetus to the unity and progress that is each sections
proper and particular aim; and that a general and unique aim is a powerful means of
removing division, shadows and consequent debacles;
9. Let all sections be entirely and absolutely dependent on those who run the oratory, so
that everyone’s work is effective and in agreement;
35 P. Pericoli, Il 1° Convegno Sportivo Cattolico Italiano, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 29 (1905) 11, 326–328.

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10. Let the executive group of the individual sections (essential to their activities and
development) in the person of their respective presidents, also be council members of
the management group;
11. Let all sections have the same set of regulations, subject to special provisions for the
life and development peculiar to each section.36
Scouting began to have a particular place in Salesian oratories in the second decade
of the twentieth century.37 Italy was among the first of the countries to welcome this
new educational method. But scouting in Italy was not exempt from some problematic
interpretations: a tendency to militarism, a greater attention to the masses rather than
to the individual and above all the inclination to a lack of a religious emphasis. The idea
of a movement open to any religion was interpreted as the exclusion of specific religious
education, and so in 1916 the Association of Italian Catholic Scouts (ASCI) came into
being, aiming to give scouting a Catholic stamp of its own. A similar situation was faced
in Argentina where Fr Giuseppe Vespignani very successfully founded the Exploradores
de don Bosco in 1915.38
Salesians and the First World War
The British Empire was still the military superpower in the political arena, dominating
a quarter of the earth’s surface and comprising a fifth of the world’s population. But the
Victorian age of colonial successes and the politics of isolation were over and another
chapter of its history was beginning. Queen Victoria, whose reign began in 1838, died
in 1901, and a year later the conservative Salisbury government that had led the country
for long years without substantial opposition also came to an end. As a sign of the
changing times, in 1906 a Labour Party entered the House of Commons for the first
time, an expression of reformist socialism close to the trade union movement, while
36 Uffizio sotto-agenzia per gl’interessi giovanili economico-sociali, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 33 (1909) 12,
365–366.
37 Scouting had Sir Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941) as its founder. Baden-Powell, a colonel in the
British army, came up with the idea of using boys’ innate tendency towards adventure for educational
purposes. He wrote the publication Aids to Scouting for Man, which was very successful among boys.
After the exciting experience of the experimental camp on Brownsea Island in August 1907, he wrote
a second book entitled Scouting for Boys, an educational resource aimed at English youth.
38 S. Negrotti, Los exploradores argentinos de don Bosco: orígenes y pedagogía de una experiencia juvenil
salesiana argentina, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 27–50.

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clearly distancing itself from the revolutionary socialism of the communists. And so, in
the years that followed, a number of social reforms were put in place that diminished
some exaggerated expressions of capitalism. Meanwhile, with the spread of the second
industrial revolution, the British economy lost its position of supremacy, undergoing
growing competition from the United States, Germany and France. In this situation
of economic and political competition, Great Britain signed the Entente Cordiale with
France in 1904 which really masked an alliance beneath the terms of their “warm
agreement”, one that was later also extended to Russia.
Central Europe, the competing counterpart, was made up of Germany and the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. Wanting to build a new empire, Germany, which had only
recently arrived at territorial unity once more, found itself necessarily in an antagonistic
position compared to the other imperial powers that had already divided up the globe,
and the main theme of its policy was known as Weltpolitik. In the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, under the lengthy governance of Franz Josef, the scenario could be described
as being ad intra. Economic and cultural development in the centres and the vitality of
social democratic and Christian-socialist parties were at odds with the immobility of the
political system and with the persistence of the traditional social structures of the peasant
province. The main problem of the empire, however, was national conflicts. The Slavic
peoples, sacrificed in the Austro-Hungarian equalisation, suffered respectively from
increasing Germanisation (Austria) or Magyarisation (Hungary). The internal situation
would lead to the emergence of various nationalist movements involving several areas of
tension, particularly in the Balkans, where the spark of the First World War would be
ignited in the summer of 1914.39
At the beginning, the Great War was seen by the younger generations as the most
popular war of all time. Young writers of the time were enthusiastic about it: Charles
Péguy wrote that he couldn’t wait to go to the Front, Ernst Jünger spoke of a sacred
moment, Rupert Brook thought that war was a splendid emotion beyond compare. The
war also engaged the enthusiasm of youth movements that had risen at the beginning
of the century, like, for example, the scouts and the Wandervögel in Germany.40 Later,
Péguy would die during fighting in 1914, Brook in 1915 and slowly, young people’s
emotional attitude to the war changed. In the winter of the third year of the war, its end
not yet in sight, the emotions changed radically and disappointed youth would then be
the so-called “lost generation.” At the end of the war, after four years of violence and
39 Cf. G. Sabbatucci – V. Vidotto, Il mondo contemporaneo. Dal 1848 a oggi, 198–202.
40 Youth organisation similar to Baden-Powell’s scouts, founded in Germany in 1896.

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states economically exhausted, there were nine million victims, almost all between the
ages of twenty and thirty. In addition to these and the forty million deaths from the
Spanish flu, general disillusionment and material damage undermined the credibility of
the positivist idea of an automatic scientific and social progress.
Due mainly to the barbarism and moral degradation of the war, the image of
Western powers as bearers of culture and civilisation around the world became highly
problematic. Winston Churchill, who had had experience both on the battlefield and
in government during the war, wrote: “The mighty educated states involved conceived,
not without reason, that their very existence was at stake [...] Every outrage against
humanity or international law was repaid by reprisals – often of a greater scale and of
longer duration [...] The fighting strength of armies was limited only by the manhood of
their countries.”41 There were those who, in this era, saw the end of the West, identifying
themselves with the title of the famous book by Oswald Spengler published in 1918.
The First World War was a time of trial for the Salesians too. A little less than half of
the Congregation was called up, many colleges were requisitioned for military or hospital
needs, the need was pressing to assist a growing number of refugees, children of the
military and orphans; at the same time, the flow of funding from benefactors decreased
substantially. There was soon an awareness of painful cases in which some confreres had
been forced to attack each other.42 Moved by a desire to be close to confreres and to
encourage them, from 1916 the Rector Major, Fr Paul Albera, wrote a monthly letter
to all Salesians under arms. After the war, in addition to material damage, the effects on
military confreres were especially noticeable. After being in the barracks and trenches
in a “life so opposite to the one which, by religious vocation […] they were dedicated, it
would be difficult for them to resume their past habits without further ado.”43 Fr Ceria
noted this in general terms in his Annali della Società Salesiana and presented some
provisions of the General Council to address the situation. At the level of mentality,
one can speculate on the repercussions not so much on pedagogical thinking as on
organisation, discipline, assistance, and religious life.
41 P. Johnson, Modern Times. The World from the Twenties to the Nineties, Harper Collins, New
York 1991, 13–14. Italics are ours to give importance to the expression “the mighty educated States”.
Educated could mean ‘civilised’ here as well.
42 Cf. M. Wirth, Da Don Bosco ai nostri giorni. Tra storia e nuove sfide (1815-2000), LAS, Rome 2000,
312–313.
43 E. Ceria, Annali della Società Salesiana, vol. 4: Il rettorato di don Paolo Albera 1910-1921, SEI, Turin
1951, 71.

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The post-war period and the advent of fascism
On a political and cultural level, the war had considerable consequences that would bring
humanity into a different world from the previous one – a “short century” marked by
modern ideologies.44 The political order created at the Congress of Vienna, that had
functioned for a century in complex arrangements, was destroyed. The catalyst effect,
comparable in importance to the French Revolution, brought nationalism to extreme
positions, thus destabilising the balance within the old monarchies, especially in Central
Europe. This situation created space for utopian ideologies of a nationalistic and Marxist
type which, in the postwar period, seemed to be the most plausible solutions to the
problems of the moment.
The second consequence of the war, which favoured the rise of totalitarian regimes,
was the expansion of the power of the state and thus its potential for control and
repression. In times of war, with Germany in the lead as a paradigm, the state penetrated
strongly into many areas of the economy, controlled banking activities, regulated
prices. Furthermore, laws restricting personal liberty came into force. The new postwar
nationalist regimes were often convinced that they did not have to be tolerant like the
old monarchies. The combination of transcendental utopias and a strong state control
apparatus brought the world to the threshold of a new era.
The growing use of political Manichaeism, with its clear marking between good and
evil, was the third effect of the socio-cultural situation created after the war. Universal
suffrage (especially for men after the war) combined with literacy allowed and made it
necessary to pass political ideas to the masses, who could read and write but were far
from understanding the complex balances of political life. For this reason, a Manichean
political strategy became important. Through leaflets, posters and pamphlets this
strategy adopted simplifications of the various social and political theories, indicating
who the good and bad guys were. In electoral battles, politicians relied on simple
slogans that summarised the discontent and desires of the disillusioned masses. Electoral
convergences were generally achieved through a simple (but all-encompassing) political
text interpreted by a charismatic personality who mobilised the masses.45 The Italian
44 Cf. E. J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991, Michael Joseph,
London 1994
45 Cf. Johnson, Modern Times. The World from the Twenties to the Nineties, 21–48; Z. Brzezinski, Out
of Control. Global Turmoil on the Eve of the 21st Century, Simon & Schuster, New York 1995.

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political situation, which is important for its influences on Salesian education, can be
located in this context.
Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922 and gradually suggested that the aim in the
educational arena was to form the new fascist man. Ideals of heroism, derring-do and
aestheticism were combined with an anti-bourgeois attitude which in concrete terms
became a military type of man. In the early period when the totalitarian regime was
being established, the new man identified in ideal terms with Il Duce, Italy’s spiritual
and political guide. Mussolini did everything to create the myth of his personality: he
presented himself as the omnipotent guide, capable of moving from “big things”, such
as international affairs, to “little things” that worried poor people. Images of a tireless
worker, an aviator or a racing driver merged into a sort of superman capable of excelling
in all human and spiritual activities.46
The fascist vision determined some of the choices of Giovanni Gentile’s school
reform of 1923. Although described by Il Duce as the “most fascist of reforms”, which
managed to strongly influence teaching, the fascists realised they needed a non-scholastic
platform in which attitudes and new rules of behaviour could be practically tested. The
solution was found in the fascist youth association called the Opera Nazionale Balilla,
intended as “the most grandiose attempt at state education of youth that history can
recall.”47 The Balilla groups grew rapidly, and after being around for four years, in the
last year of Fr Philip Rinaldi’s term of office they had more than two million members.
Obviously, very strong and growing tension arose between the Balilla, Catholic
Action (AC) and traditional Salesian forms of association like the sodalities. Salesian
general government developed a core of reflections addressing the practical problems of
associations, implementing measures of non-conflict with other associations. Catholic
Action was favoured by the enthusiastic interest of Pius XI, who emphasised the need
for greater coordination between it and the youth associations that had flourished over
a long period in many religious institutes with similar apostolic aims. The triangulation
between the Balilla, Catholic Action and the Salesian sodalities was not easy to balance
and took up part of the letters from the Rector Major, Philip Rinaldi. At the level of the
congresses it was the topic at the meeting of directors of festive oratories in 1927, during
46 Cf. S. Oni, I salesiani e l’educazione dei giovani, in Piemonte, durante il periodo del fascismo, in S.
Zimniak – G. Loparco (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa negli anni difficili del XX secolo,
Acts of the European Seminar on the History of the Salesian Work Krakow 31 October - 4 November
2007, LAS, Rome 2008, 147–148.
47 V. Meletti, Civiltà fascista. Per le scuole complementari e di avviamento al lavoro, per i maestri e per
il popolo (1929), La Nuova Italia, Venice 1941, 42.

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the discussion on youth groups, which were meant to somehow implement the Statutes
of Catholic Action.48
The golden age of colonialism and Salesian missions
The political consciousness of the big countries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries was characterised by a mentality that might well be called “imperial”.49 The
phenomenon of colonialism that divided the world between powers and colonies was
at its peak. Two great regions of the world were, in practice, totally divided up: Africa
and the Pacific. Colonialism, however, was a complex and contradictory phenomenon,
the fragility of which would manifest itself in the period around the Second World War.
One of its most important effects stemmed from its links with growing nationalism:
the whole colonial public imagination followed, with exhibitions, pompous audiences,
exotic uniforms, expressions such as Poincaré’s “nation of 100 million”, Kipling’s British
“imperial conscience” and, above all, the colourful maps.50
The interests of the individual country were always at the heart of it, though it did
not see itself as isolated from the rest of the world, but presented itself as the heart
of an empire in growing competition with other empires. This created competition,
developing economic relationships on an increasingly global scale and accentuating the
gap between the empire and the periphery: “In 1880 we are therefore dealing not with a
single world, but with two sectors combined together in a global system: developed and
those lagging behind, dominant and dependent, rich and poor.”51
Inequality and interdependence grew especially in the first half of the twentieth
century. In 1880 there were already rich and poor regions, but the gap did not seem
unbridgeable: the difference, in terms of wealth, between the two worlds was 1 to 1.8,
while in the years preceding the First World War it had already increased to a value of 1 to
3 and in the mid-twentieth century there was already a disproportion of 1 to 5. The main
cause of the gap was the use of technology which, in addition to economic influences,
also had a political impact. Weapons inferiority had tilted the odds in favour of the First
48 Cf. P. Braido, L’oratorio salesiano in Italia e la catechesi in un contesto socio-politico inedito (1922-1943),
in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 48 (2006) 1, 53.
49 M. Flores, Il XX secolo, 104.
50 Cf. Johnson, Modern Times, 138–175.
51 E.J. Hobsbawm, L’età degli imperi: 1875-1914, Corriere della Sera, Milan 2004, 23.

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World.52 Obviously, the dynamics of colonialism and nationalism also influenced the
development of the Salesian missions, especially during the pontificate of Pius XI, who
cherished the missions entrusted to the promotional work of Cardinal Van Rossum, a
capable organiser of Propaganda Fide.
Birth of the Salesian approach to the missions in Latin America
The Salesian approach to missions as a planned enterprise came into being at least a
decade before missionary expeditions to Latin America. Don Bosco found himself very
much in tune with Bishop Daniel Comboni, a missionary in Africa, who visited the
Oratory in Valdocco in 1864 and made a deep impression, arousing admiration for his
work.53 The Comboni approach consisted in establishing many institutes for boys and
girls, rightly located in areas not far from missionary regions yet still on the border of
civilisation for security reasons. These institutes had to accept indigenous young people
with the aim of educating them in the Catholic religion and in so-called “Christian
civilisation”. These pupils were then to be bearers of faith and civilisation in distant
mission regions. Don Bosco’s harmony with Daniel Comboni was based on the main
role of education and mission to poor young people. It could be said that Don Bosco
simply imitated the Comboni approach and made it his own. But in the manuscript
La Patagonia e le Terre Australi del Continente Americano [pel] Sac. Giovanni Bosco,
discovered only in 1983, Don Bosco spoke of a “new approach”, different from those
used by other congregations.54 In this text he says:
It consists in opening colleges, houses of education, shelters, orphanages on the
borders of these countries and thus attracting young people, and through the
education of the children opening up a way to talk about religion with their
parents. This can happen in two ways: either it is the parents, because of the
natural instinct that leads to being benevolent to those who treat their children
with kindness, or, moreover, that little by little, growing up as well educated
children, it is they themselves who go to bring the good news to those of
52 Ibid., 22–23.
53 Cf. G. B. Lemoyne, Memorie biografiche di san Giovanni Bosco, vol. VII, Turin, SEI, 1948, 702–703.
54 Cf. J. Borrego, La Patagonia e le terre australi del continente americano [pel] sac. Giovanni Bosco.
Introducción por Jesús Borrego, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 13 (1988) 7, 255–442.

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their own tribe, who willingly accept the word of God proclaimed by such
preachers.55
The novelty of Don Bosco’s missionary approach is the use of education which
is both direct (“opening up the way to talk about religion with the parents”) and
charismatic (“treating with kindness”) and not just using education in an indirect
way, expecting the fruits in the following decades.56 Education in Salesian style, then,
was the heart of Don Bosco’s missionary approach, and paradoxically it was precisely
“kindness” that was challenged in the first ten difficult years of the mission in Argentina.
Fr Vespignani described that era thus: “The Salesians were few, new, inexperienced, and
knew neither the language nor the customs of the country; unrest among the artisans
grew, and in spite of the use of all the means of religion and piety, they drove us to
take measures, sometimes separating them from the others, depriving them of food,
and sometimes there were blows and slaps, and the pupils were shut up in isolation,
etc.”57 Don Bosco insisted on the central features of the Salesian method, writing to Fr
Costamagna:
So, I would like to give a sermon or better a conference on the Salesian spirit
that should animate and guide our actions and everything we say. The preventive
system is our own. Never harsh punishments; never humiliating words, no severe
reprimands in the presence of others. But let the word kindness, charity, patience
resound in classes. Never biting words, never hard or even slight blows. Make
use of negative punishments, and always in such a way that those who are
warned become our friends more than before, and never leave us disheartened
[...] Gentleness in speaking, in acting, in warning wins over everything and
everyone.58
55 Ibid., 413–414.
56 In Fr Barberis’ Chronicles we find several hints about the method of work in the missions. In some of
them, Don Bosco expresses his perplexity about the effectiveness of the Comboni method: “Bishop
Comboni is now trying to do the same for the centre of Africa, but he is on his own. Many times those
who are entrusted with the task of educating young people for this purpose do not have the method,
do not have the true spirit; at other times he is incapable, and yet he has to pass on his work to others”,
in Cronachette di Barberis. Quaderno 8, in ASC A0000108, 84.
57 J. Vespignani, Memorandum de formación salesiana para los profesos temporáneos, in L’educazione
salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 82.
58 G. Bosco, Tre lettere a salesiani in America, in P. Braido (ed.), Don Bosco educatore. Scritti e testimonianze,
LAS, Rome 1992, 448–449.

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According to witnesses, when Don Bosco’s letter was read out during the retreat it
had the desired effect. Some even took a fourth vow of fidelity to the Salesian pedagogical
ideal and promised never to use corporal punishment, no matter how serious the fault
might be.59
Development of the missionary approach after the First World War
The period of the first postwar period can be considered the classic period of Salesian
missionary expansion. This is based not only on the number of missionaries sent
and the missions they took up, which grew especially between 1923-39, but the
approach of evangelisation through education remains classic. Employing Auffray’s
felicitous expression, the missionaries, faithful to Salesian tradition “aimed straight at
the young.”60 To connect with young people, missionaries strove to create friendly
relationships using games, entertainment, and music. This was true of oratories as well as
schools, hospices, parishes and mission stations. After a while the Salesian missionaries
generally found themselves surrounded by a population that loved them and which gave
rise to a nucleus of young Christians.61
The activities of evangelisation and catechesis in the Salesian missions were
accompanied almost everywhere by school activities. Clearly, the contexts, needs and
models were different. Summing things up, it could be said that the Salesians adopted
three models of missionary approach: the model of the boarding houses, the model of
the reductions and the model of missionary work in the villages.
The first model was of Comboni inspiration and reflected the typical Salesian work
in the era when boarding schools were developing. In Patagonia, a typical region for
this approach, the Salesians from the 1880s onwards created a network of schools in
which indigenous youth were formed and who, upon returning to their villages, would
go on to live their culture in a Christian sense.62 The choice was also motivated by the
initial hostility of the indigenous people towards the settlers, as reported by Fr Giovanni
Cagliero, who prevented another type of approach. The boarding schools in Patagonia
aimed their educational attention at areas neglected by the state schools: students of the
working class, cilenos and indios. The thirty or so Salesian schools (SDB and FMA) in
Patagonia by 1917 had more enrolments than the state schools. This fact strengthened
59 Cf. C. Bruno, Los Salesianos y las Hijas de María Auxiliadora en la Argentina, vol. 1, Instituto
Salesiano de Artes Gráficas, Buenos Aires 1981, 154–155.
60 A. Auffray, Les missions salésiennes, Oeuvres et Missions Don Bosco, Lyon – Fontanières, 1936, 14.
61 Cf. Wirth, Da Don Bosco ai nostri giorni, 378–379.
62 Cf. Borrego, La Patagonia e le terre australi del continente americano [pel] sac. Giovanni Bosco, 413–414.

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competitive tension with the Argentine state, which saw the work of the Salesians as
a serious danger to the formation of a national consciousness in the territory annexed
only in 1879.63 A similar boarding school model was adopted in the Belgian Congo, and
the Amazon, under the leadership of Pietro Massa, chose this model to approach the
indigenous people.64
The choice of mission education in the reducciones65 was made for the first time
by Salesian Giuseppe Fagnano in Tierra del Fuego, in the Candelaria mission and on
Dawson Island, and was also adopted in the Mato Grosso in the missions among the
Bororo which began in 1896. Education took place in two stages: first the indigenous
people were drawn to civil and Christian life by means of their children, who were more
easily educated, and then they were introduced to civilised life by means of productive
work: arts, crafts, among which sheep-herding and other agricultural activities emerged.
Later the missionaries thought about setting up Western-style villages and in each village
they tried to establish an elementary school whose teachers were chosen from among the
indigenous people themselves.66
The third model for organising missionary activities was itinerant work in the
villages. Typical regions for this missionary approach were North-east India and
Thailand. Almost always the Salesians began their work by founding or restructuring
village schools – these were elementary schools for day students and vocational/technical
or agricultural centres with both boarders and day students. The motivation was clear:
give adequate education to the Catholic youth of the mission. They did not have
sufficient means to attend schools in the city because either they were too far away or the
parents preferred their children to attend a Catholic school. From the very beginning it
was common for non-Christian students to be admitted to Salesian schools.
63 Cf. M.A. Nicoletti, La polémica en torno a la educación salesiana y la educación estatal en la Patagonia
(1880-1920), in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 51–65.
64 Cf. A. Ferreira da Silva, La missione salesiana tra gli indigeni del Mato Grosso nelle lettere di don
Michele Rua (1892-1909), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 12 (1993) 22, 47–48.
65 The reductions, following the Jesuit model of the 17th century, were small nuclei of citizens created
to induce the natives to abandon nomadic life and settle down in a stable way in a place. The small
communities organised by missionaries and aimed at the material, social and spiritual promotion of
indigenous peoples.
66 Cf. A. Ferreira da Silva, La missione salesiana tra gli indigeni del Mato Grosso, 48.

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Efforts at inculturation
An important element of the Salesian missionary approach developed in this period
was the greater sensitivity to inculturation. This fact could be connected with the
development of ethnological studies and with the growing intercultural experience at the
level of the Congregation, which by now was operating in very diverse contexts: tribes
in the Amazon, the Arab world, the Congo, India, China, Japan or Thailand.
A first step in the direction of inculturation was to learn the language, as speaking
the local language was necessary for catechesis. In the early period, however, language
was seen more as merely a tool, almost never accompanied by the effort to penetrate
deeply into the local culture. A rare exception was Miguel Allioni’s ethnographic work
on the culture of the Shuar, which, however, soon ended due to his untimely death at
only thirty years of age. The Shuar culture, based on freedom, independence, polygamy
and revenge, was too different from the expectations of the missionaries, who until now
had only encountered tribes in existential difficulties under the pressure of the migratory
flows of settlers. The diversity and initial failures of the mission necessitated the study of
such a diverse and resilient culture.67
Ethnographic studies dating back to the first postwar period were carried out by Fr
Antonio Colbacchini and Fr Cesare Albisetti on the Bororo and by Fr Luigi Cocco on
the Yanomani.68 The Enciclopédia Bororo by Fr Albisetti involves four volumes with an
etymological dictionary, grammar, legends, proper names, songs and traditions. Thus
also the tribes of the Rio Negro, especially the Tucano, were the subject of numerous
Salesian publications.69 Fr Giaccaria prepared the grammar of the Awen dialect of
the Xavantes. Many efforts to understand the culture of the indigenous peoples arose
precisely in this period, but the numerous publications were often printed in later
periods.70 Cultural effort by Salesians also took place in the field of natural sciences
and technology: the construction of meteorological observatories, irrigation channels,
67 Cf. J. Botasso, Los salesianos y la educación de los Shuar 1893-1920. Mirando más allá de los fracasos
y los éxitos, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 237–249.
68 Cf. C. Albisetti – O. M. Ravagnan, Tradução/Translation a Aldeia Bororo, in “Perspectivas” (1992),
145–157. The studies were also recognised and respected by Claude Lévi Strauss and Jacques Lizot,
Cf. M. Bongianni, Don Bosco nel mondo, Direzione generale Opere Don Bosco, Rome 1988, vol. 2,
338–339.
69 Cf. A. Giacone, Trentacinque anni fra le tribù del Rio Uapés. Diari e Memorie 1, LAS, Rome 1976,
225–229.
70 Cf. R. Farina, Contributi scientifici delle missioni salesiane del Brasile, in C. Semeraro (ed.), Don
Bosco e Brasilia. Profezia, realtà sociale e diritto, Cedam, Padua 1990, 154–160.

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agricultural machinery was accompanied by the production of geographical maps and
numerous photographs of the mission territories.
The cultural sensitivity of the missionaries in the colonies (e.g. Congo and India)
was directed more to improving their education than to studying local culture and
consequent ethnographic and linguistic production. For example, Belgian missionaries
in the Congo were trying to get into the mindset of Congolese children so they
could educate them in the way that was most natural to them. Thus, education was
characterised by the greater value placed on practical intelligence and trying instead to be
more patient and understanding during theoretical exercises. The students had an innate
tendency to freedom and family spirit, in contrast to a disciplinary system of distance
between superiors and students that was typical of the boarding school. The missionaries
sought to appreciate the values and sensibilities of the Congolese in education, such as
the sense of the sacred and piety, the value of rituals, imagination, interest in stories,
the profound wisdom of local proverbs and, last but not least, a very strong sense of
solidarity and fellowship.71 In India it was precisely education that allowed the Salesians
to overcome the divisions that existed in religion and in the caste system.
These years of Salesian presence have left an indelible imprint on the educational
field. It is rather through the service of education than through direct
evangelisation, that it has been possible to penetrate the barriers of caste and
creed and implant Christian values. Through an effective application of Don
Bosco’s educational system, the Salesians were able to carry out the “conversion
of hearts” rather than the “conversion of water”.72
In missionary work in north-east India the missionaries, under the guidance of
Archbishop Mathias, managed to penetrate more into local culture. Speaking the local
language, Fr Vendrame, whom Mathias called “our Francis Xavier”, tried to be close to
the people with house-to-house visits, founded women’s apostolic groups (important
in the matrilineal society of the Khasi), used the means of social communication – he
brought a projector with him to show catechetical films – founded groups of catechists
71 Cf. M. Verhulst, L’éducation des Salésiens au Congo Belge de 1912 a 1925. 13 ans de recherche et
d’expérimentation, in J. G. González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1,
LAS, Rome 2007, 447–466.
72 M. Kapplikunnel, Their life for youth. History and Relevance of the Early Salesian Presence in India
(Tanjore and Mylapore, 1906-1928), Kristu Jyoti Publications, Bangalore 1989, 99.

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in the festive oratories of the villages, etc.73 In East Asia, an exemplary commitment to
inculturation was embodied in Fr Vincenzo Cimatti’s efforts to approach the Japanese
mentality. In a letter in 1931 he wrote:
the more we love them, the more we will make ourselves similar to them in
every way, which in my opinion has not yet been achieved by past and present
missionaries, nor by any of the foreign congregations, and if this is not done, I
am certain that the conversion of Japan will be many centuries away [...] But it is
certain that as long as our spirit is not Japanese, we will not succeed in converting
Japan.74
In concrete terms, living the Salesian method of education in Japan meant for him
a personal and loving witness to the values proposed. This demonstrated an active
attention to the poor made concrete through founding Salesian Conferences of St
Vincent de Paul and later, the mission of the Sisters of Miyazaki, preferring one-on-one
relationships when working with large numbers, and setting up flexible educational
structures. The particular educational style was accompanied by real examples of
insertion into popular culture through a translation of the Gospel into current language,
something Fr Margiaria did as early as 1930, by a collection of six volumes of Catholic
dramas in Japanese, and above all through music. More than a thousand concerts made
Salesian work known, and music was the platform of inculturation typical of Fr Cimatti,
who produced about four hundred musical compositions in Japanese.75
New kinds of Salesian presence
During Don Bosco’s lifetime, not a single correctional work was opened, but it is
interesting to follow discussions on this topic. In 1885, the people in charge of a “house
of correction” in Madrid offered the Salesians the opportunity to run the house. The
proposal was discussed several times in the General Council and in the end the proposal
to change the “correctional” identity, building a healthy environment and only then
73 Cf. A Journey with the young. A saga of Education, Evangelization and Empowerment. Don Bosco India
Centenary 1906 – 2006, Salesian Provincial Conference of South Asia, New Delhi 2006, 245.
74 V. Cimatti, Lettere di un missionario, ed. A. Crevacore, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1976, 84.
75 Cf. G. Fedrigotti, Il Sistema preventivo di Don Bosco nell’interpretazione di Vincenzo Cimatti (1879-1965),
LAS, Rome 2003, 135–152.

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integrating boys who had already been sentenced, had no response from the Madrid side
and the issue was closed.76
Another step in the direction of “correctional” works was taken later in Patagonia.
The President of Argentina, in agreement with Bishop Cagliero, issued a decree in 1894
in which he decided to entrust juvenile delinquents in southern Patagonia to the custody
of the Salesians and the FMA in the absence of prisons or other suitable facilities in the
territory. The FMA concluded this experience after a decade of work, for disciplinary
reasons, rebellion and other setbacks.77
Instead in Europe, in 1901 a correctional-style house was opened in Ljubljana. This
first Salesian house in Slovenia was called the “Institute of St Francis de Sales” and offered
a place to youngsters expelled from public schools due to their undisciplined behaviour
or learning disadvantages.78 In general, the acceptance of correctional institutions by
the Salesians was the exception more than the rule, and for broader developments and
adaptations of the preventive system in this direction it would be necessary to wait until
1955, when the Salesians accepted the management of the Arese work, which became a
new paradigm.
Discussions on education of the sick and disabled, too, began in the final years of
Don Bosco’s life.79 In 1909 Fr Rua decided that the Salesians would accept the running
of a house for deaf mutes in Tarsia, Naples.80 The first transformation decided by Fr
Crippa was the abolition of begging, which had two aims: training the deaf mutes not to
beg and not to deceive the pity people showed them. This gesture led to the dismissal of
begging friars, and a range of communications addressed to benefactors pointing out the
change of management, modifications to activities and the possibility of contributing
directly to the running of the institute.81 Once begging had been removed, the deaf
mutes were able to give more time to school and workshop activities. Sign language
was abolished and Abbot Giulio Tarra and Professor Antonio Hecker’s oral method
76 Cf. P. Braido, Prevenire non reprimere. Il sistema educativo di don Bosco, LAS, Rome 1999, 221–226.
77 Cf. E. Ginobili – L. Carlone, La construcción de la educación integral de la mujer en la Patagonia
por las FMA (1880-1922): núcleo multiplicador del evangelio, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione
salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 24.
78 Cf. S. Zimniak, Salesiani nella Mitteleuropa. Preistoria e storia della provincia Austro-Ungarica della
Società di S. Francesco di Sales (1868 ca.-1919), LAS, Rome 1997, 119–120.
79 Verbali Capitolo Superiore (27 December 1884), in ASC D869.
80 Cf. Verbali Capitolo Superiore (17 September 1910), in ASC D870.
81 Cf. F. Casella, I salesiani e la “Pia Casa Arcivescovile” per i sordomuti di Napoli (1909-1975), LAS,
Rome 2002, 40–43.

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adopted both in school and for catechesis. After the elementary school courses came five
years of courses in painting and decoration, plastic art and sculpture, carving, tailoring,
shoe-making and typography. Already at the canonical visitation in 1914 it was written
that: “the deaf mutes institute has taken on the nature of a well-kept boarding school,
unlike what it was before, that is, an ugly shelter for beggars.”82
In another part of the world the Salesians were working successfully with lepers, after
Fr Michael Unia founded a work on their behalf in 1891 at Agua de Dios in Colombia.83
He was supported by Fr Rua in this difficult undertaking, who later wrote to “the
dear lepers” in his own hand. The work included a kindergarten, large hospital and a
restored church. In addition to the educational work of the kindergarten and ordinary
catechesis, it meant considerable effort in organising feast days and music to alleviate
the difficult situation of the leper colony. Fr Unia was exhausted by his feverish activity
and died in 1895. His successors were Fr Crippa and Fr Variara, this latter founding
a congregation of women among the lepers whose mission was to look after the sick.
Another Salesian, Fr Rabagliati, began an impressive activity on behalf of lepers with the
support of local authorities and was elected president of the government commission for
building leprosariums.84
The educational work of the Salesians and the FMA also expanded with the activities
of some new institutes and associations belonging to the Salesian Family. The education
of young adults, a typical expansion of this era, took shape in the associations of the
Past Pupils of Don Bosco and the FMA Past Pupils, promoted by Fr Philip Rinaldi
and formally established in 1908. Other institutes or congregations were created later,
again with the aim of broadening the range of Salesian educational activity in local areas.
With the exception of the Salesian Oblates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who came into
existence in Sicily in 1933, the other new female congregations were the result of the
missionary work of the Salesians in accordance with the directives of Pius XI’s Encyclical
Rerum Ecclesiae in 1928, addressed to the Apostolic Prefects of mission areas, which
encouraged the founding of new religious congregations for native sisters.85 It should
also be noted that the establishment of some new religious communities was also seen as
82 Napoli – Tarsia, Rendiconto di don Francesco Tomasetti al Rettor Maggiore (1 luglio 1914), in ASC
F657.
83 Cf. J.J. Ortega Torres, La Obra salesiana en los lazaretos, Escuelas Gráficas Salesianas, Bogotá
1938.
84 Cf. Wirth, Da Don Bosco ai nostri giorni, 298.
85 These are: The Sisters of Charity of Miyazaki (Japan 1937) now called the Caritas Sisters of Jesus;
Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Thailand 1937); Missionary Sisters of Mary Help
of Christians (India 1942); and the Catechist Sisters of Mary Immaculate Help of Christians (India
1948).

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a solution for overcoming the difficulties in collaboration between the Salesians and the
FMA.86
The Rectors Major on adapting to conditions
The development of the Salesian charism in the oratories is a very good illustration
of two trends that were crystallising over time: practical adaptation to the social and
youth situation on the one hand and conservative rigidity when it came to reformulating
regulations and the preventive system on the other. In addition to Don Bosco’s typical
approach, oscillating between traditional doctrine and innovative practice, various
contextual and ecclesial variables had a role in the development of trends, such as the
anti-modernist struggle ad intra and the need for defence against anti-clerical policies
in various countries ad extra. From an operational perspective, too, it is understandable
how fidelity and stability were preferred in the boarding school, and why they then
struggled to update roles, processes and regulations. In the oratory the situation was
different: being an open system, with greater and faster fluctuations of young attendees,
flexible adaptation to the immediate needs of the context was a necessity.
The typical way of educating was linked to the concept of “Salesian spirit”,
interpreted as a lifestyle in which aspects of spirituality, pastoral care and education
merged integrally. Thanks to the memories of a generation that had lived with Don
Bosco, the Salesian spirit was seen as a concrete reality and was described in enthusiastic
tones, linked to the confirmations of the beatification process which ended in 1929.
Between the two Rectors Major we consider in this chapter, Fr Paul Albera gave greater
emphasis to the aspect of Salesian spirituality, while Fr Philip Rinaldi embodied the ideal
fatherliness in the youth apostolate and shared within the Salesian Family.
Paul Albera’s balances around fidelity and piety in education
Don Bosco’s second successor did not deviate from the fundamental line of fidelity to
Don Bosco and Fr Rua, locating his interventions around the characteristics of his own
86 Cf. e.g. M. Kapplikunnel, The implantation of the salesian charism in the Region: ideals, challenges,
answers and results. Seminario ACSSA, Batulao (Manila, Philippines) 24-28 November 2008, in “Ricerche
Storiche Salesiane” 52 (2008) 2, 421.

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sensitivity and previous experience as Catechist General. In his first circular letter to the
confreres, he quotes the words spoken to him by Pius X in the audience that followed
the election: “All you have to do is follow in the footsteps of Fr Rua. He was a saint.
In everything, do as he himself would have done. Do not depart from the customs
and traditions introduced by Don Bosco and Fr Rua.”87 One of Fr Albera’s deepest
convictions was that Don Bosco was a saint, “truly a man of God, homo Dei, in the most
expressive and comprehensive sense of the word.”88 The argument that sees Don Bosco’s
holiness as a motivation for faithfully living his educational and spiritual traditions is
found in his circulars, together with the topic of exemplariness. This understanding
would reach its peak as an argument in publications by Fr Peter Ricaldone, who would
bring together the consensus and enthusiasm of the canonisation to propose detailed
and concrete indications for action.89
Being faithful in this setting practically meant living according to the preventive
system and avoiding “every novelty in our religious practices, every change in the
schedule of the day, every maxim, every saying, every way of doing things that Don Bosco
and Fr Rua would not have approved of.”90 Fr Albera often repeated the leitmotiv, tene
quod habes, which refers to the immense and fruitful inheritance left by Fr Rua and Don
Bosco. The adjective “our” with its variants recurs very often in Albera’s vocabulary: the
preventive system is “our thing” , that is, “our way of educating and instructing young
people”;91 expressions such as “our Congregation”; “our Constitutions”, “our spirit”,
etc., characterise the precious legacy left by “our” Don Bosco.
In the context of fidelity, it is interesting how Albera does not reduce the work and
exemplariness of the founder and his predecessor to the simple repetition of regulated
traditions. In fact, he dedicates a whole circular to the subject of legalistic formalism,
arguing that it is not enough to fulfil the strict duty of prescriptions, as this forms a
87 P. Albera, L’XI Capitolo Generale - Elezione del nuovo Rettor Maggiore - In udienza dal Papa Pio X
- Programma da lui tracciato - Notizie varie, in Lettere circolari di D. Paolo Albera ai Salesiani, SEI,
Turin 1922, 15.
88 P. Albera, Don Bosco nostro modello nell’acquisto della perfezione religiosa, nell’educare e santificare
la gioventù, nel trattare col prossimo e nel far del bene a tutti. Circular of 18 October 1920, in Lettere
circolari di D. Paolo Albera, 342. For the importance of Don Bosco’s holiness cf. J. Boenzi, Paolo
Albera’s Instructions. Early Efforts to Inculcate the Spirit of Don Bosco, in “Journal of Salesian Studies”
13 (2005) 2, 106–111.
89 Cf. P. Ricaldone, Strenna del Rettor Maggiore per il 1935. Fedeltà a Don Bosco Santo, SEI, Turin
1936.
90 P. Albera, L’XI Capitolo Generale, 20–21.
91 Ibid., 20.

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mentality of “systematic mediocrity of conduct that some like to call legality.”92 Pointing
to a logic of excellence, he proposes the principle of duc in altum for the Salesian, who
realises that he has laboured in vain in his mediocrity, Our Lord repeats: Push
the boat out to sea, that is, hurl yourself with ardour into the vast field of
perfection, do not limit your efforts to what is strictly necessary, be grandiose in
your aspirations when it comes to the glory of God and the salvation of souls,
move away from the beach that so narrows your horizons, and you will see how
abundant the fishing of souls will be, and how much consolation your heart will
end up experiencing.93
The guiding principles for creative fidelity, according to Don Bosco’s example, are
relationships and piety. Confirmation of these is found both in the circular letters and
in the instructions at the retreats he preached during his tenure as Catechist General.94
Relationships are mentioned by Albera as Don Bosco’s first typical trait, in his summary
letter entitled Don Bosco our model in acquiring religious perfection, in educating and
sanctifying youth, in dealing with our neighbour and in doing good to all. The Rector
Major suggests reviving Don Bosco by evoking his kindly fatherly image, his tenderness,
his charming and unforgettable smile. Using the anthropology of love, with frequent
references to St Francis de Sales, he appreciates the nature of relationships bound up with
the concept of the heart, stating that “one is formed, above all in the heart and through
love.”95 Although Albera moves easily within the panorama of the principles of spiritual
theology,96 his considerations on love and charity are not expounded through theological
concepts, which would then have implications for formation, but are concepts drawn
primarily from experience. The Rector Major starts his argument from the vivid memory
of being loved in a way he had never experienced before,
singularly superior to any other affection: it enveloped us all and entirely almost
in an atmosphere of contentment and happiness, from which pain, sadness,
melancholy were banished. […] Therefore, as soon as he had captured our hearts,
he moulded them as he wished through his system (entirely his own in the way he
practised it), that he wanted to call preventive as opposed to repressive. However,
this system – as he himself declared in the last years of his mortal life – was none
92 P. Albera, Contro una riprovevole “legalità”. Circular of 25 June 1917, in Lettere circolari di D. Paolo
Albera, 231.
93 Ibid., 239.
94 Cf. Boenzi, Paolo Albera’s Instructions, 127–131.
95 Albera, Don Bosco nostro modello nell’acquisto della perfezione religiosa, 340.
96 Cf. J. Boenzi, Reconstructing don Albera’s reading list, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 33 (2014) 63,
203–272.

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other than the spirit of charity, that is, the love of God that expands to embrace
all human creatures, especially the youngest and most inexperienced, to infuse
in them the holy fear of God.97
The Salesian style of relationship can be very strong, as it is aimed at eminently
supernatural education which transforms the hearts of young people by instilling a “very
strong desire to save one’s soul.”98 Around these concepts of charity and piety, Albera
then develops reasoning not too far from the notion of zeal so dear to his predecessor. In
the letter that accompanied the publication of Fr Rua’s letters, zeal is highlighted as the
first characteristic of educational work: “Among the virtues that shone very brightly in
the life of our venerable father and teacher, the late Fr Rua said that none had struck him
as much as the tireless zeal with which his heart seemed to be inflamed each time, and he
seemed to suggest copying this zeal in himself in a special way.”99 Zeal made concrete in
the manifold activities of the Salesians is the starting point of his argument in his second
agenda-setting letter on the spirit of piety, which goes beyond Fr Rua’s concept of it:
Which of us hasn’t heard a thousand times about the spirit of initiative and
activity of the Salesians? […] However, speaking to you with my heart in my
hand, I confess that I cannot defend myself from the painful thought and
fear that this vaunted activity of the Salesians, this zeal which hitherto has
seemed inaccessible to any discouragement, this warm enthusiasm which was
hitherto sustained by continuous happy successes, has to falter one day when
not fertilised, purified and sanctified by true and solid piety.100
Piety, however, is distinguished from mere religious duties: “It is by virtue of piety
that we no longer feel indebted to that kind of worship, almost an official kind I
would say, that religion imposes on us, but we feel the duty to serve God with that
tender affection, that thoughtful delicacy, that deep devotion which is the essence of
religion.”101 Piety, as the soul of true zeal, also has implications in the educational area.
97 Ibid., 341–342.
98 Ibid., 345.
99 P. Albera, Sullo spirito di pietà. Letter of 15 May 1911, in Lettere circolari di D. Paolo Albera, 22.
100 Ibid., 22–26. From the point of view of piety, and always in the circumstances of the Congregation’s
expansion, Fr Albera also warns of an idea of “wrong zeal” that does not respect tradition, is not
according to the vow of obedience or causes the formation of Salesian educators to be neglected. Cf.
P. Albera, Sulla disciplina religiosa. Letter of 25 December 1911, in Lettere circolari di D. Paolo
Albera, 69–74.
101 P. Albera, Sullo spirito di pietà, 27.

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Not only the necessary care shown to practices of piety, which in any case must be those
prescribed and not added to, but educators are also required to be deeply rooted in
piety. Hence exemplariness as Albera’s bottom line for a typically Salesian pedagogical
methodology:
The whole system of education taught by Don Bosco is based on piety. If this
were not duly practised, every ornament, every prestige of our institutes would
be lacking, which would become much inferior to the lay institutes themselves.
So then, we cannot instil pity in our pupils if we ourselves are not abundantly
provided with it. The education that we would give to our students would be
incomplete, since the slightest breath of impiety and immorality would erase in
them those principles which we have tried to imprint on their hearts with so
much sweat and long years of work. If the Salesian is not firmly pious, he will
never be suitable for the role of educator. But the best method to teach piety is
to give an example.102
This perspective on piety would guide the Rector Major, towards the end of his
term of office, to state that “Don Bosco’s educational system, for us who are convinced
of divine intervention in the creation and development of his work, is a heavenly
pedagogy.”103 Although there is a shift in terminology, the basic approach outlined by
Fr Rua had not changed significantly. The contents of the circular letters on education
revolve around the main lines of fidelity to the preventive system: gentleness but also
discipline, respect for educational roles in the Salesian house, the purposes expressed in
the pair good Christians – upright (also integral) citizens, the promotion of classical
studies but also of oratories and past pupils (called prodigies of modern pedagogy).
Philip Rinaldi and the practice of “healthy modernity”
Philip Rinaldi, third successor of Don Bosco, lived and taught the art of fatherliness
as the essence of the preventive system. His perspective of fidelity to the origins shifts
slightly from the previous one of tene quod habes to something which stressed what
we should do now: “We should not so much ask ourselves what Don Bosco did, but
102 Ibid., 32.
103 P. Albera, Per l’inaugurazione del Monumento al Venerabile D. Bosco. Letter of 6 April 1920, in
Lettere circolari di D. Paolo Albera, 312.

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rather what Don Bosco would do today.”104 Referring to Don Bosco, Fr Rinaldi called
for a balance between the decisive preservation of the spirit, and flexibility in secondary
aspects: “He [Don Bosco] introduced a clever modernity that, while rigidly preserving
the substantial spirit in his educational method, at the same time prevented it from
becoming fossilised in secondary things that were subject to change over time.”105
Applications of this equilibrium concerned not only religious discipline but also Salesian
education. In fact, Fr Rinaldi distinguished the repressive system from the preventive
system as applied also to relationships, with regulations that partly reflect Don Bosco’s
experience. The former (repressive) prefers detailed and unyielding law while the other
(preventive) speaks of the “vital content”, “intimate understanding, “true spirit” and
“generous practice” of the rules.106 It is in this sense that we can affirm the principle of
healthy modernity:
Our Society had to know how to adapt, in carrying out its beneficial action, to
the needs of the times, to the customs of places: it had to be progressively always
new and modern, while retaining its particular character as educating youth
through the preventive system based on gentleness and fatherly kindness.107
Healthy modernity does not exclude caring about traditions, which in fact is
a substantial part of Fr Rinaldi’s magisterium. Distinguishing different kinds of
innovation, he specifies that “the natural attraction to everything that smacks of novelty
can lead to the neglect of traditions, because one does not reflect that it is one thing to
run after novelties and quite another to be always in the vanguard of progress, as Don
Bosco did and wanted.”108 Traditions here are not understood just as principles but also
as small customs, schedules and practices. Just as the 1927 conference of festive oratory
directors spoke of the wise use of football groups, scouts, games as an educational means,
104 E. Valentini, Don Rinaldi. Maestro di pedagogia e di spiritualità salesiana, Crocetta – Istituto
Internazionale D. Bosco, Turin 1959, 6. NB: Valentini’s work reproduces Philip Rinaldi’s lessons to the
clerics, theology students at the international studentate of theology at Foglizzo from 1906 to 1914.
Cf. also similar expressions applied to the missions: F. Rinaldi, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS
3 (1923) 20, 105.
105 F. Rinaldi, Giubilei d’oro della Pia Unione dei Cooperatori Salesiani e della Pia Opera di Maria
Ausiliatrice, in ACS 7 (1927) 33, 573. Cf. Similar expressions of Paul Albera: “to preserve for the
Congregation that primacy of healthy modernity which is proper to it”, in Albera, Don Bosco nostro
modello nell’acquisto della perfezione religiosa, 334.
106 Cf. the letter written on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the constitutions in F. Rinaldi, Lettera
del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 5 (1924) 24, 254–255. and Valentini, Don Rinaldi. Maestro di
pedagogia, 11–13.
107 F. Rinaldi, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 5 (1924) 23, 187.
108 F. Rinaldi, Conserviamo e pratichiamo le nostre tradizioni, in ACS 12 (1931) 56, 937.

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drama, cinema and other social-type activities,109 there was also no lack of exhortation
to caution, adopting a pedagogical view of dialogue with culture:
Our system of education, which bears the secret of modernity, accepts
everything that is truly Christian, but vigorously excludes what deviates from
it and corrupts it. We baptise the rest, or in other words make it our own, or
we leave it to others: caetera tolle! Thus football, radio, cinema and similar other
recreational and sports novelties, wherever they are harmful to the souls of young
people, we must treat them in the same way with which our Lord commands us
to treat the eye that is a scandal to us: projice abs te.110
A very interesting reflection by Philip Rinaldi concerns the relationship between
modernity and Don Bosco’s preventive system. In his lessons on pedagogy at Foglizzo
he briefly explained that the “repressive system is based on liberalism! There is the law:
whoever wants to practise it must do so freely; but he will be punished every time he
fails.”111 The argument goes on to indicate how liberal-democratic modernity is linked
to a concept of naive freedom that panders to passions and therefore ends up either in
chaos or repression.
A concrete example of the link between modern anthropology and repression was
to be found during this period in Salesian schools in England. In the British context,
the boarding school tradition had not been influenced by Rousseau’s “continental”
pedagogy and English boarding schools were notorious for bullying and corporal
punishment.112 In the English pedagogical tradition it was preferred that the young
person be left to his own initiative and conscience, so with great probability Salesian
assistance was perceived as a limiting control that did not increase personal responsibility.
The Salesians in England found it hard to overcome these initial difficulties, which arose
from the liberal mentality and were further increased by linguistic ambiguities. In fact,
the expression preventive system failed to convey the meaning of the Italian concept,
since, referring to a semantic context of different kinds of repression and control, it
referred to something negative that had to be prevented.113
109 Cf. F. Rinaldi, Resoconto del convegno tenutosi dai Direttori degli Oratori festivi d’Europa a Valsalice
dal 27 al 30 Agosto 1927, in ACS 8 (1927) 41, 609–611. Cf. also Valentini, Don Rinaldi. Maestro
di pedagogia, 53–58.
110 F. Rinaldi, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 10 (1929) 50, 800.
111 Valentini, Don Rinaldi. Maestro di pedagogia, 20.
112 Cf. W.J. Dickson, Prevention or repression. The reception of don Bosco’s educational approach in
English Salesian Schools, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1,
216.
113 Cf. Ibid., 231–233.

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In this context, we can understand Fr Rinaldi’s emphasis on the “healthy” modernity
that is rooted in the foundations of the Salesian spirit corroborated by the passage of
time. Thanks to the security and consistency of its roots, Salesian education succeeds in
adapting itself with “genius” in its forms, expressions, applications and organisation to
the context and the young people of the present time. Rinaldi’s attitude can therefore
be summarised as being informed by a modernity of practical innovations that is
independent of modern anthropology.
Pedagogical approach of the novelty of the preventive system
The preventive system for Rinaldi, in continuity with what we have seen previously, is
not new in terms of ideas, but rather the novelty “is in the means and in the practical
application that Don Bosco made of it.”114 In his classes at Foglizzo, Rinaldi offered
the basic preventive principle: putting the pupils into the situation of impossibility of
doing wrong. To follow the principle, which is not new in itself, in order not to smother
the boy, not to take away his freedom but to educate him, Don Bosco proposed a new
hierarchy, a new environment, new premises and a series of new means (cf. Figure B).
The concept of the new hierarchy comes from the balance between the main roles of
rector, prefect and catechist and from the new style of exercising authority by constantly
being among the youngsters and sharing time and place of work, study and recreation
with them. The new environment is created by the family spirit that sees the youngsters
as cooperating in their education. This is not self-education, but rather making them
responsible by “forming them through sharing in authority.”115 A concrete example of
this principle are the sodalities, a topic under discussion in the 1920s and also one dear
to Rinaldi. The new premises are designed for Salesian education. They need to have
plenty of room for both ease of care and the ability to be all together as a family. Rinaldi
also proposed a “grandiose approach” to houses, feast days, and choreography that
intentionally fosters “enthusiasm for great ideas, great ideals, great men, for things that
are done in the house that appear extraordinary to their eyes.”116 Then, in his lessons and
in subsequent interventions, he delves into the educational and Salesian use of so many
different mediations grouped together under the title of new means: gymnastics, music,
recital, theatre, the goodnight, correction done charitably and finally, new approach to
punishments.
114 Valentini, Don Rinaldi. Maestro di pedagogia, 21.
115 Ibid., 25.
116 Ibid., 27.

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Figure B: The preventive system in Fr Rinaldi’s lessons at Foglizzo
Fatherliness and union with God as the basis of Salesian education
Even though Rinaldi proposed his synthesis of the preventive system in the Foglizzo
lectures, the basic keys for interpreting his pedagogical guidelines are to be found
elsewhere, not in a theoretical approach. In his first circular letter as Rector Major he
set out the characteristics of the spirit that Don Bosco instilled in the Congregation,
summarising them in the statement: “In a word, everyone wanted to relive his attractive
fatherliness, which never treated anyone brusquely, but knew how, gently, to help
each one to make himself better and to set himself on the road to perfection.”117
For the Rector Major, fatherliness was a word that summed up all of Don Bosco’s
117 F. Rinaldi, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 3 (1922) 14, 6.

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activity, connected with what we called “paternal” traditions lived and handed down to
future generations through formation that was more practical and osmotic than it was
intellectual.118 In this sense the first letter goes on to seek confirmation of “whether in the
Houses all the paternal traditions are practised exactly with regard to study, the church,
the refectory, the courtyard, walks, etc.; and whether above all we always live familiarly
among the young, because in this way defects are corrected, disorders are remedied, and
Christian characters are formed.”119
Consistent with his conviction of the importance of praxis, Fr Rinaldi does
not outline a theory of fatherliness, but recommends the imitation of Don Bosco’s
fatherliness, himself becoming an authentic and vivid image of him. Towards the end of
his term of office, in his letter on Salesian traditions, he summarised the patrimony of the
by then Blessed Don Bosco in the same category: “Another tradition, indeed the most
important and vital for us, is fatherliness. Our founder was never other than a father in
the noblest sense of that word.”120 The content of applications that follow on from the Fr
Rinalid’s practical forma mentis, is not far removed from the implementations proposed
around the concept of zeal typical of Fr Rua. Fatherliness that gives itself totally, and
apostolic zeal refer above all to the figure of the Salesian rector:
The external exercise of this fatherliness is handed on by name to the rector
of the House, not only to keep it, but to exercise it according to the teachings
and examples of the Blessed [John Bosco]. Now Blessed John Bosco has passed
on this tradition of the fatherliness of the rector to his rectors, which is almost
united to the most sublime act and reality of spiritual regeneration in the exercise
of the divine power to forgive sins.121
The almost direct link between the Salesian fatherliness of the rector and his service
as a confessor finds an obstacle in the context of the prohibition to “hear the confessions
of one’s subjects.” Fr Rinaldi says that “under the pretext of avoiding any problems,
at first they went beyond the provisions of the decree: the rectors even withdrew from
hearing the confessions of young people, something that is not at all forbidden to any
118 Cf. P. Braido, Don Bosco prete dei giovani nel secolo delle libertà, vol. 2, LAS, Rome 2003, 233–271.
and P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica, vol. 2:Mentalità religiosa e spiritualità,
LAS, Rome 1981, 470–474.
119 F. Rinaldi, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 3 (1922) 14, 6.
120 F. Rinaldi, Conserviamo e pratichiamo le nostre tradizioni, in ACS 12 (1931) 56, 939–940.
121 Ibid., 940.

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approved priest, whatever position he occupies in the institute.”122 He also points out,
and wants changed, another misapplication of the rules on confession in oratories,
namely oratory directors who do not hear the confessions of their young people.123
Seeing a weakening of the tradition of fatherliness, the Rector Major asks:
Return again to the work which, according to the mind and heart of our
blessed Father, must be the first and most important for the Father director.
Be truly fathers of the souls of your young people. Do not abdicate your
spiritual fatherliness, but exercise it, both by caring for your subjects with regular
conferences to everyone, and in particular to the various religious sodalities; then
finding a way to deal privately with each one, so that you can say that you possess
their hearts: and by reserving for yourself the confessions of the oratory boys and
outsiders...124
An important concept that characterises Philip Rinaldi’s time as Rector Major in
line with his predecessor is expressed in his second circular letter. In recounting his
audience with Pius XI in June 1922, he proposes “union with God” as a summary
concept that is in continuity with Albera’s guidelines on the foundations of zeal and
industriousness. The Pope, who admired Don Bosco’s singular kindness and unalterable
calm in the various trials as valuable signs of his perfect union with God, proposed
to Rinaldi the joining of work and prayer as a program: “ora et labora is always the
watchword of the saints who also in this have simply modelled themselves on the
examples of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In order for industriousness to be advantageous, it
must be combined with unceasing, intimate union with God…”125
Union with God becomes one of the predominant perspectives for interpreting Don
Bosco’s holiness and the secret of his huge amount of work. In fact, the final steps of
the canonisation process took place during Fr Rinaldi’s term of office, and as part of
it they had to tackle the classic and often suggested animadversiones about how (and
whether) Don Bosco prayed amidst so many tasks.126 The process, which culminated in
his beatification in 1929, saw a Don Bosco who was so industrious because of his intimate
union with God. Eugenio Ceria repeatedly stated how he had drawn inspiration from Fr
122 Ibid., 941–942.
123 Rinaldi, Resoconto del convegno tenutosi dai Direttori degli Oratori festivi, 596.
124 Rinaldi, Conserviamo e pratichiamo le nostre tradizioni, 942.
125 F. Rinaldi, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 3 (1922) 15, 17.
126 Cf. P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica, vol. 3: La canonizzazione (1888-1934),
LAS, Rome 1988, 198–199.

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Rinaldi for the drafting of the volume that summarises the synthesis between interiority
and industriousness, becoming a classic of Salesian literature.127
Union with God is the hermeneutic place for looking for the balance between
the idea of “healthy modernity” and the need to “baptise” amusements and “rigidly”
preserve the original spirit. In his second circular letter, union with God was linked with
insistence on sanctification as the “primary aim of religious profession, the rest being
just a means. The greatest and most praiseworthy works lose all warmth if we do not do
them for our own sanctification.”128 During the audience with Pius XI, Fr Rinaldi took
an interesting line of argument in search of stimuli for living the synthesis between work
(including educational work) and prayer:
I reminded the Holy Father how Don Bosco through word and example
continually instilled the idea of work and prayer in his sons; how he was always
united to God even in the midst of the most serious tasks; and I asked that he
give the Salesians, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, their pupils and
past pupils, and the Cooperators, and effective encouragement that would help
them to be more active every day and at the same time more united to the Lord.
[…] I then told him that in my opinion, one very effective means to help them
and to urge them all to do this would be to grant them a special Indulgence to
be gained whenever they combined work, teaching, assistance, and so on with
some devout invocation.129
Fr Rinaldi also placed special emphasis on union with God in the guidelines he
offered to the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. The most original and fruitful
indications are contained in the annual Strennas, in which the Rector Major offers a
rich but simple journey of spiritual life.130 He places himself within the perspective
of Don Bosco’s union with God, which becomes the theme that runs through all his
Strennas. In the Strenna of 1921, particularly significant because it precedes the jubilee
of the FMA Institute, Fr Rinaldi presents Don Bosco as the father who knew how to
unify the most active apostolate with the most profound union with God. Following
this idea, the practice of union with God is offered to the FMA as a special badge for
127 Cf. E. Ceria, Don Bosco con Dio, SDB, Rome 1988, 21–23. NB: The original edition of this work
was published during the year of Don Bosco’s beatification (1929).
128 F. Rinaldi, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 3 (1922) 15, 18.
129 Ibid., 16.
130 Cf. L. Dalcerri, Un maestro di vita interiore don Filippo Rinaldi, Istituto FMA, Rome 1990.

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the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute.131 These ideas of principle,
expressed in the Strennas, can be interpreted in the light of his interventions in the three
General Chapters of the FMA, in which he answered, simply and practically, questions
about educational, disciplinary and organisational problems, intelligently translating
the teachings and examples of the founder into female sensitivity and psychology.132
In the 1931 Strenna, for example, he speaks to the example of Don Bosco’s “active
contemplation” in these terms:
The Blessed built up his interior life, which was simple, evangelical, practical,
hard-working, solely intent on the fulfilment of the divine will; [...] an interior
life of marvellous, extraordinary activity for the good of souls, nourished by
his unshakeable faith, his hope which always shone in his unchanging paternal
smile, and was inflamed by his ardent charity....133
Education by osmosis and the importance of practical training
Another of Fr Rinaldi’s guidelines concerning Salesian education is the reinforcement
of the conviction that science detached from virtue and practice can be dangerous. A
certain distrust of study was not new in the Congregation, and was often linked to
the figure of the proud “scholar” with external commitments that meant he neglected
the education of poor youngsters and his tasks in the Salesian house. At the rectors
conference in the summer of 1926, Rinaldi summarised his thoughts on this subject:
The Salesian is not a theorist of pedagogy but an educator. After the essential
elements of theory, which can be given during philosophical studies, it is
necessary to learn the art of educating through practice [...] There are chapters
in Don Bosco’s life which give us norms of practical pedagogy. Our pedagogy,
however, is written in Salesian life [...] Each of us should be concerned to study
Don Bosco more, to practise our own life, our own traditions. If we follow the
131 F. Rinaldi, Le Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, ricordando la pietà del venerando don Albera, si propongano la
pratica della unione con Dio, per celebrare così degnamente il Giubileo della loro Fondazione, in Dalcerri
(ed.), Un maestro di vita interiore, 56–60.
132 Cf. Rinaldi's interventions in the Acts of GC8, 9 and 10 of the FMA which took place in 1913, 1922,
1928 respectively.
133 F. Rinaldi, Conoscere ed imitare di più la vita interiore del Beato don Bosco. Strenna per il 1931, in
Dalcerri (ed.), Un maestro di vita interiore, 126.

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schedule of the Salesian day, we will find our whole program there [...] Our
pedagogy is therefore studied in life with humility, resignation and obedience, a
little at our own expense and a little at the expense of others; it is not learned from
a cathedra that theoretically expounds the various systems in scientific terms.
The real treatise is practical life, and its pages are the courtyard, the study, the
refectory, the church, the dormitory, the walks. And the rector’s solicitude must
be aimed precisely at making these pages read well.134
The union between study and educational practice is conceived of as an almost
indivisible whole and linked to the virtue, exemplariness and holiness of the educator.
St Francis de Sales is proposed as an illustrious example of the Salesian educator,
recalled by both Fr Rinaldi and the Councillor for Schools, Fr Bartolomeo Fascie.135
The implications of the unity between study and practice are spelt out in terms of
greater importance given to practical training in the formation of Salesians and in greater
attention to educational roles within the Salesian house.
In 1901, the 9th General Chapter established a three year practical training period,
but in subsequent years there were various resistances and doubts about this, to the point
of having to establish a commission in the following GC in 1904 to examine the decisions
taken three years earlier.136A qualified member of the Chapter, Fr Giuseppe Vespignani,
explained the long and animated discussion, on return to Argentina, as follows: “The
Tenth General Chapter spoke the final word and was a real triumph, establishing three
years of practical training among the philosophy and theology students. With this it gave
a special character to the Salesian cleric, exercising him fully in his mission towards the
youth, forming him practically in pedagogical science and in the admirable preventive
system of Don Bosco, and thus enabling him to mature, along with the exercises of
religious life, for the sublime vocation to priestly life.”137 Practical trainees were to
be accompanied by the rector in the practical exercise of Salesian life with established
study programs. Among the study texts were classics like: Dell’educazione cristiana e
politica de’figliuoli by Silvio Antoniano (the original was from 1584), Dei principii
134 F. Rinaldi, Resoconto dei Convegni dei Direttori, in ACS 7 (1926) 36, 497–498.
135 Cf. F. Rinaldi, Il giubileo d’oro delle Costituzioni, in ACS 5 (1924) 23, 174–175; B. Fascie, Del
metodo educativo di Don Bosco, SEI, Turin 1927, 24; Valentini, Don Rinaldi. Maestro di pedagogia,
15.
136 Cf. Capitolo Generale X (26 August 1904) in ASC D585
137 G. Vespignani, Ai confratelli salesiani dell’America. Impressioni del viaggio sul X Capitolo Generale
in J.M. Prelezzo, Linee pedagogiche della Società Salesiana nel periodo 1880-1922. Approccio ai
documenti, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 23 (2004) 44, 139.

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pedagogico-sociali di S. Tommaso by Fr Cerruti (1893), I morali di Leone Magno a
educazione del clero giovine (1895) and a more recent work on I concetti pedagogici di
Leone XIII (1902).138
Practical training was enhanced to the point that in Fr Rinaldi’s time, GC13 in
1929 indicated that clerics who had not fulfilled the provisions of formation in this
stage should not be admitted to the study of theology. The trainees were to have been
guided above all by the rector, who had the task of taking care of the consistency of their
formation, which was carried out both through the practical educational assignments
and with the study of Don Bosco and the aforementioned authors.139 The Chapter
then emphasised the role of study in the practical trainee’s formation, also recalling the
example of Fr Cerruti and Fr Bertello linked to the promotion of schools. Fr Rinaldi,
however, made his interpretative key on the priorities in formation explicit: “Our studies
must be ordered according to our work”,140 rejecting the mistaken idea of study leading
to pride, laziness in ministry and preaching for vainglory.141
With a view to the importance of practical life, Fr Rinaldi pays particular attention
to the roles within the Salesian house that balance the various aspects of education.
Pedagogical principles are not just stimuli for theoretical insights, but given the Rector
Major’s practical mindset are immediately tied to a role, tasks and applications. We can
draw a wealth of content from the conferences he gave from 1913 to 1916 to the clerics
at Foglizzo, allowing us to reconstruct the context for interpretation of his governance
guidelines.142
138 Cf. Prellezo, Linee pedagogiche della Società Salesiana nel periodo 1880-1922, 140.
139 Cf. Temi trattati nel XIII Capitolo Generale, in ACS 10 (1929) 50, 807. Cf. also the decision not to
consider applications from clerics for dispensation from the three-year practical training in Rinaldi,
Resoconto dei Convegni dei Direttori, 499.
140 F. Rinaldi, Pel XIII Capitolo Generale, in ACS 10 (1929) 47, 712.
141 At this place in the argument Rinaldi mentions Don Bosco’s dream about the gathering of demons
– an emblematic tale about the danger of study detached from Salesian educational practice. Fr
Lemoyne, speaking of the episode, says that it consists in “persuading Salesians that being scholarly
is what should be their principal glory, so they will study much for their own benefit and will disdain
using what they have learned for the benefit of the humble: no more popular works, no more festive
oratories: but pride, sloth in the sacred ministry, preaching for vain glory.” Cf. G.B. Lemoyne, La
vita di D. Bosco, in Rinaldi, Pel XIII Capitolo Generale, 712.
142 Cf. Conferenze di Don F. Rinaldi, in ASC A3840137; Valentini, Don Rinaldi. Maestro di pedagogia,
4–5, 67-101. B. Bordignon, I salesiani come religiosi-educatori. Figure e ruoli all’interno della casa
salesiana, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 31 (2012) 58, 65–121.

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In addition to the characteristics which are a priority for the rector understood as
father and confessor, the dimension of governing the work, being the representative
before ecclesiastical superiors and civil society is also developed. Although Fr Rinaldi
proposed the concept of healthy modernity at the level of the Congregation, it is
interesting to note that at the local level he emphasised the importance of fidelity that
creates continuity of government, stating that “the rector is an executor of the rule, not a
transformer; he must preside over and direct what he finds, not change it […] Otherwise
the house would change according to the rectors’ tastes, with serious detriment to the
house and the Congregation.”143 The prefect, with his responsibilities for managing
discipline, material things, helpers and domestics; the catechist, who takes care of the
religious and moral education of the young people, church functions, sodalities and
academies; the prefect of studies and technical studies person, who look after regular
classes and technical classes respectively, all collaborate in the success of an integral
education. A fundamental need for the success of education is seen by Fr Rinaldi in
the principle of working and talking together, each having their own role. He expressed
himself in this regard at the rectors meeting in 1926:
Some have asked for a word on the relationship between the rector and the
prefect. Here too – let it be said for effect – lies another feature of our pedagogy.
Rector and prefect complement one another. They need to be in agreement,
speak together often: many things go wrong without this harmony.144
Salesian sodalities, Catholic Action, other youth organisations
In 1919, in the context of the re-evaluation of traditional works in the immediate
post-war period, Fr Albera felt the need to reaffirm the “Salesian nature” of the choice
of the oratory: “All those who are seriously interested in festive oratories and in the
education of the youth who flock to them have the full and entire approval of our
Rector Major. There is much talk these days about post-war works: well, the first and
fundamental work of the venerable founder seems to have been created especially for
the present circumstances: let us therefore attend to it with zeal and love.”145
143 Conferenze di Don F. Rinaldi, 108.
144 Rinaldi, Resoconto dei Convegni dei Direttori, 498.
145 Cons. Gen. Circ. (24 February 1919), in ASC E277.

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Fr Albera is in continuity with the fundamental direction of this idea of the oratory
dating back to the times before the world conflict. In the letter of May 1913 he describes
the oratory as the first side of what he considered the cornerstone of Salesian work,
consisting of festive oratories, missions and the formation of ecclesiastical vocations,
the three “primary and most noble” goals set by Don Bosco. The festive oratory is
characterised as an institution in its own right, differentiating itself from any other
similar one both because of what it aims at, and the means it uses. First of all, the
wide range of its beneficiaries qualifies it. According to Don Bosco, Albera explains,
the oratory is not for a given category of young people in preference to others, but for
everyone indiscriminately from the age of seven onwards. Family status was not required,
and liveliness of character, the occasional insubordination, lack of good manners, state
of abandonment or poverty were not to be taken into consideration. He excluded only
systematic and contagious insubordination from participation in the life of the oratory,
as well as blasphemy, filthy talk, scandal. The superior’s tolerance was to be unlimited.
Therefore, while reproducing itself in a thousand different places and times, the oratory,
unique in its nature, was the soul of the Pious Society.146
Subsequently, Fr Philip Rinaldi endeavoured to combine his sensitivity to the new
social situation as the Italian totalitarian state grew stronger. His firm desire to safeguard
continuity with the Salesian tradition was just as strong. Faced with the boost given
by Pius XI to the apostolate of the laity, also as a way of counteracting the influence
of fascist organisations, he insisted on believing that everything the Pope desired was
already to “prepare and form the future members of Catholic Action”,147 but without
formal aggregation to it. Once an opening to collaboration with Catholic Action had
been stated, the need for fidelity to the traditional idea of sodalities was then reaffirmed,
as Don Bosco had conceived of them.148
The Rector Major’s thinking was also that “sodalities in our oratories are the basis
and centre of the religious and spiritual life which informs all the work of education
and Christian formation for which they were founded by Don Bosco.”149 The guideline
146 Cf. Albera, Gli Oratori festivi - Le Missioni - Le vocazioni, 121–146.
147 Ibid., 915.
148 For the relationship between Salesians sodalities and CA cf. G. Biancardi, La dimensione apostolica
della spiritualità laicale salesiana, in Istituto Storico Salesiano – Centro Studi Figlie di
Maria Ausiliatrice (eds.), Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla metà del secolo XX. Acts of
the International Congress of Salesian History, Rome 19-23 November 2014 edited by Aldo Giraudo et
al., LAS, Rome 2016, vol. 2: Comunicazioni, 504-518.
149 Rinaldi, Resoconto del convegno tenutosi dai Direttori degli Oratori festivi, 604.

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expressed at the meeting of festive oratory directors was therefore applied: “It is very
much possible”, Fr Rinaldi observed “to comply with the provisions of the Holy See
[regarding CA groups] as is our duty, without renouncing our traditions: therefore, let
us keep the Salesian spirit in our associations.”150 It was not just a question of preserving
traditions, but also of “restoring the effectiveness and flourishing” of our oratories
under the guidance of rectors and provincials. In addition, provincial congresses and
days for the sodalities were established.151 As room for action outside Salesian houses
became more and more limited, the apostolate among sodalities as an important means
of education found a natural extension in the missionary impulse in a context of strong
development ad gentes:
Continue to cultivate this missionary spirit in the hospices, colleges, festive
oratories; the results obtained are excellent.... Cultivation of this spirit is mainly
for the benefit of the students themselves, since it is one of the most effective
means to form their hearts to elevated and holy affections, a means that distracts
them from the morbid sentimentalism so common at that age, a means that
reminds them of the reality of life and the miseries of this world, makes them
appreciate the benefit of being born in a Catholic country, in the light and
civilisation of the Gospel, and thus animates them to correspond to this special
grace of the Lord by a truly Christian life.152
Once the guidelines concerning Salesian associations were spelt out, these were
then on display. The Bollettino Salesiano, especially in summer 1931, carried news
of Salesian sodality congresses held in Salesian provinces.153 Sodalities expressed a
“perennial fruitfulness of the initiative of Blessed Don Bosco, as timely and useful
yesterday as today.”154 Reasons for their effectiveness were listed in four points: “1)
The effective encouragement they gave to developing piety; 2) The ingrained habit in
young people of practising the duties of Christian life; 3) Emulating good example in
150 Ibid., 608. Cf. also FF. Rinaldi, Le Compagnie Religiose e l’Azione Cattolica. Pensiero del S. Padre
Pio XI, in ACS 11 (1930) 55, 55.
151 Cf. Rinaldi, Motivi di apostolato e di perfezionamento per il 1931, 917–918. F. Rinaldi, Norme
e programma per le Giornate e i Congressi delle Compagnie Religiose, che avranno luogo nelle Case e
Ispettorie Salesiane durante l’anno 1931, in ACS 11 (1930) 55bis, 2–4.
152 Rinaldi, Giubilei d’oro della Pia Unione dei Cooperatori Salesiani, 428–429.
153 Cf. I Congressi delle Compagnie religiose, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 55 (1931) 8, 230–232.
154 Il tema di “Compagnie Religiose”, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 55 (1931) 6, 186.

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the exercise of virtue and fulfilment of daily duties; 4) Love of apostolate that will always
be remembered for the joys it brings.”155
Writers on Salesian pedagogy in the 1920s
Fr Rinaldi’s thinking was interpreted and completed through application by his
Councillors, among whom the Schools Councillor, Fr Bartolomeo Fascie emerged,
in tune with the Rector Major in proposing an experienced-based Salesian pedagogy.
Different, but complementary, was the setting of the 1925 publication of Don Bosco
Educatore by Vincenzo Cimatti. This aspired to a scientific and rigorous approach in
handling sources in view of a comparison with pedagogical positivism. Finally, we will
briefly analyse the writings of some French-speaking authors for their dissemination and
impact on the Salesian mentality. Fr Scaloni, for many years in leadership positions in
Northern Europe, and Fr Auffray, a publicist, tackled the topics of Salesian pedagogy in
a way that is both practical (for the topics chosen) and popular (in language).
Fascie and experience-based Salesian pedagogy
Bartolomeo Fascie, Councillor for Schools from 1920 to 1937, offered a new understanding
of Salesian pedagogy regarding the importance of reviving Don Bosco in a more
systematic way and establishing an approach to pedagogy based on experience. His
Del metodo educativo di Don Bosco156 had considerable influence on Salesians since it
was recommended for reading during practical training; it also spread beyond narrow
Salesian circles, since it was adopted as a textbook in teacher training in Italy from the
1930s to the 1950s. The idea of the practicality of the Salesian method can also be
seen in how the book is arranged: a brief pedagogical introduction by the author, the
first part of the sources on the “guiding principles” of about twenty pages and, finally,
the second most important and lengthy one on “practical applications”, divided into
meetings, letters, testimonies and disciplinary, didactic and rhetorical suggestions.
The publication reflected and made concrete Fr Rinaldi’s idea of the union between
study and experience in the formation of Salesian educators. Fr Fascie reacted in the
book to certain triumphalistic presentations of Don Bosco which were frequent, and
not only in Salesian circles. He wrote: “When people speak of the preventive system,
they speak of it as if it were a novelty that had sprung from his brain [...] an invention, a
155 Ibid., 185.
156 Cf. B. Fascie, Del metodo educativo di Don Bosco. Fonti e commenti, SEI, Turin 1927.

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discovery and almost a creation of Don Bosco’s.”157 The Councillor suggested instead:
“We should not think of Don Bosco as a theorist of pedagogy, or a scholar of school or
teaching issues.”158 Don Bosco accepted the preventive method as it was offered to him
by human and Christian tradition. The true greatness and originality of the founder of
the Salesian Society is found “in the practical field of the art of education and the work
of the educator.”159 and in the ability to have “brought the preventive method back to
life and into action.”160
The most original idea in this introduction by Fascie is the notion of “common
sense” that is Don Bosco’s mindset “substantiated by practicality and common sense,
alien to abstractions, theorising and pure intellectuality.”161 It is the concrete form of
the principle of “reason” in the preventive system, the reason for appreciation of the
educative traditions preceding Don Bosco. And together with charity it is the principle
by which the method “is all found in a systematic and ordered form, [...] in a clear and
attractive form so that one not only understands and admires it, but also learns, enjoys
it and is attracted to imitate it.”162 And again, combined with charity, common sense
creates the basis for the value of the exemplariness of educators. It acquires its value in
the vital systematic nature of Salesian education:
From what has been said so far, it seems we can say that anyone who wants
to approach Don Bosco’s educational method with the desire to subject it to
an exasperating analysis, dissect it, reduce it into parts, divisions, rigid schemes,
would not be following a good path, while, on the other hand, one must look at
it as a living form in its integrity by studying the principles from which it draws
life, the organs of its vitality and the functions that develop from them. And
precisely because it is alive, it cannot be subjected to anatomical sections as is
done on corpses to study anatomy, without running the obvious risk of seeing it
die in our hands [...] In a word, we would run the risk of reducing to a dead thing
a method that is valid insofar as it is a living thing, and that, strictly speaking,
in order to be studied well, should be studied while it is in action and in full
efficiency.163
Fascie’s approach, involving simple pedagogical principles and the practical art of
education illustrated by recourse to successful episodes, can be seen as in continuity with
157 Fascie, Del metodo educativo di Don Bosco, 24.
158 Ibid., 19.
159 Ibid., 22.
160 Ibid., 29.
161 Ibid., 20.
162 Ibid., 30–31.
163 Ibid., 32–33.

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Don Bosco’s actions at a time of enthusiasm around the Saint’s beatification and while
witnesses from the first generations were still alive. The aim of demonstrating that Don
Bosco was guided by God yet knew how to adapt to situations seems clear. Once the
two complementary aspects of “inspirations” and “circumstances” have been clarified,
the conclusion follows that it is necessary to do as Don Bosco did. The limitations of
this publication are also quite evident. The biographical notes on Don Bosco focus on
the first thirty years of his life and end with the foundation of the Oratory which is
“the living book of his method, school and model.”164 The figure of Don Bosco seems
to be both idealised and self-congratulatory: he presumes for example that during the
seminary years Don Bosco already had a clear idea of his whole life’s program.165 The
practical episodes from Don Bosco’s life reported by Fascie tend to illustrate the success
of his educational activity more than to analyse its method, motivations and tools.
The Councillor for Schools picks up many of the issues dear to the Rector Major,
Fr Rinaldi, when he follows the small traditions or the practicality of the educational
method, but some others are missing. In particular, some of Fr Rinaldi’s main balancing
elements are absent, such as fatherliness and union with God. It seems that Fr Fascie
does not aspire to a complete analysis but rather tries to reinforce the leitmotif of the
writing: “that one must ultimately feel alive and continue in one’s responsibility so as to
be able to say with Don Bosco: I have always gone ahead as the Lord inspired me and
circumstances demanded.”166
Bartolomeo Fascie drew up a number of guidelines in his Circulars, following
Cerruti, for the Salesian school called to form good Christians as well as prepare for life:
“The school for us is part of the program of Salesian life as summed up in Don Bosco’s
motto: Da mihi animas caetera tolle […] The school’s roots lie in the practice of the
Christian and religious life [...] Whoever ceases to be Salesian when teaching, just to be
a teacher of merit, would be a bone out of place and we would feel uncomfortable.”167
Practical training, which is the strong point of the Schools Councillor’s approach,
is seen as “the course of study of our pedagogy”, which cannot be learned from books
but in practical life, “the Church, the school, the study, the refectory, the dormitory,
the courtyard, the theatre, the infirmary, the walks, etc. are all from the book of life and
the Salesian tradition and the pages of this book... and it is from these pages that we
must draw, draw and study, living them with affection, a spirit of sacrifice and a humble
and courageous will.”168 To reinforce his view of the importance of practical formation
164 Ibid., 18.
165 Cf. Ibid., 20.
166 Ibid., 34.
167 B. Fascie, Lettera del Consigliere Scolastico, in ACS 5 (1924) 26, 319.
168 Corsi di filosofia e triennio di esercizio pratico, in ACS 5 (1924) 26, 327. Cf. Also the same line of
thinking in Fascie, Del metodo educativo di Don Bosco, 23–24.

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against those who were seeking to shorten the period of practical training, he imagines
the case where practical training might be suppressed:
Our clerics would go directly from the Novitiate to Studentate of Philosophy
and Theology, that is, they would spend seven whole years without any contact
with actual Salesian life and with young people. Then after seven years between
the Novitiate and study they would face what for them would be a completely
new life, no longer having the readiness and the ductility necessary to bend
and adapt to the needs of assistance, the patience of teaching and coexistence
with the students, the often mortifying failures, all the small but necessary
precautions, etc. These things can be learned in the ardour and exuberant
enthusiasm of youth but they are too mortifying later and would overcome the
courage and patience even of those equipped with sufficient good will and a spirit
of sacrifice.169
Cimatti and Don Bosco educatore compared with positivism
Vincenzo Cimatti’s Don Bosco educatore, 1925, is of a very different kind,170 aspiring to a
scientific and rigorous approach to the handling of sources in view of a comparison with
positivistic pedagogy.171 In addition to traditional topics of Salesian education, Cimatti
does not avoid topics considered unusual or problematic in the Salesian world such as
women’s education and sex education. The publication, being a synthesis that the author
had developed over more than ten years, is a mature reflection. In terms of method it goes
beyond Barberis and Fascie, who created collages of different texts, and Cerruti, who
was more focused on formation and the application of principles. Those works were
published in view of the religious and humanistic formation of Salesians as teachers.
Together with Pietro Braido it can be said that Cimatti’s publication is the first study
that goes in the direction of a systematic, critical and scientific reflection on Don Bosco’s
Preventive System.172 Cimatti addressed the implementation of the preventive system
in Italian school regulations through his lessons on pedagogy for teachers, published in
169 B. Fascie, Lettera del Consigliere Scolastico, in ACS 8 (1927) 41, 618.
170 Cf. V. Cimatti, Don Bosco educatore. Contributo alla storia del pensiero e delle istituzioni pedagogiche,
SEI, Turin 1925.
171 Cf. Also contextualised considerations on Cimatti’s work in G. Fedrigotti, Il Sistema preventivo
di Don Bosco nell’interpretazione di Vincenzo Cimatti (1879-1965), LAS, Rome 2003, 77-95.
172 Cf. P. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo di don Bosco, PAS Verlag, Zürich 21964, 33-34.

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three volumes in 1911, and then developed his reflection by tackling a large number of
works, such as published and unpublished ones by Don Bosco, chronicles, biographies,
historical profiles, the Positio for the beatification process and the Bollettino Salesiano.173
From the study of the sources and from the in-depth studies related to teaching at the
teacher preparation course at Valsalice, Turin, a synthesis emerges with a structure that
goes beyond just the opposition between the repressive and preventive systems. It is
therefore not just a gloss or commentary on Don Bosco’s treatise: Cimatti breaks down
the sources, creating a structure of his own in his work:
1. The review of literature (bibliography)
2. The life of John Bosco
3. The concept of education;
4. The educational factors (family, school, civil and religious society, educator, the one
educated, setting);
5. The means of education:
a. physical (gymnastics but this is also where aesthetic education, music, theatre
come in),
b. intellectual (religious instruction, preaching, oratory, day schools, vocational
and agricultural schools)
c. morality
6. The methodical guiding principles contained in the small treatise on the preventive
system
a. the reason-religion-kindness trio as a basis,
b. means for Christian education,
c. means of winning respect and confidence,
d. recreation means to keep students busy;
7. Educational discipline;
8. Restorative and corrective education (disciplinary punishments)
9. Further explorations: sexual pedagogy and the education of women
10. The results of Don Bosco’s educational system
11. Appendices: detailed bibliography (of interest is the chronological list of more than
a hundred of Don Bosco’s publications)
For Cimatti, Don Bosco “in the Christian concept of charity that prevents, and in
the cordial fusion of the educator’s reasonable authority and the student’s reasonable
freedom, brings together earlier good educational theories and practices in a blissful
173 Cf. Cimatti, Don Bosco educatore, 11–27.

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kind of eclecticism.”174 In the introduction, the work contextualises the discussion by
speaking of two schools of pedagogy. The first is a spiritualist pedagogy, which is in
continuity with the classical tradition and conceives of man as a being endowed with
soul and body harmoniously united. The second school is positivistic, which considers
man as matter unfolding in a complex of chemical and physiological phenomena and
proposes an agnostic, physical education ultimately subject to the political regime.175
The author, fully part of the first group of those who graduated in philosophy and
pedagogy from the University of Turin is, however, also a scholar of the natural sciences
and author of many publications in the field of agriculture,176 aiming to reconnect
the culture and tradition of our glorious past with the beautiful positive
achievements of the present. How many more balanced forms of civilisation,
more consonant with the needs of the life of individuals and peoples can come
from study and past educational practices, from the reconciliation of faith with
science, capital with work, culture with professional practice, from a more
heartfelt love of country!177
The same tendency to meld differences to provide a better synthesis is found in
his interpretation of Don Bosco’s life, where he notes “that this man and his work
reflect the material, spiritual and social events of the time on the one hand, and
the work of Providence on the other that is allowed to benefit individuals and the
community through wisdom and love.”178 His attention to the positivistic climate is
a key to understanding the setting of the work. This can be seen in his analysis of
the family and social environment in which Don Bosco was formed; in his attention
to Italian legislation and Salesian regulations; in the precise consideration he gives to
bibliographical sources, in Don Bosco’s relationships with historical figures and, above
all, in the concluding part that deals with the “results” of the Salesian educational system.
There is no lack of criticism of positivism, in which Cimatti declares: “The falsely
scientific pedagogy, which proclaims purely experimental, positive, rational secular
education, independent of and extraneous to all religious beliefs, will be capable of
admiring the evidence of the results obtained with Don Bosco’s educational system,
174 Ibid., 4.
175 Cf. Ibid., 9.
176 Cf. Cimatti’s bibliography in G. Fedrigotti, Il Sistema preventivo di Don Bosco nell’interpretazione di
Vincenzo Cimatti, 188–189 mentioning 436 articles by Cimatti in “Rivista dell’agricoltura”, three
volumes of Lezioni di Agraria and six volumes of the Libro dell’agricoltore all published between
1907 and 1922.
177 Cimatti, Don Bosco educatore, 9.
178 Ibid., 29.

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but it will be unable to penetrate and understand its innermost foundation.”179 Even in
the parts that report the “results of the system,” where the comparison with positivism
is clear, it does not fall into the trap (à la du Boÿs)180 of merely listing growth and
numbers tied to the Congregation’s global expansion, stating that “the figures we could
mention would only freeze the current stage of the work in a dry, vulgar kind of way.”181
According to him, however, the best result in line with Don Bosco’s parameters is the
existence and growth of the Salesian past pupils association: “The pupil who feels the
need to remember his educator, to follow his teachings in everyday life, is certainly the
most beautiful proof of the result in educational terms.”182
In terms of content, in addition to the rich use of Salesian sources,183 Cimatti’s work
offers interesting reflections that reveal a wide horizon of thought, meaningful insights
and a constant attention to educational practice. We will list at least some of them. At
the beginning of his book, Cimatti defines the concept of education for Don Bosco as
“preparation of the pupil for the fullest expression of all the intellectual, moral and social
activity of which he is capable.”184 This departs from Barberis’s Notes (Appunti) in several
points. In addition to a different setting of anthropological coordinates, Cimatti stresses
the role of the exploration of potential, which is more student-centred. Barberis, in line
with Rayneri and Allievo, stresses perfection, instead, as a basic concept that implies
a growth of individual faculties more dependent on the educator’s instructions.185
Cimatti’s emphasis on the active enhancement of the pupil is confirmed further on
by positioning the pupil as the subject of education, the greatest factor in education,
and affirming the need for his full cooperation, when, after the period of childhood, he
becomes capable of discernment.186
179 Ibid., 63.
180 Cf. The structure of A. du Boÿs’ work, Don Bosco e la Pia Società Salesiana, Tip. e Libreria Salesiana,
S. Benigno Canavese 1884 which interprets Don Bosco’s life and educational method through the
development of works and institutions.
181 Ibid., 137.
182 Ibid., 138.
183 Besides the careful bibliography that introduces and concludes the volume, one must note a neglect
of a critical apparatus of notes. Quotations often appear without any indication of the source, as
for example the long quotation on pages 67-73 which indicates Don Bosco as the author but not the
work (it is a passage taken from: J. Bosco, Biographie du jeune Louis Fleury Antoine Colle, Imprimerie
Salésienne, Turin 1882, 22-31).
184 Cimatti, Don Bosco educatore, 54.
185 “pedagogy [...] consists essentially in directing the child to his perfection, developing his faculties as
best as possible”, in Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis (1847-1927). Introduction, critical text and
notes by José Manuel Prellezo. Afterword by Dariusz Grządziel, LAS, Rome 2017, 35.
186 Cf. Cimatti, Don Bosco educatore, 67.

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We see here a shift away from the figure of the Salesian as the only educator and
teacher. Salesian Cooperators are valued, considered as educators who “are involved
in this sublime mission in Salesian Houses among priests, clerics and brothers.”187
Interesting is the note on the effectiveness of Salesian vocational training, which is based
on the “identity of circumstances between the educator and the youngster, who learns
from the Christian worker and trade teacher how he will be able to live as a worker
and as a Christian.”188 Cimatti is in line with the educational, instructional, religious
approach of Salesian schools offered by Cerruti, providing some insights in this regard:
“So on the one hand Don Bosco’s basic problem – souls to be saved – and on the other
hand a technical, didactic, economic and social problem.”189 According to Cimatti, the
connection between the two areas takes place at the didactic level: “Religion must be
the soul that gives life to the curriculum. Therefore, the teacher must derive concepts,
moral and religious maxims from every subject of study which educate the heart
while instructing the mind. (The following are suitable for this purpose: propositions,
exercises, outlines, composition topics, oral or written exercises, etc.; comparing deeds
of fortitude, prudence, etc.).”190 In addition to various educational and didactic means,
Cimatti deals in part with recreation and, an innovative item, with ways of earning the
respect and trust of students.191
With regard to “system”, Cimatti interprets it as the educator’s “way of behaving”
with the young person.192 This way, the preventive system is not a teaching method or
a study arrangement similar to the Jesuit Ratio or De la Salle’s Condotta, and the most
systematic part is to be found in the “regulations of the houses in which, in the form of
advice, educational norms are determined which have points of contact with the works
indicated, and which, especially for the disciplinary part, would lend themselves to an
187 Ibid., 64. Cimatti’s experience in the St Aloysius Oratory in Turin from 1912 to 1917 was more open
to educational collaboration with the laity. Cf. Fedrigotti, Il Sistema preventivo di Don Bosco nell’
interpretazione di Vincenzo Cimatti, 50–64.
188 Cimatti, Don Bosco educatore, 66.
189 Ibid., 93.
190 Ibid., 95.
191 Cf. Ibid., 117–123.
192 Cimatti refers to Don Bosco’s statements about the non-systematic nature of his thought and importance
of concrete circumstances and inner inspirations: “You want me to explain my system? But even
I don’t know what it is! I have always gone ahead without systems, as the Lord inspired me and
circumstances demanded.” NB: Italics are ours and an addition to Don Bosco Educatore not found in
the Memorie Biografiche, vol 18, 126.

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interesting comparative study with Franckian instructions.”193 Finally, in the concluding
summary that answers the questions posed at the beginning of the work, Cimatti affirms
Don Bosco’s greatness in terms of healthy eclecticism in the light of prevenient Christian
charity:
Can it be said that Don Bosco is a leader in the field of education and deserves to
occupy an honourable place in the history of education? I answer: Don Bosco is a
great leader and founder, and he lives on in his sons and his students. He occupies
an honourable place among the eminent group of nineteenth century Italian
educationalists our country is honoured by; he is a continuer of the glorious
traditional spiritualistic school, and with admirable and healthy eclecticism
he synthesises previous educational theories and practices in his concept of
prevenient Christian charity, in the cordial and intimate fusion of the educator’s
reasonable authority and the student’s reasonable freedom on the basis of the
Catholic religion.194
Francophone reflections: Scaloni and Auffray
We discover two significant French-speaking Salesian writers with a pedagogical interest.195
Francesco Scaloni (1861-1926),196 Provincial in Belgium for a number of years and also
in England, published Le Jeune éducateur chrétien. Manuel pédagogique selon la pensée
du Ven. don Bosco, a pedagogical handbook for young confreres which is of interest
due to its innovative and systematic approach. The book was recommended by the
Schools Councillor, Francesco Cerruti, hoping it would become better known and
193 Cf. Cimatti, Don Bosco educatore, 114–115. By “Franckian instruction” Cimatti is probably referring
to August Hermann Francke, a German Protestant educationalist who lived between 1663 and 1727.
His Franckesche Stiftungen institutions included an orphanage, an apothecary’s shop, a printing house,
schools for girls and boys from the poorest classes and various institutions for theological students. Cf.
M. Brecht (ed.), August Hermann Francke und der Hallische Pietismus, in Geschichte des Pietismus,
vol. 1, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, 439–539.
194 Cimatti, Don Bosco educatore, 138–139.
195 Salesian historian José Manuel Prellezo considers the French-speaking environment more stimulating
at the pedagogical level. In fact, many direct and indirect influences on Don Bosco’s educational
thinking came from France. We can note, for example, the concept of “system”; Bishop Doupanloup’s
ideas on the “preventive system”; the Lasallian influences, especially those of Brothers Agathon and
Théoger; comparison with the naturalist pedagogy of Rousseau or with Jansenism pedagogy. Cf. Braido,
Prevenire non reprimere, 63-119 and J.M. Prellezo, Studio e riflessione pedagogica nella Congregazione
Salesiana 1874-1941. Note per la storia, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 7 (1988) 1, 75.
196 Scaloni also influenced the Programma scolastico per le scuole di artigiani della Pia Società Salesiana
in 1903 which took into account the programs he saw to for vocational schools in Belgium.

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disseminated.197 Une méthode d’éducation, written by Augustin Auffray, editor of the
French Salesian Bulletin, is significant for its impact and widespread dissemination.
Francesco Scaloni completes and in some sense inverts Barberis’ manual in his
handbook. His reflection on the different features of the “nature of youth”, that Barberis
had omitted in his Appunti, was used by Scaloni instead as a point of departure in
continuity with Allievo’s thought on the matter. The discussion of character, “which is
a typical imprint, resulting from a combination of natural tendencies, hereditary defects,
passions, and habits”,198 develops a diversified scenario of educational problems that
serves as a concrete introduction to the proposals of the second part, more specifically
Salesian pedagogy.
In the first part, with a certain “child-centric” sensitivity,199 Scaloni bases himself
on Redemptorist Paulin Lejeune’s treatment of passions,200 and on character studies
by Jean Guilbert201 and especially on the substantial work on psychology from a
neo-Thomist perspective by Cardinal Désiré Mercier, primate of Belgium.202 References
to Quintilian, Doupanloup, Bossuet and other authors also appear. The choice of the
first part on philosophical psychology allows Scaloni to develop a diversified approach
towards young people with different temperaments (sanguine, melancholic, choleric and
phlegmatic).203 As well as differences according to temperament, Scaloni lists more than
150 character attributes divided into three subgroups of good, ordinary and difficult.
His anthropological model is enriched by eleven passions to be watched over, guided,
moderated, encouraged through various educational means. The psychological part
ends with the chapter on weaknesses and their correction through self-knowledge and
education to form a well-disposed, good and strong will.
The second part reports on Don Bosco’s treatise on the Preventive System and
expresses it through advice for young confreres on education in general, the teaching
197 Cf. Durando Cerruti (29 January 1910), in F. Cerruti, Lettere circolari e programmi di Insegnamento
(1885-1917). Introduction, critical texts and notes by José Manuel Prellezo, LAS, Rome 2006, 55.
198 F. Scaloni, Le jeune éducateur chrétien. Manuel pédagogique selon la pensée du Ven. don Bosco,
Société Industrielle d’Arts et Métiers, Liége 1917, 30.
199 Cf. G. Chiosso, Educazione e pedagogia nel primo Novecento, in Istituto Storico Salesiano –
Centro Studi Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice (eds.), Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla
metà del secolo XX, vol. 1: Relazioni,164.
200 Cf. P. Lejeune, Les Passions. Traité pratique, Desclée de Brouwer, Lille 1905.
201 Cf. J. Guilbert, Le caractère. Définition, importance, idéal, origine, classification, formation, J. de
Gigord, Paris 1914.
202 Cf. D. J. Mercier, Psychologie, Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, Louvain 1908.
203 Cf. Scaloni, Le jeune éducateur chrétien, 7–9.

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of the catechism, teaching method and assistance. Scaloni offers a good summary of
Salesian documents based above all on the Regolamenti per le case della Società di S. F. di
Sales, the Constitutions, Don Bosco and Fr Rua’s circular letters, illustrated with various
quotes from the Memorie Biografiche.
Scaloni’s true innovative contribution, it seems to us, lies in the first part that
rearranges the traditional Salesian perspective by seriously considering the psychological
differences of the young. The extent of perspective appears above all in the paragraphs
that deal with applications, that is, the corrections of weaknesses, emphasising the
advantages and the farsightedness of Don Bosco’s educational choices. The diversity
of temperaments establishes a starting point for the necessity of different educational
approaches and the important distinction between natural and moral weakness helps
the educator to go beyond an exclusively ethical-moral logic.204 Scaloni surpasses the
moralistic severity, but his discourse does not stop here; the author also insists on the
need to go beyond the disciplinary rigidity of the boarding school environment that
“enormously” weakens the responsibility of students. Here are some considerations that
represent an important bridge between the psychological part and the second Salesian
part of the handbook:
In a boarding school, the young person is formed outside of the realities of life;
he is not accustomed to finding himself prey to the thousands of difficulties
he will encounter on the threshold of boarding school. Salesian education to
a great extent eliminates the disadvantages produced by closed schools in view
of the formation of strong characters. This system, as familiar as possible, does
not suppress the children’s will, does not destroy their individual initiative;
it supports the natural weakness of the child, but does not bind him despite
himself to the fulfilment of duty. In the Salesian system, well understood and
well applied, the child becomes virtuous because he wants to be. But as soon as
the young person’s will acts freely, he acquires new energy every day. [...] Let us
convince ourselves that we have done nothing lasting if we have not succeeded in
forming young people of character, endowed with a strong, energetic, generous
will. With such a will, and aided by the grace of God, our young people will
be able to make good use of their temperament, form a happy and pleasing
character, govern their passions, correct their faults, be the consolation and
support of their parents, the adornment of society and the defenders of the
Church.205
204 Cf. Ibid., 134–135.
205 Ibid., 145–148.

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In the 1920s, Augustin Auffray (1881-1955) brought together his articles on
Salesian education that had first appeared in the Bollettino Salesiano. Une méthode
d’éducation takes up the subjects of freedom, authority, joy and piety in education,
around which it groups the characteristics of Salesian education. Its more discursive
and persuasive style does not highlight systematisation, comparisons, or raise issues that
would require further clarification. For Auffray, the preventive system is the middle way,
“a monument of noble unity in which heart and reason, authority and freedom are
balanced in constant harmony.”206 The balance of Salesian education is contextualised
in anthropological terms in the chapter on original sin, between the Jansenism of Pascal
and the naturalism of Rousseau. The book concludes by stating the principle nihil novi
sub sole, fitting Salesian education into the current of Catholic pedagogy. Auffray quotes
from St Benedict, St Anselm, St Francis de Sales, Fénelon, Newman, and Doupanloup.
Also included are several excerpts from L’Enfant et la Vie by Henri Brémond, who makes
educational applications starting from biblical episodes. The work concludes finally with
General de Castelnau’s advice to young soldiers (omitted in the Italian translation).
In addition to the diversity of style and cultural climate, in the above-mentioned
publications some linguistic emphases emerge that are linked to problems of translation.
For example, the concept of loving-kindness is rendered by Auffray with the expression
“Christian tenderness”,207 while Scaloni uses the simple term bontà, which is kind and
fatherly but also persuasive.208
206 Cf. A. Auffray, Une méthode d’éducation, Procure des Oeuvres et Missions du Vénerable don
Bosco, Paris 1924, 101.
207 Cf. Ibid., 18.
208 Cf. Scaloni, Le jeune éducateur chrétien, 166–168.

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Tools and resources
Chronological table

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
Select bibliography
Albera P., L’XI Capitolo Generale - Elezione del nuovo Rettor Maggiore - In udienza dal
Papa Pio X - Programma da lui tracciato - Notizie varie. Letter of 25 January
1911, in Lettere circolari di D. Paolo Albera, 7-21.
Albera P., Sullo spirito di pietà . Letter of 15 May 1911, in Lettere circolari di D. Paolo
Albera, 24-40.
Albera P., Sulla disciplina religiosa. Letter of 25 December 1911, in Lettere circolari di
D. Paolo Albera, 53-77.
Albera P., Contro una riprovevole “legalità”. Letter of 25 June 1917, in Lettere circolari
di D. Paolo Albera, 231-241.
Albera P., Per l’inaugurazione del Monumento al Venerabile D. Bosco. Letter of 6 April
1920, in Lettere circolari di D. Paolo Albera, 308-318.
Albera P., Don Bosco nostro modello nell’acquisto della perfezione religiosa, nell’educare
e santificare la gioventù, nel trattare col prossimo e nel far del bene a tutti. Letter
of 18 October 1920, in Lettere circolari di D. Paolo Albera, 329-350.
Albera P. – Gusmano C., Lettere a don Giulio Barberis durante la loro visita alle
case d’America (1900-1903), Introduction, critical text and notes by Brenno
Casali, LAS, Rome 2000.
Albisetti C. – Ravagnan O.M., Tradução/Translation a Aldeia Bororo, in “Perspectivas”
(1992), 145-157.
Auffray A., Une méthode d’éducation, Procure des Oeuvres et Missions du Vénerable
don Bosco, Paris 1924.
Auffray A., Les missions salésiennes, Oeuvres et Missions Don Bosco, Lyon – Fontanières,
1936.
Barberis G., Il direttore spirituale, in ACS 1 (1920) 2, 37-39.
Boenzi J., Paolo Albera’s Instructions. Early Efforts to Inculcate the Spirit of Don Bosco,
in “Journal of Salesian Studies” 13 (2005) 2, 106-111.
Boenzi J., Reconstructing don Albera’s reading list, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 33
(2014) 63, 203-272.
Bordignon B., I salesiani come religiosi-educatori. Figure e ruoli all’interno della casa
salesiana, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 31 (2012) 58, 65-121.

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Botasso J., Los salesianos y la educación de los Shuar 1893-1920. Mirando más allá de
los fracasos y los éxitos, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal
1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 237-249.
Braido P., L’oratorio salesiano in Italia, “luogo” propizio alla catechesi nella stagione dei
Congressi (1888-1915), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 24 (2005) 46, 7-88.
Braido P., L’oratorio salesiano vivo in un decennio drammatico (1913-1922), in
“Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 24 (2005) 47, 211-267.
Braido P., L’oratorio salesiano in Italia e la catechesi in un contesto socio-politico inedito
(1922-1943), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 25 (2006) 48, 7-100.
Braido P., Per una storia dell’educazione giovanile nell’oratorio dell’Italia contemporanea.
L’esperienza salesiana., LAS, Rome 2018.
Caimi L., Il contributo educativo degli oratori e dell’associazionismo giovanile dall’Unità
nazionale alla prima guerra mondiale, in L. Pazzaglia (ed.), Cattolici,
educazione e trasformazioni socio-culturali in Italia tra Otto e Novecento, La
Scuola, Brescia 1999, 629-696.
Casella F., Il Mezzogiorno d’Italia e le istituzioni educative salesiane. Richieste e
Fondazioni (1879-1922) Fonti per lo studio, LAS, Rome 2000.
Casella F., I salesiani e la “Pia Casa Arcivescovile” per i sordomuti di Napoli
(1909-1975), LAS, Rome 2002.
Ceria E., Annali della Società Salesiana, vol. 4: Il rettorato di don Paolo Albera
1910-1921, SEI, Turin 1951.
Ceria E., Don Bosco con Dio, SDB, Rome 1988.
Chiosso G., Educazione e pedagogia nel primo Novecento, in Istituto Storico
Salesiano – Centro Studi Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice (eds.),Sviluppo
del carisma di Don Bosco, vol. 1, 155-186.
Chiosso G., Educazione e pedagogia nelle pagine del «Bollettino salesiano» d’inizio
Novecento, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al
1922, vol. 1, 95-133.
Cimatti V., Don Bosco educatore. Contributo alla storia del pensiero e delle istituzioni
pedagogiche, SEI, Turin 1925.
Cimatti V., Le difficoltà per l’azione missionaria in Giappone, in “Bollettino Salesiano”
56 (1932) 7, 213-215.
Cimatti V., L’Oratorio di Don Bosco, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 57 (1933) 10, 303-307.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
Cimatti V., Lettere di un missionario, ed. A. Crevacore, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1976.
Dalcerri L., Un maestro di vita interiore don Filippo Rinaldi, Istituto FMA, Rome
1990.
Dickson W.J., Prevention or repression. The reception of don Bosco’s educational approach
in English Salesian Schools, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana
dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 215-236.
Farina R., Contributi scientifici delle missioni salesiane del Brasile, in C. Semeraro
(ed.), Don Bosco e Brasilia. Profezia, realtà sociale e diritto, Cedam, Padua
1990, 154-160.
Fascie B., Del metodo educativo di Don Bosco, SEI, Turin 1927.
Fedrigotti G., Il Sistema preventivo di Don Bosco nell’interpretazione di Vincenzo
Cimatti (1879-1965), LAS, Rome 2003.
Giacone A., Trentacinque anni fra le tribù del Rio Uapés. Diari e Memorie 1, LAS,
Rome 1976.
Ginobili E. – Carlone L., La construcción de la educación integral de la mujer en la
Patagonia por las FMA (1880-1922): núcleo multiplicador del evangelio, in
González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 9-26.
Giraudo, A., Linee portanti dell’animazione spirituale della Congregazione salesiana
da parte della direzione generale tra 1880 e 1921, in “Ricerche Storiche
Salesiane” 23 (2004) 44, 65-97.
González J.G. – Loparco G. – Motto F. – Zimniak S. (eds.), L’educazione
salesiana dal 1880 al 1922. Istanze ed attuazioni in diversi contesti. Acts of the
4th International Conference on the History of the Salesian Work Ciudad de
México, 12-18 February 2006, 2. vols., LAS, Rome 2007.
I Congressi delle Compagnie religiose, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 55 (1931) 8, 230-232.
Istituto Storico Salesiano – Centro Studi Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice
(eds.), Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla metà del secolo XX. Acts
of the International Congress of Salesian History (In the Bicentenary of the
Birth of Don Bosco), Rome 19-23 November 2014 edited by Aldo Giraudo
et al., 2 vols., LAS, Rome 2016.
J. Borrego, La Patagonia e le terre australi del continente americano [pel] sac. Giovanni
Bosco. Introducción por Jesús Borrego, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 13
(1988) 7, 255-442.

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139
Jerace M., Gli sports nella scienza e nell’educazione, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 30 (1906)
12, 364-365.
Kapplikunnel M., Their life for youth. History and Relevance of the Early Salesian
Presence in India (Tanjore and Mylapore, 1906-1928), Kristu Jyoti Publications,
Bangalore 1989.
Kapplikunnel M., The implantation of the salesian charism in the Region: ideals,
challenges, answers and results. ACSSA Seminar, Batulao (Manila, Philippines)
24-28 November 2008, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 27 (2008) 52,
418-422.
Lettere circolari di D. Paolo Albera ai Salesiani, SEI, Turin 1922.
Manuale direttivo degli Oratorii Festivi e delle Scuole di Religione. Echo of the Congress
of these institutions held in Turin on 21 and 22 May 1902, Scuola Tipografica
Salesiana, S. Benigno Canavese 1903.
Mazzarello M.L., Sulle frontiere dell’educazione. Maddalena Morano in Sicilia
(1881-1908), LAS, Rome 1995.
Negrotti S., Los exploradores argentinos de don Bosco: orígenes y pedagogía de
una experiencia juvenil salesiana argentina, in González et al. (eds.),
L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922., vol. 2, 27-50.
Nicoletti M.A., La polémica en torno a la educación salesiana y la educación estatal en
la Patagonia (1880-1920), in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana
dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 51-72.
Ortega Torres J.J., La Obra salesiana en los lazaretos, Escuelas Gráficas Salesianas,
Bogotá 1938.
Pericoli P., Il 1° Convegno Sportivo Cattolico Italiano, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 29
(1905) 11, 326-328.
Prellezo J.M., Studio e riflessione pedagogica nella Congregazione Salesiana 1874-1941.
Note per la storia, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 7 (1988) 12, 35-88.
Prellezo, J.M., Linee pedagogiche della Società Salesiana nel periodo 1880-1922.
Approccio ai documenti, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 23 (2004) 44,
99-162.
Rinaldi F., Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 3 (1922) 14, 3-8.
Rinaldi F., Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 3 (1923) 20, 93-108.
Rinaldi F., Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 5 (1924) 23, 174-203.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
Rinaldi F., Giubilei d’oro della Pia Unione dei Cooperatori Salesiani e della Pia Opera
di Maria Ausiliatrice, in ACS 7 (1927) 33, 428-433.
Rinaldi F., Resoconto del convegno tenutosi dai Direttori degli Oratori festivi d’Europa
a Valsalice dal 27 al 30 agosto 1927, in ACS 8 (1927) 41, 609-611.
Rinaldi F., Pel XIII Capitolo Generale, in ACS 10 (1929) 47, 709-718.
Rinaldi F., Motivi di apostolato e di perfezionamento per il 1931, in ACS 11 (1930) 55,
913-924.
Rinaldi F., Norme e programma per le Giornate e i Congressi delle Compagnie Religiose,
che avranno luogo nelle Case e Ispettorie Salesiane durante l’anno 1931, in ACS
11 (1930) 55bis, 2-4.
Rinaldi F., Conserviamo e pratichiamo le nostre tradizioni, in ACS 12 (1931) 56,
933-949.
Scaloni F., Le jeune éducateur chrétien. Manuel pédagogique selon la pensée du Ven. don
Bosco, Société Industrielle d’Arts et Métiers, Liége 1917.
Simplicio D., Gli oratori festivi. Lettera aperta agli amanti della gioventù, in
“Bollettino Salesiano” 27 (1903) 1, 12-13.
Simplicio D., Gli oratori festivi. Lettera aperta agli amanti della gioventù, in
“Bollettino Salesiano” 27 (1903) 12, 355-356.
Tassani G., L’oratorio, in M. Isnenghi (ed.), I luoghi della memoria. Simboli e miti
dell’Italia unita, Laterza, Rome-Bari 1996, 67-91.
Temi trattati nel XIII Capitolo Generale, in ACS 10 (1929) 50, 805-823.
Uffizio sotto-agenzia per gl’interessi giovanili economico-sociali, in “Bollettino Salesiano”
33 (1909) 12, 365-366.
Valentini E., Don Rinaldi. Maestro di pedagogia e di spiritualità salesiana, Crocetta
– Istituto Internazionale D. Bosco, Turin 1959.
Verhulst M., L’éducation des Salésiens au Congo Belge de 1912 a 1925. 13 ans
de recherche et d’expérimentation, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione
salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 447-466.
Zimniak S., Salesiani nella Mitteleuropa. Preistoria e storia della provincia Austro-Ungarica
della Società di S. Francesco di Sales (1868 ca.-1919), LAS, Rome 1997.

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Online resources
Sources, documents, research, full-text publications, photographic materials, related to
this chapter.209
209 Cf. salesian.online/pedagogia2

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3
Adverse times call for
disciplined fidelity (1929–1951)
Various internal and external elements contributed to the evolution of the Salesian
mentality during the period that ideally began in 1929 with Don Bosco’s beatification.
In addition to the enthusiasm for the event, new factors came into play. The Concordat
between Italy and the Holy See was drawn up that year, bringing the “Roman question”
to a conclusion, while the Fascist Government progressed in its military expansion, and
in the State, education was standardised around the idea of a “new youth”. If, in the
previous period, concern about adaptation in practical matters seemed to predominate
in the mentality of the superiors (things like Salesian groups or the development of
missions), the central concern during Fr Peter Ricaldone’s term of office as Rector
Major was to safeguard Salesian works in Italy from excessive interference by the now
consolidated and increasingly totalitarian fascist regime.1 The price that had to be paid
was to limit educational activities to the fields of religion and catechetics, abandoning
the marked social emphasis of the previous three decades and helping to create a more
closed and defensive mentality.
And it wasn’t just Italy that was going through times of adversity. The first difficult
experiences began with the secularist persecutions of the early twentieth century in
Ecuador, France, Mexico, and Spain during the Second Republic. Then followed the
years of armed conflicts (the two World Wars, the Spanish civil war), confrontation with
totalitarian governments of different types in Italy, Germany and China, and coexistence
with authoritarian regimes.2 Central Europe at the time shifted from the authoritarian
1 The term originates with Giovanni Amendola, who used it in reference to Italian fascism in 1923 in “Il
Mondo”.
2 Cf. S. Zimniak – G. Loparco (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa negli anni difficili del XX secolo.
Acts of the European Seminar on the History of the Salesian Work Krakow, 31 October - 4 November
2007, LAS, Rome 2008.

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politics of the 1930s to the different totalitarian governments of the 1940s, influencing
the history of the region up to the present day. In 1951, at the end of his term of
office, Fr Peter Ricaldone recalled the price paid by the Salesian Congregation with 1900
confreres “overwhelmed by the storm”: deported, exiled, incarcerated or locked up in
concentration camps.3
The boarding school “as an island of prevention”
The mindset created by these “difficult times” had many cultural, pedagogical,
educational and organisational facets to it. Confrontation with an opposing force
generally played out through a combination of opposition, compromise and explicit
or implicit agreement.4 When interaction with adversity and operating modes occurs
over an extended period of time and is internalised, we can already speak of a change of
mindset. The equilibrium created during Fr Rinaldi’s time, in the direction of healthy
modernity, experience, fatherliness, adaptation and narrative pedagogy, seems not to
have been enough, and Peter Ricaldone opted from the outset, from his first letter,5
for a more decisive, well-motivated, concrete and militant approach to governing. An
exemplary project along these lines was the “catechetical crusade” launched during
the Second World War on the occasion of the centenary of the first Salesian oratory.
Before analysing the Salesian mentality, however, it is appropriate to record some of
the characteristics of totalitarian regimes in the field of education and pedagogy and the
general reactions to these at the ecclesiastical level.
Authoritarian and totalitarian regimes educating the “new man”
The aftermath of World War I dealt a first major blow to the political credibility of
Western liberal democracy. In addition, the great economic depression that began in
3 Cf.P. Ricaldone, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 30 (1950) 161, 10 and Id., Lettera del Rettor
Maggiore, in ACS 31 (1951) 165, 5-6.
4 Some more radical historical cases do not fit into the proposed scheme because fierce persecution did not
allow any co-existence, and the presence of the Salesians disappeared (Soviet Union and China). Cf.
Zimniak – Loparco (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa negli anni difficili and M. Wirth, Da
Don Bosco ai nostri giorni. Tra storia e nuove sfide (1815–2000), LAS, Rome 2000, 283-296; 381-393.
5 Cf. P. Ricaldone, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 13 (1932) 58, 2-5.

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1929 and the subsequent slow recovery of market-fuelled doubts about the efficiency of
the current economic model. Add to this the sense of oppression and anonymity within
mass society, and the fascination exercised by authoritarian models of government is
understandable. The working classes reluctantly bowed to authoritarian and totalitarian
regimes, but society’s middle class adhered to authoritarianism much more willingly.
To young people in search of adventure, and intellectuals in need of certainty, and the
petty bourgeois disillusioned by democracy and a free market economy, the authoritarian
regime seemed a new and exciting prospect. The identity of the regime was inspired
either by a glorious past (the Roman Empire, the first German Empire interpreted
through the Niebelungen myth) or by an ideal future (egalitarian communist society).
Generally, a public enemy was found to serve as justification and an outlet for aggression,
and the techniques and tools of mass society, such as the new social communications
media (radio, cinema) and associations, especially those of young people, were effectively
exploited.6 It should also be noted that while there was at least a formal respect for
religion and its manifestations in fascism, in nazism the system was attributable to forms
of neo-pagan religiosity, while in communism the ideology was explicitly atheistic and
materialistic.
Totalitarianism in Russia, Italy, Germany and later in Central Europe had
considerable consequences for school and youth policies. Both right- and left-wing
totalitarian governments aspired to create the new man, a prerequisite and consequence
of the new social and political order. The underlying ideology was obviously different:
naturalistic and nationalistic vitalism on the one hand, or materialistic communism
on the other, but the operational and practical methods were similar and could
be traced back to totalitarianism.7 Gianni Oliva, summarising research by Hannah
Arendt, Raymond Aron and Zbigniew Brzezinski, lists the common characteristics
of a totalitarian state: 1. Concentration of power in the hands of an unbending and
politically irresponsible oligarchy; 2. The imposition of an official ideology; 3. Presence
of a single mass party; 4. Control of police forces operating in the state and use of terror;
5. Control of communication and information.8
From the point of view of Salesian education, the major difference in different
regimes consisted in the degree of totalisation they implemented and in the type of
6 Cf. G. Sabatucci – V. Vidotto, Il mondo contemporaneo. Dal 1848 a oggi, Laterza, Rome-Bari 2005,
347-360.
7 Although the ideologies adopted were different, the mechanisms, processes, and structures of power
were very similar. The most telling sign is the mutual inspiration among totalitarian leaders. Cf. P.
Johnson, Modern Times. The World from the Twenties to the Nineties, Harper Collins, New York
1991, 49-103.
8 Cf. G. Oliva, Le tre Italie del 1943, Mondadori, Milan 2004.

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relationship they had with ecclesiastical institutions, not so much in the kind of ideology
they adopted. In this regard, the greatest influence was determined by the coexistence
with the Mussolini regime because of the obvious “Italian-ness” of the Congregation of
the first generations and because of its strategy of conciliation with the Holy See. The
education of youth was an area of natural friction between the Church and totalitarian
regimes, and in fact, what stood out in the totalitarian regimes was the interest in
education of a “new youth” to be shaped not only thanks to the school as a function
of the totalitarian State, but also to be included in youth organisations with formation
proposals for leisure time. The ideal of fascist education was a young person full of energy
with heroic moral qualities in view of a bright national future. The “new spirit” lay “in
the passion for action, the mystical sense of duty, dedication to the cause to the point of
supreme sacrifice, the cult of power, the unlimited confidence in the possibility of man
to make an indelible mark on history.”9
Already in 1923, the Minister of Education in the Mussolini government, Giovanni
Gentile, had introduced a reform of the school system. Education was subject to the
state and was inspired by Italian idealism and the identification of continuity between
Mussolini’s state and Rome’s ancient history. The curriculum almost exclusively
involved the humanities, while the natural sciences were classified as being of little
use. Private and Catholic schools continued, but were subject to strict controls. In
accordance with the Concordat between Italy and the Vatican State, an hour of religion
was also included in the elementary school curriculum as a compulsory subject. In
middle school, teachers had freedom to choose textbooks, which still had to be faithful
to the principles of the regime. The schools and universities were under the control of
the fascist student organisations that watched over the political loyalty of teachers.
Education was integrated with the activities of fascist youth organisations, especially
the Opera Nazionale Balilla. In the second half of the ‘20s, the range of activity of other
organisations was drastically reduced or they were shut down by the State. The only
Catholic youth organisation to survive from 1931 onwards was Catholic Action, even
if at the cost of renouncing political, social and trade union commitments and carrying
out only religious and spiritual formation activities.10
9 L. La Rovere, Rifare gli Italiani: l’esperimento di creazione dell’“uomo nuovo” nel regime fascista, in
Istituto Storico Salesiano – Centro Studi Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, Sviluppo del carisma
di Don Bosco fino alla metà del secolo XX. Acts of the International Congress of Salesian History Rome,
November 19-23, 2014 edited by. A. Giraudo et al., vol. 1: Relazioni, LAS, Rome, 2016, 169.
10 Cf. G. Chiosso, Educazione e pedagogia nel primo Novecento, in Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco
fino alla metà del secolo XX, vol. 1, 168-170.

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The Church’s educational mission and Divini Illius Magistri
The Church reacted to these totalitarian pressures by the state, including through
interventions by the Magisterium. A milestone in the field of education was Pius XI’s
Encyclical Divini Illius Magistri published in 1929, which was in continuity with the
teaching of his predecessors. Already in Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII had urged that a
Catholic school system be built up in response to the secularisation of the public school.
Pope Benedict XV, in his Apostolic Letter Communes Litteras and in the Code of Canon
Law, defined the norms of religious education and the education of children, pointed out
the fundamental rights and duties of the Church and the family in Christian education,
emphasised the importance of catechetics in elementary schools and explained the
Church’s right to establish its own schools of every order and grade.
Pope Pius XI’s encyclical offered a basic document for Catholic education in the
period between the two World Wars, rejecting secular pedagogical naturalism and
affirming the right to education of both the family and the Church, against the
centralising tendencies of the State. The encyclical provided a starting point for its
proposals:
Indeed never has there been so much discussion about education as nowadays;
never have exponents of new pedagogical theories been so numerous, or so many
methods and means devised, proposed and debated, not merely to facilitate
education, but to create a new system infallibly efficacious, and capable of
preparing the present generations for that earthly happiness which they so
ardently desire […] It is therefore as important to make no mistake in education,
as it is to make no mistake in the pursuit of the last end, with which the whole
work of education is intimately and necessarily connected.11
The encyclical proposed a neo-Thomistic structure with many references to Leo
XIII, expounding the principle that true education goes beyond the natural order and
is entirely ordered to the ultimate goal positioned in the order of grace: “since God has
revealed Himself to us in the Person of His Only Begotten Son, who alone is ‘the way,
the truth and the life,’ there can be no ideally perfect education which is not Christian
education.”12 In the debate against totalitarianism, it is interesting to note Pius XI’s
reference to the educational system of the United States of America, praised for its
respect for the role of the family.13
11 Cf. Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri, in AAS 22 (1930) 49-86.
12 Ibid., 51
13 Cf. U.S. Supreme Court Decision in the Oregon School Cases, in Ibid., 61.

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Although the encyclical spoke out against activism, naturalism, liberalism, militarism,
athleticism, sex education, and coeducation, it did not merely lock itself into the order of
grace, sacraments, and catechetics. Referring to Catholic schools, Catholic Action and
other associations, Pius XI stated that
This educational environment of the Church embraces the Sacraments, divinely
efficacious means of grace, the sacred ritual, so wonderfully instructive, and
the material fabric of her churches, whose liturgy and art have an immense
educational value; but it also includes the great number and variety of schools,
associations and institutions of all kinds, established for the training of youth in
Christian piety, together with literature and the sciences, not omitting recreation
and physical culture.14
Following the encyclical, in the 1930s we can see an increase in the reflections on
Catholic pedagogy by authors such as Maritain, De Hovre and Dévaud, while Mario
Casotti of the Catholic University and Jesuit Mario Barbera were especially important
in Italy. In Casotti’s approach, the role of Don Bosco’s kindness and preventive method
also appears alongside St Francis of Assisi’s tribute to nature. The central role of
boarding schools run by religious orders was presented as one of the pillars of the activist
inspiration of the Catholic educational tradition.15 From his perspective it was not only
possible to go “against”; it was also necessary to go “forward”, and the Salesians, too, did
not have to “lag behind”. In fact, that same year Casotti criticised the Salesians for not
having viewed Don Bosco’s work within the framework of the history of education and
pedagogy and for not having related it to the problems of contemporary teaching.16
This Catholic University educationalist did not just stop at criticism. He wrote a
full-bodied introduction to the Metodo Preventivo,17 locating Don Bosco within the
history of pedagogy. Basing himself on the arguments of Förster and Lambruschini, and
in opposition to Rousseau’s naturalism, he presented Don Bosco as being in tune with
Catholic pedagogy that was in partial harmony with Locke, Kant and Fröbel.18 Casotti
14 Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri, 75-76.
15 Cf. M. Casotti, Educazione “nuova”, in “Supplemento pedagogico a Scuola Italiana Moderna” 43
(1933) 10, 2-5.
16 Cf. M. Casotti, Il metodo educativo di don Bosco, in Chiosso, Educazione e pedagogia nel primo
Novecento, 167.
17 Cf. M. Casotti, La pedagogia di S. Giovanni Bosco, inG. Bosco, Il metodo preventivo con testimonianze
e altri scritti educativi inediti, La Scuola, Brescia2 1938, 5-94.
18 Cf. Ibid., 44.

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re-interpreted Don Bosco especially from the point of view of the balance between
freedom and authority achieved through the “method of love”. The author noted an
error of the repressive system in its view of man and of real psychological processes and
instead supported Don Bosco’s Catholic anthropology:
He recalled certain words of St Thomas in his Contra Gentes, where it is said
that Christianity itself did not spread “amorum violentia”, or “voluptatum
promissione”: not with the external violence of weapons, nor with internal
‘violence’ of enticements, but it was the “manifestum divinae inspirationis
opus.” […] It seemed to him that the gratitude inspired by the immense love of
God for man that culminates in the Cross, was precisely the psychological reason
that removed any semblance of arbitrary constraint, however distant.19
His use of the expression “pedagogy of the Gospel” is interesting20 insofar as it
seems that Casotti’s thinking had influenced Ricaldone’s Don Bosco educatore both
in terminology and in the theoretical approach that proposed Don Bosco as an
educationalist, a precursor to active schools within a current of “Catholic pedagogy”
inspired by the Gospel. The most eloquent work of Salesian pedagogy was considered
to be the oratory, like that of St Philip Neri, representing the brilliant contribution to
pedagogy which is neither ancient nor modern but is the only rational and reasonable
pedagogy of all times and places.21 In a paragraph on the soul of the preventive method,
Casotti says with Förster:
“Christianity has also been the greatest of pedagogical events, because for the
first time and in the most universal way it has related every service, every work,
every discipline of man to the innermost life of the personality, and has exalted as
a means for the increase of freedom what before seemed nothing but slavery and
oppression.” Precisely for this reason, if on the one hand pedagogy must rely as
much as possible on the keen “interests” of the pupil, on the other hand, it has
a way of making the pupil discover, even in the most oppressive and unwelcome
actions, a value of genius, by “affecting” the innermost part of the human soul
through obedience and self-work, taken as exercises in which our moral person
is exalted and strengthened.22
19 Casotti, La pedagogia di S. Giovanni Bosco, 26-27.
20 Cf. Ibid., 52.
21 Cf. Ibid., 79.
22 Ibid., 56-57.

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Salesian compromise and balance: Don Bosco’s canonisation
The Salesians interpreted Pius XI’s encyclical on education from a strong assumption
about being guardians of an original educational model that they needed to remain
faithful to. This model outlined by Don Bosco is aimed at forming “good Christians”
and “upright citizens”. Education to citizenship was conceived of as quality vocational
training in preparation for orderly and industrious inclusion in society, rather than
through political participation. Salesian education, both for its supernatural justification
and its Catholic content, was seen as irreducibly alternative to naturalistic pedagogies as
well as to the educational objectives of the new man of a totalitarian stamp.
In the period described above, there is a certain withdrawal into the religious
dimension and catechetics in line with the overall attitude of the Catholic world.
The Bollettino Salesiano was certainly along those lines, pursuing major topics like the
celebration of Don Bosco’s holiness, being close to ordinary folk, the effort to strengthen
the organisation of works, the Cooperators and missionary undertakings. All references
not only to politics, but also to social issues as well disappeared.23
In the early years of the regime, until 1929, the behaviour of the Congregation
was marked by reserve and prudence, all in the name of the clear expression by the
superiors of “not letting others give orders or run our house.” The educational principles
outlined by Don Bosco remained intact, and external compromises did not pollute the
substance of Salesian pedagogy. Indicative of the common feeling about this was the
approach expressed by Fr Antonio Cojazzi in the Rivista dei giovani,24 fully focused on
the formation of Christian fortitude as an alternative to fascist celebration of militarism
and heroism. The essential aspects of this virtue needed to be shaped through the exercise
of will, sacramental life, the apostolate, sensitivity for the missions, and purity. The
magazine, therefore, had shifted far away from any celebration of military heroism,
offering concrete pathways instead through youth groups, gospel groups and also the
successful biography of the exemplary (now Blessed) Pier Giorgio Frassati, a pupil of
Cojazzi’s who died in 1925.25
After 1929, filled with events of fundamental importance (the Concordat between
State and Church on 11 February, Don Bosco’s beatification on 2 June, and on the
23 Cf. Chiosso, Educazione e pedagogia nel primo Novecento, 169-172.
24 The Rivista dei giovani or Youth Magazine was started in 1920 with a clear apologetic intention by a
group of Salesians from the house at Valsalice: Antonio Cojazzi, Vincenzo Cimatti, Sisto Colombo
and others.
25 Cf. A. Cojazzi, Pier Giorgio Frassati. Testimonianze, SEI, Turin 1928.

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last day of the year, the promulgation of the Encyclical Divini Illius Magistri), we
witnessed attempts by fascism to make Don Bosco “an Italian saint […] and the most
Italian of saints”26 and the involvement by young people from the oratories and boarding
schools in the most significant patriotic and fascist anniversaries, but also some real
yielding to certain aspects of school policy that were useful in view of the recognition
of Salesian institutes.27 A partial approach of compromise, conciliation with fascism
was followed by the Salesian Gymnasium magazine, especially in articles by Gian Luigi
Zuretti. The attempt to “Christianise the new fascist man”28 went more in the direction
of finding common ground between two diametrically opposed notions. In an article
on the doctrinal foundations of fascism, Zuretti tried to demonstrate its Christianity by
relying on the fact that no other ideology such as socialism, communism and liberalism
was as respectful of the Church as fascism. The point of contact was found in the
conception of duty: “Duty, elevation, conquest: life must be high and full, lived for
oneself, especially for others near and far, present and future.”29
In the context of diplomatic and managerial balances, the alliance of the Salesians in
Italy with the business world should be recalled, especially between vocational schools
and FIAT in Turin.30 Summing up the concluding thoughts in the earlier-mentioned
contributions of Giorgio Chiosso and Pietro Stella, we could offer a number of points
regarding diplomatic, educational, managerial balances of the Salesians in the years of
fascism, extending them partly to other situations of adversity:
– The strenuous defence of the originality of Don Bosco’s educative method which is
not called into question even in the face of sometimes very strong pressures. In the
most compromising situations there is a sort of parallel coexistence that appears
contradictory today, but which presumably was the maximum possible so as “not to
lose everything.”
– The efforts at consolidation of the works, not only in Italy, by building up ever broader
and more extensive consensus as past pupil involvement gradually grew, both in the
26 This was said in an address by Cesare Maria de Vecchi at the Campidoglio on the day of Don Bosco’s
canonisation. Cf. Gli onori del Campidoglio, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 58 (1934) 6, 185.
27 Cf. Chiosso, Educazione e pedagogia nel primo Novecento, 170-172 and S. Oni, I Salesiani e l’educazione
dei giovani in Piemonte, durante il periodo del fascismo, in Zimniak – Loparco (eds.), L’educazione
salesiana in Europa negli anni difficili, 158-159.
28 Cf. Il decennale della Conciliazione, in “Gymnasium” 7 (1938-9) 9, 205.
29 G.L. Zuretti, Le basi dottrinali del fascismo, in “Gymnasium” 5 (1936-7) 1, 8.
30 Cf. P. Stella, La canonizzazione di don Bosco tra fascismo e universalismo, in F. Traniello (ed.),
Don Bosco nella storia della cultura popolare, SEI, Turin 1987, 365-379.

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public apparatus and among professionals, entrepreneurs, workers in the social and
economic system of the time.
– Persistent belief in the popularity of Salesian education in the twofold sense of
response to the expectations of the working class and of preferred educational
choices such as the centrality of vocational training and investment proposals by the
oratories, despite the limitations imposed by attempts to subject youth education to
the influence of the State.
– The legal and social flexibility with which the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary
Help of Christians were able to make efforts not only to preserve their material assets,
but also to continue to carry out their educational mission. We note the tendency
to create, and not just in Italy, some degree of bond with the dominant system, as
partial, temporary and hypothetical though it may have been.31
The Salesian boarding school – dominant educational paradigm
The oratory, finding it difficult to make proposals for social formation and preparation
for politics, limited itself in the 1930s and 40s to strictly catechetical and recreational
activities and programs. The need for this shift was presented by Fr Ricaldone in his
writings as an “opportunity” to return to the original identity of the oratory – the
catechism lesson. The launching of the Catechetical Crusade (1941) and the founding
of the Libreria Dottrina Cristiana Publishing House created an ideal framework for
opposition to atheism and investment of resources based on the “necessity” of the
catechetical strategy. Other dynamics were underway, however, in the “Salesian boarding
school”, the most widespread and most suitable institution for times of difficulty.
The boarding school, in the structural integration between school and boarding,
provided for the creation of a “complete” institution, also described by Braido as
“total”,32 which managed times and spaces for the young boarders and involved the
alternating of activities: scholastic, religious, sports and recreation, groups, artistic
expression, etc. Since “prevention” within the boarding school setup was interpreted
31 It should be noted that in other totalitarian political systems the attitude of legal, political and social
flexibility did not come about mainly because of the lack of a compatible attitude on the part of the
State. The works were closed and the Salesians continued under persecution, by going into hiding or
by becoming part of parish structures. Cf. the majority of the Salesian experiences studied in Zimniak
– Loparco (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa negli anni difficili.
32 Cf. P. Braido, Prevenire non reprimere. Il sistema educativo di don Bosco, LAS, Rome 2006, 351ff.

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with a strong attitude of closure where the outside world was concerned, the fascist
regime context merely reinforced a tendency that was already there. We only need to
think of the numerous reminders by the superiors already in the first twenty years of the
twentieth century about the danger of relationships with the “outside world”.
The boarding school, a paradigmatic educational structure already in the last twenty
years of Don Bosco’s lifetime, was continued by Salesians in the following years. The
“successful” educational and formative structure that it was, implied a replication of
the past rather than envisaging any qualitative improvement. From the point of view of
numbers, too, we can see how from 1925 to 1955 the number of boarding schools in
the Congregation grew more slowly in percentage than other educational facilities. The
number of boarding schools increased by 81%, while other schools increased by 138%,
oratories by 155% and parishes by 260%. The only category in decline in the thirty years
mentioned were agricultural schools which dropped from 27 in 1925 to 16 in 1955.33
The internal structure of the boarding school and its regulation remained basically the
same as in the previous period. Pietro Stella, in the interpretative context of the crisis
of the post-Vatican II boarding schools, notes the limitations of the boarding school
structure:
The boarding schools, as is understandable, along with the guarantees of greater
solidity, also bore the risks inherent in stabilisation: such as, for example,
stagnation of forces, becoming too inward focused, killing off any pressing
concern that stimulated creativity of works and methods, a certain dullness.34
Some changes in the actual life of the boarding schools
The way an educational structure is set up is mainly influenced by general pedagogical,
legal or economic factors but also by the “small traditions” that can be studied
phenomenologically, starting from actual everyday life, spaces and times, activities,
attempts at change, perceptions of success and recurrent practical problems. Without
33 Cf. M. Bay – F. Motto, Opere, personale e attività della Società di San Francesco di Sales. Dati quantitativi
descrittivi negli anni 1888, 1895, 1910, 1925, 1940, 1955, in Sviluppo del Carisma di don Bosco fino alla
metà del secolo XX, 54. NB. Under the boarding school category, we have summed up the following
categories in Elenchi generali della Società di San Francesco di Sales: “collegio convitto” (boarding), “orfanotrofio”
(orphanage) and “ospizio” (hospice).
34 P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica, vol. 1: Vita e opere, LAS, Rome 1979, 126.

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pretending to be exhaustive, below we draw from just some episodes that illustrate the
dynamics at play in the boarding schools.
In the organisation of spaces there was much variety as dictated by various factors,
such as whether the institute was located outside of or within the city, or the frequent
reuse of already structured buildings. If the structure was the result of a building planned
by the Salesians then the oratory at Valdocco, which had grown and developed, and the
Nizza Monferrato house for the FMA, were generally followed as a model. The idea of
spacious and imposing settings was motivated by the efficiency of organisation: lowering
per capita expenses and making better use of the not always large number of assistants.
In some cases outside Europe, the timetable inspired by the houses in Piedmont
created difficulties due to the difference in climate and custom. A representative episode
was the decision-making process put in place around the change of timetable in the
first schools in Brazil. In some houses they followed the Italian timetable, and in others
there were variations dictated by local needs. Fr Lasagna pressed for a return to the old
Valdocco timetable, but the final word was left up to the doctors in the houses. A year
later, in a letter to the Rector Major, Lasagna spoke of his belief in the need to adjust
to local customs, since the experts were universally asking for a change, pointing to the
Italian timetable as the reason for most illnesses within the boarding schools. Due to the
heat, lunchtime was brought forward much earlier (to 10:30 am) and supper also (to 5
pm). In addition, an attempt was made to distribute times by alternating moments of
school, study and recreation to prevent tiredness and boredom.35
For spiritual formation they used translations of Don Bosco’s Il Giovane provveduto
and the Figlia cristiana, a female version of Don Bosco’s well-known work.36 Prayers,
practices of piety and attendance at the sacraments generally did not undergo much
variation. Daily Mass and the two Masses on Sunday for all boarders was a fixed part of
the boarding school timetable. The things that underwent most change was the practice
of confession, following the Holy See’s decree in 1901 prohibiting rectors from hearing
the confessions of those who lived in their own house. In this context, the proposals sent
to the General Chapters observed how the focus of the rector’s attention was shifting
35 Cf. M. Isaú Souza Ponciano dos Santos, Luz e sombras. Internatos no Brasil, Ed. Salesiana Dom
Bosco, São Paolo 2000, 208-210 and L. Lasagna, Epistolario. Introduction, notes and critical text
edited by A. da Silva Ferreira, LAS, Rome 1997, vol. 2, 432-433.483.
36 Cf. G. Loparco, L’apporto educativo delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice negli educandati tra ideali e
realizzazioni (1878-1922), in J.G. González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922.
Istanze ed attuazioni in diversi contesti. Acts of the 4th International Conference on the History of
the Salesian Work Mexico City, 12-18 February 2006, vol. 1, LAS, Rome 2007, 176-177.

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from spiritual fatherliness to organisational, disciplinary, economic issues, or the search
for apostolic commitments outside the Salesian house. Chapter members complained
about the loss of the fatherly atmosphere typical of Salesian houses, and reported on
the early difficulties in finding prepared confessors, so much so that in some houses
outside priests were given the role of confessor. The matter was discussed but the General
Chapters made no decision about this.37
Summarising the contributions of historical conferences on the period studied, the
Salesian tradition in the context of cultural activities appeared to have been preserved,
updated in part and even enriched by new elements. The main and festive events of the
institutes were accompanied by bands, and liturgical chant whose repertoire, after the
Cecilian reform, was enriched by the polyphonic production of Salesian composers such
as Giovanni Pagella, Alessandro de Bonis and the recovery of the Gregorian promoted
by Fr Giovanni Battista Grosso. Theatre, to be found in the boarding school curriculum
and in “academies” (entertainment programs), was seen as an excellent pedagogical tool,
emphasising its influence on the individuality of the child, the exercise of memory, but
also as a means of proposing models of behaviour. Among the recurring themes in the
theatrical texts produced in the Salesian context were faith as the primary reason for
choices, even at the cost of other topics like serious suffering, obedience to parents,
kindness, humility and apostolic-missionary commitment.
Later, added to theatrical activity, came film projections already in place by the early
years of the twentieth century. Up until the 1920s, acceptance of cinema was more or
less peaceful when it came to screenings with catechetical themes a few times a year.
Difficulties and negative judgements revolved around the lighter genre of films, as some
critics speculated that cinema was the cause of visual disturbances, violent headaches,
and nervous excitement especially in those who were frequent viewers. Beginning with
the 1930s, interpretations of cinema as problematic, an instrument of moral corruption,
became more prevalent. The regulations of the houses or of the Provincial Chapters
established rules for its use (film genre, frequency of screenings, the responsibility of
censorship) and there were also cases of absolute prohibition in some historical periods
and in some provinces.
Traditional recreational activities were maintained, but gymnastics and organised
sport had entered Salesian playgrounds by the beginning of the twentieth century.
37 Cf. J.G. Gonzáles, Aspectos de la educación salesiana a la luz de las propuestas enviadas a los Capítulos
generales (1877-1922), in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1,
35-38.

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Despite a lot of reluctance in some places, new activities were added: athletics, skating,
swimming, tennis, volleyball, basketball, table tennis, cycling, but also board games and,
almost as a separate category, soccer. The introduction of football was symbolic in that
its acceptance was widely discussed and not everybody was on the same page in every
context. Some superiors were wary of the sport because it impeded traditional mass
games by requiring a large area for a small number of players, meaning the others were
just passive onlookers. In addition, there were reasons related to the “moral dangers”
that it involved in the games, given the physical contact with external opponents. A
further problem was its unbecoming attire. Therefore, where the game was allowed,
clerics played it in cassocks and boys in long pants and long sleeves.
Starting from the 1930s, the emphasis on formation and catechetics went hand
in hand with the distrust of certain kinds of “entertainment”, especially cinema and
football. In some provinces there was no shortage of prohibition of games on the
grounds that “soccer ruins clerics and is even worse than cinema.”38 Nevertheless, over
and beyond the moral perspective, the shift from “traditional Salesian games” to sport
contributed to the regulation of recreation, since every sport has an intrinsic need of
discipline, fixed rules, competition and an established schedule of games.
In the period studied, gymnastics and scouting were an alternative to team sports. The
benefits of motor activities were offered within the closed environment of the boarding
school or on excursions in scout troops. The problematic aspect of these two types of
recreation lay in their relationship to the “disciplinary” approach in boarding schools
which, along with the era’s sensitivity to how large groups were to be organised, ran
counter to the healthy disorganisation of traditional Salesian recreation. Gymnastics
was often compulsory and connected with the ritual of parading in uniform, which
in some places had a disciplinary value and served as a means of military preparation
for young people. For example, in Mussolini’s Italy, the regime made parades of young
men a formal expression of adherence to Balilla activities,39 while in other contexts,
occasions for promoting Salesian institutes took on the semblance of military education.
One example was the success in Argentina of the Exploradores de don Bosco, that set up
various connections with military institutions. The first Past Pupils of the Explorers
were well-primed for the army and security forces; later, the Scouts were considered
by the Argentine authorities as “educated soldiers” partially or totally exempt from the
obligation of military service.40
38 Isaú, Luz e sombras. Internatos no Brasil, 384.
39 Cf. Oni, I Salesiani e l’educazione dei giovani in Piemonte, durante il periodo del fascismo, 158-159.
40 Cf. S. Negrotti, Los exploradores argentinos de don Bosco: orígenes y pedagogía de una experiencia juvenil
salesiana argentina, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 2, 41-43.

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Instead, the program for the Salesian sodalities envisaged a weekly conference, their
own specific activities (liturgical animation, fostering spiritual life and discipline etc.)
and special initiatives such as the registration of new members, feast of the Patron
Saint, outings. Sodalities had their own banner, set of rules and a president who assisted
the Catechist in animation. To be a member of a sodality was considered an honour,
symbolised in some institutes by some mark of distinction, a way of encouraging
discipline and good behaviour.
In summary, it can be said that compared to Don Bosco’s times the core of
recreational and associative activities had moved slowly, without radical changes. From
the interpretation of recreation as a time for spontaneity, the personalisation of
education, mutual knowledge and the release of physical energies, the Salesians had
moved on to a more organised and regulated concept of it. Recreation had an established
place with scheduled activities, in accordance with the concept of an integral education
of the youngster in the boarding school setting.
Consequences – a more military than family style discipline
The problem of discipline and punishments had been part of the boarding school
mentality already from the beginnings of Salesian educational institutions. The risk of
replacing regular and family style educational assistance with a system of control that
was easier for the assistant had already been signalled in Don Bosco’s Trattatello or
brief treatise. The two letters from Rome (1884) pointed out the paths to follow,
recalling the genuine oratory experience. In 1885, in a letter to James Costamagna,
Don Bosco, referring to the process of inculturation of the preventive system in the
Argentine institutes through the introduction of “stronger” methods, wrote: “Never
harsh punishments; never humiliating words, no severe reprimands in the presence of
others. But let the words kindness, charity, patience resound in classes.” Again, in 1910,
the Provincial of Buenos Aires, Fr Vespignani, noted: “With regard to the lessening
of punishments we continually insist on it: much has been gained; but on the part of
some confreres there is still the lack of a clear idea and practice of our system" and he
added, "prefects of studies and assistants have too much to do.”41 Fr Rua and Fr Cerruti,
too, spoke in these terms. Fr Rua repeatedly insisted on banning violent, lengthy and
41 J.M. Prellezo, Le scuole professionali salesiane (1880-1922). Istanze e attuazioni viste da Valdocco, in
González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 78.

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humiliating punishments.42 Fr Cerruti explored the concept of discipline in a circular in
1908:
Observe that without order and regularity there can be no discipline, and
without discipline there is no morality. But note also that educational discipline
is not military discipline, and that order and regularity are not synonymous with
militarisation. Let us therefore follow what Don Bosco taught, everywhere, and
as well as him the best educationalists, eliminating excesses and misrepresentations...
This will be effectively helped by reading and explaining a little more frequently
the points of the Rules of the Houses concerning the preventive system in
education and the role of the teacher and assistant.43
Already elderly, Fr Cerruti urged people to “avoid like the plague” the belief that
“continuous and constant contact with the young means losing one’s authority; that
priests above all should exempt themselves from assistance because of their priestly
dignity. No, my dear confreres, this is not the preventive system; it is not what Don
Bosco taught us.”44 In spite of the exhortations and arguments from the leaders of the
Congregation, many of the reports drawn up at the conclusion of visits to the institutes
confirmed the problem of poor assistance and the excessive use of punishment even
corporal punishment.45
This disciplinary approach was reinforced over the years of the First World War
that involved more than half of the confreres. The powerful experiences of war and
the military system shifted the emphasis in education towards more of a military style
than a family style of discipline.46 Another influential element was the requirements of
42 Cf. Lettere Circolari di don Michele Rua ai salesiani, Direzione generale delle opere salesiane, Turin
1965, 43-44, 120, 327-329, 393 and 399.
43 F. Cerruti, Lettera agli ispettori e ai direttori (24 novembre 1908), in F. Cerruti, Lettere circolari
e programmi di Insegnamento (1885-1917). Introduction, critical texts and notes by José Manuel
Prellezo, LAS, Rome 2006, 309.
44 F. Cerruti, Un ricordino educativo-didattico, SAID Buona Stampa, Turin 1910, 35.
45 Cf. Prellezo, Le scuole professionali salesiane, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880
al 1922, vol. 1, 76-80; W.J. Dickson, Prevention or repression, in Ibid., vol. 1, 213-236; F. Casella,
Il contesto storico-socio-pedagogico e l’educazione salesiana nel Mezzogiorno d’Italia tra richieste e attuazioni
(1880-1922), in Ibid., vol. 1, 310-313; M.G. Vanzini, El sistema preventivo en los internados de Viedma
y Rawson (Patagonia Argentina), in Ibid., vol. 2, 90.
46 Cf. J.M. Prellezo, Linee pedagogiche della Società Salesiana nel periodo 1880-1922. Approccio ai documenti,
in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 23 (2004) 44, 149-150.

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the school system in some states that mandated the introduction of civic and military
education, thus spreading aspects of repressive thinking in the boarding schools.
The era of Fr Peter Ricaldone’s term of office, which we will look at more closely
further on, became iconic for questions bound up with discipline and a uniform
approach to interpretations of the Preventive system. Obviously, the sources were the
same, and the Rector Major quoted Don Bosco’s and his successors’ pronouncements
regarding punishments. In an era of tensions with the outside world, inwardly-focused
thinking, struggles and the belief in centralism as a principle of unity, lacking was a
governing principle that could balance these tendencies, such as the approach of piety
advocated by Fr Albera or the paradigm of fatherliness combined with the mindset
of creative adaptation to be found in Fr Rinaldi’s magisterium. Discipline, fidelity,
uniformity: these were the topics at the heart of Fr Ricaldone’s approach. He published
a surprising number of texts containing decisions, rules, programs on just about every
aspect of Salesian life.
Ricaldone’s guidelines – fidelity, catechesis and study
Fr Peter Ricaldone became Don Bosco’s successor in 1932, after lengthy experience on
the General Council, which included the roles of Councillor for Vocational Schools
since 1911 and Vicar of Fr Rinaldi. He made a strong impact on many areas of
the Congregation. He was a man of government who had to deal with concrete
situations connected with the growth of the Congregation and adversity resulting from
authoritarian regimes and the devastating world war.
Some of the features of his style of governing were already recognisable in his
service as provincial in southern Spain at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The organisation of schools in low-income areas demonstrated his clarity of thinking
combined with strong organisational ability and an insistence on teacher training.47 He
also promoted a scientific study of education focusing especially on the problems of
the agricultural schools.48 The effectiveness of his approach reinforced the tendency to
centralisation at a time when the worldwide coordination of vocational schools became
47 Cf. J. Borrego, Las escuelas populares salesianas en España. Realizaciones en la Inspectoría Bética, in
González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 418-428.
48 Cf. Ricaldone’s works in the “Biblioteca Agraria Solariana” series published by the Escuelas profesionales
de artes y oficios di Sevilla: El clero, la agricultura y la cuestión social; Los labradores, la agricoltura y la
cuestion social, both in 1903; Las leguminosas y los cereales. Estudio critico cientifico in 1904 and the 7
volumes of El problema forrajero issued between 1905 and 1910.

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necessary. In fact, from the beginning of his mandate as the Councillor for Vocational
Schools, he had requested provincials and rectors to send in three-monthly reports on
what was being done in the schools, the number of pupils, the curriculum, and the
formation of staff. His repeated insistence in his circulars on this matter of sending in
reports made it clear how important he thought this tool of governance was. Another
frequent topic was the preparation of personnel – at the beginning of the academic year,
provincials had to send him a list of confreres enrolled in university or higher education
courses in engineering, mechanics, agriculture, economics, social sciences, etc.49
His approach to governing, especially in the educational and pedagogical fields,
which we will address in the coming paragraphs, illustrate the mentality of Peter
Ricaldone which was in tune with the context of the opportunities and threats of the
1930s and 1940s.
Unity, formation and research in the Higher Institute of Pedagogy
In his first letter as Rector Major, Fr Ricaldone exhorted the confreres, in continuity with
the last five years of Fr Rinaldi’s term of office, not to expand the works but to consolidate
the existing ones and invest in formation, proclaiming the principle: “the future of our
Society lies above all in the houses where the personnel are formed.”50 Considering the
record number of novices, more than a thousand each year, Fr Ricaldone noted a risk
for “our Society, whose rapid development could even become a serious risk should it be
infiltrated by harmful elements”, reinforcing the formation approach of need and little
tolerance implied in the basic principle announced at the beginning of his letter, setting
out his agenda: “Unity of minds and hearts.”51
Despite the decision not to open new houses and the difficulties that had arisen due
to authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, the period was one of even greater growth.
From 1925 to 1955 the number of houses in the Americas, the continent with the least
growth, doubled, while Asia saw growth more than triple in Salesian presences.52 It
cannot be said, however, that because of this progress there was no effort to invest in
49 Cf. Prellezo, Le scuole professionali salesiane, vol. 1, 84-88.
50 P. Ricaldone, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 13 (1932) 58, 4.
51 Ibid., 3.
52 During the Ricaldone period, the Congregation had its demographic and operational centre of gravity
in Europe and America, but it is interesting to note that, even if the numbers are small, the greatest
growth in the number of houses and confreres was in the “missionary” continents: Asia was first,
followed by Africa. The composition of the communities was also different: the number of confreres

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Salesian formation. Centralism under Fr Ricaldone’s governance gave him tools that had
a strong impact also on formation processes. The Formazione salesiana series of 13 solid
volumes are testimony to his conscious use of the power of decision-making. From the
questions of procedures to be observed, to the organisation of archives and libraries up to
the application of the principles of Salesian formation and education, Ricaldone’s term
of office was a paradigm that we could call “formation through obedient execution.”
A particularly interesting fact for our study is the greater emphasis placed on the
study of pedagogy in the formation of Salesians. After the death of the Councillor
for Schools, Fr Bartolomeo Fascie, who supported the osmotic and practical line of
formation, the Rector Major expressed his thoughts on Salesian pedagogy more clearly
in the 1938 General Chapter:
Enormous stress is to be placed on Don Bosco’s statement: “They ask me about
my system! But not even I know what it is!” An act of humility should not
become a weapon against him, much less a banner. It is true that Don Bosco was
first and foremost an educator, a pedagogue, but he was also a great pedagogist.
The admirable pages of the preventive system would be enough to declare it as
such! […] I recommended to the General Councillor for Schools that Salesians
be sent to attend university courses at the most renowned pedagogical schools.53
The insistence on the systematic study of pedagogy was intensified in the post-war
period by investing energies and resources especially in the Istituto Superiore di Pedagogia
(ISP) of the Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum in Rebaudengo, Turin. During the 1947
General Chapter, provincials were asked to ensure that they sent at least one cleric to
the PAS for specialisation in pedagogy.54 The aim was explained this way: “In order to
carry out their educational mission with greater perfection, the Salesians need to equip
themselves more and better in pedagogy.”55
per house in Asia and Africa remained around an average of 7 confreres per house throughout the
Ricaldone period. In Europe and America, on the other hand, the average community was made up
of twice as many confreres. Cf. Bay – Motto, Opere personale e attività, 44-49.
53 P. Ricaldone, Parlate del Rev.mo Rettor Maggiore durante il XV Capitolo Generale, in ACS 19
(1938) 87, 4-5. General Councillor for Schools at that time was Renato Ziggiotti who held the position
from 1937 to 1951.
54 Breve cronistoria, deliberazioni e raccomandazioni del XVI Capitolo generale, in ACS 27 (1947) 143,
80.
55 P. Ricaldone, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 30 (1950) 159, 8.

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The positive attitude toward pedagogical studies, however, was not nurtured by
naive confidence. There was a need for teachers of pedagogy in the studentates and
for Salesians with qualifications for teaching in the schools; and there was a far-sighted
motivation as well: “If we think of the erroneous doctrines and pedagogical currents
spreading everywhere with incalculable damage to the youth, we will realise more
accurately the pressing need for men prepared for the teaching of pedagogy.”56 In this
context, Salesian pedagogy was seen as a “new” science based on
the rock-solid foundations of perennial Catholic philosophy and theology, and
at the same time on the data offered to us by the other sciences, such as
psychology, biology, sociology, and so on: but at the same time we want the
temple of pedagogical science, as well as being graceful and vigorous, to also be
free from erroneous or extraneous superstructures which, under the pretence
of wanting to strengthen or embellish it, end up suffocating or disfiguring it
in practical terms, depriving it of its characteristic appearance and the spirit
that gives it life and distinguishes it for its practicality of purpose, impetus of
initiatives and fruitful productivity.57
The scientific developments of Salesian pedagogy were linked to the concepts of
Carlos Leôncio da Silva, a Brazilian Salesian called by Fr Ricaldone to direct the Higher
Institute of Pedagogy at Rebaudengo, Turin, in the early 1940s. During this early period
of its existence, which deserves separate discussion, Fr Ricaldone’s ideas already appear
to be firmly rooted in the Salesian tradition of classical and vocational schools and
developed above all around the teaching of religion. Following Prof. Casotti’s line of
thought, Ricaldone’s “catechetical” approach saw the value of some of the didactic
contributions coming from the “active school current of thought, such as: activity
in schools, the inductive method, student involvement, understanding the psychology
of the student, a serene and happy school, exclusion of punishments, freedom of the
student, the student’s personal work, the use of central, summary ideas, involvement of
student interests.”58
The currents of positivist and naturalist pedagogy were instead seen as expressions
of an “atheist pedagogy”, of which Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Dewey were the
56 Ibid.
57 P. Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, Libreria Dottrina Cristiana, Colle Don Bosco (Asti) 1951, vol.
1, 56.
58 Cf. P. Ricaldone, Oratorio festivo catechismo formazione religiosa. Strenna of the Rector Major
1940, SEI, Turin 1940, 195-205.

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greatest exponents. Even statistical studies did not win much respect from Fr Ricaldone.
In the context of the Catholic Action Congress in 1938 he appealed “against the fever
of the statistical movement: rather than numbers, which could become tumours, let
us nourish ourselves with true zeal […] let us not reduce Catholic Action to theory,
academic jousting, where at times vanity feeds and triumphs.”59 Within this framework,
it is understandable why the function of PAS pedagogical studies was also expressed in
these terms:
We consider the threat of materialistic and atheist pedagogy, even if masked
by the name scientific, so serious that we think there is currently none other
more menacing to the fate of humanity. [...] So that we may all take sides [...] to
fight this great battle with a resolute spirit and adequate means, we have decided
to establish, within the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum, the Higher Institute of
Pedagogy .60
Even though, compared to the previous term of office, there was more talk of
a scientific study of pedagogy, practical training was not overlooked and the Rector
Major encouraged rectors to develop a sense of warm fatherliness and gentle charity in
accompanying the clerics.61 In this formative phase, in addition to readings on Christian
and classical culture, they were to study Bartolomeo Fascie’s work, Del metodo educativo
di don Bosco.62 Even though Fr Ricaldone was less intense than his predecessor in
relationships with the FMA, he offered them his own typical emphases, pointing to
the need to found houses of formation with a view to preparing the newly professed in
pedagogical and professional terms by deepening their understanding of Don Bosco’s
educational method.63
Love as inspiration and discipline as a general means of education
Peter Ricaldone, at least at the level of principle, pursued Fr Rinaldi’s line of thought.
In his first systematic letter, commenting on the 1933 Strenna, he presented charity as
59 Breve cronistoria, deliberazioni e raccomandazioni del XVI Capitolo generale, 17
60 Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, vol. 1, 58-59.
61 Breve cronistoria, deliberazioni e raccomandazioni del XVI Capitolo generale, 18.
62 R. Ziggiotti, Lettera del consigliere scolastico, in ACS 18 (1937) 79, 395.
63 Cf. Atti del Capitolo Generale XI dell’Istituto delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice tenutosi in Torino –
Casa Generalizia dal 16 al 24 luglio 1947, Istituto FMA, Turin 1947, 25.

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the first principle of Christian life and the family setting that, shaped by charity, is the
context of Salesian education.64 The model of such charity is St Francis de Sales:
The saint of charity, gentleness, love. He was not satisfied with outward
behaviour but wanted virtue that is strength, effort; indeed, he wanted the
queen of all virtues, about which it is said that it is as strong as death. He was
convinced that everything was possible for a soul that was inflamed with the
purest ardour of love. It is precisely this that explains the tireless industriousness
and prodigious effectiveness of Blessed Don Bosco who wanted charity to be the
constant standard of his work, the basis of his pedagogical system, the soul of his
apostolate.65
In Don Bosco educatore, which concluded Ricaldone’s term of office at the level
of ideas, this approach of love was maintained as the “informing principle” of the
Preventive System. But the strong point of the direction taken by Fr Ricaldone consists
in the description of applications of the system that were pointed, definitive and detailed.
His synthesis connected the concept of love with the ideal of perfection à la Barberis, but
with a particular slant to it: “Now, if the inclination of the soul to want the good of a
person is already love, there are all the more reasons to say education be a work of love:
in fact, education wants and actually strives and sacrifices itself to procure the only true
good of the person being educated, that is, the perfection of his life as a man.”66 Love is
seen as a generous outburst of inner energies to accomplish the work of the one good,
“perfection” that is not only ideal but concrete, tangible and regulated.
The paradox in his basic choices was the dissonance between the underlying
principle of love and the methodological choice of education. In Don Bosco educatore he
proposed discipline, bound up with authority, as the general means of education. In the
text he said:
It is not enough to have good principles, clear ideas, well-developed concepts
about things to be done: in addition to the possibility of translating all this
into practice, it takes the technique, or rather the special tactic, and spirit that
gives life and value to the so-called method. At times, excellent principles were
64 Cf. P. Ricaldone, Strenna del 1933. Pensar bene di tutti – Parlar bene di tutti – Far del bene a tutti,
in ACS 14 (1933) 61bis, 43. Cf. the same approach to the foundation of love within the Preventive
System in Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, vol. 1, 148-228.
65 Ricaldone, Strenna del 1933, 45.
66 Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, vol. 1, 149.

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compromised, and means of non-questionable efficacy were frustrated, because
people did not know how to apply them or predict the right way to put them
into practice [...] It is precisely in this light that it is good to see and examine
the Salesian educational methodology, grasping, so to speak, its entire soul:
and precisely in this light, according to Don Bosco’s thinking and practice,
it is necessary to interpret first of all the principle of authority, which in the
educational environment keeps discipline flourishing.67
From what has been said about discipline and “the unity of minds and hearts,”
it seems that the true essential thread and the centre of gravity of Fr Ricaldone’s
pedagogical approach was the emphasis on uniform and disciplined organisation. In the
context of Don Bosco’s canonisation he developed these ideas in the three hundred pages
of the 1935 Strenna on Fidelity to Don Bosco the saint.68 The straightforward nature of
his argument proceeds in a stepwise manner: 1. He explains fidelity as being linked to an
act of faith in God hence connected with the attitude of trust; 2. As a consequence, this
translates into the promise to follow Don Bosco; 3. Who was sent by God and is a saint
confirmed as such by the Church; and finally 4. He specifies how we follow him through
observance of the Regulations. Ultimately he arrives at radical and reductive statements:
“Just as the Regulations were the supreme purpose of Don Bosco’s founding aspirations,
so it continues to be his thought and entire heart now. […] To love Don Bosco is to love
the Regulations.”69
He explains in this Strenna that love as the basic principle does not seek to exclude
firmness and reasonable severity: “The superior is the doctor who proposes to free the
sick he is treating from their ills: he must therefore know and apply the appropriate
and necessary remedies, even if at times they may be ungrateful and distasteful to the
patients. Woe to the house where, out of unwitting kindness, religious do as they please;
it will very soon come to ruin.”70 Although, at the level of concept, love is confirmed
as a characteristic of Salesian governance, in fact, it is interventions on the topics like
fidelity, rules, regulations, traditions, authority, governance, obedience, discipline, and
perfection that prevail.
67 Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, vol. 1, 286-287.
68 Cf. P. Ricaldone, Strenna del Rettor Maggiore per il 1935. Fedeltà a Don Bosco Santo, SEI, Turin
1936.
69 Ibid., 13-14.
70 Ibid., 202.

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In the context of the canonisation, everything that Don Bosco said acquired the
aura of the sanctity confirmed by the Church, and aimed more strongly at perfection
and, thanks to an increased number of documents, with greater concreteness. In regard
to Barberis’ principle of education as a work of perfectioning, here we see “perfection
perfected” at play, in the sense of translating the ideal into thousands of objective
examples of Don Bosco’s life then translated into an equally large number of applications
and regulations in the daily life of a Salesian house. The Biographical Memoirs played an
important role in realising educational guidelines, the last volumes in 1939 coming out
precisely at the strong insistence of the Rector Major.
Without sensitivity to the variety of applications in the very varied contexts in which
Salesians of the time found themselves operating, there could be no “application of the
brakes” to uniform regulation. The Church’s siege mentality was aligned with Divini
Illius Magistri, a sense of responsibility in governance, moral emphasis on the ideal of
perfection and, not least, with the Rector Major’s own firm and energetic temperament.
Illustrative of this approach to governance was his letter on the canonical visitation by
provincials to Salesian houses.71 An avalanche of prescriptions whose centre of gravity
were decrees in the liturgical area72 were developed over more than two hundred pages.
Concern for the educational aspect was guaranteed by obedience to rules. The dozen
occurrences of the concept of education focused only on the observance of liturgical
prescriptions, the content of reading material, and subjects dealt with in the theatre.
71 Cf. P. Ricaldone, La visita canonica nelle case salesiane, in ACS 20 (1939) 94, 1-213.
72 Cf. Ibid., 16-159. By way of example, we list the liturgical subjects treated in the letter: visitation to the
church; the tabernacle; matter, form, door, key, ornamentation, accessories of the tabernacle; the cover;
altar of the Blessed Sacrament; lamp; altars in general; altar cloths and altar pallium; cross; candlesticks;
altar; lectern, bell, cruets, etc., small table for the cruets; the high altar; the altar for exposition of the
Blessed Sacrament; the sacred vessels; chalice and paten; monstrance; pyx and communion plate; wine
for Holy Mass; hosts and particles; jars of sacred oils; relics and reliquaries; sacred vestments; sacred
linen; the thurible, incense boat, incense, candles; for Holy Week; other sacred furnishings and sacred
objects; decorations, drapes, festoons; flowers in the church and on the altar; lighting; votive candles,
pictures, and other votive objects; canonical provisions concerning sacred images; general liturgical
provisions concerning sacred images; special provisions concerning images of the Lord; provisions
concerning images of Our Lady; regarding images of angels and saints; the stations of the cross; confessionals;
the baptistery; holy water and related stacks; the sacrarium; the pulpit; pews, seats, kneelers; choir and
presbyter; organ and musical instruments; for funeral services; for various functions; alms boxes and
bags; plans and drawings; crib; ordinary sacristy; sacristy of public churches and parishes; sacristy of
major churches; clergy and altar boys; the church and sacred places; bells and bell tower; cemeteries
and burial chapels; sacred functions and feasts; principal failures in ceremonies and in the celebration
of feasts; other mistakes; liturgical movement.

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The Crusade: developments in catechetics
The development in the teaching of catechism as part of the Salesian educational
proposal prior to Vatican II had two substantial influences: the catechetical congresses
from 1895 to 1912 connected with Fr Rua’s guidelines and the “catechetical crusade”
proclaimed by Fr Ricaldone from 1941 onwards. The period in between was not
characterised by systematic development of ideas on catechetics for various reasons: the
First World War and confrontation with totalitarian regimes or others hostile to religion
in Italy, Germany, Spain and Mexico; the death of Fr Rua who had been the key player in
the Congresses; the shift of emphases during Fr Albera’s and Fr Rinaldi’s terms of office;
the internal development of organisational development that needed time for practical
realisation of ideas that had emerged during the congresses to mature. And finally, an
important reason was lack of continuity at the level of personnel. The reflection by the
congresses did not have continuity through the years also because Fr Amadei, who was
the longest living editor of the Bollettino Salesiano, was besieged by all his historical work,
while Fr Trione and Fr Anzini, the main organisers of the congresses, were already in a
period of decline.73
In the 1930s, given that the ecclesial and intra-congregational context had changed
considerably, catechetics took on connotations that went far beyond the perspective
of the congresses on the oratory. The catechetical crusade promoted by Fr Ricaldone
was not aimed only at the oratory, but was entirely aimed at renewing the quality of
catechetics in the broadest areas. The reaffirmation of the importance of catechism went
hand in hand with a new emphasis on pedagogical, didactic and organisational problems.
The catechetical crusade already reflected the progress that had taken place thanks to the
achievements that began with the Brescia congress in 1912, the enrichment from the
encounter with the activist movement and the implementations that took place within
Catholic Action groups.74 The centenary of Salesian work in 1941 provided ample
opportunity for specifying the guidelines for oratories but also for catechetical teaching
and religious formation in general. Already, GC15 in 1938 prepared for the centenary
with a calendar of competitions and congresses aimed at “studying the best way to impart
catechetical teaching and to spread, strengthen, deepen religious instruction.”75
73 Cf. P. Braido, L’oratorio salesiano in Italia e la catechesi in un contesto socio-politico inedito (1922-1943),
in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 25 (2006) 48, 59.
74 Cf. Ibid., 77.
75 Ricaldone, Parlate del Rev.mo Rettor Maggiore, 3.

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Instead, the commentary on the 1940 Strenna, entitled Catechism, festive oratory,
religious formation developed over several hundred pages, provided ample opportunity
for recognising the major pedagogical directions interpreted within the difficult context
of war, persecution, moral decline of the family, the de-Christianisation of the school
in a demoralised and secularised culture.76 The Rector Major urged, in quite strident
rhetorical terms, that the catechetical crusade be taken up,77 seeing religious instruction
as the best response for the salvation of the young in the discouraging situation painted
in bleak colours:
It is true, we are few and unequal to the pressing and immense needs; besides,
our apostolate is of yesterday [...] The essential thing is that not even one remains
deaf to the divine call and that all, in the immense and manifold field of action,
lend their work with enthusiasm and always. And since Divine Providence has
willed that the poor sons of Don Bosco should pitch their tents on every shore,
it is our duty, on this auspicious occasion of the centenary celebrations, to give
breath to the trumpets and to make the voice of God and the Church echo under
all the heavens with a mighty roar, inviting all to the holy crusade.78
Communication of the “heavenly wisdom necessary for eternal salvation, through
the teaching of catechism”79 was made explicit through recourse to the Salesian tradition,
in defining the purpose and methods of catechetical instruction, developing a large part
of the text of the Strenna by focusing on personnel and roles within the oratory, then
continuing to deal with the educational means for education, teaching, pleasant and
upright recreation, ending with particular plans and approaches to architectural projects
for the oratories and classrooms, school curricula and teaching aids.80
76 Cf. Ricaldone, Oratorio festivo, 20-29. In reading the situation, the Rector Major supports his argument
with several references to 20th century papal encyclicals.
77 Cf. Also Pius XII’s references to the rhetoric of the Crusades in his encyclicals and official speeches;
cf. Pius XII, Lettera enciclica Saeculo exeunte octavo, in AAS 32 (1940) 249-260; Id., Lettera enciclica
Anni sacri, in AAS 42 (1950) 217-222; Scritti e Discorsi di S.S. Pio XII nel 1940, Cantagalli, Siena 1941,
284-286; Discorso di sua santità Pio XII alle Pontificie Opere Missionarie, in Discorsi e Radiomessaggi
di Sua Santità Pio XII, Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, Vatican City 1945, vol. 6, 47-52.
78 Ibid., 34-35. NB: Ricaldone contextualises the crusade by bringing back 16th century examples similar
to the counter-reformation: Robert Bellarmine, Charles Borromeo, and the Sodalizio delle Scuole della
Dottrina cristiana in Rome which arose during the pontificate of Pius IV.
79 Sacra Congregazione del Concilio, Provido sane consilio, in Ricaldone, Oratorio festivo,
31.
80 Cf. also E. Ceria (ed.), Il contributo della Congregazione salesiana alla crociata catechistica nelle realizzazioni
di don Pietro Ricaldone, IV successore di San Giovanni Bosco, Libreria Dottrina Cristiana, Colle don
Bosco (Asti) 1952.

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Fr Ricaldone’s typical approach begins by taking up Don Bosco’s Regolamento
dell’Oratorio Festivo once more, a “small book, modest in size and appearance, [which]
contains the seed of all Salesian work with its spirit, system, and possibilities for many
kinds of development.”81 Taking up Fr Rua’s approach, he restates the catechetical aim
of the oratory in contrast to the “tragic illusion” of reducing it to “a meeting place for
games”82 and sets up catechetics as a school divided into classes.83 An important part of
catechetical instruction as a whole is the initial and ongoing formation of catechists.84
The Rector Major suggested revising the title of “person in charge of the oratory”
returning it to “director of the oratory”, corresponding to Don Bosco’s original wording,
also applying to him (the director) some of the indications in the Ricordi confidenziali
ai direttori (Confidential reminders) and in Fr Albera’s Manuale del direttore.85 The
reasoning for these choices follows the line of fidelity to the history of the development
of Don Bosco’s oratory: first there was the oratory with its roles and only later came the
Congregation.86 The roles within the oratory expanded and created a structure parallel
to that of the Salesian boarding school: rector, prefect, catechist, and prefect of studies
who form the oratory council.87 It appears that this richer articulation of roles had not
been implemented in a consistent and sustained way.
In dealing with method, the Rector Major began by explaining that “forms, modes,
procedures are not methods. Hence neither a cyclical program nor a determined and albeit
praiseworthy school activity, nor a collection of things or intuitive aids, nor the dialogical
or Socratic approach can be called method.”88 Fr Ricaldone pronounced himself in favour
of the general deductive-inductive method explicitly inspired by St Thomas Aquinas.
His emphasis is placed on the inductive method which he calls the “Catechetical method
of the Gospel”:
And here it is well to emphasise in particular that not only the truths taught by
Jesus Christ, but also the method he followed to impress them on the minds of
those who came to hear him, are indicated, sometimes in the most minute detail,
81 Ricaldone, Oratorio festivo, 38.
82 Cf. Ibid., 40.
83 Ibid., 41-46.
84 Cf. Ibid., 124-127.
85 Cf. Ibid., 72.
86 Cf. Ibid., 74-75.
87 Cf. Ibid., 74-85.
88 Ibid., 155.

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in the holy Gospel, where it is described by what means and aids the Saviour
made his doctrine accessible. [...] And since this method is clearly indicated
and faithfully described in the Gospel, we could and should rightly call it: the
catechetical method of the Gospel.”89
The example of Don Bosco the catechist, faithful follower of Jesus, is presented in its
use of similes, images and activities in more than twenty pages.90 Speaking of method, the
comparison between the “active school” and the Catholic school desired by Don Bosco
is interesting. According to Fr Ricaldone, many similarities could be found that would
put the alleged novelty of the activist movement into perspective. The common and at
the same time fundamental principles were:
1. school must be active;
2. use of the inductive method;
3. wholehearted involvement of pupils in the work of their instruction and formation;
4. psychological understanding of the pupils;
5. school must be serene and joyful;
6. the exclusion of punishments;
7. giving freedom to the pupil;
8. the personal work of the pupil in perfecting and governing himself;
9. the use of central or unifying ideas;
10. use of the pupil’s interests;
The “method of the Gospel”, then, coincides, in Fr Ricaldone’s argument, with
the inductive method that employs imagination, figures, images, examples, real objects
“from the physical, social, religious, historical environment where people live.”91 Some
instances of the active school movement are also recovered here, which stimulate the
participation of pupils and develop “centres of interest” by leading young people to reach
heroic levels of virtue following spiritual interests
that overpower the earthly interests just as heaven is above the earth. On the
other hand, only the goods pointed out by the Catholic religion are capable of
satisfying our loving soul. Whoever wants to limit the aims of life to the interests
of this world, encourages selfishness and sensualism, educates superficially and
89 Ibid., 161-162.
90 Cf. Ibid., 168-192.
91 Ibid., 164.

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without any uplifting of initiative, makes the human heart empty and unhappy
[...] Therefore, without ignoring earthly things, we want to spiritualise them,
infusing them with faith and converting them into instruments of perfection
and sanctification...92
The discussions on method are completed, in a paradigmatic way for Ricaldone,
with concrete indications that are essentially oriented to the Salesian oratory. “How to do
oratory” consists in keeping in mind: the regulations, where it is (with an appendix also
on maps and plans of the oratory), the project, staff, catechists, formation of catechists,
the Congregation of Christian Doctrine, ways of attracting young people to the oratory,
the method, the example of Don Bosco the catechist, teaching aids and books, keeping
them active, exams, competitions, feast days, the Word of God, recreation, the theatre.
The level of application is surprising, sometimes going down to the smallest details.
When he describes catechetics as a school, his reflection is meant to be practical; for
example he spares no effort in solving the problem of classrooms. He asked engineers and
architects to ensure their orientation, good natural and artificial lighting, ventilation and
placement in the building within the oratory complex.93
In the same year, 1939, he established the Ufficio Catechistico Centrale Salesiano, the
group of young Salesians dedicated full-time to animating the great crusade. In 1947
it was named the Centro Catechistico Salesiano.94 One part of the project of renewed
catechesis was the Libreria Dottrina Cristiana in 1941, a publisher that is still in the
mission with more than 3000 publications.
Extremes in the question of entertainment
Affirming the importance of catechetics also influenced certain aspects of recreation
within the oratory. Fr Ricaldone strongly affirmed the idea of recreation which,
according to Don Bosco, should be time for mental repose, not something that stirs up
passions. It was to be time unfettered by sorrow at having offended God and neighbour.
He also asked himself if football met Don Bosco’s educational criteria. The answer, albeit
with some reluctance, was in the negative, which he justified by denouncing the physical,
psychological and moral evils it gave rise to. Playing football was allowed only on sporadic
92 Ibid., 204.
93 Cf. Ibid., 52-58.
94 Cf. Braido, L’oratorio salesiano in Italia e la catechesi in un contesto socio-politico inedito, 83.

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occasions and in well-defined forms.95 Similarly, cinema and radio were seen in negative
terms and, given the impossibility of absolutely banning them, a moderate use of them
was recommended along with every possible caution.96 Theatre was at the forefront,
along with good press.
In his approach to “amusements”, Ricaldone differed perceptibly from the position
taken by his predecessor, though more at the level of actual decisions, rules, practices
and daily life than principle, especially if we consider that both positions drew their
inspiration from the same source. In Ricaldone’s understanding of the oratory we
are quite some distance from Rinaldi’s belief that he saw in Don Bosco the “healthy
modernity of doing good even with the use of things that in themselves were not bad,
but which were also used by others for very different purposes. For him everything had
to attract, in terms of his mission, and could serve to recreate, instruct, educate, ennoble
and elevate the souls of his young people.”97 Just the same, if the end result was that
amusements were “harmful to souls”, even Rinaldi thought it necessary to vigorously
exclude them, but to leave the task of discernment to provincials and rectors, avoiding
making a decision on behalf of the entire Congregation.98
On some issues – cinema is illustrative of this – we can see Ricaldone’s radical
approach if we compare his positions with the papal Magisterium or opinions expressed
by General Chapters. In his Encyclical Vigilanti Cura, Pope Pius XI addresses the
question of cinema saying that “recreation, in its manifold varieties, has become a
necessity for people who work under the fatiguing conditions of modern industry, but
it must be worthy of the rational nature of man and therefore must be morally healthy.
It must be elevated to the rank of a positive factor for good and must seek to arouse
noble sentiments.”99 The encyclical is partly based on the American experience of the
“Legion of Decency”, intended as a crusade for public morality, starting with issues
such as the importance, power, impact, and popularity of cinema and proposing some
practical consequences such as oversight, production standards, film classifications,
national offices for review, and international cooperation on the matter.
Ricaldone, for his part, dealt with the cinema in 1938 in the context of a proposal
for the confreres’ retreat on the theme: “Following the example and spirit of Saint John
Bosco, let us propose to sanctify joy, recreation and entertainment.” In his commentary
95 Cf. Ricaldone, Oratorio festivo, 266-274.
96 Cf. Ibid., 289-298.
97 Rinaldi, La lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 10 (1929) 50, 799.
98 Cf. Ibid., 800.
99 Pius XI, Vigilanti cura. Encyclical Letter on cinema (29 June 1936) in AAS 38 (1936) 254.

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he noted how in too many circumstances amusements, recreation and false happiness
could become instruments of corruption and estrangement from God.100 After the war
there were strong reminders about this from GC16, during which Ricaldone stressed his
own thinking as follows:
In every post-war period we witness a real frenzy of entertainment: one could
say that the poor wretches who spent long years among the deprivations and
dangers of the battlefields, feel an unbridled need to dive into entertainment. It
is true madness! [...] Like me, you are convinced of the satanically evil influence
of the cinema: the ravages it builds up everywhere are such that we fear for the
moral and Christian life of future generations.101
After a somewhat lengthy discussion, Chapter members agreed on a balanced
solution: there was a need not only to limit cinema, since “according to the Salesian
spirit it is always preferable and praiseworthy to do without cinema,”102 but to take
into account the need not to lessen the number of young people, also bearing in mind
what was pointed out in the Encyclical Vigilanti Cura. So the recommendation was to
prepare personnel to evaluate films from a Salesian point of view, to draft Salesian stories
so as to make films of them, and to be in contact with producers, including for technical
assistance for the houses.103
The topic directly connected with this was education to chastity, seen somewhat
within the perspective of “holy intransigence”. The Rector Major spelt it out in his
letter on purity: “In a reminder Don Bosco wrote for his sons, among other things he
said: ‘You can never be too severe in matters that preserve morality’. Our most gentle
Father, who never wanted to hear about being strict, was recommending severity.”104
Also, quoting Tommaso di Villanova, he said: “Si non est castus nihil est is a notion
to be applied especially to amusements: cinema, theatre, uniforms worn by footballers
(including guest teams), reading material, newspapers, etc.” In reference to the Encyclical
Divini Illius Magistri and decreed from the Holy Office that followed, the Rector Major
offered a negative judgement on sex education, due to human frailty.105
100 Cf. P. Ricaldone, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 19 (1938) 86, 447
101 Breve cronistoria, deliberazioni e raccomandazioni del XVI Capitolo generale, in ACS 27 (1947) 143,
64.
102 Ibid., 57.
103 Cf. Ibid., 57-62.
104 P. Ricaldone, Strenna del 1934. Santità e purezza. In memory of the canonisation of St John Bosco
our founder and father, in ACS 16 (1935) 69bis, 69.
105 Cf. Ricaldone, Strenna del 1934, 75-78.

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It is interesting to note that even Salesians who were in a position to positively
evaluate the educational potential of sport and recreational activities, made the same
connection between purity and strength. In addition to the emphases in the Rivista
dei Giovani around Fr Cojazzi’s group and required anti-fascist and anti-militaristic
positioning, Don Giulivo’s position in the Bollettino Salesiano in the 1930s, which we
have mentioned previously, can be noted. With clear reference to the Rector Major’s
Strenna but not following all its emphases, the author suggested a sports apostolate
stating:
Dear friends, I don’t believe the title of this letter will be any surprise to you.
You are all intelligent and understand very well that sport too can be elevated to
the apostolate. Indeed, a good Catholic should never think of sport as pure and
simple recreation nor as a profession that belongs to youth. Instead, it should
be considered as an effective means of developing and strengthening that body
which is the temple of the soul, and which, the more robust and valid it is,
the more precious it is for the soul itself to carry out every good mission in the
world. This is why Don Bosco made so much room for it in the curriculum in
his oratories and institutes. Therefore, understood and valued with a Christian
spirit, while it promotes the greatest triumphs of grace and heroic ascents in
virtue through the flourishing of natural strengths, sport also rises to a true and
proper apologetic mission of apostolate, wiping out the vicious anticlerical jibes
that have slandered the church for atrophying the physical education of young
people, and raising generations of mouldy bigots. [...] And, while during the
holidays you will be restoring your physical strength, remember that sport can
and must also be a gymnasium of the noblest religious, civil and patriotic virtues.
In this way you will grow up strong and pure as the Holy Father wishes you to be,
who in his last audience granted to the leaders and presidents of Catholic Action,
last 29 May, rejoiced at the resolutions they had made to grow strong and pure.
Strong and pure – he added – strong in purity, pure in order to be strong, strength
through purity and purity through strength. Purity and strength because one gives
strength to the other: what wonderful sublimity!106
106 Lettera di Don Giulivo ai giovani. L’apostolato dello sport, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 61 (1937) 7, 167.

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Summary: the paradigm of the “boarding school under siege”
It seems that Fr Ricaldone gave the definitive imprint to the “paradigm of the Salesian
boarding school” with various emphases whose effects would be strongly felt, especially
in the period around the Second Vatican Council. Let’s summarise some points covered
above:
• Image of a boarding school besieged by adverse political forces and anti-Catholic
ideologies that reinforced reverting to the anti-modernist rhetoric of confrontation,
combat or crusade;
• The self-referential nature of boarding school life and little contact with the
surrounding social reality which implied a “monopoly of education.” The boys
were practically removed from their families and only returned to them during the
summer holidays;
• Classical teaching that did not require comparison with contemporary authors,
“the classics are enough” especially if the Gentile education reform was also in the
direction of classicism;
• Self-sufficiency and self-reproduction of the boarding school structure that took
advantage of a period of population growth with formation model based on
replication;
• References to the supernatural origin of the preventive system supported by the
canonisation of Don Bosco which implied an attitude of fidelity;
• Strengthening of the disciplinary component both at the level of thought and at the
organisational level with traits of uniformity, repetition and excessive regulation.
Concluding this overview of pedagogical approaches during a difficult twenty years,
it can be said that Peter Ricaldone, under the influence of the enthusiasm surrounding
Don Bosco’s canonisation, continued the line of fidelity to his predecessors, but with
such a high tendency towards perfection that was so counter-cultural and with such
detailed indications as to make it probably unsustainable in the decades that followed,
from which very different coordinates and cultural movements emerged.
Writers on Salesian pedagogy
The fact of having included Don Bosco in the compulsory readings of teacher training
institutions from 1925, and the subsequent distribution of Fascie’s book Del metodo
educativo di Don Bosco, attracted the interest of pedagogists, especially Catholics, to

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his figure. The scene of pedagogical reflection on Don Bosco, reinforced thanks to his
beatification and canonisation, was dominated by the general question of whether he
had been just a great educator or could be considered an educational theorist. The
starting positions were along the lines of Fascie, who interpreted Don Bosco in the
context of the art of education, giving relative importance to the “absolute novelty”
of the Preventive System. Some, also influenced by previous theoretical or ideological
choices, saw Don Bosco in terms of Gentile’s criticism that he was a great educator but
had not left behind works of theoretical reflection such that they could be included in
the teacher training college curriculum.107 On the other hand, there were positions in
favour of Don Bosco pedagogista,108 decisively affirming “the existence in Don Bosco
of a pedagogy, a systematic and coherent theoretical formulation of the problem of
education”109 and they went so far as to say that “Don Bosco’s doctrine and practice
were organised in a completely autonomous and independent way from the Italian
educational movement of his time.”110
The middle way was represented instead by those who saw in Don Bosco both an
educator and an educational theorist belonging to the current of Catholic pedagogy
that had regained momentum after Divini Illius Magistri (1929). Don Bosco was often
described as an educationalist who was sui generis, a precursor of activism in line with
the aforementioned Casotti’s “pedagogy of the Gospel”,111 or as a proponent of integral
pedagogy in line with the Jesuit Mario Barbera, who stated:
Don Bosco’s method encompasses in the most systematic, harmonious, gentle
and powerful way the “subject of Christian education” – as the Holy Father’s
Encyclical teaches – that is, “man whole and entire, soul united to body in unity
of nature, with all his faculties natural and supernatural, such as right reason and
revelation show him to be.”112
107 Cf. G. Gentile, Gli allarmi della “Civiltà Cattolica” e i pericoli della scuola Italiana, in “Giornale
Critico della Filosofia Italiana” 7 (1926) 5, 394-395.
108 Title of an article used by Flores d’Arcais in the republication of G. Bosco, Il metodo educativo, ed.
G. Flores d’Arcais, CEDAM, Padua 1941, XXI-XL. Cf. also G. Flores d’Arcais, La pedagogia di
Don Bosco, in Studi pedagogici, Liviana, Padua 1951, 59-73.
109 Flores d’Arcais, La pedagogia di Don Bosco, in Bosco, Il metodo educativo, XXI.
110 Flores d’Arcais, Avvertenza, in Bosco, Il metodo educativo, V.
111 To broaden the interpretations, it is interesting to compare with the reflections in P. Braido, Il
Sistema Preventivo di don Bosco, PAS Verlag, Zürich 21964, 39-41.
112 M. Barbera, La pedagogia di san Giovanni Bosco, in “La Civiltà Cattolica” 85 (1934) 2, 478-479.

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Leôncio da Silva and the neo-Thomist inspiration of the Higher
Institute of Pedagogy
Major attempts at theorising by Salesians revolved around the Higher Institute of
Pedagogy at Rebaudengo, Turin. The efforts of Carlos Leôncio da Silva, a Brazilian
Salesian called by the Rector Major to found the Institute of Pedagogy in 1939, were
directed towards the perspective of pedagogy as a science of education. He came to Italy
at the age of 51, with considerable teaching experience, condensed in his Pedagogia:
Manual teórico-prático para uso dos educadores, I: O educando e sua educação in 1938.113
After his arrival in Europe, he undertook to update himself in various European
pedagogical study centres. Noteworthy, for its implications, was his attempt to obtain
a doctorate in pedagogy in Freibourg at the Eugène Dévaud and De Munnyck school.
After the initial enthusiasm of the Freibourg educationalists for doctoral research on
Don Bosco’s pedagogical system, Leôncio’s work raised a fundamental problem for
them: could a thesis containing theological and supernatural elements be accepted in a
Faculty of Philosophy?114 In a letter to the Rector Major, Leôncio commented as follows:
I was surprised by the observation that the thesis goes beyond the limits of
philosophy, in so far as this is precisely my merit, that is, of giving a complete
arrangement of the pedagogical work of a given author who wished to educate
in a Christian way, and Christian pedagogy will always surpass and must surpass
the limits of philosophy, making extensive use of supernatural principles and
Revelation. [...] The fault was therefore not the thesis, but the subject or rather,
the fault lies with the University, which has not yet separated the Pedagogy
Faculty from the Philosophy Faculty.115
Leôncio’s thesis in Freibourg was unsuccessful, and Fr Ricaldone called him back
to Turin to the Chair of Pedagogy in the Philosophy Faculty at the Pontifical Salesian
Athenaeum. The experience in Freibourg had implications for the future of Salesian
pedagogy, both at the level of teaching, since Leôncio’s research on Don Bosco was published
only in the form of handouts for students, and at the level of organisational mentality that
shaped the setting of the institute of pedagogy, (relatively) independent from the Philosophy
113 Cf. C. Leôncio da Silva, Pedagogia. Manual teórico-prático para uso dos educadores, vol. 1: O
educando e sua educação, Livr. Salesiana, São Paulo 1938.
114 Cf. The judgement of Munnyck and Dévaud in J.M. Prellezo, Carlos Leôncio da Silva, educador
y pedagogo. En el centenario del nacimiento (1887-1987), in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 35 (1988) 1,
106-107.
115 C. Leôncio da Silva, Lettera a don Ricaldone (26 May 1940), in ASC 275.

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Faculty. In the following pages we summarise Leôncio’s work in terms of its original and
innovative structure. In Il sistema pedagogico di don Bosco he expresses his concept of
“pedagogy understood as exact, complete, distinct science of education.”116 In Figure C we
explain his pedagogical epistemology that attempts an “internal accommodation”, the basic
scheme of the Aristotelian four causes with areas of experimental and practical pedagogy.117
Figure C: Don Bosco’s pedagogical system according to Leôncio da Silva118
116 C. Leôncio da Silva, Il sistema pedagogico di don Bosco. Notes for the use of students at the
Seminar on Pedagogy. Academic Year 1939-1940 XVIII, Eugenio Gili, Turin [1940], 4.
117 Cf. Ibid., 4-5.
118 The Figure shows a summary of Leôncio da Silva’s, Il sistema pedagogico di don Bosco, made up of the
systematic part (pp. 8-18) enriched with elements of Don Bosco’s pedagogical system (pp. 30-104).

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Leôncio da Silva’s attention to system, which was in tune with Fr Ricaldone’s similar
approach, was reflected both in his pedagogical production and in the organisation
of ISP studies. For Leôncio, Barberis’s Appunti di pedagogia sacra contained “a lot of
good”, and were mentioned in his works, but he felt that the subject matter in the book
“was put together a bit haphazardly.”119 He therefore took the liberty of disregarding
Allievo’s structure, adopted by Barberis, and arranging pedagogy within a neo-Thomist,
experimental and practical framework. In addition to a change in how topics were
organised, we note the absence of the notion of perfectioning, which happened to be
a very important one for the spiritualist current of pedagogy in Turin. Within the
different sectors of education, compared to Barberis, Leôncio brought the aesthetic and
the intellectual together and added a new section on social education. The need for
gradual arrangement was applied to the teaching of Don Bosco’s Pedagogical System as
we see from the handouts mentioned earlier. The ordering of his argumentation and
topics was only partially accomplished and he regarded the handouts to be merely an
outline of a broader synthesis120 projected around work that Leôncio did not complete
and which ultimately resulted in Fr Ricaldone’s two volumes in 1951.
There are some other specific emphases of Leôncio’s synthesis that are worthy of
mention. First of all, there is his strong belief in a Catholic and religious pedagogy, for
which Leôncio was ready to sacrifice, as in fact happened, his doctorate in Freibourg.
The “Catholicity” of his approach was reflected above all in the “final causality” that
proposes Christian lifestyle as the general objective of education. Despite the insistence
on Catholicity, his synthesis did not have the characteristics of the intransigence
typical of the era, developing the concept of Christian life as being opposed to
life “in the world”. In fact, this section integrates natural goals with supernatural
ones, the Don Bosco citizen-Christian pair and the threefold santità-scienza-sanità
(holiness-knowledge-health). Attention to goals is then developed not only in the
religious sphere but for the various sectors of education, starting with the physical,
continuing with the intellectual and moral, and ending with the social goals of
education. In harmony with the ideal of the “Christian life”, seen as the final cause,
reasoning is then focused on the “efficient cause” which sees the Church as one of the
factors in education, and introduces the practice of religion as the first of the means of
119 Cf. J.M. Prellezo, Introduzione, in Appunti di pedagogia di Giulio Barberis (1847-1927). Introduction,
critical text and notes by José Manuel Prellezo. Afterword by Dariusz Grządziel, LAS, Rome 2017,
13.
120 Cf. Leôncio da Silva, Il sistema pedagogico di don Bosco, 104.

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moral education and proposes a “special means” which integrates catechetics with the
practice of religion.121
By contrast with the later synthesis by Ricaldone, Leôncio proposed assistance as
the “heart of Don Bosco’s system”, describing it as a general means of education “in
the sense that it extends to the whole work of education and penetrates the different
contingencies of the student’s life. [...] Without it, there is no work of education; there is
only disorder and lack of education.”122 The breadth of this concept is also revealed in the
arguments in favour of assistance. Beginning with the observation of the fundamental
need for socialisation, he notes the situation of abandoned youth (= lack of assistance),
and examines the nature of “youthful fickleness” as the source of most of the defects of
youth. Assistance in this sense includes the themes of the educational relationship, care,
the relationship of friendship, the interaction between different caregivers-educators,
stating succinctly that “it is essentially life with young people.”123 For the author, the
importance of assistance implied a strong condemnation of forms of self government
by the youngsters, though this was a pedagogical trend that had drawn the attention
of his contemporaries.124 The synthesis we find in this work is in line with Catholic
pedagogy based on the educational relationship, placing loving-kindness at the top of the
fundamental trilogy and affirming that for Don Bosco “education is first and foremost
a work of love.”125
The concept of pedagogy understood as the science of education and its tripartite
division is also reflected in the proposals for the curriculum of the Turin Higher Institute
of Pedagogy. The first sketch of the pedagogical curriculum reflected the thinking of
the Rector Major, who made it clear: “Up to now our pedagogical studies have been
carried out as best they could; continuing the tradition of Don Bosco, our [young
Salesians] received their formation in practice. It’s time to fix this, to organise these
studies better.”126 A robust body of basic subjects was to guarantee the seriousness of
pedagogical specialisation. In addition to teaching, Fr Leôncio emphasised the need
for applications to educational practice, that is, reflection on experiences, exercises
and practical training of an educational nature in the concrete setting of schools and
121 Cf. Ibid., 13 and 43-49.
122 Ibid., 75-76.
123 Ibid., 79.
124 Cf. Ibid., 78. In fact also Fr Ricaldone dedicated a part to it in his Don Bosco educatore. Cf. Ricaldone,
Don Bosco educatore, vol. 1, 330-345.
125 Ibid., 103.
126 Cronaca dell’Istituto da l940 a 1946, in Archivio FSE.

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other institutions dedicated to education.127 Later, in 1945, the Statutes subdivided the
formation curriculum at the ISP into:
1. Main disciplines: General philosophical pedagogy, Special practical pedagogy,
General and special didactics, History of education and pedagogy;
2. Auxiliary disciplines: Biology, General experimental psychology, Special psychology
of the age of development, Introduction to philosophy, Philosophy of education,
theology of education, School policy , Sociology;
3. Special disciplines: Biotypology, Hygiene, Characterology, Developmental psycho-
pathology, School architecture; Catechetics, Don Bosco’s Preventive System.
Don Bosco educatore: ‘magisterial’ pronouncement and paradox
Peter Ricaldone’s term of office concluded in pedagogical terms with the publication
of Don Bosco educatore.128 Even though the book takes up the title of Fr Cimatti’s work,
the approach, the sources, the argument and the emphases are different. Peter Ricaldone
declares his intentions in the preface “to frame the true treasure of educational wisdom
in an orderly fashion” and “to present Don Bosco as an educator above all in action,
that is, objectively and not speculatively.”129 Aligned with this aim is also Ricaldone’s
plan to use the wealth of material contained in the nineteen volumes of the Biographical
Memoirs, in fact the 1500 pages of his two volumes resort to at least 1300 quotes from the
Memoirs. In reality the two volumes go beyond the declared intentions, and Ricaldone
is proposing a magisterial document, part of the Formazione Salesiana series, more
favourable to the thesis of Don Bosco than to Don Bosco the (mere) educator.130
From an analysis of the materials found in the Salesian Central Archives, it seems that
the process of elaboration of Don Bosco educatore can be reconstructed in four stages:
1. Gathering of material from the Biographical Memoirs and the Bollettino Salesiano
as the work of Fr Leôncio da Silva who was coordinating the work of a group of
127 Cf. G. Malizia – E. Alberich (eds.), A servizio dell’educazione. La Facoltà di Scienze dell’Educazione
dell’Università Pontificia Salesiana, LAS, Rome 1984, 14-17; Prellezo, Studio e riflessione pedagogica
nella Congregazione salesiana, 72.
128 Cf. P. Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, Libreria Dottrina Cristiana, Colle Don Bosco (Asti) 1951.
129 Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, V and VII.
130 In fact, one of the drafts of the publication also includes the title “Don Bosco educatore e pedagogista”.
Cf. ASC B0950101.

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Salesian students at the ISP in Rebaudengo. The quotations of pedagogical interest
were annotated on five thousand cards organised according to the scheme adopted in his
handouts on Don Bosco’s pedagogical system. At the beginning of 1945, Leôncio foresaw
a possible publication within two years at most, on the occasion of the centenary of the
foundation of the Oratory at Valdocco. In order to arrive at the volume provisionally
entitled Don Bosco pedagogista e educatore, the author used a compilation approach
which involved the massive contribution of the final year students of pedagogy. The
methodological proposal was set forth by Leôncio in the following manner:
Having ordered the cards according to a scientific pedagogical plan, which is the
one we follow in school, we distributed all the cards according to the topics and
we came up with a provisional scheme. This could be filled in with Don Bosco’s
own words, and it would be up to the compiler to present the topic and link it
with a few words.131
This first draft envisaged an introductory chapter on don Bosco pedagogista, followed
by five sets of reflections: Salesian education in general, the pupil (material cause), the
purpose of education (final cause), educational action (efficient cause), the fruits of
education (formal cause). Finally, the volume would conclude with a chapter on “Don
Bosco the educator”.132 In the notebook with the quotations from the Biographical
Memoirs we note a strong emphasis on loving-kindness which, as a topic, takes up almost
of third of the quotations.133
2. Change of scheme and first draft. Leôncio’s material was reorganised in a way
similar to Barberis, subdivided into sectors of education and into some additional
parts in which topics dear to Fr Ricaldone were developed.134 A first concise draft of
the pedagogical argument, in just 47 pages, was added to the scheme. This unsigned
document, entitled Il Sistema educativo di don Bosco, was the valuable extract of
pedagogical core topics by the ultimate author, who in all probability can be identified
as being Peter Ricaldone, given that he says in the text that he is the “successor of St
John Bosco. But I also feel the tremendous responsibility of this office that demands,
among my other duties, that I preserve and pass on the entire pedagogical thinking of
131 Leôncio da Silva, Lettera a Pietro Ricaldone (31 January 1945) in ASC B0950205.
132 Cf. Don Bosco pedagogista ed educatore. Attached to the letter to Peter Ricaldone (31 January 1945),
1-13 in ASC B0950205.
133 Cf. Appunti di pedagogia pratica secondo gli insegnamenti e gli esempi di S. Giovanni Bosco estratti
dalle Memorie Biografiche, Parte I: Insegnamenti. Parla S. Giovanni Bosco, 7-18 in ASC B0950202.
134 Cf. Il Sistema educativo di don Bosco, in ASC B0950101.

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Don Bosco to future generations.”135 This is a valuable document of synthesis that does
not yet contain the quotations from the Biographical Memoirs but lets us glimpse the
nuts and bolts of Ricaldone’s reasoning.
3. Development of the final preface and introduction by the Rector Major.136
The Archives contain the first manuscript137 and further corrections of drafts.138 The
central topic is the question of Don Bosco the educator and/or educationalist, a topic
that Ricaldone had already tackled over 20 years during the classes he had given on
pedagogy at the studentate at the Crocetta.139 Don Bosco’s declarations to the insistent
questions of the rector of the seminary at Montpellier that he did not know much
about his method are interpreted as an act of humility and restricted to the ascetic
field of spiritual discernment, and not related to his educational method.140 Against
interpretations that went back to Fascie’s work, Ricaldone insists on the topics to do with
Don Bosco’s pedagogical science and presents the founder as a writer on pedagogical
subjects in strong final tones:
From what we have said, the true meaning of Don Bosco’s words is finally clear
and unexceptionable, and we hope that from now on they will not be violated
by interpretations that distort their true meaning while at the same time being
an offence to the great educator.141
4. Reception of feedback on drafts of the book, still in typewritten form but already
containing many of the bits and pieces drawn from the Biographical Memoirs.142
Reviewers, who had replied between June and October 1951, pointed to some
135 Ibid., 7.
136 Cf. Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, V-IX and 1-59.
137 Cf. Don Bosco educatore. Introduzione, in ASC B0950101.
138 Cf. Don Bosco educatore. Prefazione, in ASC B0950101.
139 Cf. Lezioni di pedagogia pratica salesiana impartite dal Rev.mo don Peter Ricaldone nello studentato
teologico internazionale della Crocetta in Torino durante l’anno scolastico … e raccolto dagli uditori,
in ASC B0950202. Interesting are the two definitions of pedagogy, one speculative which “constitutes
that complex of certain and evident knowledge concerning education” and the other practical “which
deals with the application of theoretical principles.” In this framework, Don Bosco’s pedagogy is seen
“as a system of activities concerning the work of education and precisely in order to establish and
determine these activities, Don Bosco wrote admirable pages”, therefore a rather practical pedagogy.
Cf. Ibid., 5-6.
140 Cf. Don Bosco educatore. Introduzione, in ASC B0950101, 6-9.
141 Ibid., 9.
142 Cf. Osservazioni di alcuni confratelli ai quali fu inviata la conferenza su Don Bosco educatore per
averne un parere, in ASC B0950104. Among the eight reviews in the archives, six are signed by the
following Salesians: Andrea Gennaro (who also writes on behalf of Nazareno Camilleri, dean of the
PAS), Carlos Leôncio da Silva, Giacomo Lorenzini, A. Mancini, Evaristo Marcoaldi and Paolo Scelsi.

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inaccuracies, offered their thoughts, and agreed almost unanimously on the frequent
repetitions, prolixity of style, lack of continuity in drafts and the lack of proportion
between sections and chapters. Carlos Leôncio, for example, made a general summary
observation:
A certain freedom of exposition in which the arguments or the subject matter
is not presented according to rigour, development and logical concatenation,
but according to more practical, almost occasional affinities and associations,
demonstrating rather a concern not to leave practical and contingent aspects
of the question in oblivion. A very irregular and disproportionate structure in
many parts.143
5. Final draft of the work published in November 1951.144 It seems that a number
of the detailed observations had been accepted and that the overall structure, an
approximation of which we find in Andrea Gennaro’s letter,145 had been radically
modified. In particular, it seems that the indications of an anonymous reviewer
(identifiable, however, as Fr Eugenio Ceria both by his handwriting and by the fact
that he was mentioned in the list of reviewers) had a strong impact on the rewriting of
the text in the strategic part on “educational means”. The reviewer suggested including
some “theoretical notions about the nature and necessity of the educator’s authority:
even though Don Bosco did not speak of this ex professo.”146 At the same time, in
the handwritten notes he pointed out the overabundance of content on assistance and
suggested abandoning Leônco’s division of the risks linked to kindness between “loving
too much” and “loving too little”. This anonymous reviewer is one of the few who did
not accuse the work of being excessive in its use of quotations, and its heterogeneous
nature. Since it is probably Fr Ceria, compiler of the last volumes of the Biographical
Memoirs, the choice is justified as follows: “Perhaps it is better to foresee a difficulty.
There will seem to be too many quotes and too many biographical memories. But it
must be pointed out that this work presents Don Bosco the educator in action, that is,
objectively not speculatively; therefore it is natural that there are so many of Don Bosco’s
sayings and deeds.”147
143 Cf. Leôncio da Silva, Osservazioni Generali, in ASC B0950104, 1.
144 It seems that Peter Ricaldone saw to the final changes and proofread them for himself. Cf. La morte
del IV Successore di S. Giovanni Bosco don Pietro Ricaldone, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 76 (1952) 1, 2.
145 Cf. A. Gennaro, Lettera a Pietro Ricaldone (30 July 1951), in ASC B0950104, 3-10.
146 [E. Ceria] Don Bosco educatore. Aggiunta, in ASC B0950104, 1
147 Ibid., 2.

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It is understandable that the drafting process had greatly influenced the content,
which was not easy to read and demonstrated the characteristics and paradoxes already
reported by the reviewers. The insistence on completeness and objectivity that had to be
guaranteed by the multiple references to the Memoirs was a choice that ended up being to
the disadvantage of a logical and simple scheme for organising the content. Ricaldone’s
intention of publishing a “final draft”148 of Salesian pedagogy could not therefore allow
omissions, since completeness was one of the basic criteria. Here we also find the greatest
paradox of the two volumes, the gap between Ricaldone’s insistence on Don Bosco the
educationalist and the more doctrinal than scientific and pedagogical approach involving
so many pages without apparent systematic organisation. Don Bosco educatore is more the
case of a collection of testimonials drawn from the Memoirs without a critical approach
nor a theoretically justified order.149
One very interesting and central question, which follows the evolutionary trajectory
of the work, is the treatment of the “means of education”. In fact, in the different versions
there are significant variations with respect to the final text that reveal the inner tension
around the concept of assistance, which is played out in an almost dialectical relationship
between loving kindness and discipline.
Starting with the material collected by Leôncio and the students at Rebaudengo,
in the first draft Ricaldone develops a concept of assistance seen as a general means of
education with the predominant connotation of loving-kindness.150 Later, under the
influence of the comments provided by the reviewers, and consistent with his strong
and applied lines of government, Ricaldone changes the text by foregrounding discipline
as a general means of education. The end result, probably also under the contingencies
of the final weeks of the author’s life, remains ambiguous, with a dialectical solution
between discipline and loving-kindness. The majority of the arguments are in favour of
loving-kindness but nominally, the authority-discipline pair seems superior to this. A
comparison of the two versions illustrates well the interpretive difficulties of the final
text:
148 Don Bosco educatore. Prefazione, in ASC B0950101, 1.
149 In Don Bosco educatore the Appunti di Pedagogia Sacra or other more systematic writings on Salesian
education are only mentioned a few times. Quotes from the BM make up more than three quarters
of the bibliographical references of the work.
150 Cf. Il Sistema educativo di don Bosco, in ASC B0950101, 34 and 41-42.

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185
Il Sistema educativo di don Bosco, in
ASC B0950101, 34. 41-42
It is well known that it is not enough to
have good principles, good ideas, good
concepts of the things to be done; in
addition to the means to execute them,
one needs mainly the tactics, the
practical technique in applying them. In
other words, it always takes method.
Many times the best principles are
compromised, the best means are
frustrated because people have not been
able to apply them. They have not had
the savoir faire, have not intuited the
technique of application.
Now, if this happens for all human
endeavours, all enterprises of art and
industry, it is even more so in this
enterprise of education, this true art of
arts in which no material thing is at
stake, but the very human person. The
educator does not work in wood,
marble or iron: the educator works with
the minds, hearts, wills, souls of his
students. You must therefore have your
hands covered with velvet.
Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, vol.
1, 285-287
It is not enough to have good principles,
clear ideas, well-developed concepts
about things to be done: in addition to
the possibility of translating all this into
practice, it takes the technique, or rather
the special tactic and spirit that gives life
and value to the so-called method. At
times principles were compromised, and
means of undoubted effectiveness
frustrated because people did not know
how to apply them or did not intuit the
right way to implement them
practically.
Now if this happens in all human
endeavours, in the enterprises of
industry and art, it is all the more true in
this sublime mission of the educator, in
this art of the arts, on which depends,
not a material or artistic interest,
however important that may be, but the
perfecting of the human person himself.
The educator does not work with wood,
marble, or iron, but rather with the
minds and hearts, the will and the soul
of his students: and for such a high and
delicate task it is necessary to cover his
hands with velvet.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
Since education is the art most closely
related to the human person, and
directed especially to the intelligence
and will, its methodology must be
marked, must be dominated by the very
needs of this mind and will. In a word,
the means of education must always be
understood and desired by the
students.
Since education is the art most closely
related to the human person, and
directed especially to the intelligence
and will, its methodology must be based
on and inspired by the very needs of
these minds and wills. In a word, the
means of education must always be
understood and accepted by the
students themselves.
It is in this light that we want to view the It is precisely in this light that it is good
entire Salesian educational methodology. to view and examine the Salesian
We want to grasp its entire soul. Now if educational methodology, grasping, so
we consider Don Bosco’s entire educational to speak, its entire soul: and precisely in
system, his teachings, his writings, his en­ this light, according to Don Bosco’s
tire pedagogical action, in the light of char­ thought and practice, it is necessary to
ity as we have seen, we are left with noth­ interpret first of all the principle of
ing to assign as the soul and the imme­ authority, which in the educational
diate, dominant principle of all his edu­ environment keeps discipline
cational action other than this very char­ flourishing.
ity which he himself made into loving-
kindness.
Figure D: Variants of the text of Fr Ricaldone’s Don Bosco Educatore
Don Bosco educatore is a work that clearly documents the mindset stemming from
the so-called ‘collegialisation’ of Salesian education – in other words, based on the
boarding school approach. This was further reinforced by the limitations imposed by
twenty years of fascism. It is paradigmatic that the habitat for social education, a new
sector compared to Barberis, is seen only through family life within the boarding school,
and that things such as Don Bosco’s fatherliness, companionship, the social value of
boarding school life and play, good and bad companions, etc. be explored, arriving
at applications only in relation to the spirit of economy and savings, the Mutual Aid
Society and etiquette. A demonstration of the effectiveness of social education in the
boarding school would be the Past Pupils and their sense of gratitude.151 The intention
151 Cf. Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, vol. 2, 191-244.

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Adverse times call for disciplined fidelity (1929–1951)
187
to faithfully and completely preserve Don Bosco’s educational system led the author to
not making any reference to the social doctrine of the Church, to the oratory congresses
and to the wealth of activities from the first twenty years of the twentieth century. In
this context, it is clear why Fr Ricaldone argued with the only contemporary experience
he spoke about: self-government by young people in the cities as an emblematic issue for
interpreting assistance and discipline.152 Dedicating fifteen pages to it, he concluded that
self-government is in contrast with nature, civil traditions, with the laws of God and the
Church.153
Some typically Ricaldonian emphases and other summaries characteristic of an era
influenced by Divini Illius Magistri are noteworthy. There are clear influences of Mario
Casotti’s approach on the basic structure that proposes “Christian education as Don
Bosco intended it, that is, deeply, completely, exquisitely Christian and Catholic.”154
Also following the Casotti line is the re-evaluation of activist pedagogy that sees Don
Bosco as a precursor to the active schools in his Gospel method.
It seems to us that his work responded more to the needs of the 1930s than to the
1950s. Don Bosco educatore was published as Fr Ricaldone’s swan song, a document of
“educational magisterium” added to Fr Barberis’s Appunti for study in the novitiate.
Later, pedagogical reflection at the PAS during the 1950s went in a different direction
and in less than four years Pietro Braido had published his Sistema preventivo di don Bosco
that marked the beginning of another era and a turning point in Salesian pedagogical
studies, advancing beyond the crusade mentality against atheistic pedagogy.
Albert Caviglia – a dissenting voice with future potential
Albert Caviglia, born in 1868 and who entered the Oratory in 1881, was part of the
generation of Salesians who had known Don Bosco when they were boys. Having Don
Bosco as his confessor for three years was, for Caviglia, a decisive experience for his view of
Don Bosco and the Salesian rector in general. At first self-taught in history and literature,
at 37 he began to study literature at the University of Turin, a respected pupil and later
friend of Pietro Fedele, Minister of Education from 1924, who included Don Bosco in
the teacher training curriculum in Italy.
152 Cf. Ibid., vol. 1, 330-345.
153 Cf. Ibid., vol. 1, 344.
154 Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, vol. 1, 35.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
Caviglia began his commitment to Salesian studies in 1915 as a member of
the Commission for the publication of Don Bosco’s works, invited by the
Councillor for Schools, Francesco Cerruti.155 Eleven years later, Philip Rinaldi
reconfirmed him in the role, appointing him as the editor of Don Bosco’s
writings. Fr Caviglia went to work and the series of eight volumes of Scritti
editi e inediti di Don Bosco began to be published from 1929 ending with two
posthumous volumes.156
In his efforts as editor he demonstrated a “wise, balanced, and from many points of
view, a forward-looking critical ability for critical evaluation.”157 Despite the limitations
of being close in time to Don Bosco which did not allow for freedom of expression,
and the lack of complete documentation, Caviglia’s production on Don Bosco became
a classic with the following characteristics: responsibility in accessing documents; a gaze
that went beyond aspects tied to the reconstruction of sources; a clam and elegant
interpretation; spiritual attention to interpreting the preventive system.158
To understand the relationship between education and spirituality in Caviglia’s
interpretation, the exchange of letters with Eugenio Ceria, who questioned him on how
to proceed in his work on Don Bosco’s life of prayer, is indicative. Caviglia expresses his
fundamental opinion: “Everything that refers to Don Bosco’s spiritual personality must
be deduced from the biographical elements and from the imprint left and impressed
on his educational practice [...] not from his books. [...] Because we are sure that Don
Bosco never instilled anything other than what he himself did.”159 This observation is
valid not only for Don Bosco’s spirituality but also his educational practice. Caviglia
also states another symmetrical criterion: the preventive system in education can only
be fully understood by taking into account the importance of religious motivations, the
155 Cf. Lettera di F. Cerruti ad A. Caviglia (19 marzo 1915), in C. Semeraro, Alberto Caviglia 1859-1943.
I documenti e i libri del primo editore di don Bosco tra erudizione storica e spiritualità pedagogica, SEI,
Torino 1994, 110.
156 The series Opere e scritti editi ed inediti di “Don Bosco” nuovamente pubblicati e riveduti secondo le
edizioni originali e manoscritti superstiti contains the following works with notes and introductory
studies of significant extent: Storia sacra, Storia ecclesiastica, Le vite dei papi, Storia d’Italia, La vita
di Savio Domenico, Il “Magone Michele”, La vita di Besucco Francesco. Cf. The complete bibliography
in Semeraro, Alberto Caviglia, 169-182.
157 Semeraro, Alberto Caviglia, 43.
158 Cf. G.B. Borino, Don Bosco. Sei scritti e un modo di vederlo, Extra-commercial edition, Rome 1940,
15-16. NB: Borino’s writing deserves attention for its historical-critical awareness that goes beyond
the traditional celebratory rhetoric of the writings on Don Bosco of the 1930s.
159 Lettera di A. Caviglia a E. Ceria (30 marzo 1929), in Semeraro, Alberto Caviglia, 130-131.

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desire for the salvation for souls. Don Bosco’s spiritual form lies precisely in animating
daily life with a spiritual sense, not applying a logic of duty.160
However, needing to suggest to Fr Ceria some of Don Bosco’s writings, Caviglia
mentions the biographical narratives of the young people formed by the Saint as the
most original. In fact, Caviglia builds up an approach to interpreting Don Bosco seen as
a “narrative educationalist”, implemented through the ‘Lives’ of his youngsters that Don
Bosco wrote, and partially taken up again in the 1950s by Pietro Braido and recently by
Aldo Giraudo.161 Caviglia states in his final monumental work of over 600 pages that in
the ‘Life’ of Dominic Savio “one finds reflected all of Don Bosco’s spiritual and holy self,
and all the spirit he poured into his work.”162 In fact, from Dominic’s biography, Caviglia
reconstructs all the points of Don Bosco’s Salesian education within a “pedagogy of
holiness” that is an intimately spiritual pedagogy: prayer, union with God, Marian
devotion, Eucharistic life, life of ecstasy, charism, heroism, apostolic commitment,
companionship, friendship, sacrifice, suffering, the last things.163
Caviglia’s work on the Life of Dominic Savio also received negative reactions that
were crucial to the success of the work. On the one hand, in Ceria’s opinion, the
study was too long and dense, so it would not have been read or circulated among
the Salesians;164 on the other hand, there were the reservations expressed by the
Rector Major. Peter Ricaldone, who had been in contact with Caviglia since the time
of his appointment as Councillor for Vocational Schools, appreciated some of his
writings as “conscientious, profound, firmly balanced works, pervaded by the purest
Salesian spirit.”165 In the work on Dominic Savio, however, he touched on a nerve: the
importance of confession as part of the rector’s service. For Caviglia it was a fundamental
aspect, also because of his direct experience with Don Bosco; for Ricaldone, instead, the
160 Cf. A. Caviglia, Don Bosco. Profilo storico, SEI, Torino, 21934, 25.
161 Cf. A. Giraudo, Maestri e discepoli in azione, in G. Bosco, Vite di giovani. Le biografie di Domenico
Savio, Michele Magone e Francesco Besucco. Introductory essay and historical notes by Aldo Giraudo,
LAS, Rome 2012, 5-35. Cf. also A. Giraudo, Direzione spirituale in san Giovanni Bosco. Contenuti
e percorsi dell’accompagnamento spirituale dei giovani nella prassi di don Bosco, in F. Attard – M.A.
García (eds.), L’accompagnamento spirituale. Itinerario pedagogico spirituale in chiave salesiana al
servizio dei giovani, LDC, Turin 2014, 161-172.
162 [A. Caviglia (ed.),] Opere e scritti editi e inediti di “Don Bosco” nuovamente pubblicati e riveduti
secondo le edizioni originali e manoscritti superstiti, vol. 4: La vita di Savio Domenico, SEI, Torino
1942, 590.
163 Cf. Opere e scritti editi e inediti di “Don Bosco”, vol. 4: La vita di Savio Domenico, 237-589.
164 Cf. Lettera di E. Ceria ad A. Caviglia (7 June 1943), in Semeraro, Alberto Caviglia, 145-146.
165 Lettera di P. Ricaldone ad A. Caviglia (9 December 1922), in Semeraro, Alberto Caviglia, 118.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
emphasis on the rector as confessor would have produced “very serious consequences”
in the circumstances of the 1940’s when the rector could no longer hear confessions,
weakening the role of the rector who was seen predominantly as the “official guardian of
the religious spirit”: “Fr Caviglia’s statements [...] could serve as a pretext for cracks and
perhaps for cracks of an irreparable nature in the great edifice of the Salesian Society.”166
Thus, not even two months before his death, sent off to Bagnolo Piemonte with the
Crocetta students because of Turin was being bombed, Albert Caviglia wrote the Rector
Major of his sorrow at the reactions to a work that he intended as “the definitive
catechism of Salesianity”,167 but that had neither been recommended nor valued as he
would have expected. In fact, Ricaldone’s Don Bosco educatore made no mention of it
and it had to wait for Pietro Braido’s first study in 1955 for it to be appreciated.
166 Lettera di P. Ricaldone ad A. Caviglia (10 September 1943), in Semeraro, Alberto Caviglia, 154.
167 Lettera di A. Caviglia a P. Ricaldone (14 September 1943), in Semeraro, Alberto Caviglia, 157.

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Tools and resources
Chronological table

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192
Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
Select bibliography
Barbera M., San Giovanni Bosco educatore, SEI, Turin 1942.
Borino G.B., Don Bosco. Sei scritti e un modo di vederlo, Extra-commercial edition,
Rome 1940.
Bosco G., Il metodo educativo, a cura di G. Flores d’Arcais, CEDAM, Padua 1941.
Braido P., L’oratorio salesiano in Italia e la catechesi in un contesto socio-politico inedito
(1922-1943), in «Ricerche Storiche Salesiane» 25 (2006) 48, 7-100.
Breve cronistoria, deliberazioni e raccomandazioni del XVI Capitolo Generale, in ACS 27
(1947) 143, 1-87.
Casotti M., Il metodo educativo di don Bosco, La Scuola, Brescia 1960.
Casotti M., La pedagogia di S. Giovanni Bosco, in G. Bosco, Il metodo preventivo con
testimonianze e altri scritti educativi inediti, La Scuola, Brescia 21938, 5-94.
Caviglia A., Don Bosco. Profilo storico, SEI, Turin, 21934.
[Caviglia A. (ed.),] Opere e scritti editi e inediti di “Don Bosco” nuovamente pubblicati
e riveduti secondo le edizioni originali e manoscritti superstiti, vol. 4: La vita
di Savio Domenico, SEI, Turin 1942.
Ceria E. (ed.), Il contributo della Congregazione salesiana alla crociata catechistica nelle
realizzazioni di don Peter Ricaldone, IV successore di San Giovanni Bosco,
Libreria Dottrina Cristiana, Colle don Bosco (Asti) 1952.
Chiosso G., Educazione e pedagogia nel primo Novecento (Dal punto di vista
dell’Italia), in Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla metà del secolo XX,
vol. 1, 155-186.
Cojazzi A., Pier Giorgio Frassati. Testimonianze, SEI, Turin 1928.
Dickson W.J., Prevention or repression, in González et al. (eds.), L’educazione
salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, vol. 1, 213-236.
Flores d’Arcais G., La pedagogia di Don Bosco, in Studi pedagogici, Liviana, Padua
1951.
Formazione del personale salesiano, in ACS 17 (1936) 78, 3-163.
Gli onori del Campidoglio, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 58 (1934) 6, 185.
González J.G. et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922. Istanze ed
attuazioni in diversi contesti. Atti del 4° Convegno Internazionale di Storia

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193
dell’Opera salesiana Ciudad de México, 12-18 febbraio 2006, 2 voll., LAS,
Rome 2007.
Isaú Souza Ponciano dos Santos M., Luz e sombras. Internatos no Brasil, Ed.
Salesiana Dom Bosco, São Paolo 2000.
Istituto Storico Salesiano – Centro Studi Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice,
Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla metà del secolo XX. Acts of the
International Congress of Salesian History Rome, November 19-23, 2014 ed.
A. Giraudo et al., 2 vols., LAS, Rome, 2016.
Lanfranchi R., Studio della pedagogia e pratica educativa nei programmi formativi
delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice dalla morte di S. Giovanni Bosco al 1950, in
Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla metà del secolo XX, vol. 1, 187-204.
Leôncio da Silva C., Il sistema pedagogico di don Bosco. Notes for the use of Students
at the Seminar on Pedagogy. Academic Year 1939-1940 XVIII, Eugenio Gili,
Turin [1940].
Leôncio da Silva C., Pedagogia. Manual teórico-prático para uso dos educadores, vol.
1: O educando e sua educação, Livr. Salesiana, São Paulo 1938.
Lezioni di pedagogia pratica salesiana impartite dal Rev.mo don Peter Ricaldone nello
studentato teologico internazionale della Crocetta in Turin durante l’anno
scolastico … e raccolto dagli uditori, in ASC B0950202.
Oni S., I Salesiani e l’educazione dei giovani in Piemonte, durante il periodo del fascismo,
in Zimniak – Loparco (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa negli anni
difficili, 147-170.
Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri, in AAS 22 (1930) 49-86.
Pius XI, Vigilanti cura. La lettera enciclica sul cinema (29 June 1936) in AAS 38 (1936)
249-263.
Prellezo J.M., Carlos Leôncio da Silva, educador y pedagogo. En el centenario del
nacimiento (1887-1987), in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 35 (1988) 1, 98-120.
Prellezo J.M., Studio della pedagogia e pratica educativa nei programmi formativi dei
salesiani (1874-1956), in Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla metà del
secolo XX, vol. 1, 205-220.
Ricaldone P., Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 13 (1933) 58, 2-5.
Ricaldone P., Strenna del 1933. Pensar bene di tutti – Parlar bene di tutti – Far del
bene a tutti, in ACS 14 (1933) 61bis, 43-76.

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Salesian Pedagogy After Don Bosco
Ricaldone P., Strenna del 1934. Santità e purezza. In memoria della conaonizzazione
di San Giovanni Bosco ilnostro fondatore e padre, in ACS 16 (1935) 69bis,
3-81.
Ricaldone P., Strenna del Rettor Maggiore per il 1935. Fedeltà a Don Bosco Santo, SEI,
Turin 1936.
Ricaldone P., La visita canonica nelle case salesiane, in ACS 20 (1939) 94, 1-213.
Ricaldone P., Oratorio festivo catechismo formazione religiosa. Strenna of the Rector
Major 1940, SEI, Turin 1940.
Ricaldone P., Il rendiconto, in ACS 27 (1947) 142, 1-112.
Ricaldone P., Don Bosco educatore, Libreria Dottrina Cristiana, 2 vols, Colle Don
Bosco (Asti) 1951.
Ricaldone P., Formazione Salesiana, vol. 1: I Voti: Introduzione – Povertà, vol. 2: I
Voti: Castità – Ubbidienza, vol. 3: Le Virtù: Introduzione – La Fede, vol. 4:
Le Virtù: La Speranza, vol. 5: Le Virtù: La Carità, vol. 6: Le Virtù Cardinali,
vol. 7: Le Virtù: L’Umiltà, vol. 8: La Pietà: Vita di Pietà, L’Eucaristia, Il Sacro
Cuore, vol. 9: La Pietà: Maria Ausiliatrice – Il Papa, vol. 10: Il Rendiconto
– La Visita Canonica, vol. 11: Oratorio Festivo, Catechismo, Formazione
Religiosa, vol. 12 and 13: Don Bosco educatore, Libreria Dottrina Cristiana,
Colle Don Bosco (Asti) 1944-55.
Rossi G., Nazionalismi, Italianità, strategia dei Salesiani all’estero, Zimniak –
Loparco (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa negli anni difficili,
171-190.
Ruffinatto P., Linee pedagogiche dell’Istituto delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice dalla
morte del fondatore al 1950, in Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla
metà del secolo XX, vol. 1, 245-266.
Schmid F., L’influenza dei nazionalsocialisti sui concetti pedagogici e sulla prassi
educativa dei Salesiani di don Bosco e delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice in
Austria, in Zimniak – Loparco (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa
negli anni difficili, 249-274.
Semeraro C., Alberto Caviglia 1859-1943. I documenti e i libri del primo editore di don
Bosco tra erudizione storica e spiritualità pedagogica, SEI, Turin 1994.
Stella P., La canonizzazione di don Bosco tra fascismo e universalismo, in F. Traniello
(ed.), Don Bosco nella storia della cultura popolare, SEI, Turin 1987, 359-382.

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Vojtáš M., Sviluppi delle linee pedagogiche della Congregazione salesiana, in Sviluppo
del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla metà del secolo XX, vol. 1, 221-244.
Zimniak S. – Loparco G. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa negli anni difficili
del XX secolo. Acts of the European Seminar on the History of the Salesian
Work Krakow, 31 October - 4 November 2007, LAS, Rome 2008.
Online resources
Sources, documents, research, full-text publications, photographic materials, related to
this chapter.168
Full bibliography, index of authors, index of topics for the entire publication.169
168 Cf. salesian.online/pedagogia3
169 Cf. salesian.online/pedagogia-dopo-db

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4
Vatican II: Before, during,
after (1952–1978)
The 1950s were characterised by hope and renewed energy tied to post-war growth both
in civil society and in the Church. In the so-called years of the “burning bush” there was
convergence on trajectories for the future in search of a just society far from every form
of violence, the memory of which was still very much alive. In the ecclesiastical field too,
despite the centralist style of government of Pius XII, openings of a more European than
Roman nature were noted. Within youth organisations there was a growth in traditional
associations, but some events, such as the resignation of the president of Catholic Action
youth, Mario Rossi, highlighted the internal tensions and the growing desire of young
people for more resolute change. It was a trend that would become the driving force of
the changes and tumult of the subsequent 1960s, in which the novelty of the Second
Vatican Council, the return to the sources, idealism and some socialist utopias with
radicalism typical of the younger generations would be mixed.1
Social, educational and ecclesial context around Vatican
Council II
The reconstruction of new social, economic and political balances after the tragic world
conflict was certainly the fundamental reason for the history of the 1950s. The “three
worlds” model can be used to represent the framework of international politics. It
1 Cf. G. Martina, Storia della Chiesa. Da Lutero ai nostri giorni, vol. 4: L’età contemporanea, Morcelliana,
Brescia 1995, 249-284 and the part on “la crisi della cultura intransigente (1958-2013)” in D. Menozzi,
Storia della Chiesa, vol. 4: L’età contemporanea, EDB, Bologna 2019.

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remained valid throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Within it, the Cold
War was the fundamental dynamic that characterised the relationship between the “first
democratic world”, with a liberal and increasingly globalised economy, and the “second
socialist world” of the Soviet Union with its satellites and allies. In third world countries,
however, there was a demographic boom in the midst of the dynamics of achieving
political independence, and prospects for the future were still painted in bright colours.
Post-war reconstruction and growing world consciousness
Soviet-American polarisation diminished the role of post-war Europe in the world,
which moved decisively, following the principle of self-determination of colonised
peoples. The “great” colonialism ended and the new “third world”, which emerged
more strongly at the Bandung conference in 1955, had to deal with the consequences
of the different national approaches to decolonisation. A first effort was carried out
by Great Britain, which adopted the approach of preparation for independence in
its colonies, aiming at the Commonwealth understood as a community of sovereign
nations. France, on the other hand, opposed decolonisation until the last moment
with a policy of assimilation and economic dependence that eventually ended up in
conflicts (Indochina and Algeria), resulting in a very problematic relationship in the
future with the former colonies. Some of the newly emerging Third World states became
part of the Communist International (Cominterm), while others were moving along the
trajectories of an organisation that was formally democratic but authoritarian in reality.2
The post-war period saw the consolidation of US hegemony in the First World
and the spread of the “American myth”, which then influenced culture, music, fiction
and film worldwide. An American imprint could also be seen in the creation of
global coordination bodies such as the United Nations Organisation, the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank. American coordination, including through
the Marshall Plan, contributed to the economic stability of the First World and
the reconstruction of Western Europe. Already in 1951, Western Europe’s economic
production was 30% greater than the pre-war level. From a Catholic perspective,
not only reconstruction and economic growth, but above all the strength of the
Christian-Democratic parties in European politics created a context that gave hope for
the building of a better world. In Latin America, the economic supremacy of the United
2 B. Droz, Storia della decolonizzazione nel XX secolo, Mondadori, Milan 2007.

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States was strongly felt and, also for this reason, the 1950s and 1960s were a rather
unstable political period that oscillated between authoritarianism, often of a military
nature, populism and liberalism.
In the Salesian Congregation, the 1950s were generally characterised by the stability
of Ricaldone’s teaching and organisational structure and by the growth of personnel
and activities of the youth apostolate. It is enough to follow the Salesian sodalities
magazines, encouraged in their activity by the canonisation of Dominic Savio in 1954,
or the curricula of the FMA Salesian Active School to realise the industrious growth of
those years. At the level of the First and Third World, the growth of the Congregation
manifested itself above all in Asia, and Fr Renato Ziggiotti’s term of office as Rector
Major was characterised by his travels and the growing worldwide sense of the Salesian
charism.3 The generally optimistic picture was not far from triumphalist positions
that looked at the future through the lens of perpetual growth, large institutes, world
expansion, new causes of canonisation introduced, etc. The symbol of this mentality
could be identified in the construction of Colle Don Bosco or the Cinecittà Institute in
Rome with its modern Temple of Don Bosco in tune with the functionalist architecture
of the neighbourhood that had arisen around the famous film studios. Even the
grandiose buildings of the Roman headquarters of the Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum,
designed in the second half of the 1950s, were affected by the mentality of a numerical
and organisational grandeur that trusted in continuous growth.
The situation in the “Second World” was, however, completely different. The
Stalinist communism of the 1950s, very harsh in its treatment of the Catholic Church,
marked the history of several Salesian provinces: the China provinces closed, the Salesian
houses in China, Vietnam, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were
requisitioned and expropriated. The strategies for dealing with the regime could be
simplified into three models. Under the harshest persecution, as in the Soviet Union
(see the houses in Lithuania) and China, the only solution was to flee, as there was
nothing left: the houses were confiscated and the remaining confreres would be expelled,
deported or killed. In other contexts, such as in Czechoslovakia where being a member
of a religious order was legally judged a crime, the confreres had to go underground:
apparently they were workers, engineers, teachers and carried out their apostolic mission
in secret. In other Central European countries such as Yugoslavia, Poland and Hungary
3 Cf. R. Ziggiotti, Ho visto don Bosco in tutti i continenti, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 79 (1955) 17,
333-342.

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the works were lost, but the Salesians could exercise their ministry to some extent in
diocesan parishes.4
Developments in Catholic pedagogy until the mid-1960s
Catholic pedagogy developed after the war, inspired by the thinking of well-known
writers such as Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier or Romano Guardini. Their
reflections, coming chiefly from the 1930s, can be placed, as Giorgio Chiosso rightly
does, in the context of the response to the perception of a crisis of civilisation. Oswald
Spengler’s The Decline of the West gave the first signal by describing the decline of old
Europe. His perception of the crisis, other than the inadequacy of the scientific model,5
could also be seen in the dilemma between the capitalist “individualistic bourgeois man”
and the “collectivist totalitarian man”, a dilemma that was very much current in the
“iron curtain” era. We need to note that Catholic pedagogy in Italy was not fully part of
the current of personalistic thinking mentioned, still tied as it was to developments and
experimentation of the active school.6
The first personalistic stimuli of Esprit magazine, which came into existence
around Emmanuel Mounier, moved decidedly in the direction of criticism of bourgeois
individualism, describing it as a metaphysics of loneliness. But the magazine also
strongly criticised the totalitarian systems that enslaved man to the masses by rejecting
the fundamental category of “person”. Western Christianity, feudal or bourgeois in
its forms, was in crisis and, according to Esprit’s writers, what was needed was the
re-emergence of a Christianity that saw the person as the centre and driving force of the
universe. For Mounier, the person was not to be thought of according to traditional
rational criteria, but had to be conceived of as an expression of the open, dynamic,
and mysterious “presence in me” of the human being, which calls for the overcoming,
4 Cf. Summaries in S. Zimniak – G. Loparco (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa negli anni difficili
del XX secolo. Acts of the European Seminar on the History of the Salesian Work Krakow, 31 October
- 4 November 2007, LAS, Rome 2008; Wirth, Da don Bosco ai giorni nostri, 389-393.
5 Among the most authoritative contributions cf. E. Husserl, Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften
und die transzendentale Phänomenologie. Eine Einleitung in die phänomenologische Philosophie, in “Philosophia”
1 (1936) 1, 77-176. for a contextualisation and re-evaluation of Husserl‘s contribution cf. H. Seidl,
Kritische Bemerkungen zu Husserls Schrift “Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale
Phänomenologie”, in “Studia Philosophiae Christianae“ 36 (2000) 2, 317-339.
6 Cf. G. Chiosso, Novecento pedagogico. Profilo delle teorie educative contemporanee, La Scuola, Brescia
1997, 223-239.

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convergence, and unification of all his actions. Mounier took up many elements of the
Platonic-Augustinian tradition seen through the new understanding of phenomenology
and existentialism. The school in those years was considered too centralised by the State
at the organisational level, too rationalistic and notional at the didactic level and too tied
to a morality of Kantian duty in ethical terms. Mounierian personalism instead proposed
education as the maturation of a personal vocation that takes place in a community
context (family, school, environment), configuring itself as a journey to self-discovery
and the commitment of responsibility towards others.7
Jacques Maritain, in his Humanisme intégral, harking back to the second half of
the 1930s, integrated neo-Thomist reflection with reflections on secularism, promoting
democratic government strategies, a combination of rather happy choices for the
development of the West in the 1950s. The work that had the greatest influence,
however, was Education at the Crossroads, which is a collection of lessons he gave at Yale
University during the war in 1943. The title expresses the work’s central idea: there are
two possible paths to take in education: one looks at the individual formed by natural
evolution and social influences, while the other thinks of the human being as a person
who comes into self-possession through intelligence and freedom.
In the first part of Education at the Crossroads, Maritain denounces the errors of
the education of his time: disregard of and false ideas concerning the ends, pragmatism,
sociologism, intellectualism, voluntarism and, finally, the notion that everything can be
taught.8 The errors mentioned express the inadequacy of the empiricist-technocratic
model of education. Instead, the author proposes an education that harmonises the
classical and Christian tradition with scientific knowledge and modern attention to
freedom, then suggesting educational pathways that consider human beings in their
entirety, body and soul, nature and super-nature, knowledge and action, freedom and
grace. Maritain hopes that once humanity has overcome the dehumanising tragedies
of totalitarianism and war, it will thirst for a “new humanism” which can be achieved
through integral education. To ensure this integrity, the philosopher's project provides
fundamental rules guiding work in education:
1. Foster those fundamental dispositions which enable the young person to grow in
the life of the spirit;
2. Focus attention on the intimate depth of the personality and the internalisation of
educational guidance;
7 Cf. Ibid., 228-234.
8 J. Maritain, Education at the Crossroads, Yale University Press, 1943, 10-28.

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3. All education and teaching must tend to unify and not fragment, must constantly
strive to ensure and nurture the inner unity of man;
4. Teaching should achieve the inner liberation of the spirit through the dominion of
reason over the learned contents.9
Romano Guardini, instead, was more influenced by German phenomenology. Keeping
up his relationships with Max Scheler and Martin Buber, he developed his view of
education around the Catholic Weltanschauung that he found “in the continuous so
to speak methodical encounter between faith and the world. And not only the world
in general, just as theology also does when various problems arise, but concretely, as
in the case of culture and its manifestations, of history, of social life.”10 More than the
formation of the character and individual dimensions of the person, his proposal focused
on the impact of the educator-pupil encounter. The authentic encounter represents
the moment in which individuals encounter and accept reality, allowing themselves
to be struck by its peculiarity and taking a position in it through their actions. From
the intensity of the encounter with reality, with people, with the Absolute, comes the
illumination of the depth of experience.11
The authors named did not initially have much resonance in Salesian pedagogical
reflection, and also Pietro Braido, the fundamental figure for Salesian pedagogy in the
1950s, dealt rather with the need to detach pedagogy from philosophy and to dialogue
with empirical methodologies, seeking his own epistemological and methodological
solutions.
The Higher Institute of Pedagogy
The Istituto Superiore di Pedagogia (ISP) came into existence in 1940 in Turin at the
express wish of Fr Ricaldone, who saw the need to erect this new “Faculty” in view of its
function for the Salesian Society, a religious society of educators. The ISP had the task
of arranging and better organising the pedagogical preparation studies of the Salesians.12
Announcing this to the Congregation, the Rector Major clarified:
9 Cf. Ibid., 63-84.
10 R. Guardini, “Europa” und “Christliche Weltanschauung”, in Stationen und Rückblicke, Werkbund,
Würzburg 1965, 20.
11 R. Guardini Die Begegnung. Aus einer Ethikvorlesung, Werkbund, Würzburg 1965.
12 Cf. Cronaca dell’Ist. dal 1940 a 1946, in Archivio FSE.

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In order to prepare Salesian members ever better for the high mission of
educators according to the preventive system left to us as a precious inheritance
by our holy founder, we were finally able to implement a long cherished
aspiration, that is, by opening a Higher Institute of Pedagogy in the coming
school year, within the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum, alongside the three
Faculties of Theology, Law and Philosophy [...] In the above institute we want
first of all to form teachers of pedagogy for our houses of formation, so that
exemplary Salesians and educators equipped and updated in pedagogy and
teaching can emerge from them.13
For his part, Fr Carlos Leôncio, who collaborated strictly with Fr Ricaldone in
founding the ISP and was its first Dean, wrote in the chronicle: “It is a somewhat
different institution from those that have already been organised in other athenaeums
and universities, due knowledge of which has been taken and due consideration
given, and if duly approved by the Holy See it would be the first Pontifical Faculty
of Pedagogy.”14 Keeping in mind the wish expressed by Fr Ricaldone, in 1945 the
authorities of the PAS began procedures for legal recognition. It is interesting to follow
the approval process, as it hints at some paradigm shifts made in recent years. The first
attempts received a negative judgement from the pontifical authorities for three reasons:
1. the epistemological novelty, pedagogy was considered an art or at most a part of
philosophical psychology;
2. the numerical inconsistency of the Institute;
3. the lack of professors with adequate qualifications.15
After various efforts and the necessary preparation of some professors at Louvain
and in the United States, in 1952 the organisational structure at the level of the
Congregation also changed. After Fr Ricaldone passed away, the new Councillor for
Schools, Fr Secondo Manione, took the situation in hand by supporting a change of
13 P. Ricaldone, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 21 (1941) 106, 142.
14 Cronaca di don Carlos Leôncio (1941), in J.M. Prellezo, Studio della pedagogia e pratica educativa
nei programmi formativi dei Salesiani, in A. Giraudo et al (eds.), Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco
fino alla metà del secolo XX. Acts of the International Congress of Salesian History Rome, November
19-23, 2014, vol.1: Relazioni, LAS, Rome 2016, 217.
15 Prellezo locates the words of Fr Ricaldone in this context: “If the good Fr Fascie had listened to me
when I told him to send two clerics to Belgium, two to France, two to Switzerland, and two to the
United States to specialise in Pedagogy..., we would now have prepared personnel with modern degrees
for our Faculty of Pedagogy.” Cf. J.M. Prellezo, Facoltà di Scienze dell’Educazione. Origini e primi
sviluppi (1941-1965), in G. Malizia – E. Alberich, A servizio dell’educazione. La Facoltà di Scienze
dell’Educazione dell’Università Pontificia Salesiana, LAS, Rome 1984, 25.

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strategy. In the Rebaudengo Institute, having to deal with the illness of Fr Leôncio
who had returned to Brazil, the leadership of the ISP passed to the young pro-Dean Fr
Pietro Braido. From Leôncio’s positions, who preferred the reasoning of philosophical
epistemology, there was a shift to the “politics of facts”, which according to Braido
consisted in responding to the needs of the time:
At the level of the analysis of reality, it was necessary to underscore the
enormous social and Christian impact of the problems of young people in
a world of overwhelming social, economic and cultural transformations; the
insufficiency of the traditional preparation of religious and social workers; the
progressive advancement of the human sciences. On the organisational level,
new initiatives were urgently needed: preparation of personnel in specialised
institutes; a wide-ranging confrontation with the contemporary pedagogical
world, including that inspired by different ideologies; intensification of scientific
production.16
The responses to the socio-educational and organisational challenges were expressed
at the beginning in the journal Salesianum, with articles that showed an interest
aimed especially towards experimental pedagogy, analytical practice in the education of
“difficult” children, the use of tests. During the presidency of Fr Gino Corallo, author
of a ponderous survey on Deweyan pedagogy, in 1954 another journal, Orientamenti
Pedagogici came into being under Braido’s direction. In addition to the journal’s
articles, some works were published that were well received in Italy: empirical youth
research Gioventù di metà secolo by Pier Giovanni Grasso, pedagogical studies Il
Sistema Preventivo di Don Bosco and Introduzione alla pedagogia by Braido.17 Academic
publications, the repercussions of which came to the knowledge of the Holy See, created
favourable conditions for the approval of the IPS qualifications by Vatican authorities in
1956. A few months later, Enzo Giammancheri, professor of pedagogy from Brescia,
published an article with the emblematic title: “The first Faculty of Pedagogy has arisen
in Italy in the name of Don Bosco.”18
In the same year, the FMA International Higher Institute of Pedagogy and
Religious Sciences was approved. It had opened in Turin just two years earlier. The
institute, founded as a result of Ricaldone’s encouragement regarding the importance
16 Prellezo, Facoltà di Scienze dell’Educazione (1941-1965), 29.
17 Cf. P.G. Grasso, Gioventù di metà secolo. Risultati di un’inchiesta sugli orientamenti morali e civili
di 2000 studenti italiani, Ave, Roma 1954; P. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo di don Bosco, PAS Verlag,
Zürich 1955; Id., Introduzione alla pedagogia. Saggio di epistemologia pedagogica, PAS, Turin 1956.
18 E. Giammacheri, La prima Facoltà di Pedagogia è sorta in Italia nel nome di don Bosco, in “Scuola
Italiana Moderna” 66 (1957) 17, 7-8.

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of catechetical preparation, initially proposed a two-year course which was subsequently
extended to a four-year course with the specialisations of pedagogical consultant,
catechetical movement leader and school psychologist. The institute would later evolve
into the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences, the Auxilium.19
With the changes in operational strategy and the growing importance of the
experimental method in pedagogy, taken partly by Luigi Calonghi and Pier Giovanni
Grasso from Professor Raymond de Buyse of the University of Louvain,20 one could
also perceive a change in the balance in the ISP setting. Compared to Ricaldone’s
thinking, which envisaged the “rock-solid foundations of perennial philosophy and
Catholic theology, and together with the data offered to us by the other sciences,
such as psychology, biology, sociology”,21 there was a shift of emphasis towards the
human sciences and the experimental scientific method. Raymond de Buyse’s scientific
pedagogy responded to the need to remove educational and teaching methodologies
from dogmatism, intuitionism and impressionism, which gave more importance to
the experience of the individual educator than the study of quantitatively significant
samples. In this setting, the ISP preferred the “quantitative psychology” of tests over
the more spiritualistic “qualitative psychology” of Father Gemelli, founder of the Catholic
University.22 Experimental psychology, introduced into the Salesian world through the
new schools movement, found significant applications in the processes of professional
orientation, being appreciated (and therefore legitimised) also by Ricaldone in his
Don Bosco educatore.23 The Salesians’ openness to psychology was also testified to in
the Bollettino Salesiano, which in the 1950s reserved space for psychological issues in
education. For example, the April 1954 issue expressed the idea of integration between
Salesian education and psychology with the title: “Love is not enough: psychology is also
needed.”24
19 Cf. L. Dalcerri, Istituto internazionale superiore di pedagogia e di scienze religiose, in “Rivista di
pedagogia e scienze religiose” 1 (1963) 1, 3-7 and Pontificia facoltà di scienze dell’educazione Auxilium
1970-2020. Contributi per la storia, publication for the 50th, ed. Hiang-Chu Ausilia Chang, Grazia
Loparco, Piera Ruffinatto, Palumbi, Rome 2020.
20 Cf. The work by L. Calonghi, Tests ed esperimenti, PAS, Turin 1956.
21 P. Ricaldone, Don Bosco Educatore, Libreria Dottrina Cristiana, Colle Don Bosco (Asti) 1951, vol.
1, 56.
22 Cf. PAS-Pedagogia, in ASC 247.
23 Cf. Ricaldone, Don Bosco Educatore, vol. 2, 452 which refers to G. Lorenzini's report to the first
National Congress of Professional Orientation in Turin in 1948 with the title L’orientamento professionale
nella prassi educativa salesiana.
24 Gli educatori sbagliano?, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 78 (1954) 7, 122. It also publicised the series “Psicologia
e vita” of psychology applied to educational problems, edited by Fr Lorenzini.

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The new orientation of the ISP was also manifested through the increased
importance of the criterion of “distinction”: in fact, since 1953, the course of studies
had provided for different specialisations and the Institute was divided into smaller units
called “institutes”, “schools” or “centres”: School of Theoretical Pedagogy, Centre for
Historical-Pedagogical Studies, Didactic Centre, Centre for Studies and Research on
Vocational Education, Institute of Psychology, Institute of Theology of Education and
Catechetics. A degree in pedagogy was conferred with the addition of a specialisation
related to one of these schools.25
A further step in this direction was when the institute moved its headquarters to
via Marsala in Rome. Different changes emerged from the process of the revision of
the Statutes of 1959, definitively approved in 1965. José Manuel Prellezo noted the
deletion of references to Don Bosco and the Preventive System and the opening to lay
students who, in addition to the previous possibilities of study for non-Salesian religious
students, could be a solution to the small number of Salesian students. The institutes
within the ISP acquired more autonomy, becoming teaching and research centres.26
The most obvious feature of the 1959 project was the “methodological emphasis”,
meaning that teaching is the methodology of intellectual education; catechetics is the
methodology of religious education, etc.27 The solution of wanting to balance a solid
general education with the particular requisites of specialisations had created a practical
problem of teaching a robust body of common pedagogical subjects along with many
specific and professionalising subjects. Fr Braido’s solution in 1959 suffered from a
certain nominalism when he stated that specialisation is:
preparation of the pedagogue with specific aims, within the sphere of function
of education; it does not aim at the formation of the pure psychologist or the
pure historian, but of the methodologist, the historian, the psychologist, the
teacher and the catechist in an educational "mission".28
Braido’s ideas, expressed in his1956 Introduzione alla pedagogia, are enlightening,
especially in the chapter on “Ideas for a faculty of pedagogy”.29 His approach starts
from the concept of an “Institute of Educational Sciences” proposed by Édouard
25 Cf. Prellezo, Facoltà di Scienze dell’Educazione (1941-1965), 29-30.
26 Cf. Ibid., 41 and Pontificium Athenaeum Salesianum MCMXL – MCMLXV, [s.e.], Romae 1966,
28-67. The emphasis on empirical science can be seen in other PAS faculties as well. E.g. the faculty of
philosophy, in addition to the social science seminar, also had an institute of biology and the institute
of physical-mathematical sciences. Cf. Ibid., 24-27.
27 Cf. Ibid., 39-43.
28 Altri documenti, in Prellezo, Facoltà di Scienze dell’Educazione (1941-1965), 43.
29 Cf. Braido, Introduzione alla pedagogia. Saggio di epistemologia pedagogica, 169-181.

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Claparède, who was the major European representative of functionalism developed at
the University of Chicago since the 1920s.30 Braido proposed a faculty organised in a
way that reflected his pedagogical epistemology, basically traceable to the Herbartian
synthesis: the pedagogical problem is essentially a problem of means to achieve
educational ends or purposes. Therefore, for Herbart, and thus for Braido, psychology
(means) and ethics (ends) are inextricably linked in the constitution of a pedagogical
science.31 We can see some of the strong points in Braido’s way of arguing: defence of
the value of experimental pedagogy against philosophical idealism; the need to overcome
the superficiality of empiricism and experimentalism; genericism, the ignorantia elenchi
or the illegitimate transitions from one order of ideas to another; the need to overcome
uncritical and textbook solutions by promoting critical thinking.32 Braido also envisaged
the existence of an experimental educational work alongside the Faculty in order to
consistently and systematically apply pedagogical principles and methods, a desire that
had not been realised within the ISP.
In addition to the merits of a balanced relationship between the speculative and the
experimental, there were some limitations attributable to the context of the 1950s in
this approach. There was a “modern” confidence in both the positive and speculative
sciences, both presenting attributes of certainty, realism, and objectivity, and thus the
author expected to find “truly universal and necessary utterances, within each cognitive
level.”33 The wholeness of pedagogical science for Braido lay in its totality, that is, in
embracing “with its principles and laws the totality of the phenomenon studied.”34
There was less concern about the relationships between disciplines, as there was a strong
place given to “the objective unity of purpose, educating.”35 Braido’s approach was
understandable if we take into account the dynamics of the post-Ricaldone context
which saw the risk that strong unity of the magisterium could smother the reasonable
plurality of points of view and that a strong, centralised government would extinguish
30 The influences of Belgian and American approaches can also be seen in the bibliography that refers
to Joseph Nuttin from Leuven, Timothy O'Leary from Washington, and the proceedings of the first
conference on university teaching of pedagogical sciences organised by Richard Verbist in Ghent in
1953.
31 Cf. the defence of Herbart's pedagogy in the face of Gentile’s criticism in Braido, Introduzione alla
pedagogia. Saggio di epistemologia pedagogica, 50-51.
32 Cf. Ibid., 162-179.
33 Ibid., 171. Cf. Also Ibid., 173 and 177.
34 Ibid., 171.
35 Ibid., 173.

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the creativity of individuals. With the events of the Second Vatican Council, the balance
was fundamentally changed, breaking down the rock-solid foundation of the philosophia
perennis and partly loosening the grip of the hierarchically centralised government.
Gravissimum Educationis: Vatican II's turning point in education
1959 was the year of the centenary of the Salesian Congregation and also the year of
the announcement of the convocation of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. For
Salesians, the coincidence of these two events strengthened the persuasion of a new
period for the Congregation at an historical turning point. The Rector Major, Renato
Ziggiotti, was chosen by Pope John XXIII to be part of the Council as a member of
the commission of religious. He participated in the first two sessions and evaluated this
experience as a wonderful school and an impulse for empowerment in the commitment
to correspond better to the vocation of all those called to the apostolate.36
In addition to the spirit of dialogue, the Second Vatican Council recognised the
autonomy of and the necessary openness to earthly realities and consequently to the
human sciences, and condensed its educational message in Gravissimum Educationis,
published towards the end of the Council’s work.37 The document’s introduction
sums up its concerns and its concept of education very well, and offered a number of
perspectives, some highlights of which we report here:
The Sacred Ecumenical Council has considered with care how extremely
important education is in the life of man and how its influence ever grows in the
social progress of this age. Indeed, the circumstances of our time have made it
easier and at once more urgent to educate young people and, what is more, to
continue the education of adults. Men are more aware of their own dignity and
position; more and more they want to take an active part in social and especially
in economic and political life. Enjoying more leisure, as they sometimes do, men
find that the remarkable development of technology and scientific investigation
and the new means of communication offer them an opportunity of attaining
more easily their cultural and spiritual inheritance and of fulfilling one another
in the closer ties between groups and even between peoples ... To fulfil the
mandate she has received from her divine founder of proclaiming the mystery
36 Cf. R. Ziggiotti, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 44 (1963) 229, 5-6.
37 Cf. Dichiarazione sull’educazione cristiana Gravissimum educationis, in AAS 58 (1966) 728-739.

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of salvation to all men and of restoring all things in Christ, Holy Mother the
Church must be concerned with the whole of man's life, even the secular part of
it insofar as it has a bearing on his heavenly calling. Therefore she has a role in
the progress and development of education.38
Already from the introduction we can sense the residue of a certain duplex ordo that
in the years of the Council and afterwards could also be found in the majority of Salesian
pedagogical reflections. Human growth and growth in faith were often seen as distinct
from one another. This meant two different processes, often opposing things like reason
and faith, education and evangelisation, church and society, gospel and civil rights, etc.
The documents often try to keep the two poles together using linguistic techniques like
“both… and…”, “while”, “in the meantime” and the like. The discussion starts from the
declaration of the “inalienable right to an education” and then goes back to Pius XI’s
Divini Illius Magistri specifying that education must be “in keeping with their ultimate
goal.”39
This tension between distinguishing but still trying to combine the human pole
with that of faith, combining references to the fresh documents of the Council with
Pius XI’s encyclical, appears several times: true education aims at the formation of the
human person [both, although this word is implied in the English translation] in pursuit
of his ultimate end, and of the good of the societies of which, as man, he is a member;
Christians are called to testify not only to the hope that is within them, but also to help
in the Christian formation of the world; the Catholic school, while it is open… to the
situation of the contemporary world, also prepares them for service in the spread of the
kingdom of God; the Church is bound as a mother to give to these children of hers
an education by which their whole life can be imbued with the spirit of Christ and at
the same time do all she can to promote for all peoples the complete perfection of the
human person; it talks about schools for preparing teachers for religious instruction and
other types of education; the task of faculties of theology is both to explore the legacy of
Christian wisdom, and dialogue with our separated brethren and with non-Christians;
and finally, the conclusion hopes not merely to advance the internal renewal of the
Church, but preserve and enhance its beneficent influence upon today’s world.40
The shift that Gravissimum Educationis represents compared to Divini Illius
Magistri is obvious, inasmuch as there is a shift from an apologetic style and defence
38 Gravissimum educationis, Introduction.
39 Cf. Gravissimum educationis, no. 1.
40 Cf. Ibid., nos. 1.2.3.8.11 and the conclusion.

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of the rights of the Church in a hostile world to a style of dialogue with a world
characterised by rapid scientific and social progress. The paths of synthesis offered by the
Council declaration are to be interpreted by seeing a “magic season”, with the optimism
of the economic growth of the 1960s. The need to get out of the “besieged fortress”
mentality and the need for aggiornamento was driven in part by an inferiority complex
with respect to the progress of the human sciences.41 In this context, it was considered
easy to start from natural values, framing them in the complete consideration of man
redeemed by Christ, with the aim of contributing to the good of the whole society.42
The problem with this duplex ordo logic, in addition to the theological shortcomings
analysed by Hans Urs von Balthasar,43 can be traced back to the somewhat concrete
difficulties of the hoped-for dialogue between the human sciences and theology. GE
supported the idea of a deeper harmony but did not give the keys to interpretation, did
not indicate viable paths, recommending that
individual subjects be pursued according to their own principles, method, and
liberty of scientific inquiry, in such a way that an ever deeper understanding in
these fields may be obtained and that, as questions that are new and current are
raised and investigations carefully made according to the example of the doctors
of the Church and especially of St. Thomas Aquinas, there may be a deeper
realisation of the harmony of faith and science.44
Similarly, the school described in no. 5 of GE would be a “human institution” where
intellectual faculties can grow, where there is contact with the cultural legacy acquired
41 Cf. Chiosso, Novecento pedagogico, 240-242.
42 Cf. Gravissimum Educationis, no. 2.
43 Von Balthasar, in the first phase of his thinking that dates back to the 1952 work entitled Tearing down
the ramparts states the need for the Church to abandon its entrenchment. In the second phase of his
thinking, von Balthasar instead argues with the concepts of an optimistic and easy anthropocentrism
fashionable around Vatican Council II. In Love Alone is Credible in 1963, he argues against the naive
openings to cosmological religions by sustaining the necessity of the gratuitous revelation of God in the
Church and in Scripture. But the revelatory place par excellence remains the crucifix, the central theme
of his 1966 writing, Cordula oder der Ernstfall, in which von Balthasar emphasises Christian identity in
its irreducible otherness with respect to the world. The “serious case” (Ernstfall) of Christianity is just
one, Christ’s cross, which manifests the glory of God, which is revealed in Christ’s death as the Love
that sacrificed his own Son for mankind. Cf. H.U von Balthasar, Schleifung der Bastionen. Von der
Kirche in dieser Zeit. Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln 1952; Id., Glaubhaft ist nur Liebe, Johannes Verlag,
Einsiedeln 1963; Id., Cordula oder der Ernstfall, Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln 1965.
44 Gravissimum Educationis, no. 10.

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from past generations, where a sense of values is promoted and pupils are prepared for
work. The school also generates a relationship of friendship among pupils, becomes a
centre of encounters with cultural, civic and religious aims. The Catholic school has all
the above tasks and in addition should “help youth grow according to the new creatures
they were made through baptism as they develop their own personalities […] so that
the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and man is illumined by
faith.”45
Vatican II and the dialogue approach of the General Chapters
In addition to content from the Magisterium, an important influence was also exercised
by the “form” of the Council’s work as reflected in GC19. This changed the Salesian
Chapter paradigm in terms of duration, dialogue, the depth of the issues dealt with and
openness to the human sciences. GC19 was moved to April 1965 to insert it between the
third and fourth sessions of the Council. The Chapter, which took place in Rome in the
new Salesian University buildings, lasted for 53 days, a record compared to the previous
General Chapters, which lasted on average about ten days. This abundance of time
made room for more open discussion in an atmosphere of freedom that brought out
the differences present in the assembly. In fact, the new Rector Major, Aloysius (Luigi)
Ricceri, sensing the atmosphere of tension between the various opposing positions either
for adaptation to the times or for fidelity to the charism, intervened by saying:
Dear confreres, ours must be an atmosphere of charity [...] . We must realise this
union of charity at all costs. I have said already, union together in charity. Such
union presupposes understanding. [...] Understanding means understanding
and knowing my “opponent” in the order of ideas to understand the man who
thinks other than I do, to know him as my brother, in our common father
Don Bosco. Wherefore we have to be convinced, by reason of that same deep
understanding of yet another thing in our houses and communities there are
today psychological situations existing and malaise which cannot be ignored.
They are the result of our living and suffering in the life of Society and the
Church at this present time.46
45 Ibid., no 8. Here the text refers explicitly to Divini Illius Magistri.
46 Interventi del Rettor Maggiore al Capitolo Generale XIX, in CG19 (1965), 315-316. Cf. Also the
circular letter on dialogue: L. Ricceri, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 48 (1967) 247, 3-33.

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The build up of tension and the necessary change will be understood better once
we consider the previous Chapter methodology. Until GC18, the assemblies were
conducted without an in-depth analysis of the transformations that had taken place
in society and Church. With a mentality of fidelity to the origins, Chapter members
focused on practical decisions of a regulatory nature. For boarders particularly, to a lesser
extent for festive oratories and the use of social media and entertainment, “one heard
interventions almost identical to what was heard previously, which in turn echoed the
resolutions and regulatory provisions of the 1920s and beyond.”47
Scholars from the Higher Institute of Pedagogy moved from a relatively marginal
role to a strategic position for the future of the Congregation. Following the example
of the Council, just under twenty experts were invited to the Chapter, the majority
of whom were ISP scholars. Particularly significant were the presence of Braido in the
commission on the structures of the Congregation, the contributions of Grasso in the
commission for the youth apostolate, Calonghi for work on the non-youth apostolate
and the media, Gianola and Sinistrero for vocational schools, Corallo and Csonka for
the formation of young people and, finally, Fr Dho for Salesian formation. The only
commission without the involvement of ISP members was the seventh that dealt with
Constitutions, Regulations and missions.48
Since the Salesians were not an active part of the biblical, catechetical or liturgical
movement, they saw the Council’s new openness to the world as being as radical in
this new direction as the previously closed mentality had been in the other. A factor in
this openness, too, was the unlimited access to news: newspapers, radio and scientific
journals, and this clearly showed up the differences in the two mindsets: the traditional
world of the dull, cyclical and demanding life in the Salesian boarding school under
Ricaldone-style regulation and the more vibrantly painted picture of an outgoing Church
with the marginalised and entering into dialogue with the scientific, social and political
progress in the world beyond it.
The change of approach to General Chapters was one way of dealing with the
turning point that the Council had been.49 The way earlier Chapters had been held
was determined by the logic of continuity in Salesian tradition and by practical decisions;
47 Braido, Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano, 319.
48 Cf. GC19 (1965), 362-366.
49 For a more detailed view Cf. M. Vojtáš, Progettare e discernere. Progettazione educativo-pastorale salesiana
tra storia, teorie e proposte innovative, LAS, Roma 2015, 13-110 and M. Borsi – Ambito PG, L’animazione
della Pastorale giovanile nell’Istituto delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice (1962-2008). Elementi di sintesi e
linee di futuro, LAS, Rome 2010.

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the approach now adopted was a more dialogue-based logic but affected by a context
of polarisation, rejection of the past and the insecure nature of the future. In addition
to leading to the feeling of discontinuity, the approach indirectly, but significantly
influenced the content of the Chapters, making them vast containers of different
positions, balanced in principle but lacking in practical and procedural concreteness,
inasmuch as concrete implementation was handed off to other decentralised bodies.
Symbolic of this was the highly developed process of preparation for the Special
General Chapter, which involved extensive consultation “from below” in order to listen
to the opinions and feelings of the various contexts and provinces. We will use the
dynamics surrounding the 1969 Provincial Chapter in the Salesian University in Rome
in preparation for the SGC as an example.
As a practical way of putting the principle of dialogue and democracy into practice,
the method adopted was consultation around core sets of proposals that would be
then voted on. As well as the number of texts and consultation meetings, it is worth
dwelling on the shortcuts and risks of this voting method as a way of embodying shared
responsibility. In general terms we could say that the proposals that received more than
half the votes were statements of principle opposed to clearly negative phenomena and
did not point to concrete applications. An example:
It is considered possible and desirable to introduce the democratic method into
religious life gradually and more intensely. [...] Without shared responsibility and
the creative spirit exercised in different forms according to different situations,
religious obedience would not be a true sign of the kingdom but a form of lazy,
comfortable and selfish passivity.50
Pio Scilligo's remarks on method are enlightening, highlighting his background in
the field of psychology and his intercultural experience. In addition to difficulties related
to different cultures, the Italy-based focus and the translations of complex sentences, he
says that in the end we do not really know what the confreres voted for, since no one
wants to be “infantile,” “paternalistic,” “passive,” “repetitive,” etc. “The problem is not
in voting for words but in voting for their content, and therefore it would be necessary
to express propositions in more tangible ways as much as possible.”51 Voting could be
50 Ispettoria Salesiana PAS, Atti del 1° Capitolo Ispettoriale Speciale (13-19 April 1969), [s.e.] Rome
1969, 105-106
51 P. Scilligo, Alcune osservazioni sulle votazioni fatta in vista del Capitolo Ispettoriale e alcune proposte
per le votazioni, in Archivio di Pietro Stella, 6.

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exploited in an antagonistic atmosphere, and the more important decisions then taken
by secretaries. Starting with the example of a single article on Salesian education, he
suggests splitting it, reformulating it and various other methodological possibilities:
To avoid these very serious errors I believe the only solution is voting on
proposals that are precise, without being too wordy; that they not be made
emotional through adjectives, and that they be as unidimensional as possible, in
other words that they contain a single fundamental idea and it be made clear that
it is this they are voting on or, if the proposal is still a complex one, it be voted
on in parts then as a whole.52
We wanted to refer to Scilligo’s reflections on Chapter methodology before analysing
the contents of General Chapters. In order to interpret the documents that belong to
Chapter magisterium it would be helpful to bear in mind the relationship between
method and formulations in a context of decentralisation and opposing views. We could
also note how the “democratic” method encouraged compromise between theoretical
principles and often did not help find either points of agreement (that are more than
compromises), or pointers for educational practice. The documents were not just a single
systematic corpus but a cobbling together of the work of different commissions often
influenced by contextual, drafting and other idiosyncratic factors.
The Congregation after the Council
The period towards the end of the 1960s could not be described as a tranquil
one for the Congregation. Instead, the landscape of thought and activity was filled
with decentralised experimentation and opposed traditions. Youth protests in 1968
reacted to situations of unease such as colonialism, the oppression of the poor, racial
discrimination, wars for world domination and the subordination of educational and
cultural systems to economic powers. In the intellectual world, Marxist ideology, the
Frankfurt School’s criticism of mass society and critical pedagogy resurfaced with
renewed strength. The ideal world to be built was seen through the lens of participation,
decentralisation, dialogue, social justice, freedom and new morality.
There was many a paradox between the proclamation of the principle of dialogue
and peace, and the actual lack of dialogue in some protests where the preferred mindset
was one of a clash between classes and ideologies. Reflections and novelties were
interpreted within the positive framework of post-war economic, technological and
52 Ibid., 5-6.

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mass media progress. The financial crisis in the 1970s, the empty rhetoric of protest
with minimal tangible results would undermine such positive perspectives. What would
remain, then, was a sense of unease at the radical change of paradigm and it is in this
sense that the period following the Second Vatican Council could be called one of true
crisis.53
The crisis in the Salesian context was felt above all through the rapid decline in
vocations, the abandonment of Salesian life that occurred throughout the 1960s, both
during the period of formation and with the increased demands for the laicisation of
priests. The number of Salesians from 1968-77 decreased by about a quarter.54 This
demographic crisis, signalled by the Rector Major,55 was only the most conspicuous
effect of a religious order that was in a process of strong change. The accomodata
renovatio of religious orders, beginning with Pius XII in 1950,56 took a radical turn
not only with prospects of hope, purification and a return to the sources, but by giving
rise to utopian tendencies in some, while for others there was the anguish connected
with all the uncertainty. Worldwide, the number of male religious fell by a third. The
Jesuits, following the pope's personal blocking of the conclusions of their “General
Congregation” held in the 1974-75, were subsequently placed under supervision of a
Papal delegate for two years during the early years of John Paul II.57
Aloysius Ricceri guided the Salesian Congregation in the years following the
Council, having been elected at GC19 while Council sessions were still taking place.58 In
the previous twelve years he had held the position of General Councillor for Cooperators
and the press. He was an innovator who modernised the Salesian Bulletin, founded
53 Cf. Wirth, Da don Bosco ai giorni nostri, 447-449; G. Viale, Il sessantotto. Tra rivoluzione e restaurazione,
Gabriele Mazzotta, Milan 1978; G. Sabatucci – V. Vidotto, Storia contemporanea. Il Novecento, Laterza,
Bari 2003, 281-287; M. Tolomelli, Il Sessantotto. Una breve storia, Carocci, Rome 2008 and A.
Bernhard – W. Keim (eds.), 1968 und die neue Restauration, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2009.
54 In 1968 there were 21,492 Salesians, while in 1978 the number had dropped to 16,439; The average
number of novices in the decade from 1958-67 was 1218, while for the decade from 1968-77 it had
halved to an average of 625. Cf. Wirth, Da don Bosco ai giorni nostri, 531-532.
55 For the alarming number of departures Cf. R. Ziggiotti, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 44
(1963) 233, 13 and the Lettera del Direttore Spirituale, in ACS 44 (1963) 234, 16-20.
56 Cf. Acta et documenta Congressus generalis de statibus perfectionis, 4 vols., Rome 1952-3; Acta et documenta
congressus internationalis superiorissarum generalium, Rome 1953. In continuity with renewal activities,
in 1957 the Union of Superiors General was established for male orders and 1965 for female orders.
57 Cf. Martina, Storia della Chiesa, vol. 4: L’età contemporanea, 362-365.
58 Cf. L. Ricceri, Così mi prese Don Bosco. Storie vere di vita salesiana, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1986 and
Wirth, Da don Bosco ai giorni nostri, 436-438.

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the Salesian News Agency in Turin, set up the organisation of the press office at
Headquarters, and launched the monthly magazine Meridiano 12, which was intended
to be a continuation of Don Bosco’s Letture Cattoliche. The twelve years of his term of
office between 1965 and 1977 fell in Pope Paul VI’s pontificate and he followed the papal
line in his pronouncements.
On the one hand, Fr Ricceri reaped the harvest of work carried out by his
predecessors, but on the other hand he had to deal with a twofold crisis: one came
from the continued and not always controlled expansion of the Salesian Society, while
the other, taking place in the wider Church, was concomitant with the Second Vatican
Council. Gradually but inexorably, the new situation became more evident in Europe
and America. On the one hand there was the founding of new presences, a substantial
number of new initiatives in the pastoral field, especially in the area of openness to
the world, justice and broad dialogue.59 On the other, there were lively discussions
and disagreements between “progressives” and “traditionalists” and in the so-called
field of youth apostolate, between the pastorally-minded (‘pastoralisti’ in Italian, a new
watchword of uncertain content) and pedagogists (holding the Ricaldone line of Don
Bosco educatore).
“Starting with 1968 among young Salesians, the ferment of dissent reached its peak
in 1969-70 and the Salesian Athenaeum became an extraordinary sounding box for what
was happening in certain countries, especially in Latin America.”60 Riccardo Tonelli,
editor of the Note di Pastorale Giovanile magazine, spoke of “heated years”: “In fact, a
very original model of culture, reflection and social and political planning was beginning
to take shape and consolidate. [...] Of course, given the urgency of the problems... it is
not always easy to proceed with the necessary calm and balance.”61
In this complex framework Aloysius Ricceri defended and upheld his right and duty
to “direct, orient, animate, and therefore to indicate the right path, correct deviations
in good time, denounce abuses, at certain times define the right positions so that at
any given moment everyone can know with the necessary clarity the way to follow in
59 Cf. F. Desramaut – M. Midali, L’impegno della Famiglia salesiana per la giustizia. Conversations on
Salesian life 7, Jünkerath 24-28 August 1975, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1976; Wirth, Da don Bosco ai
giorni nostri, 527.
60 R. Alberdi – C. Semeraro, Società salesiana di San Giovanni Bosco, in G. Pelliccia – G. Rocca
(eds.), Dizionario degli istituti di perfezione, vol. 8, San Paolo, Rome 1988, 1691.
61 R. Tonelli, Ripensando quarant’anni di servizio alla pastorale giovanile, interview by Giancarlo De
Nicolò, in “Note di Pastorale Giovanile” 43 (2009) 5, 14-15.

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the Congregation.”62 In his first six years as Rector Major attention was given almost
predominantly to the pretty much impossible task of carrying out the conclusions of
GC19. Among these was the effort to balance the two principles of decentralisation and
unity. Efforts were made to reinforce unity in things that were lacking, not only through
the Rector Major’s magisterium, but also through his numerous trips, by studying local
situations and holding intercontinental conferences which he personally presided at.63
The Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum’s new headquarters in Rome
In 1965, PAS moved to its new headquarters in Rome. The report describing the first five
years mentions the sense of being “a great seaport, lost in the anonymity created by the
unusual mass of people, confreres or otherwise, who circulated through the buildings.”64
At the level of studies there was a notable shift of sensitivities and interests on the part
of Salesian students:
After 1960 there was a generation of young confreres who were more absorbed,
more focused on their studies, more attentive to the guidelines of the Church
in the pre-Council period and during the Council. It was a new generation of
confreres who, on the other hand and by impartial comparison with the previous
one, had [...] a less systematic formation that was less supported by texts that
accompanied their formation from the novitiate to the studentate of theology.
[...] Around 1960 they had inherited an extremely centralised system from the
praiseworthy and brilliant Fr Ricaldone. But it was a system that had also led to
a certain vacuum in creating formation texts suited to the new times.65
In addition to the difficulties in updating studies, concrete issues of discipline
were voiced and pressure was put on superiors to drop their interventions regarding
formation, considered as antiquated forms of control. Groups of confreres sprang up
spontaneously in an attempt to break down anonymity and mass-approach. So, under
62 L. Ricceri, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 54 (1973) 269, 1767. Cf. Also pp. 1767-1771 and
ID., Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 54 (1973) 270, 1865.
63 Decentralisation dynamics are complex non-linear operations. It is useful to recall the organisational
studies on the subject that mention the crucial importance of hierarchy in the implementation of
decentralisation, the paradox of decentralisation guided by the centre with already predetermined
limits, or polarisation between decentralised leadership and decisions made by the centre. Cf. S. Kühl,
Sisyphos im Management. Die vergebliche Suche nach der optimalen Organisationsstruktur, Wiley, Weinheim
2002, 36-39, 65-88 and 131-166.
64 Rapporto sull’Ispettoria del P.A.S. 1965-1970, in Archivio di Pietro Stella, 2.
65 Ibid.

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the heading of some kind of spiritual affinity, these groups were allowed to organise their
own concelebration of Mass, their meetings of friends, their own debates and programs.
Some groups later became “pressure groups” that carried out their innovation program.
Considerable influence was exerted by a group of young teachers called the “Group of
20”.66 Cracks that were just the tip of the iceberg formed around cases, taken up by
the media like Frs Giulio Girardi and Gérard Lutte who were removed from the PAS,
dissent by students who confronted the Rector Major on the opening day of the 1969-70
Academic Year and the many lecturers and students who left the Congregation.67
Several issues that reflected this climate were discussed at the Special Provincial
Chapter of the PAS in April 1969 in preparation for the SGC. Among the most
interesting we can note: the proposal of worker Salesians, mobile communities and
spontaneous aggregation, experiments in the organisation of the Congregation, rectors
and provincials to be elected, the elimination of all forms of direct dependence on the
superior. This last proposal was supported by the observation that each confrere is
capable of making his own decisions, without the charism of authority, and because the
confrere is to be seen in his relationship with the group and not with the superior.68
Generally it can be seen that it was proposals of a generic nature without concrete
applications that were approved. This was the case regarding consultation for superiors,
the more intense and gradual introduction of the democratic method into religious life,
or of the possibility of the apostolate among mixed youth groups. Proposals formulated
in ways that were too concrete (or radical) using more absolute terms like “everything”,
“always”, “never” aroused opposition and did not reach the necessary quorum.
Pietro Stella’s thoughts about Salesian identity in this context are significant. The
superiors called on him to intervene in the case of Gérard Lutte, a Belgian Salesian
and lecturer in Developmental Psychology at the Athenaeum.69 Lutte advocated for the
66 Cf. La Congregazione Salesiana di fronte al compito del rinnovamento conciliare. Considerazioni generali
e proposte per il Capitolo Generale Speciale signed 15 February 1969 by 19 professors at the PAS, in
Archivio di Pietro Stella.
67 Cf. Rapporto sull’Ispettoria del P.A.S. 1965-1970, 2-5; M. Midali, Frammenti di vita salesiana tra il
1941 e il 2010. Semplici ricordi e sobrie considerazioni, [s.e.], Rome 2014, 154-161.
68 Cf. Especially motions on the “Structures and government of the Congregation” in Ispettoria Salesiana
PAS, Atti del 1° Capitolo Ispettoriale Speciale (13-19 aprile 1969), Rome 1968, 213-229.
69 Cf. The reconstruction of the debate in Informazione e controinformazione su Lutte e Prato Rotondo,
in “il Regno. Documentazione” 16 (1971) 6, 156-164 which contains press releases, statements and
articles in “la Stampa”, “Osservatore Romano”, “il Nostro Tempo”. Cf. also H. Herles, Zwischen
Barrikade und Altar. Der Fall Don Gerardo Lutte – Ein Priester und der Klassenkampf am Rande
von Rom, in “Publik” n. 11 (12 March 1971), 3.

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youth protests in 1968 considering them “the most significant events of recent decades
and richer in hope for the future of humanity.”70 His proposal for understanding the
mental framework of the time is interesting. He sought a radical reform of the university,
inspired by the student movement in the French-speaking scene. His proposal envisaged
abolishing the position of full professor and the classical examinations, seen as control
through “the memorisation of knowledge transmitted in an authoritarian way from the
podium,”71 preferring ongoing education, active learning instead and understanding
professors as counsellors. Lutte had fully adopted the critique of society developed by
the Frankfurt School, speaking of the alienation of man, the oppression of the ruling
class, trust in the democratisation of the university and student involvement in its
government.72
Even more controversial was Lutte’s social involvement in the Prato Rotondo
community. This involved incitement to class struggle and the social and economic
redemption of the poor. Pietro Stella, who supported the idea of a critical rethinking,
as demonstrated in his Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica,73 but adopted a
critical stance regarding Lutte’s activities, began a reflection on a Salesian way of being
involved in social issues. He formulated the basic question as follows: “Was it a consistent
reinterpretation of Don Bosco’s way to incite to class struggle, take over schools by
force, and lead some groups to occupy vacant buildings?”74 The answer was in line both
with Don Bosco’s solutions and the Pope John XXIII’s approach to the Council: a
dialogue that seeks “what unites us” and not one that emphasises “what separates us” as
an instrument of struggle. Here are his reflections:
The Salesians have inherited from their founder Don Bosco a praxis and a
range of formulas that might seem curious and evasive. My politics? They are
those of the Our Father. Recent theological reflection allows us to reformulate
Don Bosco’s way of acting and understand its deeper meaning which is not
70 G. Lutte, Per una università critica, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 16 (1969) 2, 336.
71 Ibid., 334.
72 For the “pedagogies of crisis” Cf. Chiosso, Novecento pedagogico, 245-248. Note how the authors of
the “great refusal” combined Freudian psychoanalysis with the Marxist idealisation of a new man. The
aims of the anti-pedagogical project were pursued in ways more socio-political than academic, ending up
marginalising pedagogy as inherently authoritarian and violent.
73 Stella’s work, which came out in 1968, was, together with the earlier one by Desramaut, one of the
milestones of the historical-critical turn in Salesian studies. The text was often interpreted in support
of the radical change in charism as, for example, in the bibliography of the “Document of the 20”
containing proposals for the SGC by professors at the PAS. Stella’s volumes were then translated as
Don Bosco: Life and Work; Don Bosco: Religious Outlook and Spirituality.
74 P. Stella, Il dramma di don Gerardo Lutte, il prete classista dei baraccati, in Archivio di Pietro Stella.

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disengagement as it may naively seem to be, “fuga” or “contemptus mundi”,
alienation. On the contrary, Salesians have found themselves, perhaps without
having reflected on it much beforehand, fully on the programmatic trajectory
of Gaudium et Spes and Populorum Progressio. […] The ways they do so are the
ways set out by Vat. II: no anonymity, but make yourself known for who you
are: not hostile but respectful of everyone, ready to promote whatever value in
others that appears to be positive, fully respectful of the other’s conscience. But
at the same time let others see us as witnesses of the Gospel we have heard and
that has struck root in our lives.
It could seem like an easy plan: so easy that we do not want to struggle for it!
In reality, and today especially, it is not easy to find as many young people as we
would like capable of making their ideal coincide with an activity that renounces
coming to blows; that plans to take note of everything, especially wounds, in
order to help raise the level of society without causing fractions. It is also difficult
in concrete terms to set up works. Poverty in many countries means living on the
outskirts of urban areas. And the suburbs often mean industrial areas. In many
cities there is no alternative: one can either buy or accept donations or rent a
place: to set up a social work, a school or a vocational school means adding value
to the area and entering into the dynamics of the construction market.75
With the years of strong dissent mostly by now in the past, in the six years
from 1972–78 we note the involvement of the Councillor for Formation, Fr Egidio
Viganò, who turned his attention to both academic organisation and reform. The
direction he encouraged was an interdisciplinary one inasmuch as he saw the risks of
watertight compartments, closures and false autonomy. For Fr Viganò “being pastorally
minded” was the specifically Salesian dimension and one well suited to driving the
interdisciplinary approach at the PAS, which in 1973 became the Pontifical Salesian
University.76
It seems that in practice the effects of Viganò’s interdisciplinary thinking were
somewhat modest ones. Pietro Braido, Dean of the ISP from 1972–74 and Rector
75 P. Stella, Due punti chiave nel caso Lutte, in Archivio di P. Stella. NB: The question of “large” structures
for poor youngsters was the object of criticism during the years of protest. In addition, the ambiguity
of the relationship between the Salesians and Count Gerini was rightly criticised, the consequences of
which would have ethical, economic and judicial implications until recent times.
76 Cf. E. Viganò, Lettera a don Luigi Ricceri Gran Cancelliere del P.A.S. (24 agosto 1972), in R. Gianatelli
(ed.), Don Egidio Viganò all’Università Salesiana. Discorsi, linee operative, testimonianze del VII Successore di
don Bosco, UPS, Roma 1996, 24-44.

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of the UPS from 1974–77, assessed the post-1968 situation as lying between the two
extremes of a utopian rush forward and overcautious stagnation.77 In the Facoltà di
Scienze dell’Educazione (FSE) or Faculty of Education Sciences, interdisciplinarity was
generally accepted, but not everyone shared the same definition or methodology. The days
of interdisciplinary collaboration around the handbook Educare came to an end78 and
after Vatican II it was more appropriate to be talking about multidisciplinarity, insofar
as the context of disagreements, Salesians leaving the Congregation and attempts to get
the difficult democratic organisational model at the UPS to work, did not allow for much
more.79
Roberto Giannatelli, Dean from 1974 to 1980, described the initiatives of those
years as being more “inter-ideological” than “interdisciplinary”. This category includes
conferences on the teaching of religion in state schools, political education, and on
cultural pluralism which, in the Dean's opinion, were affected by “the conflictive climate
of the time.”80 Even the structure of the Orientamenti Pedagogici in those years did not
suggest works of interdisciplinary synthesis. The curricula of the FSE in the 1970 reform
reveal concern for the scientific nature and autonomy of each discipline, although Braido
insisted on calling it “articulation tending to unification open to pluralism.”81 Likewise,
the adoption of a strategy of common disciplines for all curricula was more a sign of
multidisciplinarity than a demonstration of interdisciplinary logic.82 Finally, among the
courses there was not even one on the preventive system or Salesian pedagogy, and Braido
77 Cf. Braido, Per una storia dell’educazione giovanile, 288-306.
78 Cf. P. Braido (ed.), Educare. Sommario di scienze pedagogiche, 3. vols., PAS Verlag, Zürich 11956
21962-64.
79 With regard to those who left, it should be noted that two ISP deans left the Congregation: Fr. Ladislao
Csonka in 1969 and Manuel Gutiérrez in 1971. In this context, the expression “a marked mobility
of personnel” used by Giannatelli is somewhat euphemistic. Cf. R. Giannatelli, La FSE nel periodo
1965-1980, in G. Malizia – E. Alberich (eds.), A servizio dell’educazione. La Facoltà di Scienze
dell’Educazione dell’Università Pontificia Salesiana, LAS, Rome 1984, 54. Cf. also Ibid., 50-55; Midali,
Frammenti di vita salesiana, 158-161; C. Nanni, Pietro Braido, Decano della FSE e Rettore dell’UPS,
in Nanni et al. (eds.), Pietro Braido, 96-102.
80 Giannatelli, La FSE nel periodo 1965-1980, in Malizia – Alberich (eds.), A servizio dell’educazione,
52; B. Bellerate – G.C. Milanesi (eds.), Educazione e politica, SEI, Turin 1976; B. Bellerate
(ed.), Pluralismo culturale ed educazione. Acts of the 3rd inter-ideological colloqium under the auspices
of “Orientamenti Pedagogici” held in Rome on 8-9 December 1978, “Orientamenti Pedagogici”,
Rome 1979.
81 [P. Braido,] Rinnovamento di una Facoltà di scienze dell’educazione, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 17
(1970) 4, 1044.
82 Cf. Ibid., 1046. Common disciplines were Philosophy of Education, Theology of Education, General
and Dynamic Psychology, Human Developmental Psychology, History of Pedagogy and Education,
General Pedagogical Methodology, Politics of Education, Sociology of Education.

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himself, after the three years of his service as rector of UPS, no longer dedicated himself
either to interdisciplinary issues or to the teaching of the philosophy of education,
gradually pouring all his energies into the study of Don Bosco’s history and catechetics.83
Salesian pedagogical guidelines around the time of
Vatican II
Renato Ziggiotti’s letters and the globalisation of the charism
Renato Ziggiotti, Peter Ricaldone’s successor, who led the Congregation from 1952
to 1965, was a humble, courageous individual, a realist who was open to the breath
of fresh air from the Council. He was faithful to Don Bosco and sincerely concerned
with the growth of his work in these new times. Fr Ricceri summed him up as having
a “friendly simplicity” in the footsteps of Rua, Rinaldi and Cimatti, whose disciple he
was.84 Because of the restrictions imposed by the fascist regime and the World War, the
previous Rector Major had not been able to make many visits to the provinces. Ziggiotti,
instead, led the Congregation in the 1950s to an awareness of the worldwide nature of
Salesian education. His resolution, “I will do everything possible to visit even the most
distant provinces”85 took the form of a sequence of visits to Salesian houses in every
continent, with particular focus on the houses of formation. The aim of the visits was
both to create a sense of unity around the Rector Major as well as to get to know the
specific nature of the different cultural and educational contexts.
This sense of belonging to the charism was also found in his circular letters. As
with Albera, we note the frequent use of the possessive adjective “our”, attached to
so many terms like family, houses, confreres, life, pupils, prayers, vocations, rules,
schools, brothers, apostolate, Congregation, youth, just to mention the most frequent
ones.86 The first circular letter that the Rector Major sent out contained a summary
83 Cf. Nanni, Pietro Braido, Decano della FSE, in Nanni et al. (eds.), Pietro Braido, 102 and the updated
bibliography on Pietro Braido (1919-2014), in bit.ly/csdb-unisal-it-braido.
84 Cf. R. Ziggiotti, Tenaci, audaci e amorevoli. Lettere circolari ai Salesiani di don Renato Ziggiotti.
Introduction, key words, indexes and statistical appendices, ed. Marco Bay, LAS, Rome 2015, 13-17.
85 R. Ziggiotti, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in “Atti del Consiglio Superiore” 33 (1953) 176, 4.
86 Cf. Ziggiotti, Tenaci, audaci e amorevoli, 26.

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of educational activity over the years: care of formation and spiritual life and above
all the strategic importance of the sodalities seen as “the direct way to cultivate the
religious spirit, frequent reception of the Holy Sacraments, family spirit, cheerfulness,
the preventive system, the friendly understanding among the boys and the love for study,
work and discipline.”87 The atmosphere of reconstruction and growth in the 1950s also
made itself felt in the tone of his letters. For Ziggiotti this was the time for action,
Don Bosco’s apostolic boldness, large buildings, increasing the number of vocations
to consecrated life to respond to so many needs in the world. Some expressions are
testimony to the era and educational style:
We must be bold in doing good, with the holy boldness of Saint John Bosco.
Young people don't like half-measures: either they are educated in the heroism
of doing good or they slump into stagnant mediocrity and become sceptical.
Educators who believe they are up-to-date when they indulge pupils’ bad tastes
will be scorned and derided tomorrow; the esteem of young people goes to those
who demand effort, sacrifice, renunciation, to those who point out noble and
generous goals and wisely help them to reach them. Let us not be concerned
with making the life of our students easy and pleasant, but rather with arousing
enthusiasm for the enrichment of the soul in the life of grace, in the acquisition
of the necessary virtues in life: justice, fortitude, charity, self-mastery, emulation
in good. […] Now where do we find the training ground for such moral
gymnastics if not in flourishing religious sodalities?88
Despite the changes that had taken place in society and the Church in the 1950s
and a growing awareness of the diversity of contexts, the Congregation’s leadership
continued to follow the traditional, centralist direction of Ricaldone up until the 19th
General Chapter in 1965, held at the new headquarters of PAS during the Second
Vatican Council. In the earlier 1958 Chapter, in fact, the “old style” was still in evidence,
both in how it was run, and for the topics it dealt with.89 Even if it mentioned “healthy
87 R. Ziggiotti, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in “Atti del Consiglio Superiore” 32 (1952) 169, 8.
88 Ibid., 7.
89 Braido comments: “General Chapter 18 in 1958 does not reflect in depth the recent transformations that
have taken place in society. With regard to festive oratories and the means of social communication and even
more so to education in the internees one hears speeches almost identical to those of previous Chapters,
in turn echoing the normative resolutions of the 1920s and later.” Cf. P. Braido, Le metamorfosi
dell’Oratorio salesiano tra il secondo dopoguerra e il Postconcilio Vaticano II (1944-1984), in “Ricerche
Storiche Salesiane” 49 (2006) 319.

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modernity”, the Chapter described itself as a “manifestation of intense Salesianity and
of total and unconditional adherence to the teachings and directives of our holy founder
and father. In fact, Chapter members were moved by just one desire: absolute fidelity to
the spirit of our constitutions and regulations, our traditions.”90
In addition to provisions concerning the usual matters regarding the Salesian
boarding school, such as holidays, the presence of the rector, the question of the second
Sunday Mass, cinema and entertainment or daily prayers standardised throughout the
world, some emphases appeared that appreciated youthful holiness under the impulse
of the canonisation of Dominic Savio. Particularly highlighted were the wealth of
activities in Salesian sodalities and their organisational structure: the International
Sodality Centre, dependent on and coordinated by the General Spiritual Director, with
abundant materials for animating activities through magazines and publications; the
Provincial Federations, an organisation centre for sodalities at the level of the individual
provinces under the guidance of a provincial delegate; the International Confederation
of Sodalities, etc.91 In this sense one could also see the potential development of the PAS:
as a University that professionalised the work of Salesian education. The opening of the
Faculty of Classical Literature (responding to the needs of the classical high schools) was
envisaged in GC18, and another novelty would be the Faculty of Music as a tangible way
of dealing with a typical aspect of Salesian education. The Rector Major spoke about this
at the Chapter:
It seems to us more opportune than ever that alongside the Higher Institute
of Pedagogy, which we already have, there should be an Institute of Christian
Literature to train the teaching staff in our schools according to Don Bosco’s
thinking, and to integrate theological studies, and an Institute of Music, at least
for the lower grades, in order to maintain those characteristics proper to our
spirit.92
90 Il XVIII Capitolo Generale della nostra Società, in ACS 39 (1958) 203, 20.
91 Cf. Ibid., 33-34. For the wealth of formative offerings Cf. “Le Compagnie” magazine then subdivided
into “Le Compagnie. Edizione soci - nuova serie” and “Le Compagnie. Edizione assistenti” that continued
as “Compagnie Dirigenti”. In addition there was the “Quaderni delle Compagnie” series; the four
volumes of Cantiere Compagnie, Centro Internazionale Compagnie, Turin, 1958-1961; or in works
republished by the Centro Internazionale Compagnie di Torino in 1954 by P.G. Grasso, Le compagnie
come risposta alla psicologia giovanile, A.M. Stickler, Le compagnie alla luce degli ultimi documenti
pontifici; E. Valentini, Attualità ed efficacia pedagogica delle Compagnie.
92 Cf. Il XVIII Capitolo Generale della nostra Società, in ACS 39 (1958) 203, 83

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The last point the Rector Major recalled was “the bloat of culture. Let us keep
ourselves within the humility of knowing, researching and communicating our own
science. Deus superbis resistit; and this is the worst kind of pride: intellectual pride.”93 In
view of this there was his insistence on the choice of personnel for the PAS, “our greatest
institute of religious culture”:
They must excel not only for their intellectual abilities and didactic attitudes,
but especially for their moral endowments, their religious virtues, their Salesian
spirit, their balance and common sense. The future of our Society depends to a
considerable extent on this choice. In fact, a wrong choice could have very serious
consequences for the delicate position of privilege, as well as of responsibility,
in which these people would find themselves when they assigned to formation
houses.94
The 1950s were characterised by growth in Salesian personnel, houses and presences
by virtue of the stable organisational approach of previous times. And even if it seemed
that the block of solid and unquestionable Salesian traditions was based around the
Biographical Memoirs and Fr Ricaldone’s Formazione salesiana, this was not the case.
Openings to the rethinking by the Council had cast doubt on the Ricaldonian approach,
and even before the Council, it was noted that the new generation of Salesians with
historical-critical awareness was beginning to question the traditional interpretation of
history, education and the Salesian charism.
The first historical-critical reflection group was formed in Lyon, where Francis
Desramaut began studying Salesian sources with the historical-critical method, leading
the Groupe lyonnais de recherches salésiennes. The first publication on the development
of regulations in the Congregation dates back to 1953. The translations of Don Bosco’s
biographies of young people followed. But the most important volume, which had a
profound impact on Salesian studies, was his doctoral thesis on the first volume of
the Biographical Memoirs entitled Les Memorie I de Giovanni Battista Lemoyne. Étude
d’un ouvrage fondamental sur la jeunesse de saint Jean Bosco, published in 1962.95 Later,
Desramaut became known in 1967 with the publication of Don Bosco et la vie spirituelle
93 Ibid., 18.
94 Ibid., 39.
95 Cf. F. Desramaut, Les Memorie I de Giovanni Battista Lemoyne. Étude d’un ouvrage fondamental sur la
jeunesse de saint Jean Bosco. Thèse de doctorat en théologie présentée à la Faculté de Théologie de Lyon,
Maison d’Études Saint-Jean-Bosco, Lyon 1962.

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in the Library of Spirituality collection by the Beauchesne Publishing House.96 It was
then translated into Italian, Spanish, English, German and Polish. Gradually, critical
thinking made its presence felt and through recourse to the contributions of expert
scholars, influenced discussion in General Chapters focused on rethinking the charism.
The partial, unimplemented breakthrough of GC19
As we have said, following the example of the Council, the 1965 Chapter was sent some
twenty or so experts, two of them Brothers. We should note that among them, eleven
were experts in the educational field. Almost all of the experts were academic scholars and
only a few were “full-time” educators.97 The role of the expert as facilitator was proposed
by the classic Dizionario di Pastorale in 1972 edited by Karl Rahner. In reflection on
the post-Council climate he said: “What concerns everyone must also be decided by
everyone. In accordance with this legal basis, in principle everyone is competent where
the pastoral plan is concerned. [...] The task of experts and leaders is to enable these
people to plan the necessary changes themselves and to implement them.”98 The identity
of the expert as scholar in the Congregation was later reinforced in the 1980s in the
collaboration between the Youth Ministry Department and the Education Faculty at the
Pontifical Salesian University, as will be seen in the next chapter.
The emphasis given to the importance of scholarly experts was in tune with
the Council’s openness, in Gaudium et Spes, to scientific discoveries, with a special
role recognised for pedagogy, sociology, political science, and social planning.99 The
aforementioned Dizionario di Pastorale spoke very clearly about the use of planning in
the entry on the pastoral plan:
By means of technology and science, man today is able to design his environment
and society, to manipulate them, change them [...] These means are also available
to the Church, so that she can consciously plan for the future and develop her
own strategy.100
96 Cf. F. Desramaut, Don Bosco et la vie spirituelle, Beauchesne, Paris 1967.
97 Cf. CG19 (1965), 362-366.
98 N. Hepp, Piano pastorale, in K. Rahner et al. (eds.), Dizionario di Pastorale, Queriniana, Brescia
1979, 567-568.
99 Cf. R. Tonelli, Ripensando quarant’anni di servizio alla pastorale giovanile, interview by Giancarlo
De Nicolò, in “Note di Pastorale Giovanile” 43 (2009) 5, 14, 33-35 and P. Scabini, Creatività nello
Spirito e programmazione pastorale, in “Orientamenti Pastorali” 46 (1998) 5, 22.
100 Hepp, Piano pastorale, 567. Noteworthy is the fact that the author offers as a bibliography only
two volumes on community social work (Gemeinwesenarbeit) without any references to pastoral
theology.

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The means available for carrying out the plan are media, finance and institutions.
Theology comes in later, only in the position of “theory of praxis”.101 The use of
planning is motivated by criticism of the use “of partial emergency solutions, but instead
requires a concept of overall pastoral care.”102 In the almost mechanical adoption of
social planning in the Church’s pastoral care, one can perceive the enthusiasm of the
time, the confidence in science and the emphasis on practical changes that were waiting
to be realised. The decentralisation after GC19 brought immediate effects, especially in
the field of youth ministry, which was gaining in importance:
The traditional attention given to individual institutions, which had previously
been the responsibility of the members of the Superior Council, was “decentralised”
and distributed among several persons in charge, both at the centre and on the
periphery: the new Youth Ministry Department, dependent or supplementary
offices, provincial conferences, the individual provinces and their technical
and animation bodies. The centralised “Crusade” was over or took on a new
appearance.103
GC19 regarding education and pastoral activity
The Council influenced the Chapter’s work, including its predominantly pastoral
orientation. Among the documents that had already been promulgated, the ones most
used were the Constitution Sacrosantum Concilium, the Decree Inter Mirifica and
the Constitution Lumen Gentium.104 The Rector Major, Fr Aloysius Ricceri, recalled
the atmosphere of those days thus: “During the work of the Chapter one always felt
that all those present were anxiously watching the Vatican Ecumenical Council II.
The atmosphere in Rome clearly encouraged this spring climate of prospect so full of
promise.”105
GC19 is the first Chapter to have voiced an awareness of the turning points that
took place in post-war youth and the cultural world. The reflection did not stop at
acknowledging the fact, but also attempted to reformulate educational and pastoral
101 Cf. Ibid., 568.
102 Mähner, Pianificazione del territorio, in Rahner et al. (eds.), Dizionario di Pastorale, 565.
103 P. Braido, Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano, 2006, 337.
104 Cf. M. Wirth, Da Don Bosco ai nostri giorni. Tra storia e nuove sfide (1815-2000), LAS, Rome 2000,
438.
105 GC19 (1965), 5-6.

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practice. The attempts can be summarised in five areas: reorganisation of central
government structures, downsizing of works, updating of formation, adult apostolate
and concrete applications in education.
At the level of the General Council, the Councillor for Youth and Parish Ministry
was established [in fact, in the English translation of the Acts quoted ahead one
can see that he was called a ‘Consultor’] ad experimentum, who merged the areas of
responsibility of the previous Councillor for Schools, Councillor for Vocational Schools,
and Councillor for Oratories and Parishes under his responsibility. Another six new
Councillors were entrusted with animating a group of provinces in a geographical
region, something needed due to decentralisation in the educative and pastoral area as
well.
The General Chapter thought it opportune to entrust to a single Consultor
the care of our parishes and the apostolate of the young because of their
close interdependence [...] As far as the boys are concerned this Consultor will
have care of their general religious, moral, and intellectual in every kind of
Salesian house, oratories, hostels, day schools, boarding houses, youth centres,
groups, sodalities and other youth organisations; due regard being paid to the
authority of provincials, and with the collaboration of the Consultor in charge
of the group of provinces concerned when there is a question of specific local
requirements in technical, scholastic or professional matters...106
With the changes at the level of the General Council there was a tendency to
value issues specific to the regions, to decentralise the government of the Congregation
at the world level and, at the same time, to keep the various educative and pastoral
dimensions and structures together. At the province level, delegates for the various areas,
and commissions of experts were added to the council structure. Only at the local level
did the traditional council structure remain obligatory: de jure it included the rector, the
prefect, the parish priest, the catechist, the principal and no more than three councillors,
one of whom could be the director of the festive oratory.107 Only the Special General
Chapter in 1971-72 would later give the provinces the responsibility of establishing such
roles as they deemed appropriate at the local level.108
The Chapter decided to establish a Centre for Salesian Historical Studies in order
to throw better light on Don Bosco’s educational work, and a Youth Pastoral Ministry
106 Ibid., 24.
107 Cf. Ibid., 37-38.
108 Cf. SGC (1972), no. 708.

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Centre to apply GC19’s decisions, to work together with the Institute of Pedagogy at
the Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum, coordinate the various pastoral activities of young
people, and draw up a Treatise on Salesian education for our times.109
The second area of reflection concerned “reshaping”, a concept that was popular
in GC19 because it responded to a widespread desire in the Congregation. The general
principle was the simplification of houses that were too large and the reduction in the
number of works that were too small. With regard to the type of work, the Salesian
boarding school seemed to have entered a crisis both in the perception of the Salesians
and in the perception of the students.110 The Chapter therefore stressed the value of
the oratory above all: “Special attention should be given to the ‘original’ work of the
oratory, fittingly brought up to date and reshaped [...] so that it may attract and serve
as many boys as possible, with a variety of subsidiaries (youth centres, clubs, various
associations, courses, night schools…).”111 The chapter on the oratory stated that “the
oratory should not limit itself to the crowd of boys who just come there, but it must
become a pastoral instrument of approach to all young people. Opening out in this spirit
of missionary dialogue, to all the youth of the parish, area, city – to include those of
no faith at all.”112 It had to have a precise educational programme responding to the
changed psychology of young people and adhering to developmental psychology.113 To
some degree the parish was also revalued, in which it was possible to work pastorally
in a Salesian spirit, fitting into the broad horizons of the Church apostolate, but with
special attention to the evangelisation of youth.114 As interest in the working world grew,
boarding schools for young workers and vocational schools were also encouraged. The
Acts speak of “schools of every kind, not only for classical education, but and especially
for professional and technical training.”115 Provincials were asked to “formulate a precise
109 Cf. GC19 (1965), 201.
110 72% of the past pupils of the houses throughout Italy preferred education in the family by good
and normally gifted parents to a boarding school education, even a well-organised one with good
educators. Among the most negative aspects of Salesian education were mentioned: unrealistic preparation
for life, repression of the personality, exaggerated compulsory religious practices, excessive discipline
and unpreparedness for relations between the sexes. Cf. P.G. Grasso, La Società Salesiana tra il
passato e l’avvenire. Risultati di un’inchiesta tra ex allievi salesiani, Extra-commercial edition [s.e.],
Rome 1964, 45-152.
111 GC19 (1965), 103.
112 Ibid., 137.
113 Cf. Ibid., 137.
114 Cf. Ibid., 130-132.
115 Ibid., 103.

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programme for reshaping the work in hand, taking into account the numbers of the
confreres, the particular condition of time and place, the possibilities of the future, the
needs of the hierarchy and the present worth of the work now being done.”116
A third issue felt by Chapter members related to the area of formation and was
summed up in the key word “qualification” of Salesians. Qualification meant primarily
acquiring the skills necessary for the mission in today’s world. In his presentation of
the documents of the Chapter, the Rector Major was not afraid to call the claim that
a bit of good will was enough to meet the needs of the works a “sweet illusion.”117
Following the Council’s approach, the Congregation, too, opened up to the scientific
world. Aloysius Ricceri made his appeal, saying: “From now on every manifestation
of our activity calls for personnel qualified in theology, liturgy, philosophy, pedagogy,
science, technical knowledge, teaching, art, recreation, administration.”118 It seems that
the attention to qualification was an expression of the Council’s “anthropological shift”
underlying which was also the notion of reshaping works to fit the circumstances of the
people involved.119
Alongside educative and pastoral matters still referred to as “the youth apostolate”,
reflection on the Christian and pro-social formation of adults was added, which forms
the fourth focus of GC19. Six new areas were introduced among traditional areas
such as assistance to the FMA, Cooperators, Past Pupils and the missions ad gentes:
parish, catechesis for adults, family apostolate, formation of lay teachers, ministry to
workers, and social communication. These echoed themes in encyclicals such as Mater
et Magistra, Pacem in Terris and the Council’s Decree Inter Mirifica.120 All these areas
were entrusted to a Councillor on the Superior Council. This enlargement of the field
of action was not a secondary matter, because it increased the possibilities and also
the pastoral commitments of the Congregation. In 1991, Fr Juan Vecchi assessed the
changes that had taken place since the 1960s as follows: “The adult world is no longer
on the margins of our involvement and their religious care, whether at the request of the
Churches or for economic reasons, occupies us as much as the education of youth.”121
Some of the more concrete educational issues still reflected the dominance of the
boarding school paradigm and its lack of compatibility with the lively sense of freedom
of young people in the 1960s. The boarding school was still the underlying frame of
116 Ibid., 44.
117 Cf. Ibid., 5.
118 Ibid., 5.
119 Ibid., 9-10.
120 Cf. John XXIII, Mater et magistra (1961), in CG19 (1965), 151; Id., Pacem in terris (1963), in
Ibid., 151 and Inter Mirifica (1963), nos. 1-3, 9-10, 13-22 in Ibid., 170-177.
121 J.E. Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia nella prassi salesiana, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000,
SDB, Rome 1991, 12.

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reference for the problems of the youth apostolate. This can be seen, for example, in the
presentation of the Acts of GC19 by the Rector Major, in the omission of the boarding
school when dealing with the reorganisation of the works of the youth apostolate,122 and
in the mixed nature structure of documents IX-XIX concerning the various educative
and pastoral works, where schools with hostels and semi-boarding schools are indicated
as the only works of the youth apostolate.123 In addition, the issues concerning the
formation of young people were linked almost exclusively to boarding school life: the
lively discussion on the compulsory nature of daily Mass and the relative intervention
of the Rector Major resulted in reconfirmation of the traditional practice of daily Mass
for boarders with a sensitivity to particular situations that had to be managed by the
Provincial Conferences.124 Delicate or problematic areas included education to love and
purity, co-education, management of leisure time and holidays for boarders.125
GC19’ s application in the educative and pastoral area
Undoubtedly, GC19 was the beginning of a new journey for the Congregation. In 1982
Egidio Viganò spoke of quite a few of the Chapter’s “forward-looking directives”126
and Pascual Chávez in 2010 evaluated GC19 thus: “[It] represents the first collective
stock-taking by the communities in the Congregation with regard to the changes taking
place in the areas of youth and the need to reformulate the traditional educative-pastoral
praxis.”127 Given the importance of the Chapter and the content of the five new areas
it initiated, it therefore becomes useful to also study the history of the effects connected
with the ideas it introduced, not just their timely proclamation.128 Therefore, we will
spend some time initially looking at the criteria for applying the conclusions of GC19,
122 Cf. GC19 (1965), 9-13.
123 Cf. Ibid., 101-201.
124 Cf. Ibid., 188-189 and 338-341.
125 Cf. Ibid., 194-199.
126 E. Viganò, The 22nd General Chapter, in ACS 63 (1982) 305, 10.
127 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, “And he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd,
and he set himself to teach them at some length” (Mk 6:4). Salesian Youth Ministry, in AGC 91 (2010)
407, 7.
128 “The history of effects” (German Wirkungsgeschichte) is a key concept of Hans-Georg Gadamer
introduced in his work Truth and Method. Here we will use it as an interpretative concept to grasp the
sequence of semantic nuances of key concepts such as education, pastoral, project, reorganisation,
qualification, significance, etc., which are closely connected with the context in which they arose,
with the subsequent interpretations given in the various GCs and in the letters of the Rectors Major,

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so that we can then note the very manner and effect of the concepts introduced and the
decisions made.
When presenting the Acts of the Chapter, the Rector Major, Aloysius Ricceri,
highlighted some of the criteria for applying its conclusions. These can be summed
up in three key expressions: personalising its teachings, collaborating and advising one
another, reshaping works to a human scale. The first criterion consists in “mould[ing] in
ourselves a mentality rather than set up an inventory of injunctions to be carried out.”129
The tools for personalising that were indicated were in-depth personal and community
reading of the Acts, so as to encourage the study of the basic ideas that inspire the
documents.
The second criterion was intended above all for superiors, who should use prudent
gradualness in applying the Chapter. Gradualness should not be improvised, but guided
by the norms issued to avoid the danger of arbitrary interpretations and fragmentation.
Here the attempt was to apply the value of dialogue recommended by the Encyclical
Ecclesiam Suam.130 Dialogue was emphasised as the first quality of the superior in order
to foster collaboration at various levels: in particular sectors of activity, in Salesian houses,
in provinces, in groups of provinces and in the Congregation.131
Reshaping, for which there was a felt need, was the third criterion for applying
GC19. The primary motivation urging the reorganisation of educational works was not
a concern for the activity itself but for the attention to be given to the “real good of the
confrere.”132 The Rector Major wrote: “Before moving on to increase already existing
activities in number and size we should all of us feel a preoccupation for the man, the
religious, the Salesian, the one who plays the leading part in this whirlwind drama. [...]
The apostolate is a delicate spiritual work. It cannot be effective if one's soul is tired
out.”133
The demands of downsizing and decentralisation were intended to lighten the
organisational structure of the Congregation, aimed at the good of the confreres and
the mission of the Congregation in today’s world, for which it needed to be qualified.
Paradoxically, however, it seems that the transformation following the Council meant
committing a great deal of human resources, and this occurred precisely during the
and finally with the way they are applied in practice. Cf. H.-G. Gadamer, Wahrheit und Methode.
Grundzüge der philosophischen Hermeneutik, Mohr, Tübingen 1960 and its English translation Id.,
Truth and Method, Crossroad, New York 1982.
129 GC19 (1965), 6.
130 Cf. Paul VI, Ecclesiam Suam (1964), in Ibid., 8.
131 Cf. Ibid., 7-9.
132 Ibid., 9.
133 Ibid., 9-10.

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period of the first serious demographic crisis of Salesian personnel, signs of which went
back to 1963.134 Pietro Braido noted that after GC19 just at global level “there were
almost thirty items between manuals and directories to be put together, permanent
Commissions to be established, Centres and Offices to be organised at headquarters,
bodies to be set up and studies on particular problems to be treated.”135 Many resources
were involved to achieve some degree of decentralisation, aimed at setting up a more
structured organisation. Provincial Conferences had to be configured and set up.
Aloysius Ricceri evaluated the situation of the personnel in the SGC six years later,
speaking of “the truly serious and sometimes almost chronic haemorrhage suffered by
various provinces, simultaneously with the ageing of personnel and the inability to cope
any longer with tasks previously carried out.”136 Given the new tasks and structures he
estimated that “for every two to three Salesians one should be a leader.”137
In the youth ministry sector, too, the challenge of making the oratory more
Salesian was addressed through decentralisation that started from the centre. GC19 used
instruments of promotion at the world level, through Provincial Conferences, Provinces
and Houses. A Centre for Oratories and a central consultative team were asked for
and “such bodies will make an accurate study of the real condition of our oratories,
the possibility of their development, the demands of the Church and of the state, the
insertion of the oratory in the pastoral life of the parish, They will also have the duty to
set out general regulations of the oratory, the care of printed matter, organisation, the
exchange of studies and experience in the field of youth work and life in the oratory.”138
The most immediate consequence in the educative and pastoral area at central level
was the figure of the Youth Ministry Councillor (Consultor) and the establishment of
the Youth Ministry Centre. The first Councillor elected for YM was Gaetano Scrivo,
former superior of the Italy-Rome province. The Youth Ministry Centre was set up after
the Chapter, in 1965, with its delegate Michel Mouillard, from the Paris province. Note
di Pastorale Giovanile was begun as a journal of animation, the first number coming
out in 1967. In addition, at the Chapter’s request the Centro Studi don Bosco came
into being at the UPS (1973) under Pietro Stella’s direction, as well as the Centro Studi
134 For the alarming number of departures cf. R. Ziggiotti, Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 44
(1963) 233, 13 and Id., Lettera del Rettor Maggiore, in ACS 44 (1963) 234, 16.
135 P. Braido, Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano, 2006, 336.
136 L. Ricceri, Presentation by the Rector Major on the “General State of the Congregation”, in SGC
(1972), 615.
137 Ibid., 619.
138 GC19 (1965), 139.

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Missioni Salesiane (1973), in view of preparation for the centenary of the first missionary
expedition. However, the focus on education in the Centres’ historical publications was
not mainstream and the Treatise on Salesian education for our times that GC19 thought
of producing remained just an idea. This outcome was probably also attributable to the
diminishing number of experts in the pedagogical field and to the major and growing
pastoral sensitivity (not explicitly educational).139 From what we have seen so far it
would seem that the idea of reshaping things connected with the qualification of the
confreres remained a pious wish, and instead what was implemented was a degree of
decentralisation of central structures, introducing the YM Sector into the organisation.
The concept of “youth ministry” was introduced by the Chapter and was applied
at the level of governing structure, but the term most used in the documents of GC19
was still “youth apostolate”.140 In this sense we can still see a substantial welding of
the Congregation to the pre-Council identity of the so-called Christian education of
young people.141 GC19 talked about the inspirational principles and the more practical
content of youth ministry in the document on the Formation of the young, which was
still implicitly bound up with the boarding school structure.142 “After all, in a formally
Christian vision of society that was still prevalent at the time, educational activity was
lived out and practised in terms of apostolic activity. The expression ‘integral Christian
and human formation’, which could have given rise to some discussion, was mentioned
as being obvious and not at all problematic.”143 The change of mentality and the
personalisation requested by Ricceri required more time to mature. In 1982, the Rector
Major, Egidio Viganò, spoke of the combination of pre-Council and Council factors in
GC19 this way: “Due to the general historical situation, the perception of the demands
of the Council was rather limited; in fact, not everyone had yet had the opportunity
to grasp the profound ecclesiological renewal of Vatican II. Nonetheless, the Chapter
assembly breathed in the atmosphere.”144 GC19 had introduced the concept of youth
139 Cf. P. Braido, Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano, 2006, 333.
140 Cf. The names given to educative and pastoral activities in documents IX – XIX in GC19 (1965),
101-201: youth apostolate, apostolate of the laity, social apostolate, Salesian apostolate, care, education,
formation of the young, Christian and professional preparation for life.
141 Cf. S. Frigato, Educazione ed evangelizzazione. La riflessione della Congregazione salesiana nel
Postconcilio, in A. Bozzolo – R. Carelli (eds.), Evangelizzazione e educazione, LAS, Rome 2011,
70-72.
142 Cf. GC19 (1965), 182-201.
143 Frigato, Educazione ed evangelizzazione, in Bozzolo – Carelli (eds.), Evangelizzazione e educazione,
72.
144 Viganò, Il Capitolo Generale XXII, 9.

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ministry and some principles such as knowledge of and respect for the young person,
sense of freedom, social sense, sense of belonging to today’s world, gradualness. But
actually defining the youth ministry area, its methods, tools and educative and pastoral
mindset for all kinds of works would have to wait for the era after GC21 in 1978, marked
by Viganò’s term of office and Vecchi’s coordination of youth ministry.
The application of GC19’s most ambitious conclusions almost immediately came to
a halt as an effect of the Apostolic Letter Ecclesiae Sanctae, which came out a year
after the closure of the Chapter, announcing a Special General Chapter for all religious
institutes.145 Actually the SCG observed six years later: “Much of GC19 remained a dead
letter.”146 Reflection and creative effort then shifted to the preparation of the Special
General Chapter, distracting it from the concrete implementation of GC19. Twenty-five
years later, Vecchi wrote: “GC19’s reflection did not have a satisfactory translation
into practice [...]; the interpretation of reality and praxis did not experience significant
changes at the grassroots of the Congregation.”147 The cause could also be seen in the
lack of change in local structures (house council) and the way of understanding the
Chapter’s conclusions: a “codex” for everyone with the obligation of application.148
So the greatest effects of GC19 were: the change of paradigm for Salesian Chapters;
first adoption of the Council’s ideas and mindset; establishment of a structure of
government allowing for more dialogue and involvement and which, in the years
to follow, facilitated many of the meetings in preparation for the SGC; and finally,
appreciation of scholarly experts in various areas of Salesian life. In tune with the
Council, GC19 highlighted issues that, not without risk, would later be dealt with
through the instrument of educative and pastoral planning: the option for educational
structures that were open to the local neighbourhood and the world (oratory, parish,
catechesis for adults, the family apostolate, pastoral work and social communication),
the greater role of reflection, seeing the worth of the human sciences, the more
decentralised model of communication and organisation. Unity and continuity at the
various levels of the Congregation would be thought of, starting with GC19, more
within the framework of the common project that is the result of dialogue than in one of
fidelity to tradition connected with the boarding school paradigm. In what follows we
145 Cf. Ibid., 10.
146 SGC (1972), no. 393.
147 Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000, 1991, 10.
148 Cf. Ibid., 16-18.

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will study the disruption of the years following GC19 in connection with the reinforced
need for unifying elements in Salesian educative and pastoral praxis.
The Special General Chapter’s rethinking process
The Council’s opening to the human sciences, seen as relatively autonomous from
theology,149 and the need to rethink the Salesian charism, could be placed within a
general attitude of confidence in scientific solutions. The so-called Radiografie drawn
up in preparation for the Special General Chapter, summing up the way Salesians
were thinking, “speak constantly of the ‘integration’, ‘coordination’, ‘programming’,
‘planning’, of Salesian pastoral activity within and beyond our houses, in their
relationships with the local Church’s pastoral ministry. Their hope is that the problem
will be tackled in its totality and resolved in a timely manner.”150 The decentralisation of
government as a response to the diversity of contexts would be implemented by setting
up institutions, departments, teams, groups and commissions of experts, following the
path already opened by GC19 in 1965. Reflecting the context of general optimism at
the end of the 1960s, the Salesians trusted almost naively in the success of the design,
dialogue and study. In this way, the discourse on methodology was strongly connected
with the question of planning: the idea was thus to avoid the extensive post-Ricaldonian
regulation and to respect the diversity of educational contexts.
Some initiatives for the study of educative and pastoral issues also came from the
Congregation’s leadership. In 1967, the Councillor for Youth Ministry asked for a study
on the situation of the oratories, with inquiries in houses and provinces in order to
draw up directives that were to “serve as a norm for the Provincial Conferences for
the reorganisation of this very important sector of the Salesian apostolate.”151 In 1968,
under Fr Ricceri’s presidency, three conferences were held to study the educational and
pastoral situation. The Bangalore conference focused mainly on oratory youth ministry,
the one in Caracas on pastoral care in general terms and the one in Como especially
on the structure of the youth centre as a response to the needs of the times, along
149 Cf. Gaudium et Spes, no 36; Gravissimus Educationis, no. 10 and Apostolicam Actuositatem, no.7.
150 CGS – Commissioni Precapitolari Centrali, Ecco ciò che pensano i salesiani della loro congregazione
oggi. “Radiografia” delle relazioni dei Capitoli Ispettoriali speciali tenuti in gennaio- maggio 1969,
Istituto Salesiano Arti Grafiche, Castelnuovo D. Bosco (AT) 1969, vol. 1, 108.
151 Cf. L. Ricceri, Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 48 (1967) 247, 47.

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with various other proposals.152 The research and also the discussions at the conferences
showed the breadth of thought, which contrasted, however, with the weakness of the
practical indications. The Rector Major, in 1969, pointed out the lack of a precise
educational program for the different ages of young people and the need to improve
the proposals in the field of catechetics, liturgy, youth apostolic leadership, oratory
members’ involvement in society and Church, including through the work of the various
types of associations.153
In his Letter of October 1968, the Rector Major described the preparation for
the SGC through a complex fifteen-step process, which was expected to be completed
within the first months of 1971.154 In order to understand the atmosphere in which the
educative and pastoral reflection by the Congregation was taking place in those years, we
refer to the proposals sent in by the Provincial Chapters held in 1969, collected by the
pre-Chapter commissions in four volumes.155 The first theme dealt with was the request
for serious studies on the spirit, tradition and charism of the Congregation to rediscover
the genuine spirit of Don Bosco and to overcome divisions on fundamental questions.
A large proportion of the confreres had expressed themselves in favour of rethinking,156
but the actual proposals for doing so varied in almost every province with regard to the
aim, method and tools for carrying out such a study.157 The proposals received revealed
two opposing trends in the ongoing paradigm shift: one of continuous development and
one of disruption between the old and the new model.
In the educative and pastoral area, the proposals were still organised according to the
old scheme by type of work, with a strong emphasis on a general rethinking of structures.
152 Cf. L. Ricceri, Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 49 (1968) 252, 9-25 and 31-86.
153 L. Ricceri, Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 50 (1969) 258, 32-34.
154 Cf. L. Ricceri, Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 49 (1968) 254, 10-13.
155 Cf. CGS – Commissioni Precapitolari Centrali, Ecco ciò che pensano i salesiani della loro
congregazione oggi. “Radiografia” delle relazioni dei Capitoli Ispettoriali speciali tenuti in gennaio-
maggio 1969, 4 vols, Istituto Salesiano Arti Grafiche, Castelnuovo D. Bosco (AT) 1969.
156 Cf. Ecco ciò che pensano i salesiani, vol. 1, 1969, 46-47. The numerical value of 94% of the confreres
from twenty Provincial Chapters in favour of rethinking is one of the major consensus reached by the
Provincial Chapters, since there were very few questions that drew explicit interest of more than 15
Provinces. Strictly speaking, we must assert that the data is not statistically significant because of the
methodological difficulties of the analysis of heterogeneous materials. Cf. Ecco ciò che pensano i salesiani,
vol. 1, VI-XI.
157 Cf. Ecco ciò che pensano i salesiani, vol. 1, 1969, 47-67.

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There was almost unanimous agreement on the Salesian nature of parish activities,158
and just as strongly felt was the need to give “serious consideration to the primacy of
the oratory.”159 The validity of the school as responding to the needs of contemporary
society was confirmed by only eight provinces, but on condition that they fostered deep
human growth in maturity.160 The relevance of the vocational school was insisted on
by eleven provinces, but they offered no further specific indications. The number and
style of the proposals showed the intent of the confreres to overcome the stagnation
and isolation of Salesian boarding schools by shifting attention to another type of work.
The road to general rethinking of the school and of the Salesian boarding school was
less travelled. With regard to the way in which change was to be managed, the preferred
path was one of flexible and experimental restructuring, inventiveness, openness and
creativity.161 Twenty years later, Vecchi summed up the tendencies of the area studied:
“Some of the provinces in Europe have seen in the parishes an escape from the closed
school mindset.”162
The concrete content in educative and pastoral care was almost totally ignored. This
was paradoxical, because at a time when the Congregation was shifting in the pastoral
direction, most energy was spent in discussions on structures. This can be interpreted by
taking certain elements into account: the widespread belief that the change of structures
and the introduction of rational planning would have improved the quality of educative
and pastoral activity; the prevailing “dissent dynamic” during those crisis years, which
tended to deal with the great issues of the world but partly ignored the collaborative and
slow processes necessary for sustainable change.
The lack of educative and pastoral content that would emerge from the Radiografie
confirmed the openness to topics that converged around the pastoral themes, without
dwelling too much on the application of principles. Above all, what emerged
were the topics of systematic youth studies, dialogue and collaboration in the
educative community, integral development of the young, social and political openness,
animation of leisure time, catechesis and adult education.163 In the part that spoke
158 94% of the confreres from 27 Provincial Chapters were in agreements that the “parish is not an exceptional
work of our Salesian activities.” Cf. Ecco ciò che pensano i salesiani, vol. 1, 1969, 176.
159 97% of confreres from 16 Provincial Chapters were in agreement with the mentioned wording. Cf.
Ibid., vol. 1, 190.
160 Cf. Ibid., vol. 1, 194-198.
161 Cf. Ibid., vol. 1, 142-144 e vol. 2, 55-58.
162 Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000, 13.
163 Cf. Ecco ciò che pensano i salesiani, vol. 1, 214-233.

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of the Constitutions, only three provinces in Asia suggested including an article on
the preventive system.164 The two points that provoked greatest interest were the
emblematic question of free participation in daily Mass165 and opening up Salesian
works to co-education.166 Following the data from the Radiografie we can conclude
that the Special Provincial Chapters in preparation for the SGC focused above all on
structural change in the Congregation, overlooking specifically educative and pastoral
issues.
The Special General Chapter on educative and pastoral issues
The more than two hundred days of intense work from June 1971 to January 1972, in
the new headquarters of the Generalate in Rome, made the Special General Chapter
the longest Chapter in Salesian history. The SGC, according to the indications of the
previous Chapter, began with the General Report on the State of the Congregation
presented by the Rector Major. In the educative and pastoral area, still referred to
as “Salesian action”, Ricceri praised the heroic, humble and simple commitment of
many confreres to poor youth, but he also dwelt at length on the poor results of the
application of GC19. The redefinition and relaunching of the oratory and youth centre
had “not produced much”167 and the results of reshaping “were not really brilliant.”168
He saw that there was an almost complete blocking of the opening of new houses, but
opposed to that was a multiplication of works and a growing “disproportion between
personnel and tasks.”169 The specific aim of the SGC was to formulate a new text of
the Constitutions and Regulations following the directives of Vatican II. Given that the
redefinition of identity was a priority of the SGC, it is understandable that aspects of
application and practice remained secondary.170
164 Cf. Ibid., vol. 4, 167
165 83% of confreres expressed themselves in favour of free attendance at daily Mass, Cf. Ibid., vol. 1,
225.
166 82% of Chapter members were in favour of integrating co-education into Salesian works, Cf. Ibid.,
vol. 1, 230-232.
167 L. Ricceri, Presentation of the “General Report on the State of the Congregation”, in SGC (1972),
618
168 Ibid.
169 Ibid., 620.
170 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, Verso una nuova tappa di Pastorale Giovanile Salesiana, in Il cammino e la prospettiva
2000, Documenti PG 13, SDB, Rome 1991, 73.

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The departure point for all of the SGC’s effort was to “rediscover in-depth our
own identity” in the light of today’s situation.171 The identity of the Salesians linked
to educative-pastoral activity was expressed in the term “mission” leaving out the word
“end” in order to underline the dimension of the vocation received from God within the
Church, rather than seeing it as simply posed as an end to be reached.172 Mission referred
primarily to the salvation of poor and abandoned youth without reference to activities
and structures, to emphasise the integral nature of the mission. The relationship between
mission and pastoral activity was described thus: “Pastoral work is a practical realisation
of the mission under the guidance of the ‘pastors’.”173 Salesian youth ministry is
expressed in the Christ- and Church-centred perspective of the Council with a single
objective: the salvation of the young. In pursuit of this goal we are able to “communicate
divine life, making the family of man and its history more human.”174
From this unified perspective, then, comes the “absolute priority of pastoral work for
youth”175 with the need to apply the pastoral criterion to apostolic activity, the reshaping
of works (especially the classic boarding schools) and updating of the community
according to the new mentality.176 Courageous formulations like the following were
finally arrived at: “To continue a purely mechanical and pastorally inefficacious form of
activity which merely wears out the confreres is inadmissible.”177 Pastoral ministry thus
became an integral key connecting human development and evangelisation. To express the
uniqueness of the complex Salesian mission, two complementary expressions were chosen:
“integral Christian promotion” and “liberating Christian education.”178 If there was the
risk in GC19 that pastoral ministry would become too generic a term, the SGC wanted
to prevent this tendency and explored some of the concrete ramifications of pastoral
activity.
As a first specification, the Chapter felt the need to provide a criterion for renewal,
regulate the relationship between the return to the sources and the adapting to the new
171 Cf. SGC (1972), VIII.
172 Cf. Ibid., no. 23.
173 Ibid., no. 30.
174 Gaudium et Spes, no. 40, Ibid., no. 60. Cf. no. 24.
175 SGC (1972), n.o 180.
176 Cf. Ibid., nos. 344-348.
177 Ibid., no. 398. Cf. also Frigato, Educazione ed evangelizzazione, in Bozzolo – Carelli (eds.),
Evangelizzazione e educazione, 2011, 73.
178 Cf. SGC (1972), no. 61.

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times,179 and it found it in the words: “Don Bosco in the Oratory”. It entailed reference
not to the concept of oratory, but to the person of Don Bosco who had carried out his
“pastoral action” in the well-defined Oratory of Valdocco, first as a simple festive oratory,
then as “the Oratory” in its entirety, i.e. including the boarding school, with the classical
and vocational schools, and the attached places for leisure, cultural and recreational
activities.180 The criterion could not have been simply the spirit, too subjective, nor the
works, which ran the risk of them being idealised and fossilised.181 The ideal criterion
was Don Bosco in the Oratory understood as the “the synthesis, the sum total of all the
genial apostolic creations of our founder”,182 “faithful and dynamic, docile and creative,
firm but at the same time flexible”,183 who “stands out as a model of behaviour for all his
sons.”184
In a more concrete rethinking of Salesian educative and pastoral activity, the SGC
identified the following areas subdivided into their respective documents: evangelisation
and catechetics, pastoral renewal of Salesian activity among the young, parish ministry,
social communication and missions.185 In the structuring of the Acts, it is clear that the
starting point is the single Salesian mission applied at the level of the works with the
same pastoral criterion, so that the areas of action are dealt with only later. Interesting is
the change of perspective that shifts from the traditional division by type of work to the
specific areas of mission, formulated with a more systematic logic that prepares for the
four dimensions of the pastoral plans developed in the 1980s.
The SCG defined Salesian pastoral ministry not only by the areas of mission, but also
by describing the characteristics and the necessary Salesian pastoral attitudes. Pastoral
care was seen as a service offered to young people characterised by its practicality, its
all-embracing, communitarian and ecclesial approach.186 Salesians were called to be
pastors with the attitude of being on the lookout for young people outside our works
179 Cf. Ibid., nos. 192-194.
180 Cf. The rewording of the oratory criterion that followed, in C 40: “Don Bosco lived a pastoral experience
in his first Oratory which serves as a model: it was for the youngsters a home that welcomed, a parish
that evangelized, a school that prepared them for life and a playground where friends could meet and
enjoy themselves.”
181 Cf. SGC (1972), no. 194.
182 Ibid., no. 195.
183 SGC (1972), no. 197.
184 MB, vol. 7, 457, in Ibid., no. 197.
185 Cf. Ibid., nos. 175-306.
186 Ibid., nos. 350-359.

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as well, the attitude of encounter, presence, understanding and dialogue.187 Only later
would come the part describing structures for carrying out this pastoral approach.
The effort to rethink Salesian activity from a pastoral point of view, following
the Council, and the emphasis on social commitment led to the marginalisation of
the concept of education, which is, according to GC19, the specific activity of the
Congregation.188 This could be noticed in the minor importance given to education
in the Radiografie in preparation for the Chapter.189 One could be in agreement with
Vecchi’s assessment later, saying that “there are educational ideas and many inspirations
scattered here and there. But it still needs much to complement them, many mediations,
much reorganisation to make it something people can apply and that our beneficiaries
can assimilate.”190 The spirit of our pedagogy, the use of the preventive system and
the method in general are reaffirmed, with the risk of repetition of already known
formulations. We should also note the use of the word “education”, which takes on
different meanings according to the context – evangelisation, assistance, education or
socialisation, that in the end it means any type of intervention that requires any type
of competence.191 Despite the decreased importance of the educative dimension, we
need to recognise the importance of the concept of the “educative community”, which
was introduced by the SGC and had further developments. The educative community
needed to be made up of Salesians and laity, young people and their parents, all sharing
responsibility in a family atmosphere and regularly planning and reviewing its activity.192
The effects of the SGC in practice
At the end of almost every SGC document there was a chapter entitled “Practical
directives”. The section dealing with the Salesian mission alone contained over fifty
specific indications concerning study and qualification tasks, decisions for structural
187 Cf. Ibid., nos. 360-365.
188 GC19 opened the document on youth apostolate in these words: “The Salesian Congregation participates
in the Church's mission especially through its educative work among the young.” Cf. GC19 (1965),
101.
189 The radiografie focus in works was on consecrated life, formation, government and the specific part
on education took up less than 3% of the four volumes. For the part on education Cf. Ecco ciò che
pensano i salesiani, vol. 1, 213-233.
190 Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000, 18.
191 Cf. Ibid., p.16.
192 Cf. SGC (1972), no. 395.

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change to pastoral activity, criteria for the reshaping of works, the establishment of
study centres, the establishing of teams and the convening of conferences. By means
of these practical directives, the use of planning and the introduction of the educative
community,193 the SGC created the conditions for a more systematic formulation of the
Salesian Educative and Pastoral Project understood as a “strategic tool” in the subsequent
1978 General Chapter.
The diverse nature of the contents and style of the various documents did not give
the impression of an easy translation of the Chapter into practice. The Rector Major saw
this risk, and in his letter presenting the documents he argued against their exploitation,
writing that
The Chapter, together with its documents is one indivisible, harmonious,
organic whole. Not all of it will have the same normative value. Of necessity
the documents and, the Orientamenti, will have different styles and, its own
way of presenting the problems; the editing will vary from one to another and,
sometimes there may appear a lack of homogeneity. This in no way lessens their
validity for there is always a global oneness between the individual documents.194
The execution of the large number of tasks was also complicated in practical terms
due to the principle of decentralisation that left a “ample scope for the creativity and
initiatives of the individual provinces.”195 The SGC decided that the Provincial Chapter
was the focal point of renewal. This was to be called no longer than a year after the closure
of the SGC.196 Few provinces were in a position to follow the rhythm of this amount of
work, given the lack of preparation of personnel, the decrease in the number of confreres
and the decentralised and dissenting climate also at the level of the provinces.197 The need
to renew the provincial directory, to bring it into line with the new Constitutions, forced
the provinces to find quick regulatory ways to implement the new pastoral paradigm,
setting aside the ambitious processes of change of mentality and reshaping.
At the halfway point between the two Chapters in 1975, the Rector Major in his
letter outlined the three priority tasks of youth ministry, which give us a glimpse of the
sore points in the application of the SGC: bring about a change of mentality and radically
193 Cf. also nos. 340 and 480.
194 SGC (1972), X-XI.
195 SGC (1972), no 759.
196 Cf. SGC (1972), nos. 759-761.
197 Cf. Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000, 19 and Wirth,
Da don Bosco ai giorni nostri, 452-454.

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reset the parameters of pastoral activity; adopt a new style of community thought and
action so that catechetical teaching would find a confirmation and consolidation in the
witness of the entire Salesian educative community; be present in the world in a new way,
implementing a close relationship between evangelising commitment and an attitude of
service to the world.198
Another picture of the SGC comes from an analysis of the Report on the State
of the Congregation in 1977 and reports of the Provincial Chapters. They spoke of
the risks of fragmentation and the juxtaposition of initiatives, given the complexity of
the youth phenomenon and the pluralism of approaches. Meetings were organised in
various contexts on global educative and pastoral questions and a number of pastoral
coordinating groups and commissions came into existence. Worthy of mention are the
European Conference on “Don Bosco’s educational system between ancient and new
pedagogy” held at the end of 1973 and beginning of 1974 with around three hundred
participants, some also from America and Asia, and the “European Youth Week” held
at the General House in April 1976, dealing with various experiences of education
and youth ministry.199 Not all initiatives had defined goals and tasks, so the effects are
not easily tracked. The emerging picture is that of a journey with multiple activities,
in which, however, only individuals or small groups acted as key players keeping the
majority of the communities uninvolved.
The most concrete indicator of changes in the pastoral and educational scene,
insisted on by both GC19 and the SGC, could be the reshaping of works. Vecchi, basing
himself on reports on the state of the Congregation, spoke in quite strong terms in
1991: “The failed experience of ‘general reshaping’ seems to lead the provinces towards
a long-term gradual criterion which consists of partial reductions, developments,
community changes, the establishment of some new service or the deployment of
human resources.”200 Hence it seems that new proposals and initiatives which required
new forces were simply added to the existing activities, sometimes producing only an
apparent change of facade. Later, in GC23, the discussion of reshaping would resume,
addressing it from a perspective of “significance”. But it must be noted that in the
198 Cf. L. Ricceri, Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 56 (1975) 279, 6-44.
199 Cf. Il sistema educativo di don Bosco tra pedagogia antica e nuova. Acts of the Salesian European
Conference on Don Bosco's Preventive System, held in Rome from 31 December 1973 to 5 January
1974, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1974 and A servizio dell’educazione. La Facoltà di Scienze dell’Educazione
dell’Università Pontificia Salesiana, ed. G. Malizia ed E. Alberich, LAS, Rome 1984.
200 Vecchi, Verso una nuova tappa di PG Salesiana, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000, 79.

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long term the inability to reshape the works led to the weakening of communities and
overloading the confreres who worked in the educative and pastoral area.201
A collateral effect of the complex process of renovatio connected with study, social
involvement and reorganisation was less emphasis on the dimension of spiritual life. The
Rector Major described a situation regarding faith that was “rather shallow, superficial,
just information, an external fact, a phrase uttered, but it does not explode from within
to transform in vitality.”202 In the Report on the state of the Congregation in 1971 we
find a notable decrease and very real lowering of the spiritual level of the confreres and
proposals offered the young.203 The SCG, aware of the situation and partly of the risk of
superficial activism, declared:
Our first duty, therefore, is our spiritual conversion: to recognise our own
insufficiency and to turn towards the Holy Spirit without whom we can do
nothing worthwhile for the kingdom of God, and put ourselves in an attitude
of supplication, of listening and of docility. In order to work out this necessary
discernment and renewal, historians are not sufficient, nor theologians nor
politicians, nor organisers, we need spiritual men [...] as was our founder.204
In conclusion, it can be said along with Viganò that “our SGC was an [...] intense
work of mental development for the confreres. It was certainly one of the most powerful
moments of Salesian community reflection in the history of the Congregation [...] It
did enormous and substantially successful work, judged positively also by non-Salesians
scholars and experts.”205 The SGC highlighted the identity of the Salesians in reference
to the Council’s renewal, more in pastoral formulations than in practical educational
answers to the needs of the youth.
201 Cf. Ibid.
202 Cf. L. Ricceri, Letter of the Rector Major, in AGC 51 (1970) 260, 14.
203 Cf. General Report on the State of the Congregation, SDB, Rome 1971, 27-32. Cf. Also the more
detailed analysis by A. Giraudo, Interrogativi e spinte della Chiesa del postconcilio sulla spiritualità
salesiana, in Semeraro C. (ed.), La spiritualità salesiana in un mondo che cambia, Salvatore Sciascia,
Caltanissetta 2003, 138-141.
204 SGC (1972), no. 18.
205 Viganò, The 22nd General Chapter, 1982, 10-11.

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Fr Ricceri and the handling of conflict
Fr Aloysius Ricceri, in tune with Paul VI’s magisterium, suggested an attitude of
balanced renewal in his very many circular letters. He introduced new themes and
subjects in line with “the authentic Council, I mean as it is revealed in Documents,” not
in the iconoclasm of the past.206 The courageous opening of the Council should not
lead one to think that change can be achieved in the space of months, a few years. In
fact, Ricceri's strategy was to encourage reflection of individual confreres, communities,
provinces, in an attitude of authentic dialogue. The regional meetings for Europe, Asia
and Latin America were organised in 1968-69 to facilitate interprovincial discussion. In
his first letter, laying out his agenda, the Rector Major used the image of the vine and
branches to describe the process of renewal:
The Congregation (and even more so the Church) is a sturdy old vine which
at times can have some dead branches; evidently the vinedresser who wished to
preserve these at all costs would jeopardise the fruitfulness of the vine; but it
would be quite foolish to uproot the vine completely just because there were
some dead branches on it. […] Every Salesian therefore (and here we extend the
vision of our work) in this historic – and as many say – decisive moment and with
that sense of responsibility and intelligent balance which ought to distinguish
him in the eyes of the Church and of the Congregation, ought to avoid two
extremes equally reprehensible and dangerous: the irrational attitude of one
who would renew everything at once in a feverish rush towards what is new,
discounting the past simply because it is the past; and the opposite attitude of
one who would cling tenaciously to a collection of things which examined in the
light of present day needs neither justify their existence nor fulfil that purpose
nowadays for which they were once desirable and of value.207
The guidelines for renewal were then summarised in a few fundamental ideas that
would map out Ricceri's work over years that were filled with conflict, radicalism,
entrenchment and, not least, influenced by the effects of the personnel crisis that
caused practical difficulties in the management of daily life. The Rector Major offered a
summary that would also guide interventions and his letters to follow:
206 Cf. L. Ricceri, Letter of the Rector Major, in “ASC” 47 (1966) 245, 6.
207 Ibid., 5-6.

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1. The person of the Salesian in his entirety as a man, as a religious, as a priest and as an
educator, is the centre on which the Congregation's attention converges, in order to
qualify him in all his aspects according to today's needs. For this reason his formation
must be structured in depth, so that his vocation may develop and grow in a climate
of healthy and courageous openness, which is absolutely necessary today in order to
temper and mature the authentic Salesian;
2. Authority is a service motivated only by concern for the good of all and of
individuals. Within the logic of the Good Shepherd, authority is not synonymous
with imposition of the kind that suppresses the initiatives, responsibilities and
personal resources of the confreres.
3. Even in religious life there is a place for dialogue, now necessary to make our entire
mission efficient. The ideal superior, for the Church and for the Congregation, is
the one who, experiencing the problems and interests of his confreres in a charitable
way, helps them to solve them for the good of their souls and for the realisation of
their vocation.
4. The community shares responsibility for the work of education in boarding schools,
oratories, parishes; For this reason it must be systematically involved and made to
share in initiatives, programs and orientations. This collaboration is one of the great
guidelines that emerged from the Council and is continually found in the spirit and
deliberations of GC19.
5. The educational work of the Salesian has to adjust to the needs of today’s generation,
so that it can really achieve the aims it has set for itself. It is necessary to examine
sincerely to what extent each of the works has an educational and Christian
formative vitality and what needs to be done, methodically and courageously, in
order to truly achieve the goals marked out by Don Bosco and by the Church of our
times.208
Two subsequent letters are especially valuable for educational issues: the first
explored dialogue in the Congregation more deeply, making the idea of shared
responsibility more concrete. In the second, the figure of Saint Francis de Sales was
proposed as a model of the educator in an atmosphere of freedom. Fr Ricceri denounced
the abuse of the concept of “dialogue” which would interpret the Council in a radical
way, like the abolition of religious obedience, prayer, the breviary, the rosary, etc. The
privileged theme should be: “Reshaping: our grand dialogue” that demands a broader,
208 Cf. Ibid., 8-11.

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bolder and more distributed discussion.209 Referring to Paul VI, the Rector Major
proposed four virtues for effective and fruitful dialogue: clarity, meekness, trust and
prudence.210 St Francis de Sales was evoked as the model of the educator who gets young
people to grow “from within”, not by constraint, in an atmosphere of freedom and
dialogue. The privileged attitudes are respectful kindness to all, charity that conquers
everyone and education as a “work of the heart” in a climate of loving-kindness.211
Summing it all up, we can say that Aloysius Ricceri tackled the period of crisis in
a very balanced way, in line with Paul VI’s magisterium. Having taken part in the last
session of the Council and in two Synods of Bishops and as a councillor for the Union
of Superiors General, we see his understanding of the period of grace inaugurated by
the Council. On the other hand, there is an evident commitment to mediate in the
conflict, to denounce the abuses and ideological deformations of some of the Council's
principles. In spite of Ricceri’s traditional formation, his anchorage in Salesian traditions
and a certain paternalism (speaking of “sons” or “subjects”) to be found in his letters,
Braido evaluates Ricceri’s term of office as one of “considerable openness both to the
problems of the Church and to those of civil society, proving to be the least ‘clerical’
of the Salesian leadership of the time.”212 Although he was unable to see the fruits of
his work of mediation and moderation, the positive effects of his non-extremist attitude
were collected in the subsequent period of the leadership of Viganò and Vecchi.
Salesian writers and pedagogical movements around
Vatican II
Loving-kindness as the key to “early Braido’s” interpretation of Don
Bosco
At the same time as the first publications on the preventive system, Pietro Braido
developed his pedagogical reflections in exchanges with the team at the Higher Institute
209 Cf. L. Ricceri, Letter of the Rector Major in “ASC” 48 (1967) 247, 10.
210 Cf. Ibid., 20-23.
211 Cf. L. Ricceri, Letter of the Rector Major, in “ASC” 48 (1967) 249, 5-16.
212 Braido, Per una storia dell’educazione giovanile, 297. Cf. M. Wirth, Da don Bosco ai nostri giorni,
449-456.

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of Pedagogy in Turin. The result of this collaboration were both the articles in
Orientamenti Pedagogici (from 1954 onwards) and the three editions of Educare. Un
sommario di scienze pedagogiche, summing up his approach.213 The interests of the
“early” Braido, philosopher of education, were quite broad. From the initial study of
Johann Friedrich Herbart's pedagogy in the 1940s, Braido moved on to in-depth studies
on Soviet educator Anton Semenovič Makarenko, a key figure in the Italian pedagogical
debate of the 1950s.214 In addition to collaborative work in the Salesian ISP circle, Braido
participated from 1954 in the first meetings of the “Scholé” group, gathered around
La Scuola Publishers, which brought together Catholic-inspired educationalists in a
period of confrontation with secular-liberal and socialist education. His interests vary in
these collaborations: Christian education, pedagogical methodology, teaching, aesthetic,
sexual, family, social and political education.
Braido introduced his first work on the Sistema Preventivo di don Bosco in 1955
by tackling the question of the “systematic nature” of the Preventive System, seeking
to interpret Don Bosco’s famous words commenting on the letter of the Rector of
the Seminary at Montpellier: “You want me to explain my system. But... Not even I
know what it is! I have always gone ahead as the Lord inspired me and as circumstances
demanded.”215 Braido, even though influenced by the approach of Peter Ricaldone’s
Don Bosco educatore, takes a certain distance from the overly strong statements on Don
Bosco’s systematic spirit. His positions are closer to Bartolomeo Fascie, who maintained
that he had to get out of the “field of theoretical pedagogy” and wander “instead in the
practical field of the art of education and the work of the educator where Don Bosco
was truly a master.”216
213 Cf. Various editions of Educare. Sommario di scienze pedagogiche. Ed. Pietro Braido, Turin, PAS 1956
up until the final volumes of the third edition published by PAS-Verlag in Zürich in 1964.
214 Cf. P. Braido, A.S. Makarenko, La Scuola, Brescia 1959.
215 Biographical Memoirs, vol. 18, 127 quoted in Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo,11955, 25.
216 B. Fascie, Del metodo educativo di don Bosco, quoted in Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo,11955, 35.
Cf. also pp. 27, 29, 34 and 46. It is necessary to place the question of Don Bosco's systematic nature
in the context of the controversy between Fascist and Catholic education. Catholic educationalists,
like Casotti, tried to see in Don Bosco the figure not only of the educator but also of the Catholic
educationalist par excellence. Cf. Giorgio Chiosso, Educazione e pedagogia salesiana nel primo
Novecento (dal punto di vista dell’Italia), in Aldo Giraudo et al. (eds.), Sviluppo del carisma di
Don Bosco fino alla metà del secolo XX. Acts of the International Congress of Salesian History (In
the Bicentennial of the Birth of Don Bosco, Rome November 19-23, 2014). Relazioni, Rome, LAS,
2016, 155-186.

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The arguments that support this solution range from acknowledging Don Bosco's
spontaneous and unsystematic reflection to statements about his true artistic intuitions
and brilliant inspirations in the educational field.217 It should be noted that in the
same pages Braido specifies his idea of a "pedagogical system" as being a systematic and
unified vision of the educational reality that includes the contributions of scientific
investigation, critical reflection and empirical evidence. His serious and demanding idea
of a “system” even leads him to speculate on a systematic pedagogy deduced from the
purpose of education or from some other principle.218 A second strand of reflection
on the non-systematic nature of the Preventive System shows the incompleteness of
Don Bosco's educational reflection that does not include women’s education, childhood
education, aesthetic education, political and social preparation or didactics. Instead of
reconstructing Don Bosco by framing him within the schemes of scientific and learned
pedagogy, as a method of study, Braido suggests the effort to
portray him (almost “photograph him”) synthetically, to grasp him in his
individuality and in his activity. Precisely because his activity was not random,
based on unbridled and disconnected intuitions, but was anchored in meditation
and conclusions, steeped in wisdom and Christian and human common sense
(nourished also by knowledge and contact with publications, with learned and
competent men and a rich Christian educational tradition), it is possible to
grasp the dominant and emerging ideas in this flow of life and intense wealth of
activity.219
He proposes a portrait almost in the Hegelian sense of the term, through “concepts
with hands and feet” in an effort that also aims at making his message relevant by bringing
it into life, assimilating it
almost “visually” (not simply seeing it, sensations without concepts are blind!),
not only “intuiting” it, but “feeling” it, “enabling” it, reliving it. We should grasp
it in the “facts”, the episodes, with the ability to penetrate the spirit. And perhaps
the best exposition of Don Bosco the “pedagogue” would be a biography of Don
Bosco the “educator”, captured in the most salient and characteristic facts...220
217 Cf. R.G. Zitarosa, La Pedagogia di S. Giovanni Bosco, quoted in Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo,
11955, 29.
218 Cf. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 29.
219 Ibid., 32.
220 Ibid., 33.

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It seems that the basic structure of Braido’s Sistema Preventivo is Don Bosco’s small
treatise on the Preventive System. Braido confirms this in his introduction to the third
part, called “The preventive system in action”: “Even in his booklet on the preventive
system, which in a certain sense he wanted to be a draft of a systematic pedagogical
treatment, after the question of the quid and the cur (what does the preventive system
consist of and why should we prefer it) in the second chapter (Application of the
Preventive System) he poses the practical problem of the quomodo, or in other words,
the methods and educational procedures.”221
In the paragraphs that follow, I would like to explore the basic paradigms of the
various editions of the handbook on the preventive system that probably reflect author’s
socio-cultural context and personal development. In this regard it is helpful to consider
as a starting point the boarding school model from the perspective of Peter Ricaldone’s
“fidelity to Don Bosco the saint”.222 The boarding school and the problems connected
with it also determined the themes of the General Chapters, within a substantially
traditional mental framework based on neo-Scholastic philosophy and theology. The
specific educational and spiritual proposals can be traced back to Don Bosco.223
In this context we can understand the choice of loving-kindness (and the heart) as
the “pedagogical principle” guiding the first edition of the work. The space given to the
chapter on loving-kindness is more than the total number of pages in the chapters on
religion and reason.224 Very interesting is the placement of the topic of punishments
that reflects a typical problem of the growth in boarding schools in Salesian houses in
the last two decades of Don Bosco's life.225 Punishments are dealt with in paragraphs
headed “Demanding love. Discipline, correction, punishments” and “The pedagogy of
the heart and correction.” Even when Braido is searching for the Preventive System’s
sources of inspiration or dependence, he equally privileges loving-kindness and heart
over prevention (in his last publication, Prevenire non reprimere, the balance shifts more
221 Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 251.
222 The quoted sentence is the programmatic title in P. Ricaldone, Strenna del Rettor Maggiore per
il 1935. Fedeltà a Don Bosco Santo, SEI, Turin 1936.
223 Cf. P. Braido, Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano tra il secondo dopoguerra e il Postconcilio Vaticano
II (1944-1984), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 25 (2006) 49, 295-323.
224 Cf. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 135-205.
225 On “collegialisation” cf. P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica. vol. 1: Vita e opere,
LAS, Rome 1979, 121-123 and for the concreteness of the discipline problem Cf. José Manuel
Prellezo, Valdocco nell’Ottocento tra reale ed ideale (1866-1889). Documenti e testimonianze, LAS,
Rome 1992.

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towards the preventive). He sees it in comparison to the La Sallian tradition, Ferrante
Aporti or Giuseppe Allievo.226 Because of the affinities with the de La Salle Brothers he
says for example, that “over and above any technique of distance and silences, for Don
Bosco there is the triumph of familiarity, loving kindness, the heart, in an environment
of simplicity and spontaneity which is the characteristic of his education.”227 In seeking
convergence with Prof. Allievo he says: “We were able to find only one significant page on
the ‘heart’ in education and another regarding the question of rewards and punishments
and the concept of ‘preventing’. Here we are decidedly with Don Bosco.”228
The guiding theme of loving-kindness is even more explicit in his summary work
entitled Don Bosco, published in 1957 by La Scuola Publishers. Loving-kindness is the
backbone of the book as he works from the centre out to the applications:
1. The soul of Don Bosco’s educative “style”: loving-kindness;
2. The “expressions” of loving-kindness;
3. From the centre outwards in the light of loving-kindness;
4. The happy educational message of religion (theological pedagogy; loving- kindness
in religion);
5. Don Bosco’s “school of work”.229
The context of the Salesian boarding school as the predominant educational structure
obviously does not end with the subject of loving-kindness, but it is implicit in
the treatment of various educational questions: the importance of the inner moral
conscience regarding duty with respect to the external motivation of discipline; the
problem of daily mass and holidays; the treatment of aspirants and the importance given
to sodalities. In this early production of Braido’s there is no noticeable emphasis on the
question of the educational environment. Aside from a single reference to the interesting
work of Henri Bouquier,230 the author refers to Albert Caviglia in his key passages of
argumentation and in the conclusions of various chapters. Caviglia, who seems to be the
preferred author for the “early” Braido in his reflections on the biographies of exemplary
students written by Don Bosco, states the importance of religious pedagogy, of the family
226 Cf. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 105-129.
227 Ibid., 109.
228 Ibid., 127.
229 Cf. Braido, Don Bosco, 1957, 7-8.
230 Cf. the first chapter titled “education, problem of the environment” in H. Bouquier, Don Bosco
educateur, Téqui, Paris 21950, 1-12.

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atmosphere and of loving-kindness with respect to the disciplinary logic inherent in the
boarding school structure.231
Braido's certain predilection for the oratory as a balancing element shows the
dominance of boarding schools and their problems at that moment in history. The
oratory is defined as the all-inclusive environment, aimed at integral human formation,
characterised by joy and freedom with the main bond of loving-kindness.232 By contrast
with the boarding school, the Salesian oratory is “a Work that is of itself ‘precarious’,
being based on free attendance. It is this freedom that makes the action of the leaders
much more mobile, flexible, dynamic and full of initiatives, since they do not limit
themselves to waiting, welcoming, but like Don Bosco organise ‘raids’ of conquest, real
peaceful ‘roundups’ (squares, streets, taverns, blocks of flats, etc.).”233
Braido’s second edition and greater historical-critical sensitivity
The second edition of the handbook on the Sistema Preventivo in 1964 seems to come
in the wake of the search for reliable sources under the noticeable influence of the
historical-critical studies of Pietro Stella and Francis Desramaut. In the introduction,
Braido describes himself as being more cautious and uncertain, putting forward the need
of having sources that are “accessible […] in critical-scientific form permitting reassuring
[…] usefulness.” In addition to the question of the certainty of the sources, he mentions
two other fronts needing study: placing Don Bosco within the entire history of the
nineteenth century and the problem of relationships and dependencies of Don Bosco’s
writings from other authors.234 Following this path of thought the first edition of 1955
is re-written with a critical evaluation of the first part about Don Bosco in the history
of education as “not empirical” but only “open to discussion.” Therefore the first part is
replaced by five new chapters.
231 Later on, Braido distances himself from Caviglia criticising his approach, speaking of his rhetoric,
apologetic concerns, lack of knowledge of sources, and continuing danger of unfounded projections. Cf.
Braido’s handwritten notes on the frontispiece of [Caviglia (ed.),] Opere e scritti editi e inediti di
“Don Bosco”, vol. 4: La vita di Savio Domenico found in the collection at the Centro Studi Don Bosco
in the Biblioteca don Bosco, UPS.
232 Cf. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 349-354.
233 Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 352.
234 Cf. the preface in Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 21964, 7.

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The need for scientific rigour also shifts the balance with regard to the systematic
nature of Don Bosco's approach to educational problems. Fascie's solutions are no
longer mentioned and Braido is led to consider Don Bosco clearly as an educator rather
than a pedagogue or educationalist. “The term ‘pedagogue’ is clearly distinct from the
‘educator’, both logically and in real terms. Per se, neither interferes with the other in
either a positive or negative sense. One does not need to be a pedagogue to be a brilliant
educator, nor is being a pedagogue, however rigorous, rigid, or systematic a one, in
itself an obstacle to being a keen, brilliant, efficient educator.”235 This distinction is also
applied to Don Bosco, who is no longer described, as he was in the first edition, as a
narrative-style “writer on pedagogical matters”, legislative texts, letters or dialogues.236
Don Bosco’s beliefs are now described as non-scientific knowledge, “at the level of the
people” and not rigorously demonstrated.237
It seems that in studying the Preventive System, Braido gives more space, methodologically
speaking, to the intuition he expressed in 1955 of presenting Don Bosco the
“pedagogue” through a biography of Don Bosco the “educator” grasped through his
most characteristic activities. Braido had to face up to several difficulties, in addition to
the danger of reducing the problem of “Salesian pedagogy” to the scientific and certain
history of Don Bosco as a person. The first difficulty was the search for a (certain)
criterion to distinguish his characteristic traits from those that were not.
The second edition, published during the “magical season of Vatican II”238 and
before GC19, could be considered a transitional work, both in terms of methodology
and in content and sources. The first part is reformulated with more historiographical
caution and the second part is left substantially unchanged. The cautious historical
contextualisation of Don Bosco's preventive system provides the structure for the first
part of the work published in 1964, entitled: “Introductory explorations: Don Bosco’s
times, work and personality”. Braido makes greater use of Don Bosco's letters in his
re-elaboration of sources. The part on “personality and style” is developed almost
exclusively by resorting to Ceria’s Epistolario, the Memoirs of the Oratory and Caviglia’s
Opere e scritti editi e inediti di “don Bosco”, potentially leaving aside the criticised
Biographical Memoirs.
235 Ibid., 60.
236 Cf. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 28.
237 Cf. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 21964, 6
238 Braido, Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano, 296.

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As far as content is concerned, the first part is obviously added to with chapters
on the interpretations of Don Bosco the educator, his educational art, the political,
religious, socio-economic and cultural context, the works, Don Bosco’s heart and
style. The part on the dual identity as priest-educator, which supported the theoretical
argument in the first edition, is reduced. It seems that Don Bosco as “educator-artist” has
acquired more importance for Braido, moving away from the ideal of the educational
theorist.239
The second edition can be considered a work of transition also for the twofold
attention to the historical data and to rethinking in terms of relevance for today. Braido
speculates that only “the historian re-presents and reconstructs the system on the basis of
the materials offered by the author and tries to offer reasons of a formal scientific nature
to justify his reconstruction. But in this case the theorist, the pedagogue, the systematic
thinker would be the historian himself, the one doing the reconstruction.”240 This set of
roles reveals his personal ideal but is also the expression of the epistemological approach
in the first volume of the interdisciplinary series Educare.241 The interdisciplinary
approach also shines through in the following complex proposal: “The most faithful
reproduction of the educative method should be a biography of Don Bosco the
educator, captured not only through episodes and fragmentary facts, but also in typical
behaviours, and in underlying motivations, with a continuous movement from ideas to
facts, from intentions to actions, from things written to things realised, from reflections
to exemplifications, from principles to situations, from directions taken to the ‘episodes’
that embody them...”242
Braido and the dual educational method of “love-discipline”
Braido seems to have been influenced by Peter Ricaldone, for whom he had much
appreciation, in some of his syntheses. As the one who promoted the Higher Institute
of Pedagogy, Ricaldone was respected for his visionary and organisational leadership
239 The idea of the educator-artist found an authoritative interpreter in Egidio Viganò, Rector Major
from 1978 to 1995. Cf. e.g. Egidio Viganò, New Education, in ACG 72 (1991) 337, 3-43.
240 Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 21964, 68.
241 Cf. Educare, vol. 1: Introduzione alle scienze dell’educazione, PAS Verlag, Zürich 31963.
242 Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 21964, 73.

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skills.243 But it was not just agreement at an organisational level. Braido shared
Ricaldone’s basic view of the preventive system understood as science based on the
“rock-solid foundations of perennial Catholic philosophy and theology, as well as on
data offered us by other sciences such psychology, biology, sociology and so on.”244
Without these neo-Thomistic foundations, one would not be able to understand either
the argument or structure of topics in the first edition of Sistema Preventivo di don
Bosco. As a philosopher convinced of the need for metaphysics, Braido concluded the first
edition in 1955 by saying: “Don Bosco is an educator and educationalist who believes in
objective and absolute values. Precisely in the century in which, even among Catholics,
the metaphysical sense, sense of truth and objective reality was at times weak and the
modernist crisis was looming, along with Rosmini (in opposition to Lambruschini,
Capponi and others), he was the frank and loyal ‘knight’ of the most genuine dogmatic
and pedagogical Catholic tradition.”245
It is in this framework that he pursues the discourse on educational methodology.
Reason, religion, loving-kindness are given priority: “Content prevails over method in
Don Bosco, the goal over the way to the goal, the end over the means. The primacy
belongs to the ends, to the ‘eternal’ truths, to the ‘fear of God’. First, religion and reason,
revealing content, and then ‘loving-kindness’ as a method.”246
For Braido, however, loving-kindness is not the only essential component of
educational methodology. Just as important are the so-called pedagogies of duty
and of holiness. The “ethical-religious concept of life made of duty, serious and
personal commitment and moral responsibility, which is the starting point of his
[Don Bosco's] activity as educator.”247 And continuing, he states “holiness and duty
[…] are synonymous for him.”248 Holiness is not only the goal of Salesian education
but, for Braido, it also becomes the main condition and means that precedes any
243 Cf. José Manuel Prellezo, Studio della pedagogia e pratica educativa nei programmi formativi
dei salesiani, in Giraudo et al. (eds.), Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla metà del secolo XX,
vol. 1: Relazioni, 205-220.
244 Pietro Ricaldone, Don Bosco Educatore, Libreria Dottrina Cristiana, Colle Don Bosco (Asti)
1951, vol. 1, 56. Cf. Also a more in-depth view in Michal Vojtáš, Sviluppi delle linee pedagogiche
della Congregazione Salesiana, in Giraudo et al. (eds.), Sviluppo del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla
metà del secolo XX. Relazioni, 221-244.
245 Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 432.
246 Ibid.
247 Ibid., 253.
248 Ibid., 256.

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other methodology.249 In fact, in the first edition in 1955, the methodological part
entitled "Preventive System in Action" is structured as a synthesis of holiness and duties,
including personal responsibility, moral education (especially in the virtue of purity),
religious pedagogy of prayer, Eucharist, confession and Marian devotion.
Loving-kindness, although presented as the “methodological foundation”,250 is not
developed as a method of educative action, but is left as part of the “grand horizons of the
preventive system.” For Braido, as for Ricaldone’s Don Bosco educatore, loving-kindness
is more of an underlying principle that must be balanced with the principle of
discipline to create a theoretical framework of educational methodology. Discipline
through loving-kindness was the basis for overcoming the tension between authority and
freedom in practical terms. Similarly, for Ricaldone, loving-kindness has the function of
shaping the educational environment and making it family-like, but the more practical
and methodological aspect is permeated above all by the principles of duty, personal
responsibility, discipline and authority.251
In the subsequent reformulations, despite the cultural shift after 1968 that altered
the semantic categories of authority, discipline, power and freedom, Braido maintains
the fundamental logic that revolves around the loving-kindness and discipline pair as a
way of overcoming the tension between freedom and authority.
We see, however, his dissatisfaction with the formulations of the “methodological”
part of the preventive system, as if he did not want to circumscribe Don Bosco's practical
genius within the limits of an overly technical methodology. In the introduction to his
Don Bosco, published by La Scuola in Brescia, he had this to say: “The combination of a
brilliant and holy man, a style and, at least in part, a technique, became what everyone
calls the ‘preventive method’ of Don Bosco.”252 Further on, he draws attention to the
artistic component with titles such as: “From Art to Experience” or “The Pedagogical
Poem of Don Bosco.”
Conferences on updating Salesian pedagogy
Interesting ideas on the updating of Salesian pedagogy come from two conferences: the
first organised in Rome by the ISP during the work of preparation for the Second Vatican
249 Ibid., 435.
250 Ibid., 176.
251 Cf. Ibid., 194-199, 253-265; Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, vol. 1, 148-228, 286-287 and P.
Ricaldone, Strenna del Rettor Maggiore per il 1935. Fedeltà a Don Bosco Santo, Turin SEI 1936.
252 P. Braido, Don Bosco, La Scuola, Brescia 1957, 9.

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Council under the post-Ricaldonian title Don Bosco educatore oggi;253 the second,
fourteen years later at the time of the Special General Chapter, focused instead on Il
sistema educativo di don Bosco tra pedagogia antica e nuova.254, The idea of the necessary
updating of Salesian pedagogy clearly emerges in the reflections, titles and structuring
of the contributions. It is perceived as a polarity between a new “today” and an old
“yesterday”.
Don Bosco as the educator for today (1960)
At the 1960 conference on updating Salesian education, the reflections were very
interesting, since at the time of the conference the atmosphere of the Council was already
widespread. In fact, the Acts begin by making explicit the full “harmony with the current
anxiety of renewal.”255 But since the contributions were not as yet able to be influenced
by Council documents, they tended to draw on ideas that were circulating in the ISP,
some courageous, others at odds with the typical clichés associated with Vatican II in
the second half of the 1960s. There was still a strong implicit and explicit reference to the
“boarding school mindset”, its Salesian educators, and fostering a “distinctly Christian”
school culture (Gian Carlo Negri). The re-invigoration of educational institutions was
envisaged under the banner of a Salesian pedagogy that captures the living spirit of Don
Bosco (Pietro Braido) in opposition to an oppressive Ricaldonian regulation and the
conforming atmosphere of the boarding school (Pietro Gianola). The proposal focused
on the practical preparation of educators, especially during practical training (Vincenzo
Sinistrero), on the active life, preceded and prepared for through innovative insights into
a sociological understanding of society (Pier Giovanni Grasso) and knowledge of the
psychology of the young (Luigi Calonghi).
But the more interesting contribution, in our view, was from Pietro Braido, who
offered fundamental guidelines based on Don Bosco’s Preventive System that were in
tune with what he had produced in the 1950s, though with some new openings and
in a more succinct and narrative style than found in the handbook we analysed earlier.
Don Bosco had two fundamental characteristics in his view: “his brilliance and his
253 Cf. P. Braido et al. (eds.), Don Bosco educatore oggi. Second revised and expanded edition, PAS
Verlag, Zürich 21963.
254 Cf. Il sistema educativo di don Bosco tra pedagogia antica e nuova. Acts of the European Salesian Conference
on Don Bosco's Educational System, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1974.
255 Braido et al. (eds.), Don Bosco educatore oggi, 9.

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holiness.”256 Don Bosco’s holiness was spelt out in the moral and religious ideal he
implemented thanks to his identity as the “young people’s priest” seeing everything sub
specie aeternitatis. The religious ideal was clearly recognisable in Don Bosco’s formation,
in the works he founded and in the methods he introduced.257 For Braido what was
needed was a renewed youth ministry in which there would be
the return to a more supernatural and essential Christianity, one broadly felt,
backed by theory, reacting not only to the various forms of naturalism and
enlightenment inherited from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but also
in opposition to manifestations of formal pietism and excessive devotionalism
characteristic of a certain nineteenth century Italian spirituality. Youth ministry
needs a vigorous return to a purely supernatural pedagogy with precise profiles
and dogmatic foundations, and a true “theology of education”.258
There is a clear intention in Braido's work to rediscover a lively, essential, functional
Christianity, not in any compromise with contemporary pedagogy but by rediscovering
the profoundly Christian character of Don Bosco's educational system that demands a
priestly soul and heart before psychology, pedagogy and didactics. The latter are essential
and very important aspects but always subordinate to the Christian character of Salesian
pedagogy.259 Before the beginning of the Council, Braido evoked a return to the sources
of Revelation and to a piety that was less focused on devotions and more unified, essential
and positive, and to a religiosity that was more community-based and therefore less
individualistic, more committed to real life than to abstract moral terms. And finally,
a more authentically inward piety with far less outward demonstration. In similar vein
to Rinaldi, Braido spoke of a Don Bosco who rethought traditional pastoral works
according to the needs of the new times with “ingenious adaptation”, thus criticising
the widespread tendency towards a radical ideological and practical revolution. Instead,
Braido recognised in Don Bosco fidelity to the tradition of an essential Catholicism and
the adaptation of external forms to the new times.260 From these basic positions, and
taking up the educational emphases of Caviglia, came the proposal for rectors to be more
256 P. Braido, Contemporaneità di don Bosco nella pedagogia di ieri e di oggi, in Braido et al. (eds.),
Don Bosco educatore oggi, 75.
257 Cf. Ibid., 61-63.
258 Ibid., 65.
259 Cf. Ibid., 65-66.
260 Cf. Ibid., 67.

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confessors than bureaucrats, and for Salesians to be more pastors than professors.261 Don
Bosco was the “young persons’ priest” totally dedicated to the mission of education.
Braido also had some interesting advice for Salesian educators:
Clericalism, no; a clearly Catholic spirit, yes. For the Salesian, the result is the
need for a solid ecclesiastical culture and an authentic apostolic spirituality, as
well as a scientific and didactic one. [...] Here it is not a question of "points of
view" or "good advice", but coherence, and obedience to Don Bosco [...]; to the
Church [...]; to the needs of the souls of young people, in our time...262
The second part, which spoke of the inimitable genius of Don Bosco's youth
apostolate, delved into one characteristic above all: the family style of Salesian education.
For Braido, Don Bosco's Preventive System was not a scientific system, but a precise
“educational style,” a new and original variation of perennial Christian pedagogy. “Don
Bosco, while thinking mainly of the supernatural salvation of the young (though not
overlooking intermediate earthly ends), felt that it could not be achieved other than
through human and divine ways of understanding, trust, the things that please them
or are useful to them.”263 “Family style” is the fundamental and decisive element, the
soul and essence that differentiates the educational methodology of the preventive
system from other systems: “It is the natural method of the family, with all that
this word includes of the structural and the spiritual, of outward organisation and
inward behaviour, of relationships, of subordination and coordination. It is a precise
‘institutional’ formula, but at the same time an elastic and inclusive one.”264 Picking
up on ideas Bartolomeo Fascie had anticipated, the idea of family Braido was offering
was one of an “open”, not “closed” system, a living organism that accepts variations
and transformations without destroying the fundamental characteristics tied to religion,
described in the first part. Other principles of the family system are to be found in “family
understanding”, characterised by reason and loving-kindness.265
Braido's intervention was followed by Don Bosco's Letter from Rome entitled “The
poem of educational love”, the precious manifesto of a pedagogy “that is at the same
time an appeal to knowledge and fulfilling abilities, lively and creative imagination,
261 Cf. Ibid., 63-64.
262 Ibid., 66.
263 Ibid., 68.
264 Ibid., 69.
265 Cf. Ibid., 69-70.

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faith and loving will, fervour and personal dedication and a living relationship with
real and sustained activity."266 We note how, in the circumstances of the 1950s
influenced by secularism, rationalism, materialism and relativism, the perception of
Christian pedagogy had changed, so that “it is necessary to reconsider Don Bosco
not only historically, but also theoretically, systematically [...] in a general theological,
philosophical and scientific perspective with a broad scope.”267 Going beyond just the
academic sphere, Braido postulated practical cooperation between scholars, individual
educators, family groups (parents and children) and educative families (teachers and
other educators).268
Don Bosco’s system: both ancient and new (1974)
The conference of educators belonging to the Salesian Family, held in the General
House on the via della Pisana, was organised with the intention of exchanging studies,
reflections and experiences of the three hundred participants coming from all over the
world. Braido described the aim of the conference by referring to a “vital and challenging
reflection” on the current educational and pastoral effectiveness of the “system”. The
method of work involved the presentation of some topical educational issues expressed
in reports prepared largely by experts from the Faculty of Education at the UPS, which
were then discussed in group work and, finally, the assembly approved a summation of
convergences in a document called “concluding remarks”.269
The assignment of the first intervention to Bruno Bellerate was an interesting choice.
Aiming to stimulate and provoke discussion, he spoke of the historical significance and
adaptability of Don Bosco's educational system. His starting point was the idealisation
of the founder “which subsequently translates into an ideologising of him: everything
was good and perfect, everything was and still is justifiable, it is the best that can be
done.”270 What was clear was the intention of going beyond the fossilisation of detailed
Ricaldone-style applications and the “retrospective illusion” of Salesian triumphalism,
but in our view Bellerate went too far, relativising Don Bosco’s significance for today.
266 Il poema dell’amore educativo, in Braido et al. (eds.), Don Bosco educatore oggi, 79.
267 Braido, Contemporaneità di don Bosco, in Braido et al. (eds.), Don Bosco educatore oggi, 72-73.
268 Cf. Ibid., 73-74.
269 Cf. Don Bosco tra pedagogia antica e nuova, 7-12.
270 B. Bellerate, Il significato storico del sistema educativo di don Bosco nel sec. XIX e in prospettiva
futura, in Don Bosco tra pedagogia antica e nuova, 19.

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Analysing the ideological influences on Don Bosco at the level of faith, pedagogy,
visions of life and entrepreneurial and organisational mentality, etc., at the end of
his intervention he ended up by saying, albeit cautiously, that “the same ideological
principles can be abandoned when their validity depends on components that lose
their importance and even acquire a negative connotation with the changing times.”271
Bellerate adopted the historical hermeneutics of Paul Veyne272 stating that there was no
lack of studies and sufficient data on Don Bosc’s education:
it is only a matter of prudent and courageous application of the adaptability
“grid” and the consequent adaptation. This grid comes from [...] the analytical
interweaving of historical data and contemporary instances, that is to say
through the coordination of the work of the historian with that of the
sociologist, as far as the main links are concerned, on which the contributions
of the psychologist, the methodologists, theoreticians and so on can be overlaid
from time to time.273
In conclusion, Bellerate quoted Don Bosco at the 1877 General Chapter as saying,
“We must try to know and adapt to our times, that is, respect people.”274 Taking his
cue from knowing our times he said there was then a need to shift from research to
application, adapting with the criterion of respect for people which in the end is what
makes history and determines historical changes. By envisioning the method this way,
however, Bellerate noted how it was always difficult to identify what attitude Don
Bosco might have taken in contexts and circumstances different from his own.275 This
approach of mixing the uncertainty of potential adaptions, the generic considerations
of method and the lack of concrete indications would be recognisable in the subsequent
theoretical and historical research after the Vatican II and would mark the directions
taken by Bellerate, Milanesi, Braido and other authors.276
271 Ibid., 33.
272 Bellerate often refers to P. Veyne, Comment on écrit l’histoire. Essai d’épistémologie, Seuil, Paris 1970.
273 Bellerate, Il significato storico, in Don Bosco tra pedagogia antica e nuova, 21-22.
274 MB vol. 14, 416 in Ibid., 37.
275 Cf. Bellerate, Il significato storico, in Don Bosco tra pedagogia antica e nuova, 33
276 In our opinion, the lack of a theological perspective, influences from Marxist and/or pragmatic educationalists
and epistemologists, paralysed the updating of Salesian education after the Council. For a more
in-depth look at Bellerate's approach and sources we refer to the two parts of the founding article:
B. Bellerate, La storia tra le scienze dell’educazione, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 17 (1970) 4,
927-957 and second part in Ibid., 19 (1972) 3, 722-731. For his retrospective assessment of the Marxist

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Pietro Braido, probably influenced both by Bellerate277 and the historical criticism
of traditional sources carried out by Desramaut and Stella, offered the conference just
a succinct summary of the methodology of Don Bosco’s Preventive System, referring
to his previous writings without an updated rethink. The other contributions then
delved into dimensions of Salesian education: catechesis, loving-kindness, educative
community, assistance, young people of today and settings (school, family, groups, youth
centres and media). In the closing address from the Rector Major, Aloysius Ricceri, it
is interesting to note some corrections of Bellerate’s ideas regarding both Don Bosco’s
ideology and the methodological part of the preventive system, aiming at fostering the
need to know and understand the total Don Bosco:
Underlying Don Bosco’s educational work is not an ideology or any kind
of methodological technique, but a vision of faith. From it Don Bosco was
enlightened to act, and by it his whole life and his choices were judged. It
explains and resolves the so-called tensions between Don Bosco's life and sayings
(bread/paradise; sin/optimism; humanism/evangelisation, etc.). [...] If we put
ourselves in profound harmony with his spirit – which, it is worth repeating,
is essentially one of faith and supernatural charity and therefore profoundly
human – the preventive system will become the necessary logical expression of
our life and we will not allow ourselves to be influenced by mirages that do
not bear the imprint of God and therefore cannot be in line with the Salesian
mission.278
The Salesian Colloquiums
In the European scene we find an ongoing experience of conferences based on discussion
around Salesian themes, called Colloquiums on Salesian life. Fr Francis Desramaut, for
background and the futile effort to reform the Salesian Congregation from within, cf. B. Bellerate,
Un itinerario aperto: l’educare, in M. Borrelli (ed.), La pedagogia italiana contemporanea, vol. 2,
Pellegrini, Cosenza 1995, 16-18.
277 For Bellerate’s influence on Braido in the 1970s cf. Rinnovamento di una Facoltà di scienze dell’educazione,
in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 17 (1970) 4, 1044. We can also note that Braido’s famous concept of
the “Memoirs of the future”, applied to the Memoirs of the Oratory, appeared first in Bellerate,
La storia tra le scienze dell’educazione II, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 19 (1972) 3, 731.
278 L. Ricceri, Discorso di chiusura del convegno europeo salesiano sul sistema educativo di don Bosco, in
Don Bosco tra pedagogia antica e nuova, 311.

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years the animator of these Colloquiums, recounts the origin of these fruitful meetings,
linked to the meeting of Salesian formators from the French-speaking provinces that
took place in the summer of 1967 in Rheims. Fr Ricceri had agreed to be present for a
few hours and two teachers from the Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum, Mario Midali and
Giuseppe Abbà, had participated as observers. At the end of the event, given the good
level of discussion, Fr Abbà asked if it would be possible to organise similar meetings
on a wider scale, given the positive experience. Desramaut had his doubts: “I couldn't
imagine that the Italians, starting with the superiors at the Generalate in Turin and the
professors from the Salesian Athenaeum in Rome, would look kindly on an assembly
engaged in discussing their problems independently of them.”279 After the consultation
with Roman experts, first of all Pietro Stella, surprisingly, a positive opinion arrived and
planning for the first of the Colloquiums began. The theme of Salesian prayer life was
chosen, not such a hot topic at the time, and the provincial of the Athenaeum, Fr Luigi
Chiandotto, was unanimously chosen as president of the 1968 Colloquiums.280
The first Colloquium on Salesian life took place in Lyon during the month of
September in the eventful year 1968. In the difficult atmosphere of protest, criticism
and generational clashes, the Colloquiums set themselves two basic objectives: the first
determined by the need to conduct serious studies on Don Bosco, his work and charism;
the second expressed by the desire to give answers to the questions of the young confreres
who, because of their modern mentality, demanded indications based on historical
documentation. The first president, reflecting Desramaut's approach,281 described the
nature of the Colloquiums as follows:
It is a ground-roots initiative; not something official. Our international
Colloquiums are simply this: a meeting of confreres who love Don Bosco and
the Congregation, have a good scientific preparation and have studied and still
study Don Bosco and Salesian life in such a way that they can speak and write
about it competently.282
279 F. Desramaut, All’origine dei Colloqui sulla vita salesiana, in C. Semeraro (ed.), La festa nell’esperienza
giovanile del mondo salesiano, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1988, 239.
280 Cf. Ibid., 239-240.
281 The organisational qualities, precision and constancy of the secretary and coordinator of the Colloquiums,
Fr Francis Desramaut, were highlighted already from the first meeting. In addition to the work of
coordination, we see him involved as a key figure in the topics dealing with updating the charism,
through papers offered at almost every Colloquium.
282 L. Chiandotto, Presentazione, in La vita di preghiera del religioso salesiano. Lyon 10-11 September
1968, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1969, 5.

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In addition to the criterion of scientific competence, the internationality of the
group as a whole was also mentioned. Other methodological attentions completed the
gradual development of the Colloquium project: scientific seriousness in the study, a
high level of disclosure in the presentation of the results, and attention to the desire to
include in the proceedings the reactions and discussions provoked by the papers. At the
level of objectives, the aim was to study Salesian themes, leaving in the background the
need to influence practical issues. Seen from a distance, two methodological modes of
study can be traced in the organisation of the contents of the Colloquiums. One, more
widespread in the first Colloquium, started from “Salesian history”, tackling current
problems in order to arrive at the goals of a future commitment. The other started from
the questions of the present context that challenged Salesian tradition in order to find
answers and pointers for future direction.283
From the second Colloquium onwards they sought to go beyond the almost
exclusive dialogue between current events and history and the group expanded with
thinkers from the areas of sociology, anthropology, epistemology, psychology, and
pastoral care.284 For the latter, several people began to participate from 1970: two
members of the new International Centre for Youth Ministry in Turin, Michel
Mouillard and Vittorio Gambino, replaced in 1975 onwards by Riccardo Tonelli. There
was also the presence and collaboration of Mario Midali who moved, over those years,
from ecclesiology to pastoral-practical theology. There was also the presence of Salesians
who not only reflected. They were directly involved in pastoral work as delegates for
Youth Ministry in the provinces or were operating in pilot pastoral projects. After some
time, Midali positively evaluated the work among thinkers in different areas: “I was able
to see the concrete benefits of the interdisciplinary dialogue among those competent
in various disciplines, workers in the field and superiors. It had been much advocated
in principle, but had proved to be extremely difficult to implement in the academic
setting.”285
The five colloquiums that were explicitly dedicated to the Salesian Family from
1973 to 1978 had already involved the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the
Salesian Cooperators and the Volunteers of Don Bosco. The enlargement of the group
283 Cf. M. Midali, Aspetto pastorale dei venti anni di “Colloqui”, in Semeraro (ed.), La festa nell’esperienza
giovanile, 244.
284 F. Desramaut, Introduzione, in La missione dei salesiani nella Chiesa. Benediktbeuern (Germany)
9-11 September 1969, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1970, 5.
285 M. Midali, Frammenti della vita salesiana tra1941 e 2010. Memorie semplici e considerazioni sobri,
s.e., Rome 2014, 178.

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of participants was also reflected in the composition of the organising committee. From
1974 on there was Sister Maria Luisa Petrazzini, then professor at the Pedagogicum in
Turin, followed by other FMAs who were part of the coordination of the Colloquiums.
The choice of topics for the Colloquiums did not proceed according to the initial
plan but opted, from time to time, for a topic by following two criteria: relevance for
Salesian life and scientific competence available in the Salesian Family. The first criterion
tied the topics to reflections of General Chapters after the Council, in particular those
involved with rethinking the charism from 1971 until the renewed Constitutions in 1984.
Summarising the path of the Colloquiums in the second half of the twentieth century,
the topics addressed could be divided substantially into three groups:286
– reflections on the general context, including topics like injustice, the expectations
of young people, education for peace, youth unemployment, popular religiosity,
celebration and coeducation;
– topics that touched on the Salesian Family ad intra: prayer life of the religious,
Salesian community, Salesian family, the Cooperators in society, relationship
between religious and laity, Salesian vocation, communication, spiritual direction
and ageing;
– considerations on the Salesian mission ad extra to the world: mission of the Salesians
in the Church, service to young people, commitment to justice, indifference and new
forms of religiosity, culture of life and death, commitment of the Salesian Family in
the contexts of life of young people studied in general.
The Colloquiums were well received in the Salesian world and influenced the
maturing of thinking on several current issues in the ‘70s and ‘80s.287 In addition to
contributions on the various topics, the Colloquiums brought innovations in the form
and method of dialogue on Salesian issues, balancing some of the dynamics of the
Roman academic world that tended toward a certain self-sufficiency.
286 Cf. C. Semeraro, Domande di fine millennio: “Colloqui, si? Colloqui, no? Discussione sul futuro dei
Colloqui, in C. Semeraro (ed.), Mondo salesiano e povertà alla soglia del III millennio, Salvatore
Sciascia, Caltanissetta 2001, 207-208 picking up Midali, Aspetto pastorale, in Semeraro (ed.), La festa
nell’esperienza giovanile, 242.
287 Up until 1987 LDC Publishers sold 12,200 copies of the Proceedings of the 12 Colloquiums. Cf. N.
Suffi, La collana “Colloqui” e la sua incidenza nei contenuti dell’editoria salesiana, in Semeraro
(ed.), La festa nell’esperienza giovanile, 251.

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Gino Corallo – thinking outside the box
An interesting and well-founded reflection that did not share Braido's approach to the
“sciences of education” was proposed by the Salesian educationalist Gino Corallo. He
was the first author to take an interest in John Dewey's pedagogy in Italy.288 At the
beginning of the 1950s, he had gone to the United States to study the results of active
didactics and had set out his proposal as a pedagogy of freedom. Even if his voice was
not dominant in Salesian post Vatican II reflections (from 1965 he would teach at the
University of Bari), his ideas help us to understand the directions and approaches of
those years with their strong points but also with the intrinsic weaknesses that every
approach entails. Corallo foresaw the risk that pedagogy might be weakened if it were
not to rely on a strong philosophy, as happened in fact with the notion of the “sciences
of education”.289
Speaking of Don Bosco, Corallo did not dwell on the systematic nature of his
thinking, but interpreted his way of proceeding from within the systematic logic of a
living organism. Referring to the famous statement of “not knowing,” the author says
that for Don Bosco there would be no uniform answers to different types of educational
questions and situations. Taking the example of the treatment of punishments, Corallo
declares that
a “treatise-like” response would not have been of its time. (I believe that this
is the fundamental reason why Don Bosco never wrote the “brief” pedagogical
work he hinted at, at the beginning of his Preventive System). A vital question
is given a vital answer: it is a question of fitting punishment into a style of the
complex, but unified relationships (as are those of all living organisms) which
give it meaning: the same material act then takes on a different meaning and
educational value according to the interpersonal context it fits into.290
According to Corallo, by excessively pursuing the need for a scientific approach to
Salesian pedagogy one runs two risks: regulating contingent aspects or consigning Don
288 Cf. G. Corallo, La pedagogia di Giovanni Dewey, SEI, Turin 1950.
289 Cf. G. Corallo, Educare la libertà. Selected anthology by Maria Teresa Moscato, Clueb, Bologna
2009; C. Nanni – M.T. Moscato (eds.), La pedagogia della libertà. La lezione di Gino Corallo,
LAS, Rome 2012; L. Lafranceschina, La Pedagogia Italiana del Secondo Dopoguerra e la Proposta
Pedagogica di Don Gino Corallo, Arti Grafiche Cortese, Bitonto 2014.
290 G. Corallo, Il metodo educativo salesiano. L’eredità di Don Bosco, Tip. Scuola Salesiana del Libro,
Catania 1979, 11-12.

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Bosco to history. It is not difficult to connect the first risk with Fr Ricaldone’s efforts to
regulate things, and the second with the post-Vatican II tendency of an historical critique
of Salesian sources. The rethinking of the Preventive System in its present form also runs
the risk of forgetting some of its permanent roots, especially in the context of strong
secularisation and pseudo-dialogue with the world:
It is no accident that the denial, including theoretical but above all practical
denial of this perennial dimension (given that today many have a certain
difficulty in thinking), is currently accompanied by the frequent practical
obliteration of some perennial values of Christianity. And despite the touching
efforts of those who advocate complete secularisation, it shows itself terribly
reluctant to be “historicised” in some of its fundamental dimensions. And Don
Bosco, I don’t need to remind you, posed a by no means precarious relationship
between being a Christian (seriously so) and being an educator (also seriously
so).291
According to Corallo, the core of the Preventive System lies in Don Bosco's spirit,
style and typical personal way of creating an educational synthesis. “This educative soul
of Don Bosco lies in a fundamental attitude that the educator must take on as his lifestyle
and not just as a pure professional ability.”292 In the second part of his brief work entitled
Dalla parte del ragazzo (On the child’s side), Corallo goes into some concrete aspects of
the Preventive System dividing the discussion into two parts: how the child is (starting
point) and how the child should be (axiology and purpose). The two parts are connected,
psychological knowledge of the child and moral values are intertwined: “Pedagogical
discourse is not a discourse of psychological techniques, but neither is it a moral sermon:
it is that very singular discourse in which personal morality becomes the technique
of education and in which didactic psychological technique must be transfigured into
moral commitment.”293
Putting oneself totally and loyally on the side of the child does not mean naive
pedocentrism, but it is a fundamental attitude of acceptance that recognises the whole
child, that recognises who the child is and should be, what the child can and should
become – in other words, the whole child. Assistance, in this light, would be the
291 Corallo, Il metodo educativo salesiano, 10.
292 Ibid., 16
293 Ibid., 19-20.

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existential knowledge of the child in an educational relationship marked by consecration
and total dedication.
I would venture to say that Don Bosco brought about a revolution in education
similar [...] to that which Christianity wrought in the Old Testament. In the
face of the detailed and multiplying rigidity of the law, Christianity raised up the
greatness of the spirit and the principle that the Sabbath is made for man. It is not
wrong, therefore, to say that with his system Don Bosco brought about a true
Copernican revolution in the field of education: he followed the direction that
went from the boy to his gradual achievement of maturity, and not the opposite
direction commonly used in his day, which went from programs and precepts to
the boy.294
If assistance is the fundamental attitude of placing oneself on the side of the young
person, “youthfulness” is the consequential characteristic of an education that begins
with being with the young. Assistance is the typical Salesian attitude that avoids two
fundamental errors: abandoning young people to themselves and imposing oneself on
young people without caring for them. For Corallo, assistance and charity are the field
in which Don Bosco's statement that “only the Christian can successfully apply the
preventive system” should be applied.295
The most difficult part of the work of education is aimed at the successful future
of the young, “as they ought to be.” The educator and assistant who is dedicated to the
good of the young uses the levers of reason and example to educate to the moral aspects
that are not as instinctive as primary and relational needs. Religious and moral education
is verified if educators are really dedicated to the good of the students. Do they they
transmit life as a whole or merely indoctrinate or teach in an autocratic way? According
to Corallo, it is the former that is the heart and soul of Don Bosco's method and the
educator, as a consequence, is “the Christian who has made the good of another person
their life’s goal. In Jesus’ words, they are the one who gave their life for their friend.”296
Corallo’s pedagogical perspective on Don Bosco is a personalistic and Catholic one that
overshadows historical criticism and the application techniques of individual sciences.
It becomes an interesting, though not so well-developed alternative to the proposals of
Pietro Braido that have influenced epistemological choices at the Education Faculty at
the UPS.
294 Ibid., 24.
295 Cf. Ibid., 28-29.
296 Ibid., 40.

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269
Tools and resources
Chronological table

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Select bibliography
Acta et documenta Congressus generalis de statibus perfectionis, 4 vols., Rome 1952-3.
Acts of the 19th General Chapter, 8 April – 10 June 1965 Rome, in ACS 47 (1966) 244, 3-291.
Bellerate B. (ed.), Pluralismo culturale ed educazione. Acts of the 3rd inter-ideological
colloquium promoted by “Orientamenti Pedagogici”, held in Rome, 8-9
December 1978, “Orientamenti Pedagogici”, Rome 1979.
Bellerate B., Un itinerario aperto: l’educare, in M. Borrelli (ed.), La pedagogia
italiana contemporanea, vol. 2, Pellegrini, Cosenza 1995, 15-30.
Bellerate B. – Milanesi G.C. (eds.), Educazione e politica, SEI, Turin 1976.
Bibliografia di Pietro Braido (1919-2014), in bit.ly/2MZsP18.
Bouquier H., Don Bosco educateur, Téqui, Paris 21950.
Braido P., Il sistema educativo di Don Bosco, SEI, Turin 11955, 21956.
Braido P., Il Sistema Preventivo di don Bosco, PAS Verlag, Zürich 11955 21964.
Braido P. (ed.), Educare. Sommario di scienze pedagogiche, 3. voll., PAS Verlag, Zürich
11956 21962-64.
Braido P, Introduzione alla pedagogia. Saggio di epistemologia pedagogica, PAS, Turin
1956.
Braido P., Don Bosco, La Scuola, Brescia 1957.
Braido P., A.S. Makarenko, La Scuola, Brescia 1959.
Braido P. et al. (eds.), Don Bosco educatore oggi. Second revised and enlarged edition,
PAS Verlag, Zürich 21963.
[Braido P.] Rinnovamento di una Facoltà di scienze dell’educazione, in “Orientamenti
Pedagogici” 17 (1970) 4, 1043-1051.
Braido P., Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano tra il secondo dopoguerra e il
Postconcilio Vaticano II (1944-1984), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 25
(2006) 49, 295-356.
Calonghi L., Tests ed esperimenti, PAS, Turin 1956.
CGS – Commissioni Precapitolari Centrali, Ecco ciò che pensano i salesiani
della loro Congregazione oggi. “Radiografia” delle relazioni dei Capitoli
Ispettoriali Speciali tenuti in gennaio-maggio 1969, 4 vols., Istituto Salesiano
Arti Grafiche, Castelnuovo D. Bosco (AT) 1969.
Capitolo Generale Speciale XX della Società Salesiana, Rome 10 June 1971 – 5 January
1972, [s.e.], Rome 1972.

28 Pages 271-280

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Vatican II: Before, during, after (1952–1978)
271
Corallo G., La pedagogia di Giovanni Dewey, SEI, Turin 1950.
Corallo G., Il metodo educativo salesiano. L’eredità di Don Bosco, Tip. Scuola Salesiana
del Libro, Catania 1979.
Corallo G., Educare la libertà. Scelta antologica ed. Maria Teresa Moscato, Clueb,
Bologna 2009.
Dalcerri L., Istituto internazionale superiore di pedagogia e di scienze religiose, in
“Rivista di pedagogia e scienze religiose” 1 (1963) 1, 3-16.
Desramaut F., Les Memorie I de Giovanni Battista Lemoyne. Étude d’un ouvrage
fondamental sur la jeunesse de saint Jean Bosco. Thèse de doctorat en théologie
présentée à la Faculté de Théologie de Lyon, Maison d’Études Saint-Jean-Bosco,
Lyon 1962.
Desramaut F., Don Bosco et la vie spirituelle, Beauchesne, Paris 1967.
Desramaut F., Introduzione, in La missione dei salesiani nella Chiesa. Benediktbeuern
(Germania) 9-11 settembre 1969, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1970, 5-8.
Desramaut F., All’origine dei Colloqui sulla vita salesiana, in C. Semeraro (ed.),
La festa nell’esperienza giovanile del mondo salesiano, LDC, Leumann (TO)
1988, 238-241.
Desramaut F. – Midali M., L’impegno della Famiglia salesiana per la giustizia.
Colloqui sulla vita salesiana 7, Jünkerath 24-28 agosto 1975, LDC, Leumann
(TO) 1976.
Dichiarazione sull’educazione cristiana Gravissimum educationis, in AAS 58 (1966)
728-739.
Frigato S.,Educazione ed evangelizzazione. La riflessione della Congregazione salesiana
nel Postconcilio, in A. Bozzolo – R. Carelli (eds.), Evangelizzazione e
educazione, LAS, Rome 2011, 69-90.
Giammacheri E., La prima Facoltà di Pedagogia è sorta in Italia nel nome di don Bosco,
in “Scuola Italiana Moderna” 66 (1957) 17, 7-8.
Grasso P.G., Gioventù di metà secolo. Risultati di un’inchiesta sugli orientamenti
morali e civili di 2000 studenti italiani, Ave, Rome 1954.
Grasso P.G., La Società Salesiana tra il passato e l’avvenire. Risultati di un’inchiesta tra
ex allievi salesiani, Edizione extra-commerciale riservata, [s.e.], Rome 1964.
Grasso P.G., Le compagnie come risposta alla psicologia giovanile, Centro Internazionale
Compagnie, Turin 1954.

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Il sistema educativo di don Bosco tra pedagogia antica e nuova. Acts of the European
Salesian Conference on Don Bosco's Preventive System, held in Rome from
31 December 1973 to 5 January 1974., LDC, Leumann (TO) 1974.
Ispettoria Salesiana PAS, Atti del 1° Capitolo Ispettoriale Speciale (13-19 aprile
1969), [s.e.] Rome 1969.
La vita di preghiera del religioso salesiano. Colloquiums on Salesian life Lyons 10-11
September 1968, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1969.
Lafranceschina L., La Pedagogia Italiana del Secondo Dopoguerra e la Proposta
Pedagogica di Don Gino Corallo, Arti Grafiche Cortese, Bitonto 2014.
Lettera del Direttore Spirituale, in ACS 44 (1963) 234, 16-20.
Lutte G., Per una università critica, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 16 (1969) 2,
326-336.
Malizia G. – Alberich E., A servizio dell’educazione. La Facoltà di Scienze
dell’Educazione dell’Università Pontificia Salesiana, LAS, Rome 1984.
Nanni C. – Moscato M.T. (eds.), La pedagogia della libertà. La lezione di Gino
Corallo, LAS, Rome 2012.
Nanni et al. (eds.), Pietro Braido. Una vita per lo studio i giovani l’educazione, LAS,
Rome 2018.
Pontificium Athenaeum Salesianum MCMXL – MCMLXV, [s.e.], Romae
1966, 28-67.
Rahner K. et al. (eds.), Dizionario di Pastorale, Queriniana, Brescia 1979.
Ricceri L., Così mi prese Don Bosco. Storie vere di vita salesiana, LDC, Leumann (TO)
1986.
Ricceri L., Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 47 (1966) 245, 3-14.
Ricceri L., Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 48 (1967) 247, 3-33.
Ricceri L., Letter of the Rector Major [with conclusions from the continental meetings
in Bangalore, Como, Caracas], in ACS 49 (1968) 252, 3-86.
Ricceri L., Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 50 (1969) 258, 3-38.
Ricceri L., Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 54 (1973) 269, 3-49.
Ricceri L., Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 56 (1975) 279, 6-44.
Ricceri L., Presentation of the Rector Major of the “General Report on the State of the
Congregation”, in the 20th Special General Chapter of the Salesian Society,
Rome 10 June 1971 – 5 January 1972, [s.e.], Rome 1972, 565-583.

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273
Stickler A.M., Le compagnie alla luce degli ultimi documenti pontifici, Centro
Internazionale Compagnie, Turin 1954.
Tolomelli M., Il Sessantotto. Una breve storia, Carocci, Rome 2008.
Valentini E., Attualità ed efficacia pedagogica delle Compagnie, Centro Internazionale
Compagnie, Turin 1954.
Venti anni di Colloqui: Bilancio e prospettive, Round Table involving Francis Desramaut,
Mario Midali, Tarcisio Bertone and Nicolò Suffi. Moderator Riccardo
Tonelli, in C. Semeraro (ed.), La festa nell’esperienza giovanile del mondo
salesiano, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1988, 238-253.
Viganò E., Lettera a don Luigi Ricceri Gran Cancelliere del P.A.S. (24 August 1972), in
R. Gianatelli (ed.), Don Egidio Viganò all’Università Salesiana. Discorsi,
linee operative, testimonianze del VII Successore di don Bosco, UPS, Rome
1996, 24-44.
XVIII Capitolo Generale della nostra Società, in ACS 39 (1958) 203, 6-86.
Ziggiotti R., Ho visto don Bosco in tutti i continenti, in “Bollettino Salesiano” 79 (1955)
17, 333-342.
Ziggiotti R, Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 44 (1963) 229, 3-11.
Ziggiotti R., Letter of the Rector Major, in ACS 45 (1964) 234, 2-14.
Ziggiotti R., Tenaci, audaci e amorevoli. Lettere circolari ai Salesiani di don Renato
Ziggiotti
Ziggiotti R. Introduzione, parole chiave, indici e appendici statistiche ed. Marco Bay,
LAS, Rome 2015.
Online resources
Sources, documents, research, full-text publications, photographic material dealing with this
chapter.297
297 Cf. salesian.online/pedagogia4

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5
Planning and animation (1978–1998)
While the impression of the extraordinary nature of Vatican II seemed to fade, the
dynamics of ecclesial life in the 1970s were still strongly conditioned by the events of
the previous decade. It was a time of feverish pastoral activity, but also of demographic
and identity crisis for the various religious congregations. Because of all this complexity,
the Congregation’s General Council met eight hundred times over the six years from
1972-77 with the overall objective of “promoting the momentum of renewal desired by
the Special General Chapter, distinguishing the gold from the dross, and at the same time
directing it in such a way as to avoid the creation and stabilisation of disorder.”1 Further
meetings of animation in the various regions, often conditioned by crisis situations, were
added to the ordinary work. In 1972 the Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum based in Rome
became the Pontifical Salesian University, and within the sphere of Salesian studies the
Don Bosco Study Centre was born with the aim of promoting scientific studies of the
saintly educator. Between 1976 and 1977 the Centre, under the direction of Pietro Stella,
published a facsimile edition of Don Bosco’s printed works in thirty-seven volumes,
allowing scholars of the Salesian charism access to a much richer corpus than the previous
editions.
Consolidation guided by Viganò and Vecchi
The 21st General Chapter, held from the end of October 1977 until February the
following year, could only but verify the journey made and bring to maturity some
of the many guidelines indicated by the Special General Chapter. The Rector Major,
Aloysius Ricceri, indicated in his report that all the reshaping, the qualification of the
1 L. Ricceri, 21st General Chapter of the Salesian Society. General Report on the State of the Congregation,
[s.e.], Rome 1977, no. 15.

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275
confreres and the formation of lay collaborators still had to be done, since there were
few achievements due to the lack of a concrete vision and a realistic mindset.2
With these criteria in mind, the Chapter elected Fr Egidio Viganò as Don Bosco’s
successor, appreciating his leadership skills and experience in Salesian and ecclesial life
on several continents. He had spent most of his life in Chile, where, in addition to his
service as provincial in the turbulent years between 1968 and 1972, he had participated
intensely in ecclesial life. As an expert theologian of the Chilean episcopate, he had
spoken at the Second Vatican Council and later at the meeting of the Conference of Latin
American Bishops in Medellín (1968). Between 1972 and 1978 he held the position of
General Councillor for formation, establishing courses of ongoing formation, initiating
the Salesian Family Spirituality Days and promoting various study centres of the
Congregation.3 He served as Rector Major for three six-year terms, from 1978 until
his death, consolidating the renewal of the Council in the Salesian Congregation in the
context of the last quarter of the twentieth century marked by the growing dynamics
of globalisation and consumerism, a consequence of the gradual affirmation of the
capitalist economic model.
Increasing globalisation
Compared to the enthusiasm and revolutionary willingness of 1968, the atmosphere
in the late 1970s in the West had already changed. The oil crisis cast doubt on
the idea of permanent growth of the economic system, expressing uncertainty also
about the idea of a “welfare society”. The left-wing ideological orientation widespread
in the post-1968 period, suffered considerable credibility setbacks linked both to
the increasingly widespread news of oppression in communist countries (Gulags,
Cambodian massacres, the regime in Vietnam, terrorism inspired by radical Marxists)
and the failures of “real socialism”: the unsuccessful invasion of Afghanistan by the
Soviet Union, the economic failures of “second world” countries and the lack of concrete
responses by left-wing parties to the real needs of the people in the industrialised
countries.
The long liberal right-wing governments in the 1980s (Reagan in the USA, Thatcher
in the UK and Kohl in Germany) accentuated the perception of the failure of socialism
2 Cf. Ibid., nos. 38-42.
3 Cf. A. Viganò – F. Viganò, Don Egidio Viganò, settimo successore di Don Bosco. Frammenti di vita,
LDC, Leumann (TO) 1996; Wirth, Da don Bosco ai giorni nostri, 465-466.

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that was made more evident by the reforms of Michail Gorbachov. The inevitable
implosion of the regimes in Eastern Europe, which passed into history in an iconic way
as the fall of the Berlin wall, was one concrete consequence of this. Salesian provinces
in Central and Eastern Europe, around the time of the centenary of Don Bosco’s death,
had to contend with a rethinking of their presences and works, as well as a gradual change
of mentality from opposition to the regime to pastoral ministry in a new, open and
uncertain world.
In the western part of the continent, the original core group of the European
Union expanded first to include States around the Mediterranean who had returned
to democracy in the 1980s (Spain, Portugal and Greece), followed by the reunification
of Germany, and finally, countries in Central and Eastern Europe began to enter the
EU as well. The European Zeitgeist in the 1990s was determined by the victory of the
liberal-capitalist model over the socialist model, accompanied by a perspective favourable
to integration among European nations, despite the fact that political, economic and
cultural distances between the various member states were already emerging. Against this
background we can place the historical and political viewpoints of Zbigniew Brzezinski
or Paul Johnson4 or the theological and economic ones of Michael Novak, former Jesuit
and Reagan adviser, who proposed reconciliation between Catholic thinking and the
dynamics of the free market in The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism.5
We witnessed a softening of restrictive policies in Latin America, a prelude to
the transition from the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s to democratic
elections, starting in the mid-1980s (Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay and Bolivia).
However, the consolidation of democracy had to contend with serious economic
obstacles (inflation and foreign debt), political obstacles (guerilla warfare during the
military period) and social obstacles (widespread poverty and marked social differences).
Asia and the Middle East presented a very different situation. The Islamic world
was going through a shift from a relatively secular postcolonial leadership to a stronger
presence of Islamic right-wingers who found a point of reference in Iran, which very
soon became an Islamic Republic led by Ayatollah Khomeini. While China, after
4 Cf. P. Johnson, Modern Times. The World from the Twenties to the Nineties, Harper Collins, New
York 1991; Z. Brzezinski, Out of Control. Global Turmoil on the Eve of the 21st Century, Simon &
Schuster, New York 1995.
5 Cf. M. Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, Simon & Schuster, New York 1982. Cf. Also
other publications of his to follow: Id., The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Free Press, New
York 1993; Id., Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life, Free Press, New York 1996; Id. –
P. Adams, Social Justice Isn’t What You Think It Is, Encounter Books, New York 2015.

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Mao Tse-tung, was going through a process of reform under the leadership of Deng
Xiaoping, other socialist countries in Asia, promoting free market dynamics, found
themselves in conflict. After the departure of American troops, Vietnam carried out a
harsh collectivisation then invaded Cambodia, which was in a chaotic situation after the
Pol Pot massacres, and finally found itself at war with China. Japan and Korea became
part of the global economy thanks to a season of technological development which the
West looked upon with a mixture of admiration and concern. India in this period placed
its hopes in reforms by Rajiv, son of the assassinated Indira Gandhi. Investments in the
scientific, technological and computer fields sustained slow development in the country,
caught up in social difficulties and episodes of violence between Hindus and Muslims.
Africa and in 1980s and 90s was going through a difficult period following
decolonisation. The last countries to achieve independence were the former Portuguese
colonies of Angola and Mozambique who very soon fell into civil war. Chronically weak
governments were struggling to counter dramatic economic, health, social, and legal
situations. Various coups d’etat and world Powers made it impossible for these young
countries to achieve political stability. Despite some positive episodes, such as the end of
apartheid in South Africa, the end of the millennium in the continent was marked by
massacres among the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and the Congo crisis, impacting the
situation in nearby countries.6
Church and youth ministry with John Paul II’s imprint
The Church’s journey after the Council, accompanied by Paul VI, continued with
reforms already begun through the newly instituted Synod of Bishops. These looked
at reception of the Council, focusing on episcopal collegiality, justice in the world,
evangelisation and catechesis in the modern world. Subsequently, the ecclesiology of
Vatican II was given practical substance with the promulgation of the new Code of Canon
Law. The work, already planned by John XXIII and carried out by Cardinal Felici,
provided a translation of the Vatican II mindset and teachings into juridical language.
The new CIC was configured as a new work, not a mere update of the 1917 Code which
was structured on the ecclesiology of the First Vatican Council.7
6 Cf. G. Sabatucci – V. Vidotto, Storia contemporanea. Il Novecento, Laterza, Bari 2003, 305-392.
7 Cf. J. Beyer, Dal Concilio al codice, EDB, Bologna 1984 and G. Ghirlanda, Il diritto nella Chiesa
mistero di comunione, Pontificia Università Gregoriana – San Paolo, Rome – Milan 1990.

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Catechesis after the Council moved in the direction of decentralisation, with
the production of various national catechisms adapted to the needs of different age
groups. The results were texts of varying doctrinal, didactic and methodological
quality. Catechesi Tradendae (1979), by John Paul II, prepared the way for a universal
catechism, resulting in the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992.8
Consolidation of the Church’s structures after the Council were accompanied by John
Paul II during his long pontificate, including nine consistories and the appointment
of more than 230 cardinals. The adjustment to structures did not lead the Pope to
close himself within the walls of the Vatican. On the contrary. In addition to vibrant
ecumenical and diplomatic contacts, he carried out more than a hundred journeys
abroad, resulting in a huge confluence of people.
At the political level, Pope Wojtyła was a harsh critic of communism and contributed
to the fall of the Iron Curtain through his diplomatic activities. Despite the potential
influence of Novak on some of the positions taken by Centesimus Annus, his positions
on war, capital punishment, poverty, and the cancellation of the debts of developing
countries, indicate a rather balanced synthesis. John Paul II’s Catholicism was in
continuity with the values of the past, but politically he valued freedom and was open
to the logic of human rights. The Pope knew how to make the best of his various
experiences with totalitarian regimes without falling into liberalism. Symbolic of this
was his address in 1990 to the diplomatic corps at the Holy See:
The irrepressible thirst for freedom […] has accelerated the process of evolution;
it has brought down walls and opened doors. All this has the appearance of
a veritable overthrow. And you will no doubt have noted that the point of
departure or rallying point has often been a church. Little by little candles were
lit, forming, as it were, a pathway of light, as if to say to those who for many
years claimed to limit human horizons to this earth that one cannot live in chains
indefinitely. […] What is admirable in the events that we have witnessed is the
fact that whole peoples have spoken up: women, young people and men have
overcome their fear. The human person has shown the inexhaustible resources
of dignity, courage and freedom concealed within itself. In countries where for
years a party has told people what to believe and the meaning to be given to
history, these brothers and sisters have shown that it is not possible to stifle the
8 For developments in catechesis in the 1970s cf. E. Alberich, Natura e compiti di una catechesi moderna,
LDC, Leumann (TO) 1974 and C. Caprile, Il sinodo dei vescovi 1977. IV Assemblea generale, Civiltà
Cattolica, Rome 1978.

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fundamental freedoms that give meaning to human life: freedom of thought,
conscience, religion expression, and political and cultural pluralism.9
A strong point of John Paul II’s pontificate was the marked attention to the young,
immediately revealed in the first Angelus of his pontificate when he said: “You are
the future of the world, the hope of the Church. You are my hope.”10 Speaking of
the preferential place the young have in the Church, the Pope recognised in them the
youthful face of the Church, firmly convinced that it had need of their enthusiasm
and freshness. The concrete expression of his attitude of care and predilection for
the young was the organisation of the World Youth Days (WYD) starting in 1985,
“The International Year of Youth” announced by the UN. The WYD promoted the
active role of young people through dialogue, creating privileged places for personal
and community encounter with Jesus Christ. In a historical period that privileged the
individual, they were an effective sign of ecclesial communion, bringing together young
people from all over the world and gathering different groups, movements, associations
and communities around the pope. They embodied the dynamics of pilgrimage from
both a spiritual and practical point of view.11
For their part, the reflection topics proposed by the WYD and then further explored
through catechesis during the days of encounter, became a true formation curriculum
developing the main topics of the faith: Christ the Way, the Truth and the Life; God
is Love; faith and Mary’s listening attitude; the Church; divine sonship in the Holy
Spirit; witness.12 The World Youth Days, therefore, became times and spaces of the
Church lived with young people and for young people, manifesting in this way their
character as both a “subject” working in youth ministry and a welcoming “space” for
9 John Paul II’s address to the members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, in bit.ly/vatican-va-
1990-01-13.
10 John Paul II (with V. Messori), Varcare la soglia della speranza, Mondadori, Milan 1994, 140. Cf.
also U.C. Miyigbena (ed.), Giovanni Paolo II parla ai giovani. Complete collection of all addresses
to the young in his pontificate in the original languages, 3 vols., LEV, Vatican City.
11 Cf. J. Clemens, L’impegno della Chiesa per i giovani: da Giovanni Paolo II a Papa Francesco, International
Meeting on the WYD in Rio 2013 – Krakow 2016, in bit.ly/laici-va-2014-04-12, 3-7; Pontifical
Council for the Laity (ed.), Giornata Mondiale della Gioventù. Memorandum per gli organizzatori,
Vatican City 2005, 7.
12 Cf. A. Napolioni, La strada dei giovani. Prospettive di pastorale giovanile, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo
1994, 122.

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youth ministry.13 Despite the successes of these days, we need to highlight the real risk,
especially in contexts that have not developed their own pastoral model, of reducing
youth ministry to a “ministry of large events”.
The WYDs were the context in which the Salesian Youth Movement was born,
made visible in the international meeting of young people at the Confronto DB 88 on
the occasion of the centenary of Don Bosco’s death and in the subsequent Confronto
‘93.14 The 23rd General Chapter on the education of the young to the faith said: “Youth
groups and associations which, while maintaining their organisational autonomy, share
the same Salesian spirituality and pedagogical principles, form explicitly or implicitly the
Salesian Youth Movement (SYM).”15 It would be interesting to analyse the evolutionary
path of the mindset of Salesian Associations, which went from practical organisation
of sodalities with their rhythm of local meetings and related provincial and world
congresses, through spontaneous groups aimed at social change in the post-Vatican II
period, up to the much more fluid SYM, with an “implicit” or explicit sense of belonging.
The SYM emerged especially during celebrations and (inter)provincial meetings, with
guidelines of a rather idealistic nature at world level, such as the ones from GC23 that
said:
The circulation of messages and values in the SYM has no need of a rigid
and centralised organisation. It is based on free communication between
the groups, and needs only a minimum structure for the coordination of
common initiatives. On this basis those meetings are preferred which become
meaningful occasions for dialogue, comparison, Christian formation, and
youthful expression.16
Organisational consolidation of the Congregation (1978–2000)
The six years from 1972-78, in addition to promising, but less than coordinated, pastoral
experiments, were swept up in the continuing demographic crisis, especially the drop in
13 Cf. D. di Giosia, La Pastorale dei giovani. Uno studio sul magistero di John Paul II, LEV, Rome 2011,
108-118.
14 Cf. Youth Ministry Department, Il Movimento Giovanile Salesiano come espressione della spiritualità
giovanile salesiana. Acts of the European Conference, Sanlucar la Mayor, 22-25 October 1992, SDB,
Rome 1993.
15 GC23 (1990), no. 275.
16 GC23 (1990), no. 277.

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vocations to consecrated life, abuse of absentiae a domo and requests for laicisation
by priests, particularly in the first five years after ordination.17 GC21, held from the
end of October 1977 until February the following year, continued in the direction
pursued by the Special General Chapter, with the intention of implementing some of its
many guidelines. Among the aspects that had not been significantly set in motion were
some that were very important but at the same time difficult to implement, such as the
reshaping of structures, the qualification of confreres, the formation of lay collaborators
and the updating of the Preventive System.18
Halfway through the work of the 21st General Chapter came the election of the
seventh successor of Don Bosco, and seeing the needs of the Congregation, Egidio
Viganò was chosen. He stood out for his personality, characterised by Braido as a
“multifaceted figure, a personality of lucid, penetrating intelligence, strong disciplined
passion, a far-sighted ruler, both enlightened – and imaginative! – and firm.”19 The new
Rector Major highlighted the particular approach of his style of government in one of
his first letters: “Would that I had the calm and penetrating style of Don Bosco and the
facility of communication shown by his successors. I hope to be able to make up for
the lack of this charm and simplicity at least by sincerity and solidity.”20 In his letters
he denounced spiritual superficiality, proposing an apostolic inner conviction that is
the fruit of the grace of unity. Already in his closing address to the GC21 he proposed
the concept of the “Oratorian heart”,21 linking it to the newness of Salesian presence
that is the spirit of initiative and pastoral inventiveness.22 Thanks to his governing
and coordinating skills, combined with the dynamics of historical, social, and ecclesial
17 The reasons for leaving, indicated by both the individuals and their provincials vary in the regions
of the Congregation, but generally almost half of the departures are attributable to affective-sexual
difficulties and, secondarily, about a quarter of the reasons revolve around personal, psychological and
character immaturities. Cf. The analysis in G. Dho (ed.), Capitolo Generale XXI della Società Salesiana.
La riduzione allo stato laicale dei sacerdoti nella Congregazione Salesiana. Presentazione analitica del fatto
e delle motivazioni, [s.e.], Rome 1977, 40-44.
18 Cf. Ricceri, Capitolo Generale XXI. Relazione generale sullo stato della Congregazione, nos. 38-42.
19 Braido, Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano tra il secondo dopoguerra e il Postconcilio Vaticano II
(1944-1984), in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 25 (2006) 49, 350.
20 Cf. E. Viganò, Maria rinnova la Famiglia Salesiana di don Bosco, in ACS 59 (1978) 289, 3.
21 Cf. CG21 (1978), nos. 565-568. Braido noted that the Rector Major Egidio Viganò proposed “the
formula ‘oratorian heart’ [...] until the end of his life. Almost as a synthesis of the Salesian’s being and
action: not only in the Oratory-structure but in all works as well, of which the Oratory for many years
was considered the exemplar”, in Braido, Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano, 348.
22 Cf. CG21 (1978), nos. 156-159.

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development, the Congregation was more serene and united in thought and action
during the years of his term of office than in the previous fifteen years.23
Final approval of the Constitutions (1984) and systematic organisation of formation
(1981–85)
At the end of 1984 the Holy See approved the text of the Congregation’s Constitutions
that were then subsequently promulgated by the Rector Major, thus bringing to a close
the lengthy process of reformulation of the charism after the Council. The work of
the 22nd General Chapter on the Constitutions had been prepared for through studies
and consultation in the provinces.24 The text, that had to be adapted to the new Code
of Canon Law, had undergone many changes, and was ultimately structured in four
parts, the first of which was on identity, the role and spirit of the Congregation in the
Church. A complex second part embraced three inseparable elements of the Salesian
vocation, mission, community life and consecration, and concluded with the chapter
on prayer. The third part was dedicated to formation. The last part looked at the service
of authority. In his closing address to the Chapter, Fr Viganò expressed the shared
perception of a job well done and the value of the new Constitutions:
It is an organic, profound, improved text, permeated by the Gospel, rich in
the genuineness of its origins, open to universality and looking to the future,
sober and dignified, dense with balanced realism and assimilation of Council’s
principles. It is a text rethought in terms of community, fidelity to Don Bosco
and in response to the challenges of the times.25
Following the promulgation of the Constitutions came the drafting of the second
edition of the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis et Studiorum, a further point of arrival
in the rethinking of the Congregation following the Council, now in tune with the CIC
and the Constitutions.26 The Ratio had already been requested by GC21, which wanted
a complete document that also included general guidelines and standards for intellectual
23 Cf. Wirth, Da don Bosco ai giorni nostri, 466.
24 Cf. Capitolo Generale 22, Sussidi. Contributi di studio su Costituzioni e Regolamenti SDB, 2. vols.,
SDB, Rome 1982 and Capitolo Generale 22, Schemi precapitolari, 2. vols., SDB, Rome 1983.
25 22nd General Chapter, Documents, SDB, Rome 1984, 139.
26 Cf. The formation of the Salesians of Don Bosco. Principles and norms. Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis
et Studiorum, SDB, Rome 11981 and 21985.

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formation. The 1981 edition was an immediate and well-received response, being a
text that was “mature and relevant, although still open to improvement.”27 Following
the legislative changes, four years later the second edition brought improvements at
various levels.28 The document drew its makeup from the basic motivation of forming
to the Salesian vocational identity reflected in the Constitutions, expressed above all
in the harmony between mission, community life and consecration. In addition to
the indications of the formative ideal, contributions from the sciences of education
were incorporated, both in terms of study content, especially in the post-novitiate, and
attention to method.29
The approach to formation was less directive than previously and was an animating
form of accompaniment in Salesian style, “fruit of the ‘reasonableness’ and ‘loving-kindness’
of the Preventive System. In fact, the style of this System is such that in authenticity,
freedom and mutual trust it allows each person and the community to realise Don
Bosco’s project in the search and exchange of values and services.”30 The preventive
system emerges in the document as a unified project in the life of the individual, and it
is linked to the Salesian mission and to the needs of educators for psychological balance.
At the level of experience and study, the Preventive System should be explored especially
in the novitiate, the post-novitiate and practical training.31
One can note a typical mindset, in the Ratio, of this historical period that declares
the necessity of a unified planned approach in formation, but then splits things up into
sectors at the organisational level. Some marked differences appear when describing who
intervenes at various levels in the formation of young Salesians: formators, who live
in the formation community and work especially by means of the friendly chat and
spiritual direction, professors, who do the academic work in the various study centres, and
provincial authorities, organised by means of a provincial formation commission and the
provincial council. The latter are decisive for verification and admissions, working more
at the level of leadership, legislation and government.32 The Ratio as a whole was a rich
and well-developed text with plenty of ideas, criteria or methodological principles that
were not always easy to implement in real terms.
27 The formation of the Salesians of Don Bosco, 11981, 9.
28 Cf. GC21 (1978), nos. 258-259.
29 Cf. The formation of the Salesians of Don Bosco, 21985, nos. 130-136.
30 Ibid., no. 135.
31 Cf. Ibid., nos. 27, 31, 62-66, 323, 332, 351.
32 Cf. Ibid., chap. 4 (nos.141-163); chap. 5 and 6 (nos. 240-285); chap. 7 (nos. 295-306).

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Project Africa and the dynamics of development
In addition to stabilising things at the world level in legislative and formation terms,
in 1975, the centenary of the Salesian missions, the idea of a greater Salesian presence
on the African continent began to be reinforced. Three years later the General Chapter
offered the first practical guidelines for revitalisation in the mission scene, requesting
provinces to get involved in noticeably increasing their presence in Africa.33 Following
the Chapter, a commission was established that analysed some 30 requests coming
from Africa for new foundations, ultimately suggesting the strategy of entrusting them
“nation by nation or zone by zone to the various regions the Congregation is divided
into. […] A homogeneous composition (ethnic and linguistic) of the first communities
is useful to start the project. But no border must be a hortus conclusus.”34
Later, Egidio Viganò’s 1980 Letter, “Our African Commitment” spelt out guidelines
for this commitment and gave official form to the courageous Project Africa, presenting
it as a veritable grace from God and “the fruit of that perennial youth and that
great-hearted courage which God bestows from age to age on his Church through his
passionate and creative love.”35 The Rector Major’s desire to reawaken the missionary
spirit was in line with the thinking of Paul VI who said: “Today we see so many
individuals and institutions in the Catholic Church tragically floundering about in a
kind of spiritual vacuum. Perhaps the reason is that there has been a prolonged absence
of the missionary spirit.”36
The founding of new presences in Africa was particularly noteworthy in the first
three years of the 1980s, to the extent of works in twenty-six countries, organised in a
Central African province and in six delegations divided again by province of origin.37
After the era of the early foundations, the strategy of consolidating works, and work on
formation was chosen with a view to accompanying local vocations. After twenty-five
years of Project Africa, in 2004 there were already 671 African confreres, about a
quarter of whom came from the Congo and a tenth from Ethiopia, followed by Kenya,
Madagascar and Nigeria with between 45 and 30 local confreres. The educational work
33 Cf. GC21 (1978), no. 147.
34 Cf. G. González, Storia del Progetto-Africa. L’origine e i primi passi, in Progetto Africa 1980-2005,
SDB, Rome 2006, 27.
35 E. Viganò, Our African Commitment, in “Acts of the Superior Council” 61 (1980) 297, 25.
36 Paul VI, Message for the 1972 Mission Day, in Ibid., 24.
37 Cf. La Società di San Francesco di Sales nel sessennio 1978-1983. Relazione del Rector Major Egidio Viganò,
SDB, Rome 1983, 15 and González, Storia del Progetto-Africa, 32-33.

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on the young continent was based on a variety of works: about two hundred schools,
ranging from primary education to three university centres, one hundred and twenty
oratories and about one hundred parishes.38
Looking back on the quarter-century of Project Africa, the Rector Major, Pascual
Chávez Villanueva, recognised that “It took a farsighted approach and a prophetic voice,
like that of Egidio Viganò, to make Don Bosco’s dream come true and make Africa
a choice of the Congregation translated into a Project.”39 Seeing the robust Salesian
presence in the Americas implanted a century beforehand, and the fruitful growth of
the charism in Asia fifty years earlier, Viganò proposed spreading the Salesian vocation
with humility and fidelity, so that it would also become “vigorously African”.40
Personnel and works: a case of numbers and rhetoric
After analysing the statistical data of the Congregation’s personnel and works, one can
see that the falling numbers of Salesian personnel slowed down in the last quarter of
the twentieth century and the number of confreres in the provinces remained more or
less stable, although the Congregation as a whole was ageing.41 While for 1978 there
was an overall decrease of 11% in the number of Salesians compared to the time of the
Special General Chapter, with the exception of the four provinces of India which, on the
contrary, showed an average growth of 14%, for the twelve years between 1978 and 1990
the number of confreres remained stable at around 17,500.42 Added to India in 1990
were other countries in demographic growth such as Poland, Africa as a whole and some
provinces in Latin America (Mexico, Chile and Colombia). Over the next two six-year
periods, however, ageing began to be felt, with a slight decline in the overall number of
confreres.
Towards the change of millennium we note a further fall in numbers of confreres
in the houses. Some provinces in Latin America (e.g. Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and
38 Cf. González, Storia del Progetto-Africa, 46-47.
39 P. Chávez Villanueva, our African commitment, in Project Africa 1980-2005, SDB, Rome 2006,
9.
40 Viganò, Our African Commitment, 16.
41 Ageing was felt especially in Europe. Cf. C. Semeraro (ed.), Invecchiamento e vita salesiana in Europa.
Dati – prospettive – soluzioni, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1990.
42 Cf. L. Ricceri, General Report on the State of the Congregation. 21St General Chapter of the Salesian
Society, SDB, Rome 1977, 217-274; The Society of St Francis de Sales, Statistical data. 23rd
General Chapter. Appendix to the Report of the Rector Major, SDB, Rome 1990, 19-40.

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Ecuador) presented an average of 6 confreres per house. There were also some provinces
with a certain numerical consistency in the composition of the communities, compared
with the previous period, such as in Italy, Poland, Germany and Congo, with an average
of 12 Salesians per house. Exceptionally, there were some provinces such as Vietnam and
Slovakia with more than 12 confreres per house.
A new trend in the Congregation would seem to be the growing demographic of
provinces in India and Africa, investing in the opening of new houses, but keeping a low
average number of confreres per house, only slightly higher than the aforementioned
provinces of Latin America.43 One interesting indicator is the evolution of the number
of confreres with a fixed commitment (full-time and part-time) in the different types of
works:44
A higher number of Salesians working full-time in parishes emerged compared
to the number of Salesians who worked in oratories, including partial collaborations
and clerics. In 1977 more than 40% of the parishes were located in small villages and
were characterised by sacramental and pastoral care of ordinary people.45 The trend
continued, already noted by the SGC, of an increase in parish activities: in fact, until
2001 only a slight decrease in Salesian personnel in the parish had been noted. It
would seem that GC19’s encouragement on appreciation and updating of the Salesian
oratory was not sufficiently translated into practice: it was easier to accept parishes,
43 Cf. The Society of St Francis de Sales, Statistical data. 25th General Chapter. Appendix to
the Report of the Rector Major, SDB, Rome 2002, 40-42. The number of confreres per house is the
proportion of the total number of Salesians divided by the number of houses erected.
44 Cf. S. Sarti (ed.), Dati statistici sulle opere della Congregazione. Capitolo Generale XXI della Società
Salesiana, SDB, Rome 1977; The Society of St Francis de Sales, Statistical data. 23rd General
Chapter and Id., Statistical data. 25th General Chapter.
45 Cf. Sarti (ed.), Dati statistici. Capitolo Generale XXI, 55, 73-77.

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with a more standardised pastoral and financial management that required less creative
investments.46
In the statistics we have mentioned, there was a significant decrease in the number of
Salesian personnel employed in schools, a trend reported as early as 1977:47from 5,800
full-time Salesians in schools at the time of the SGC, the number fell to 4,300 in 1990
and at the end of the twentieth century the number dropped further to 3,372. Even if
in decrease, however, schools still remained the work engaging the greatest number of
Salesians. Yet the increase in the number of lay people working in Salesian schools was
noteworthy: in 2001 it reached 47,000, a figure that implied a serious need for investment
in their professional and Salesian formation.
The involvement of the laity was greater in the South Cone region of America,
with 330 Salesians and 15,000 lay people working in about 200 schools, reaching an
average presence of more or less one Salesian with 75 lay people per institute. The
smallest number of lay people in schools was reported in the Italy-Middle East region,
with an average of 5 Salesians and 5 lay people per school.48 It is interesting to note
how explanations of the collaboration with lay people in the two regions did not
seem to mirror the real situation, but were rather a sign of the different cultures and
practical mindsets at play. In the America-South Cone Region it was said simply that
“all provinces have developed a lay project with their involvement; the preventive system
in schools has been further studied and put into practice,”49 with an indication of the
various formation plans that had been carried out and the difficulties encountered.
The same section, part of the Report on the State of the Congregation, for
the Italy-Middle East region was instead described at much greater length and in
more elaborate rhetoric regarding the need for an ecclesiology of communion. The
explanations were more expansive, exhortative and vague, but without mentioning the
projects carried out.50 In addition to regional differences, this was an example of the
effects of cultural decentralisation at the level of communication and operational project
management, a phenomenon that would seem to grow in the period that followed as
well.
46 Cf. the similar dynamic of “easier standardisation” developed in the boarding school and the “difficult
creativity” in the oratory at a time when the former was on the increase, described in the first chapter.
47 Cf. Sarti (ed.), Dati statistici. Capitolo Generale XXI, 146.
48 Cf. The Society of St Francis de Sales, Statistical data. 25th General Chapter, 58-65.
49 The Society of St Francis de Sales in the six-year period 1996-2002. Report of the Vicar of the Rector
Major, Fr Luc Van Looy, SDB, Rome 2002, 41.
50 Cf. Ibid., 114-118.

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Consolidation of the Salesian Family was part of this collaboration with the laity,
seen in terms of “a vast movement of people”. The 1980s was a period of renewal of
legislative documents and official recognition of belonging to the Salesian Family.51
Starting with the Centenary celebrations in 1988, the idea of a movement around
the common charism was gaining ground. Egidio Viganò expressed this idea in 1995
outlining the basic elements of unity in the spirit of Don Bosco in the Carta di
Comunione (often somewhat incorrectly translated into English as the “Common
Identity Card” rather than the Charter of Communion) of the Salesian Family of Don
Bosco. The Rector Major wanted to start out from the very soul of the Family, because
it was the vitality of the common spirit, rather than any external set of rules that would
nourish a sense of belonging to it.52 The logic of the movement and of an “open”
mentality around the Salesian spirit could also be found in youth ministry with the
recognition, beginning with Confronto ‘88, of the Salesian Youth Movement, formed
implicitly and explicitly of groups which, “while maintaining their organisational
autonomy, share the same Salesian spirituality and pedagogical principles.”53
We also note the birth of Institutions of Higher Education in this period (still with
modest numbers) and the rise and multiplication of social works especially for young
people in difficulty or “at risk”, and for migrants. On the other hand, the commitment
in the health sector (leprosariums and medical dispensaries) decreased. Social works, in
spite of their lower number of presences, occupied the attention of scholars (because
of their novelty)54 and the public (for their advertising potential). It is enough to see
how schools, a typical sector of Salesian activity, were given just a few paragraphs in the
reports on the state of the Congregation in the period studied. The general perception
was expressed very clearly by Fr. Viganò in 1990:
Judging things at the world level, we can say that “the youth area” has been the
object of general encouragement, but not of innovative, decisive and operational
structural thrusts, with the application of persons, means and obligatory
orientations. Perhaps each province has thought that it is already dedicated to
51 Cf. Wirth, Da don Bosco ai nostri giorni, 473-478.
52 Cf. Department for the Salesian Family SDB, The Common Identity Card in the Salesian
Family of Don Bosco, [s.e.], Rome 1995.
53 GC23 (1990), no. 275.
54 Cf. e.g. G. Milanesi, L’utilizzo delle scienze dell’educazione nell’impegno dei salesiani per i giovani
“poveri, abbandonati, pericolanti”, in J.E. Vecchi – J.M. Prellezo (eds.), Prassi educativa pastorale
e scienze dell’educazione, SDB, Rome 1988, 87-120.

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young people and only needs to “improve”. Dedication to youth is taken for
granted and is sufficient. Pastoral ministry is considered an object of “animation”
but not of governmental action, not even with regard to the elements that can
ensure constitutional goals.55
From pedagogy to the sciences of education: was an interdisciplinary
pursuit possible?
Since the end of the 1960s, with the appearance of the first faculties of educational
sciences in France and Belgium, a new frame of reference was created that extended
study in the field of education to many other disciplines (psychology, sociology, biology,
hygiene, anthropology, general methodology, statistics, etc.), all capable of standing
alongside or competing with traditional philosophical pedagogy.56 As we have already
mentioned in the previous chapters, the Higher Institute of Pedagogy at Rebaudengo,
when it first opened prior to the Council, managed epistemological questions by
giving priority to pedagogy seen in the light of philosophy, which created, with due
distinctions, a framework within which the “other” sciences were positioned, from
biology to psychometrics. The picture became more complicated with the disappearance
of the predominance of the philosophia perennis and the new approach of the critical
pedagogies of the ‘60s and ‘70s, which began with the autonomy of the human sciences,
and then recommended an interdisciplinary approach.
So, discussing the educational sciences in the 1980s was quite a different matter
than it had been in the 1950s, which had seen the birth of Braido’s approach and
the Educare series. Giorgio Chiosso pointed to an undesirable trend when it came
to educationalists pursuing an interdisciplinary approach to the educational sciences:
the gradual but substantial simplification of the educational and formative processes
within the prevailing psychological, sociological and methodological perspective.57 It
seems that even within the Salesian context, the epistemological approach of the
educational sciences, together with organisational dynamics stressing autonomy and
decentralisation after the Council, influenced the compartmentalisation of pedagogical
55 The Society of St Francis de Sales in the six-year period 1984-1990. Report of the Rector Major Fr Egidio
Viganò, SDB, Rome 1990, no. 180.
56 Cf. G. Chiosso, Novecento pedagogico, La Scuola, Brescia 1997, 281.
57 Cf. Ibid.

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knowledge. Once the disciplined spiritualism of Ricaldone and the pedagogies during
the crisis-ridden immediate post-Council period had been overcome, it seems that three
tendencies described by Chiosso could be found in Salesian theoretical approaches and
applications: the empirical and practical perspective, focus on personal subjectivity and
the importance of dialogue between individuals and cultures.58 Furthermore, under
the coordination of Pietro Braido, a strong historical-critical reflection was developed
around Salesian education, a reflection that developed at the time of the rethinking of
the charism after the Council, but which was, at the time, a field of knowledge promoted
almost exclusively by the Salesian Historical Institute (ISS).
The first of the currents mentioned above envisaged the future of pedagogy as
an empirical science, with an inductive-experimental framework at the service of
learning, school organisation and teacher training. In the next section we will see the
development of this pedagogical model around the theme of educational planning,
involving curricular theories coming from the Anglo-Saxon world.
The second, personal subjectivity, was expressed in a number of fields and with
different sensitivities, but all leading back to a common theoretical principle, the
importance of the “person”. On the one hand, there were philosophical approaches in
the Catholic field that referred to Maritain, Mounier, Pieper and other personalists. On
the other hand, there was an attention to the concept of personality in the current of
American humanist psychologists such as Allport, Maslow, Carkhuff and Rogers. In
some reflections, the importance of the person was connected with some principles of
critical anti-institutional pedagogy, emphasising the importance of the expressiveness,
authenticity and autonomy of the person against old-fashioned authoritarianism or
capitalist-consumerist alienation.
Interpersonal and intercultural dialogue was the common denominator in the third
current of pedagogical thinking. Human consciousness was considered as such only
in openness to the other, in an exchange which offered the opportunity to discover
the universal dimension of human experience. A positive outlook on multiculturalism,
combined with the stress on human rights, envisaged the overcoming of divisions,
misunderstandings and prejudices in a society which was increasingly diverse in its ethnic
and cultural patterns. In the Salesian context this current was often reflected in the term
“inculturation of the charism”, linked to the logic of decentralisation and the dynamics
of the demographic growth of the Congregation in its non-Western Regions.
58 Cf. Ibid., 283-284.

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The paradigm of the sciences of education obviously found confirmation, consensus
and development in the reflections of the Faculty of the same name at the UPS, but
it should be noted that its realisation at the level of the University itself took place
through a departmental style of organisation dear to Fr Egidio Viganò. When he
presented the GC21 document to the UPS in May 1978, the Rector Major leaned
on the Chapter’s decision: “The principle of interdisciplinary and inter-departmental
organisation should be made effective also on the structural and statutory level. While
the Faculties will remain the academic organisms for programming and administration,
a more comprehensive control will guarantee the unity of formation.”59 As was his
custom, Viganò did not leave this just as an exhortation, but a year later he gave the rector
provisions for the creation of “an inter-faculty structure for a unified and systematic
approach to youth ministry and catechetics. It should be ensured that this structure
represents the point of convergence of the highest level of collaboration between the two
Faculties of Theology and Educational Sciences.”60 Insistence on the importance of the
departmental structure was a constant of his interventions at the UPS, one that also hints
at the actual difficulties they had making both interdisciplinarity and the Department
work.61
Educational planning and its supporting theories
Fr Juan Edmundo Vecchi, the most influential author of planning on the Salesian scene,
made explicit reference to the sciences of education in the first paragraph of the module
on the Educative and Pastoral Project in his encyclopaedic production, the Progetto
Educativo Pastorale: Elementi modulari : “The terms ‘project’ and ‘planning’ have only
entered pedagogical language in recent times [...] More than being due to particular
reasons, this seems to be due to a general development in the area of educational sciences
in which the organic connection of the needs of the complex process of growth of the
personality in the evolutionary phase has emerged with more clarity. The decisive thrust
was given by didactics that introduced the concept of curriculum.”62 This is followed
by a definition of the term “curriculum” given by British educational thinker Lawrence
59 GC21, no. 360 in R. Giannatelli (ed.), Don Egidio Viganò all’Università Salesiana, UPS, Rome
1996, 59.
60 Giannatelli (ed.), Don Egidio Viganò all’Università Salesiana, 77.
61 Cf. Ibid., 104, 129, 134-135, 145-146 and 187-188.
62 J.E. Vecchi, Progetto educativo pastorale, in J.E. Vecchi – J.M. Prellezo (eds.),Progetto educativo
pastorale. Elementi modulari, LAS, Rome 1984, 15. Cf. also J.E. Vecchi, Per riattualizzare il Sistema
Preventivo, Ispettoria Salesiana Lombardo-Emiliana, Convegno sul Sistema Preventivo, Milan-Bologna
3-4 November 1978, 4.

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Stenhouse: the curriculum is “an attempt to communicate the principles and essential
characteristics of an educational proposal in such a way that it remains open to any
critical revision and susceptible to efficient conversion into practice.”63
Salesian scholar Michele Pellerey described educational planning in the 1960s
and 70s as aiming at “overcoming both the doldrums of bureaucratism and the
inconclusiveness and wishful thinking of spontaneism. And here we have the invasion
of curricular theories and clinging to the indications of didactic technology.”64 But
the roots of the instructional curriculum design movement begin with Ralph W. Tyler
and his fundamental work in 1949 Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction.65
Tyler, and his students Benjamin Bloom, Robert F. Mager and Hilda Taba,66 intended
to reaffirm the importance of the educational and teaching process against the
encroachment of psychometrics. The design theories that have developed since then
can be divided into three streams depending on whether the curriculum is considered
through the paradigm of product, process or research.
The first group of educationalists focused attention on the construction of
the curriculum seen as the product of design, which gives applications and means
to be implemented in education. In spite of the intention to avoid the influence
of psychometrics of a Skinnerian behaviourist mould, the influence of another
“technocratic” current, that of management by objectives by Peter Drucker, was
felt here, especially in the “decade of education” in the United States (1957-68).67
Management by objectives analysed the educational situation, proposed objectives to
be achieved and then planned interventions and activities in view of achieving the
objective. Tyler’s students and their many followers were successful, and a few years
later curriculum theory spread to Europe. In the area of Salesian planning, besides the
63 L. Stenhouse, Dal programma al curricolo. Politica, burocrazia e professionalità, in Vecchi, Progetto
educativo pastorale, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale. Elementi modulari, 15.
64 Pellerey, Progettazione didattica, SEI, Turin 1979, 10.
65 R.W. Tyler, Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
1949.
66 Cf. B.S. Bloom (ed.), Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals,
Handbook 1: Cognitive domain, David McKay, New York 1956 and D.R. Krathwohl – B.S. Bloom
– B.B. Masia, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook 2:
Affective domain, David McKay, New York 1964; R.F. Mager, Preparing Instructional Objectives,
Fearon, Palo Alto CA 1962; H. Taba, Curriculum development: theory and practice, Burlingham: Harcourt,
Brace & World, New York 1962.
67 Cf. See a deeper analysis in M. Vojtáš, Progettare e discernere: Progettazione educativo-pastorale salesiana
tra storia, teorie e proposte innovative, LAS, Rome 2015, 116-128.

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Americans, the Belgian authors Erik de Corte and Gilbert de Landsheere were a good
influence through their publications in the second half of the 1970s.68
The paradigm of the curriculum as process should be considered as the second current
in curricular theory, going beyond the linear logic of “situation-objective-activities”. British
educationalist Richard S. Peters described his procedural logic with an appreciation
of the models of excellence found in activities that “can be appraised more for the
standards immanent in them than because of what they lead on to.”69 American James
D. Raths offered an interesting list of criteria for identifying educational activities that
have inherent merit in themselves regardless of content or goals, shifting the focus of the
entire educational process from teaching to learning.70
We can consider Lawrence Stenhouse as the representative of the third current
that saw the curriculum as a process of research. He attempted to overcome the rigid
and absolute forms of the curriculum as product, including numerous objectives,
sub-objectives, activities and mandatory standards, and at the same time tried to escape
the vague and not very applicable process theories.71 This British thinker saw the
curriculum as the interaction between the teacher and the students and understood it as
a process of research and verification of educational hypotheses. The difference from the
technologically described product paradigm becomes clear. The decentralising emphasis
is more on the side of the teacher as the one who constructs the curriculum, respecting
the British tradition of the autonomy of individual schools and teachers. The curriculum
is more of a problem solving tool concerning a classroom or school, implemented
by stakeholders, and not a methodological and technological conceptualisation of the
preferred pedagogical or ideological perspective.72 In this sense Stenhouse came close,
though not explicitly, to the action-research positions of Kurt Lewin.73
Juan Vecchi drew his inspiration explicitly from Stenhouse’s ideas and in his
proposal he made the balanced positions between the two paradigms of product and
process his own, but he also inherited some of the difficulties of the Stenhouse model
68 G. and V. De Landsheere, Definire gli obiettivi dell’educazione, La Nuova Italia, Florence 1977;
L. Stenhouse, Dal programma al curricolo, 1977; E. De Corte et al., Les fondaments de l’action
didactique, De Boeck, Bruxelles 1979.
69 R.S. Peters, Ethics and Education, George Allen and Unwin, London 1966, 155.
70 Cf. J.D. Raths, Teaching without specific objectives, in “Educational Leadership” 28 (1971) 714-720.
71 For a critique of the three currents of curricular theory cf. Vojtáš, Progettare e discernere, 126-137.
72 Cf. Elliott, Education in the Shadow, in Rudduck, An Education that Empowers, 1995, 54-56
and Pellerey, Progettazione didattica, 21994, 27-29.
73 Cf. Kemmis, Some Ambiguities in Stenhouse, in Rudduck, An Education that Empowers, 77.

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that placed too many expectations on the educator, who needs to be researcher, designer,
teacher, executor, facilitator and evaluator all at once. Certainly, Vecchi’s preparation,
experience and personality were able to meet the needs of this type of curriculum design,
but the same cannot be said of the “designers and planners” in the provinces, who were
more influenced by the technocratic enthusiasm of management by objectives than by
the model of patient accompaniment of research processes.
Pedagogical guidelines of Salesian magisterium
GC21’s work, in addition to the work on the Constitutions that were then reviewed and
confirmed as valid ad experimentum until 1984, focused above all on the question of
Salesian education and pastoral care. The GC21 document Salesians, evangelisers of the
young could be considered as a kind of post-Council treatise on education and Salesian
pastoral care. In fact, the subjects addressed by this Chapter were a continuation of what
the Councillors for Youth Ministry, Fr Giovenale Dho and Fr Gaetano Scrivo, were
beginning to develop, and they would become the topics of priority at Chapters over
the next thirty years: the close relationship between education and evangelisation,74 the
Salesian community understood as the animating nucleus75 of the educative and pastoral
community (EPC)76 and the question of the criterion or “oratorian heart”, developed
especially by Viganò in terms of predilection for the young, in accordance with the motto
da mihi animas, cetera tolle.77
Concepts of educative and pastoral planning in GC21 (1978)
The Chapter, sensing the risk of the ongoing “educational disaffection” linked to the
crisis in the Salesian boarding school, and seeing that pastoral activities had often a
74 Cf. Theme and contents of GC23 (1990): Educating the young to the faith.
75 Cf. Theme and contents of GC25 (2002): The Salesian community today.
76 Cf. GC21 (1978), nos. 63-79 that speaks of the Salesian community animating the EPC. Cf. also the
theme and contents of GC24 (1996): Salesians and the laity: communion and sharing in the spirit and
mission of Don Bosco.
77 Cf. E. Viganò, The Salesian Family, in ACS 63 (1982) 304, 11-12; Id., Don Bosco santo, in ACS 64
(1983) 310, 10 echoed in the contents and theme of GC26 (2008): The apostolic passion of the Da mihi
animas, cetera tolle.

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low formational impact,78 sought to confirm the strict link between education and
evangelisation, referring to Don Bosco, Salesian tradition, the Apostolic Exhortation
Evangelii Nuntiandi and the Synod on Catechesis. A strong connection was established
between the two on a practical level of commitment to the salvation of the whole young
person:
As sharers in the evangelising activity of the Church, we believe in Don Bosco’s
charism and hence in our own particular way of evangelising the young. This we
do in a realistic way by means of the Salesian educational project, the Preventive
System, rethought and reactivated.79
The updated rethinking of Salesian education was focused in the part of the Acts
of GC21 that talks about the Salesian Educative and Pastoral Project (SEPP) and it
seems to us that we should interpret this from two complementary perspectives: The
linear-analytic-operative paradigm of its content (situation, objectives, means) and the
wholistic-synthetic-procedural approach to educative and pastoral style (attitudes of the
educators and characteristics of the setting). It is not an arbitrary distinction inasmuch
as the two had different results and development over the years following the Chapter.
Linear planning: situation-objective-means
CG21’s proposal is contextualised within four paragraphs dealing with the positive
aspects of educative and pastoral practice, its shortcomings, the main causes for the
shortcomings listed and finally a frame of reference offered in the light of how the real
situation was evaluated.80 We will not dwell on the specific content of the situation since
these were bound up with the period from 1972-78, and have already been recalled.
It becomes interesting, however, for the subsequent influences on the methodology of
planning, to note the Chapter’s way of proceeding. As well as the analytical description
of the situation, it provided an educative and pastoral interpretation of the situation,
evaluating the causes and providing a comparison with the ideal references of the
78 J. Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia nella prassi salesiana, in J. Vecchi – J.M. Prellezo
(eds.), Prassi educativa pastorale e scienze dell’educazione, SDB, Rome 1988, 128-129 and S. Frigato,
Educazione ed evangelizzazione, in A. Bozzolo – R. Carelli (eds.), Evangelizzazione e educazione,
LAS, Rome 2011, 77.
79 GC21 (1978), no. 14. Cf. also nos. 4, 81 and 569.
80 Cf. GC21 (1978), no. 87.

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Salesian magisterium. This attention to seeing and interpreting would later appear in the
planning process offered by Juan Vecchi.81
In formulating the educational objectives, the Chapter used a logic flowing from
levels involving different kinds of growth (personal, social, religious...), set out in quite
disparate ways. The first of these, briefly described with a list of objectives, affirmed the
unity of a project oriented towards Christ, followed by a description of the objectives of
the “Christian religious” level set out discursively. In order to reinforce the importance of
“vocational” orientation, there was a special section offering a rather more detailed way
of putting all this into practice than we find in the other growth levels. It is very likely that
this division into different growth levels was decisive in the subsequent choice of dividing
the SEPP into four dimensions.82 The summary list of objectives, provided below, was
done in a concise and clear manner, in order to be able to compare the subdivisions and
contents.
– On the level of a young person’s personal growth the objectives are: a gradual
maturing in freedom, which involves the perception of values and taking on one’s
responsibilities; serene and positive relationships with people and things; a dynamic
critical attitude in the face of events in order to be able to make coherent personal
decisions; maturing sexually so as to understand the dynamics of growth, encounter
and gift of self; finally, planning one’s future in order to make a precise vocational
choice.83
– On the level of social growth it insisted on: a pro-social attitude of availability,
solidarity, dialogue, involvement and shared responsibility; community integration
and commitment to justice and building a more just and human society.84
– On the religious level Salesian activity aims at growth in Christ and in the Church in
order to acquire: a conscious and active faith; a reawakening of hope and optimism; a
81 Cf. Dicastero per la Pastorale Giovanile, Progetto Educativo Pastorale. Metodologia, Sussidio
1, [s.e.], Rome 1978 and Id., Elementi e linee per un Progetto Educativo Pastorale Salesiano, Sussidio
2, [s.e.], Rome 1979.
82 Cf. Figure H in Chapter Six offering a diachronic look at the various levels and dimensions within
Salesian YM.
83 Cf. CG21 (1978), no. 90.
84 Cf. Ibid., no. 90.

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life of grace and charity; a discovery of the Church as an effective sign of communion
and service in a bond of unity with the pope.85
– On the level of vocational growth there are only two objectives: discovery of one’s
specific call; the free and reflected on choice of a project of life.86
After spelling out these main objectives, GC21 did not offer a systematic explanation
of other content of educative and pastoral practice to be translated into an actual plan.
We see a strong emphasis on experiences in the area of religious growth, considered to
be traditionally Salesian and reviewed in pastoral terms in the light of the Council,87
failing, however, to make explicit the properly educational means in the area of personal
and social growth. We note in this list of educational means:
– group life and experience (still mentioning sodalities)88
– lively catechesis and preaching
– joyful and youthful liturgical celebrations
– strong, filial devotion to Our Lady, who is a model of the life of faith and serene
purity
– a genuine prayer life with forms close to youth and popular piety
– the sacrament of penance prepared for by community celebrations89
– bringing out the personal call that God addresses to each young person
– cultivating the vocation of young people called to priestly and religious life
– actively collaborating with the Holy Spirit in raising up Salesian vocations, both
consecrated and lay.90
Wholistic planning: educators’ attitudes and the educational setting
The GC21 documents described the style of Salesian education and pastoral care by
detailing the attitudes of educators and describing the educational setting. Certain
attitudes and dispositions in educators, individuals and communities acquire fundamental
importance:
85 Cf. Ibid., no. 92.
86 Cf. Ibid., no. 106.
87 Cf. Ibid., nos. 92-95.
88 cf. Ibid., nos. 90, 102.
89 cf. Ibid., nos. 92-95.
90 cf. Ibid., no. 110.

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– attention to real young people, and their interests and tasks in life
– empathy with the world of young people
– the ability to welcome and dialogue
– the right consideration and esteem for the values of which young people are the
bearers
– attention to the dynamics of their growth; the reasonableness of demands and
regulations; creativity and flexibility of proposals
– a commitment to encourage adherence to values through persuasion and love, not
through forced imposition
– an effort to encourage the point that is accessible to good in each young person
– the frankness of an integral Christian proposal that is attentive to the degree of
development of the young person.91
An “animating” sensitivity clearly emerges from these attitudes, through a welcoming,
flexible and gradual educational style. On the other hand, what is neglected are attitudes
relating to the educators’ spiritual and inner life, and there is little clarity regarding the
ultimate goal and aspects of government or discipline.
The characteristics of the educational setting or environment are worded in such
a way that they are in harmony with the attitudes of the educator, by providing for
“an intense and bright environment of participation and of since friendly and brotherly
relations”92 as a framework for educative and pastoral activity. Chapter members were
convinced that the Salesian evangelises more by what he does than by what he says,
and that he gives witness more by his sound, balanced and successful humanity than by
gestures or words.93 The characteristics explicitly mentioned by GC21 are:
– family spirit, simplicity and frankness which fosters friendly and fraternal relationships
– a climate of optimism and joy as a reflection of God’s grace and inner serenity
– the community style of human and Christian growth
– the loving, supportive, animating and activating presence of educators
– constructive forms of group life; the need for the apostolic commitment of young
people who then become evangelisers of their companions
– the collaboration with young people, families and all available constructive forces.94
91 Cf. Ibid., no. 101.
92 Ibid., no. 102.
93 Cf. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, no. 30ff, in Ibid.
94 Cf. Ibid. On the EPC cf. nos. 63-68. NB. The use of adjectives like “practical” and “constructive”
without specifying the object brings to mind Scilligo’s critical remarks about the generic nature and
implicit emotive wording of the Chapters in the post-Council era.

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The Project as an operational tool
In his closing address to GC21, Viganò presented the Salesian Educative and Pastoral
Project as a re-understanding of Don Bosco’s Preventive System. But he did not see
it as any kind of theoretical pedagogical way of merely rethinking and reorganising
its content: “If anyone thought this was a theoretical or secondary proposal, I would
venture to say that he would be demonstrating that he had not understood either
Don Bosco’s heart or the present delicate ‘moment’ of the Congregation.”95 The
Rector Major saw the SEPP as the programme for the coming six years and proposed
studying, deepening, comparing, and implementing Don Bosco’s educational legacy and
translating it in practical terms in all the settings of Salesian evangelisation.96 Here he was
in tune with GC21 which emphasised decentralisation and attention to the particular
situations of each context:
Each province (or group of provinces) will draw up an educational project
adapted to the local reality as a basis for programming and verification for
its various works, in line with the basic options made by the Congregation:
oratories, youth centres, schools, boarding establishments, parishes, missions,
etc. In order to promote unity in decentralisation, the Youth Ministry
Department, in the light of Salesian experience and reflection, should indicate
the fundamental lines of this project (objectives, contents, method, characteristics...)
while taking into account the diversity of geographical and cultural situations.97
The sequence of implementation and the flow of indications were therefore
conceived as going “from the centre to the periphery”, beginning with the decision of the
General Chapter to plan, then continuing with the indications of the YM Department,
the subsequent development of the provincial projects and finally concluding the series
with the work of the SEPP at local level.
Applying this methodology in the provinces then resulted to some degree in the
paradox of “centralisation through decentralisation”,98 with a number of practical
implications that are still part of the effects of the history of Salesian planning. The
fact of having proposed the sequence for bringing these projects about as going from
95 Ibid., no. 569.
96 Cf. Ibid., no. 571.
97 Ibid., no. 105.
98 Cf. S. Kühl, Sisyphos im Management. Die vergebliche Suche nach der optimalen Organisations- struktur,
Wiley, Weinheim 2002, 131-166.

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the “biggest” to the “smallest” structure has influenced the Salesian planning mentality
inasmuch as provincial projects/plans have often imitated the documents of the General
Chapters, indications from the Department or the plans of the other provinces, and local
ones have tended to copy the contents of the provincial plan, needing to be in tune with
it.99
Project, a term whose semantic field is (too) broad
A further problem is a linguistic one, since the semantic field of the Italian word
“progetto” is more extensive than the same term in other languages.100 GC21 does not
define the term “Salesian Educative and Pastoral Project” in a univocal way. It uses it
with alternating theoretical and operational emphases and sometimes replaces it with
the simple term “planning”. Among the various names and levels of planning spoken
of by GC21 that refer directly or indirectly to the SEPP we note: project of the year,
educational and pastoral project, project of the oratory and youth centre, provincial
educational project for the school sector, projects of the individual schools, apostolic
project of the “new presences”, systematic project for evangelisation at provincial and
local levels.101 It is interesting that in the part on Practical Directives for the Salesian
parish, there is no explicit call for a SEPP for the parish. GC21 did not clarify the number
of projects nor the degree of interdependence among them among and this remained an
issue to be addressed in the future.
The various studies, manuals and aids produced over recent years have generally
reflected the ambiguity of the broad semantic field of the Italian progetto with its two
different emphases: one more precise, when the term refers to an orderly and detailed
work plan to accomplish something; the other more indeterminate, because “project”
in Italian also means a future-oriented idea, a purpose, including one that is vague and
99 The mentality, methodologies, and risks would certainly have been different had the proposed planning
process started out by following a “grassroots” logic, from local to provincial SEPP, to arrive at influencing
a framework at the Congregational level, gathering experiences and developing content found in in
provincial projects.
100 The topic of semantics will be returned to later in chapter two. For the ambivalence and background of the
term “progetto”, cf. G. Morante, Progetto educativo, in Z. Trenti et al. (eds.), Religio. Enciclopedia
tematica dell’educazione religiosa, Piemme, Casale Monferrato 1998, 752-753. For the importance of
cultural diversity in planning, cf. A deeper analysis in R.D. Lewis, When Cultures Collide. Leading
across cultures, Nicholas Brealey International, Boston 32006, 3-80.
101 Cf. GC21 (1978), nos. 30, 104, 127, 132, 134 and 161.

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difficult to implement. The word “project” retains a certain ambiguity even in the more
technical and operational area, since it can refer to a “general project” which indicates a
non-detailed solution, with a summary analysis of costs, and to an “executive project”,
which implies instead a complete picture of all calculations, drawings and technical
details, estimates and specifications.102
In other Latinate languages the term progetto preserves these two meanings, even
though in some cases it might be translated with synonymous terms like “plan” or
“design”.103 The semantic relationship between progetto and ideario in Salesian settings
was not always clear, especially in Spanish- speaking countries.104
A greater problem is felt in English where the terms project and project management
almost exclusively have the sense of a structured work plan laid out to research, to
produce or improve something. The term progetto is also translated as mission, mission
statement, plan, design, layout, scheme. For something that is a vague progetto for
the future, English employs plan not project. Also used, in the educational sciences,
are educational planning, instructional design. In the Salesian context there is the
Salesian Educational and Pastoral Project (alternatively worded as Salesian Educative
and Pastoral Plan. For all practical purposes, “educative” and “educational” are seen
as the same thing). In German the word Projekt is used as in English, hence progetto is
translated as Projekt, Plan, Entwurf.105 Salesians in German-speaking countries adopted
a linguistically more pertinent solution and do not translate the term PEPS with Projekt
but rather Pastoralkonzept (a draft of a pastoral approach) or Leitlinien (guidelines),
which better expresses the nature of the documents produced in the Salesian context
under the title progetto.
102 Cf. Progetto in N. Zingarelli, Lo Zingarelli 2000. Vocabolario della lingua Italiana, Zanichelli,
Bologna 121997, 1391.
103 Cf. e.g. the translation of the term progettazione educativa as planificación educativa in M. Pellerey,
Progettazione educativa/scolastica, in J.M. Prellezo – G. Malizia – C. Nanni (eds.), Dizionario
di Scienze dell’Educazione, LAS, Rome 22008, 923-926 and Idd., Planificación educativa, in Facultad
de Ciencas de la Educación UPS, Diccionario de ciencas de la educación, CCS, Alcalá 2009, 918-921.
104 Cf. Dicastero PG, Progetto Educativo Pastorale. Metodologia, 30-35 and Id., Elementi e linee per
un progetto educativo pastorale salesiano, 6.
105 Cf. Project, in S. Wehmeier (ed.), Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, Oxford
University Press, Oxford 62000, 1012; Progetto, in Garzanti. Il nuovo dizionario Hazon inglese italiano,
italiano inglese, Garzanti, Cernusco (Milano) 1999, 2187; Progettare, in B. Klausmann-Molter
(ed.), Das Pons Wörterbuch. Dizionario tedesco italiano, italiano tedesco, Zanichelli/Klett, Bologna
1996, 1396.

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This use of the word progetto in Salesian contexts highlights a number of aspects.
GC21 (1978), emphasised the theoretical aspect, hence the Salesian educative project
understood as a reinterpretation of the preventive system, a systematic understanding
of Salesian pedagogy106 while also highlighting the operational, practical and applicative
aspect that considers planning in different environments, the objectives, processes,
means and checks involved in the process.107 The meaning of planning and the SEPP has
been enriched given the many texts produced on the subject and the various contexts of
reference, risking, however, becoming a conceptual container in which the breadth of
content is inversely proportional to how precise its meaning is.108
Egidio Viganò: planning and new education and evangelisation
Six months after the closure of GC21, the Rector Major sent out a circular entitled The
Salesian educational and pastoral plan, in which he presented a summary of the results
of the Chapter regarding educative and pastoral planning and restated that “to rewrite in
synthesis the ideas and practices of the preventive system [...] is one of the obligations for
the six-year period”109 and that it needed to involve every confrere and every community.
Some methodologically innovative ideas, compared to the text of the GC21, are found in
the last part of the letter. It speaks of the need “to think ‘salesianly’; educational sciences
are not enough, not faith alone, and not even one’s experience which has become more
or less uncritical with the passing of years and has now been called to be renewed by the
Council and two General Chapters.”110 The “Salesian” drafting of the plan means: “to
call together individuals for study and reflection, to focus attention on the social and
ecclesial phase of our work, to search with creativity ways and solutions of situations. It
means to unite the community with a unified criterion to which all members can aspire
106 Cf. GC21 (1978), nos. 14, 4 and 81.
107 Cf. Ibid., nos. 105 and 127-161.
108 Cf. As an example see E. Viganò’s, Replanning our holiness together, in ACS 63 (1982) 303, 3-28, using
expressions like “c’è da riprogettare insieme la nostra santità, sia personale che comunitaria”, “progetto-uomo
voluto da Dio”, “riprogettare in noi la capacità di conversione, di espiazione e di prevenzione”, “un
progetto più ampio in cui interviene Iddio come Padre: è un vasto progetto di amore e di vittoria”,
“progetto del Padre”, “progetto divino di redenzione” etc. Cf. Also the awareness of the semantic
ambiguity indicated in YM Department, Elements and guidelines for a Salesian educative and
pastoral project, 6
109 Viganò, The Salesian educational project, 38-39.
110 Ibid., 38.

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and by which each can recognise one another. It means to assure integrity and to free
ourselves from sectionalism and improvisation.”111
Given the lack of regulation and practical indicators112 that needed to be drawn
up subsequently by the YM Department, and the need to approach the planning
process from “the centre to the periphery”, we should not wonder that individuals
and communities were relying on the initiative of the provinces, while the majority
of provinces went ahead only when indications were published by the Department.
Vecchi assessed the period after GC21 by saying that “Beginning from 1978, a domestic
literature of motivation, providing aids and practical models flourished. Initially,
it involved those responsible for animation at the provincial level, while the local
communities struggled to take it up.”113
It is clear that the intention of Chapter members at GC21 was to integrate
earlier terminology into the “Salesian educational project” formula: “integral Salesian
humanism” from GC19, “integral Christian promotion” and “liberating Christian
education” from the SGC. The different formulations and the insistence on unity make
one think of the cultural fracture between the Church and the world and of the general
mentality in the post-Vatican II of being more concerned with the autonomy of the
dimensions than with seeing to the profound unity of the anthropological model.114
During the Viganò and Vecchi era, the insistence on human promotion and
liberation was no longer as strong, and reflection focused rather on the relationship
between education and evangelisation. Various things influenced the context of this
reflection: the crisis of the Salesian boarding school seen still as the traditional
educational work; excessive pursuit of teaching activities and less passion for pastoral
activity in some provinces, but also the other phenomenon of the rush to take up parishes
with so much “pastoral activity” yet without structured educational processes; excessive
111 Ibid., 39.
112 The Constitutions and Regulations revised at GC21 did not yet contemplate planning, but this
changed with GC22 (1984), which included educative and pastoral planning in the General Regulations,
inserting it into articles 4, 5, 6 and 7.
113 Cf. Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000, 1991, 26. A similar
planning situation was also found in the broader Church setting. Cf. e.g. G. Angelini, Pastorale
giovanile e prassi complessiva della Chiesa, in Facoltà Teologica dell’italia Settentrionale, Condizione
giovanile e annuncio della fede, La Scuola, Brescia 1979, 81. Cf. also A. del Monte, Una Chiesa
giovane per annunciare il vangelo ai giovani, in “Il Regno- documenti” 3 (1979) 63-76 and G. Costa,
Pastorale giovanile in Italia. Un dossier, La Roccia, Rome 1981.
114 Cf. The analysis by G. Biancardi, L’educazione tra evangelizzazione e promozione umana, in Bozzolo
– Carelli, Evangelizzazione ed educazione, 19-24.

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professionalism in school education; the oratory that had not succeeded in opening up
to youngsters who were unchurched, etc.115
Egidio Viganò offered his reflection on the Salesian educational project in 1978,
developing an epistemological and methodological axiom for the following years: “We
are well aware that education and evangelisation are specifically distinct activities of their
class, but nevertheless there is a strict connection between them on the practical plane of
existence.”116 In what followed he specified that education and evangelisation “do not,
in themselves, follow one another chronologically, and still less are they divergent; they
bear on two essential aspects of man’s unique vocation as outlined in God’s plan.”117 The
confirmation of the risk, unfortunately implemented in some contexts, of perceiving
education and evangelisation as a “before and after” is also testified to by Riccardo
Tonelli.118
Viganò took up the formulations of GC21, which unfortunately stressed the
distinction and autonomy of education and evangelisation by describing their contents
in separate paragraphs. The solution of uniting the two dimensions on the practical level
of life was hindered by the disparate nature of the contexts in which the Congregation
carries out its mission,119 rather than the lack of absorption of the mentality of renewal
after the Council and the consequent employment “of the few Salesians involved” in
“organisational and administrative tasks.”120
The harmonic unity among the various dimensions of the Salesian educational
project was recalled through the unity of vocation, motivations, fundamental option for
Christ, concrete action, in proposing a practical possibility of “Christian education”.121
The Rector Major based himself on Albert Caviglia to affirm the unity to be found in
the originality of the preventive system and the Don Bosco’s creativity. His creativity did
not set up separate elements, but was more of a creative synthesis, which is the mark of
works of genius. Creative synthesis means that “originality, its beauty, its greatness does
115 Cf. J. Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia nella prassi salesiana, in J. Vecchi – J.M. Prellezo
(eds.), Prassi educativa pastorale e scienze dell’educazione, SDB, Rome 1988, 128-129.
116 Cf. GC21 (1978), no. 14.
117 Cf. Ibid., no. 91.
118 Cf. R. Tonelli, Ripensando quarant’anni di servizio alla pastorale giovanile, interview by Giancarlo
De Nicolò, in “Note di Pastorale Giovanile” 43 (2009) 5, 41-42.
119 Cf. GC21 (1978), nos. 82-83 and 86.
120 Ibid., no. 85.
121 Cf. E. Viganò, The Salesian educational project, in ACS 59 (1978) 290, 26-35.

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not reside so much in its novelty of particulars but in the discovery of the idea which
brings them together in something new and results in a whole.”122
The integral connection of the various elements does not consist in cancelling out
differences, nor in getting rid of the opposite pole, but occurs, according to Viganò, in a
harmonic and creative tension. In the conclusion of the same letter he writes about the
need to acquire “the ability to maintain a harmonious and creative tension between two
poles of the Preventive System; namely, the one of the ‘pastoral’ thrust of our activity; the
other a well selected ‘pedagogy’ and ‘educational’ competence.”123 Two formulas appear
in Viganò’s letter that became almost stereotypical slogans for the future: evangelise by
educating and educate by evangelising, but, as was typical of Viganò’s style which was
both magisterial and open to application, the areas and instruments of the relationship
between the dynamics of education and evangelisation were also specified, displayed in
the following diagram:124
122 Cf. A. Caviglia, La pedagogia di Don Bosco, in Viganò, The Salesian educational project , 9.
123 Viganò, The Salesian educational project, 41.
124 Cf. Ibid., 26-35.

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evangelising by “educating”
Don Bosco’s pastoral concern is
characterised, with consistent seriousness,
by his choice of education as the area and
way of his pastoral activity:
• The driving force that stimulates
educative action: the reason for which
the Salesian (as a person and as a
community) immerses himself in
education has its origins outside the
cultural area; it comes from pastoral
charity
• Positive solicitude for cultural values
and institutions: the intention to
evangelise leads the Salesian (as a
person and as a community) to
appreciate and take on educational
commitment in its human values.
• Deeply linking the Gospel with culture:
In the educational practice of the
Preventive System, the Gospel is
proposed in such a way that it is closely
linked to real life.
• The realistic sense of gradualness
creating a pedagogical process that
takes into account all human dynamics
and creates in children and youth the
conditions of acceptance in a free
response
educating by “evangelising”
Our educative art is “pastoral”, in the sense
that the entire educational process, with its
content and its methodology, is oriented to
the Christian goal of salvation, permeated
by its light and grace:
• Clear presence of the ultimate end: Don
Bosco’s pedagogy insists explicitly on
the true religious purpose of life; the
ultimate end is the final appeal of
education
• An educative process positively oriented
to Christ: Salesian educational practise
comes from and is nourished by
pastoral charity and tends explicitly
and faithfully toward the salvation
(themes: Church; Confession,
Eucharist, Marian climate, catechesis,
vocation, holiness).
• Critical awareness and sense of duty in
the light of the Gospel: enabling young
people to have a critical awareness that
can perceive authentic values by
promoting a healthy lifestyle
• By its nature the Word of God reveals
and challenges: the pedagogical concern
to adapt to the condition of youth
must not ignore or go against the
pastoral commitment as a "prophet" of
the Gospel.
Figure E: Relationship between education and evangelisation in
Fr Viganò’s Salesian educational project
It is important to note how Viganò adds to the two poles of education and pastoral
activity the goodness of heart, that is, loving-kindness, which is typical of the Salesian

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lifestyle.125 The integrity conceived by Viganò is reconfirmed and enriched by new
nuances in the letter on the New Education in 1991, written some months after the letter
on New Evangelisation. A long extract from the former is quoted here for the importance
of the connection between the two:
Education and evangelisation mutually interact in an intimate and harmonious
manner. We find the explanation for this in the intuition that in practice Don
Bosco’s method is a “pedagogical and pastoral art” [...] Art, as we have said
earlier, needs to touch directly the objective reality if it is to have any effect
on it in the search for sense, for beauty, for a loftier approach. It is a form of
activity seen in a genial man; it exalts his inventive talents and the expression of
his creativity; because of it the artist modifies even himself while he is carrying
out his work. What prompts him in his activity is an interior fire, an inspirational
ideal, a passion in his heart enlightened by his genial impulses. Rightly has John
Paul II called Don Bosco the Educator a “genius of the heart.” We have seen
that this interior fire is called “pastoral charity”: an apostolic love marked by
predilection for the young; a love which incites “pedagogical intelligence” to
translate itself into practical educational projects [...] The presently prevailing
secular climate, in which also the development of the educational sciences is
frequently deflected along a path infected by ideological incrustations, is a deep
provocation to our apostolic consecration. Since methodological principles are
of quite exceptional importance in art, pedagogical intelligence has to give a
special tone, impress a particular physiognomy on pastoral charity. For Don
Bosco the basic principle of this kind for action as an “artist” in education was
“loving kindness”: the building of trust, confidence and friendship through the
ascetical demands of “make yourself loved.” The Preventive System involves the
“mystique” of pastoral charity and the “ascesis” of loving kindness.” [...] The
creativity of the “artist” is therefore rooted in a lived Salesian spirituality!126
125 Cf. Viganò, The Salesian educational project 41. Goodness, loving-kindness and “loving each other”
is a typical trait of the grace of unity as conceived of by Viganò and finds its place even in academic
applications. Talking about the departmental principle in the organisation of the UPS, Viganò says
that interdisciplinary dialogue is impossible without a concrete love for each other and a communion
of affections, competences, services and initiatives. Cf. E. Viganò, Presentazione del Documento del
CG21 sull’UPS, in Giannatelli (ed.), Don Egidio Viganò all’Università Salesiana, 60.
126 E. Viganò, The New education, in ACG 72 (1991) 337, 27-30.

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Summing up Viganò’s thinking on the integration between education and evangelisation,
what emerges is the reference to art, beauty and creativity which starts from objective
reality in order to transform it, at the same time transforming the artist as well. The
methodological principles are lived spirituality and, above all, loving-kindness, which
builds trust, confidence and friendship.
Juan Edmundo Vecchi, a leader in how the SEPP should be
conceptualised (1978–80)
Following the indications of GC21, at the end of the 1970s the Youth Ministry
Department published a series of aids for drawing up the SEPP.127 Guidelines from
Juan Edmundo Vecchi, who was the Councillor for this Sector, substantially influenced
the structure and content of these aids, addressed to provincials and YM delegates
to encourage the process of Salesian educational planning. The first edition of these
booklets was widely disseminated especially in Spanish-speaking settings where the
collection was called “Vector”; subsequently, in the second half of the 1980s the
Department published a second edition, called Documenti PG, even more widely
diffused.
Methodology of Salesian planning (1978)
The first booklet came out in December 1978, ten months after the closure of GC21
(1978), and sought to be a preparatory tool for further studies as a way of accompanying
the “first steps towards a project.”128 The text, twenty-five cyclostyled pages in A5, was
succinct but substantial for its content regarding programming/planning. Given the
need to be brief and practical, the text did not tackle epistemological questions and
did not go into detail on the thorny balances between various principles. However, the
omission of some innovative parts of the GC21, as will be seen below, could be the cause
(or the symptom of a mindset) of some methodological gaps in subsequent publications.
127 Department for Youth Ministry, Progetto Educativo Pastorale. Metodologia, Sussidio 1, [s.e.],
Rome 1978 and Id., Elementi e linee per un Progetto Educativo Pastorale Salesiano, Sussidio 2, [s.e.],
Rome 1979
128 Cf. Dicastero PG, Metodologia, Sussidio 1, 3.

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The first part of the booklet had pointers for the individual leading the planning
process at the provincial level; the second dealt with the reference framework of the
elements constantly present in “Salesian memory”; the third, finally, presented some
practical suggestions for drawing up the project. The various parts of the handbook
referred almost exclusively to Salesian documents that came after the Council and to the
Rector Major’s 1978 letter on the pastoral and educational plan.
Even though the declared recipients were provincials and YM delegates, the
indications for the provincial level animator, contained in the first part of the text, were
a clear reference to the planning activity of the local communities. Comparing it with
Vecchi’s report to the conference on the preventive system in the Lombardy-Emilia
province, which took place only a few weeks before the publication of the booklet,
one can glimpse the mindset stressing a “bottom-up” procedure for communities.129
This was highlighted by a series of concrete questions to help enter into the process of
planning the EPC; also attached were two sample pages for the formulation of some
pastoral educational objectives and six pages of the general Ideario (a set of fundamental
ideas or principles) for a Salesian educational centre, approved by the Spanish Provincial
Conference.130
According to indications in the first part, the provincial animator was called upon
to set up an animating group at province level with the following tasks: to involve,
enlighten, motivate, indicate methodologies and facilitate learning, and not to formulate
conclusions to be sent to the confreres.131 There was a healthy realism in suggesting a
project of a temporary nature, one that evolves dynamically, rather than regulating how
it should work, thus following the purpose of the kind of planning that is meant “to help
groups to work ‘with awareness’, attentively, sharing responsibility.”132
The second part of the booklet, instead, spoke of elements of “Salesian memory”133
that are a frame of reference for the SEPP. There is a return to Don Bosco and his
129 Cf. the approach of the intervention that speaks only of the context of the local educative community,
in J.E. Vecchi, per riattualizzare il Sistema Preventivo, in Ispettoria Salesiana Lombardo-
Emiliana, Convegno sul Sistema Preventivo, Milan-Bologna 3-4 November 1978, and A. Viganò,
Alcuni punti fondamentali riaffermati dal convegno sul Sistema Preventivo, in the Acts of that Conference.
130 Cf. Dicastero PG, Metodologia, Sussidio 1, 28-35.
131 Cf. Ibid., 6.
132 Ibid., 8.
133 “Memory”, a term dear to Fr Vecchi, is defined as “the positive experience of a people or a congregation,
which is passed on.” Cf. Le principali difficoltà emerse dal dibattito sulla relazione di don G.E. Vecchi,
in ILE, Convegno sul Sistema Preventivo.

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educational and pastoral legacy that shapes the Salesian identity. A very brief summary
of the rethinking of YM at the SGC (1972) and in GC21 (1978) was proposed in nine
points.134
The third part with practical suggestions made up the methodological core
of the booklet. The practicality of these pages consisted not only in proposing
thought-provoking questions, although these took up a good percentage of the text.
Elements such as the brevity of the explanation and the logical nature of the planning
process divided into three moments also revealed the practical intention of the authors.
In the following paragraphs we will explore the three moments of planning: situation
analysis, operational planning and evaluation:
The situation analysis stage involved the process of knowing the condition of young
people, which is not just a statistical and objective description of the context, but also
includes the experiences of young people, trends, judgements, aspirations, common
reactions and, as a counterpart, the responses that the EPC gives to these challenges.
In addition to knowledge of the situation, there was also interpretation from a faith
perspective: “one must therefore evaluate the facts in their ability ‘to make it easier or
more difficult for young people to grow in their humanity while growing in faith’.”135
On the other hand, no analysis of the human, social and material resources available
in the work is suggested, which can be interpreted, as a logical implication of an
anthropology looking towards the future and not the past.136 It is only with hindsight
that we have come to the conviction that without a clear awareness of resources it is not
possible to plan realistically, especially at a time of restructuring and crisis in the Salesian
workforce.137
The practical planning stage involved the formulation of objectives, spelling out the
method and studying the educational style. The general objectives were taken from the
previous Chapter.138 In order to specify objectives, the desired results at the end of the
intervention must be established, their urgency must be determined both on the basis
of fundamental values and on the basis of the concrete situation, the specific objectives
134 Cf. Dicastero PG, Metodologia, Sussidio 1, 9-13.
135 Ibid., 14. Cf. also CG21 (1978), no. 13 mentioned by the booklet, in reference to Evangelii Nuntiandi,
no. 19.
136 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, Per riattualizzare il Sistema Preventivo, in ILE, Convegno sul Sistema Preventivo, 3.
137 Cf. The “gap between the number of proposals and the possibility of implementing them” that
Vecchi notes in J.E. Vecchi, Verso una nuova tappa di Pastorale Giovanile Salesiana, in Il cammino
e la prospettiva 2000, SDB, Rome 1991, 88.
138 Cf. GC21 (1978), nos. 90-92.

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must be formulated in a clear and communicable form, and the evaluation criteria must
be decided on. Objectives set in this way tend to increase the clarity and measurability
that is typical of management by objectives.139 They determine the “method”, which
translates into the organisation of related educational activities and the identification
of interventions, roles and functions. The study of the educational style, which was
supposed to be part of the practical planning stage was, however, insufficiently dealt
with, as the reader was referred to the Chapter proceedings to be able to answer four
questions about the setting and the educational relationship.140 The focus on systemic
planning was marginalised in the SEPP methodology. The second booklet would then
attempt to explore the educational style in greater depth,141 but this was just a later
addition that did not fit into the linear logic of situation – planning – evaluation.
The third and final stage of planning was evaluation. The latter should be carried out
from two mutually enriching perspectives: the comparison of all parts of the project with
Salesian practice, which examines fidelity to tradition; and examination of the results
obtained, which demonstrates the practical effectiveness of the project.
This booklet that was to accompany the first steps of Salesian planning is a small
jewel that summarises the first ideas on Salesian educative and pastoral planning. The
slimness of the document, the succinct interpretation it had of GC21 (1978) and the
practically-oriented way it was put together are to be appreciated. The methodological
aspect of the proposed planning process, summarised in the linear scheme of situation
– planning – evaluation, has remained unchanged, with minor additions, until today.142
The logic of a systemic process, even if absent from the methodological part, is reiterated
within the topics, seeking a balance between the formation of persons and the tasks of
planning, the animating group and the accompaniment of communities. In the aids
that followed, attention would be paid to community integration, since the EPC would
be the first of the five areas (dimensions) of the SEPP,143 but later the topics would
139 Cf. The emphasis on clarity and measurability of objectives in the framework of Management By
Objectives (MBO), e.g. in the pioneering studies of Edwin A. Locke who influenced management
in the 1970s, in E.A. Locke, Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives, in “Organizational
Behavior & Human Performance” 3 (1968) 157-189. Later, in the 1980s, the theory developed by
talking about SMART objectives, which have five characteristics: specific, measurable, assignable,
realistic and time-related.
140 Cf. Dicastero PG, Metodologia, Sussidio 1, 25-26.
141 Sussidio 2 would later try to propose an in-depth study of the educational style, but this was only a
later addition which, although testifying to Vecchi’s integral focus, would not be part of the linear
methodological approach. Cf. Dicastero PG, Elementi e linee per un PEPS, Sussidio 2, 13-14.
142 Cf. The planning stages in the three editions of the Frame of Reference for Salesian Youth Ministry
143 Cf. Dicastero PG, Elementi e linee per un PEPS, Sussidio 2, 14-15.

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be tackled separately.144 The focus on systemic unity was expressed by Vecchi in the
following succinct terms:
Often when we speak of the preventive system we do not go beyond individual
consideration: it is easy to think of an educator [...] It is more difficult for us to
grasp and implement what the word system means, that is, the convergence and
mutual reference, the organic nature of various elements.... […] The educative
community draws up a project [...] A project creates community.145
Insights and applications of planning in different educational settings (1979–1981)
The second booklet, entitled Elements and guidelines for a Salesian educative and
pastoral plan, came out in October 1979, just ten months after the publication of
the first. In many respects it completed and clarified the topics in continuity with
the previous one, but the basic paradigm shifted from Stenhouse’s design-research
process towards a well-structured project-product in the style of Bloom or d’Hainaut.
The Department introduced the discussion by noting that since the SEPP had “been
successful, the word is in danger of being used in multiple and generic senses and of
no longer serving, therefore, to understand a precise issue.”146 For this reason, three
often confused terms were explained: frame of reference, understood as a set of ideal
guidelines; educative project, that is the general plan of intervention that points to
practical objectives, suggests concrete directions and the means to obtain them, sets up
roles and functions; plan, defined as the step for distributing tasks, requiring the project
to be broken down into personnel, times, places.147
The central part of this second booklet specified five areas of intervention: the
EPC, the educative-cultural dimension, the dimension of evangelisation and catechesis,
vocational orientation and the group experience. For each area the orientations, the
general and specific objectives, the criteria and intervention choices were described. The
144 The division of the four dimensions of the SEPP and the separate chapter on the EPC in Dicastero
per la PG, Quadro di riferimento, 11998, 45-55 reflecting the conclusions of GC24 (1996) Salesians
and the laity: communion and spirit in the spirit and mission of Don Bosco and GC25 (2002) The
Salesian Community Today. The focus of the reflection on the ECP was not only its reference to the
SEPP, but rather the relationships between the ECP and the Salesian community are emphasised.
145 Vecchi, Per riattualizzare il Sistema Preventivo, in ILE, Convegno sul Sistema Preventivo, 1.5-7.
146 Dicastero PG, Elementi e linee per un PEPS, Sussidio 2, 6.
147 Cf. Ibid., 6-7.

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roles and functions would be developed in the following aids, since they vary according
to the educational structure. With the division into five areas one loses sight of the
global priorities of a Salesian work, which are not dealt with, and one runs the risk
of dividing the interventions and activities by areas, with a consequent fragmentation
of the educative and pastoral mission in terms of dimensions, as is pointed out by
organisational studies.148
The primary aim of the project, to unite the educative and pastoral community in
terms of mentality and action,149 in fact got lost in the division of the project into areas,
guidelines, objectives, criteria and choices of action, which in summary amounted to two
hundred and fifty interconnected elements at various levels. This already high number
could still grow, since it was expected that the communities would further specify the
individual elements with roles, functions and interventions. Even the idea in the first
booklet of a provincial animating group was no longer mentioned, and the suggestions
were no longer so easily applicable in the local EPC. It seems clear that the new aids
coming from the YM Department moved towards a more analytical and theoretical
approach, a direction that would be confirmed by the guidelines of the third series of
these tools, which would further spell out and specify the SEPP in the individual settings:
parish, oratory and school.150
Therefore, in the third series, the five areas of the SEPP are quite disparate because
the texts are not structured by areas. The EPC is treated in each booklet in a separate
chapter; the educational, evangelisation and groups and associations areas, instead, are
sometimes found explicitly as a separate chapter, or are to be found in various elements
scattered across different parts of the three booklets. The vocations area, reduced to a
few sentences, is marginalised for all intents and purposes. The next booklet, which
came out in September 1981 as number four, dealt with the Essential Guidelines for a
Provincial Vocations Promotion Plan which filled this gap, but from the perspective of
148 Cf. The art of systemic management described in P. Senge, The Fifth Discipline. The art and practice
of the learning organization, Doubleday, New York 22006 La quinta disciplina. L’arte e la pratica
dell’apprendimento organizzativo, Sperling & Kupfer, Milan, 22006, 65-105 and in the area of pastoral
planning by G. Angelini, Il vincolo ecclesiastico, la pratica religiosa, la fede cristiana, in G. Ambrosio
et al., Progetto pastorale e cura della fede, Glossa, Milan 1996, 38-39.
149 Cf. Dicastero PG, Elementi e linee per un PEPS, Sussidio 2, 7-8.
150 Cf. Dicastero per la Pastorale Giovanile, Elementi e linee per un Progetto Educativo- Pastorale
nelle parrocchie affidate ai Salesiani, Sussidio 3a, [s.e.], Rome 1980; Id., Elementi e linee per un
Progetto Educativo-Pastorale negli oratori e centri giovanili salesiani, Sussidio 3b, [s.e.], Rome 1980;
Id.,Elementi e linee per un Progetto Educativo-Pastorale nelle scuole salesiane, Sussidio no. 3c, [s.e.],
Rome 1980.

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a separate dimension which was to be organised separately and planned centrally by the
province.151
The practical nature of planning in the Eighties
Fr Vecchi’s period of coordination was characterised by the study, practice and
accompaniment of planning, which contributed to greater stability and clarity regarding
the final goals of education and facilitated a global approach to the different settings.152
Mention should also be made of the efforts of the Department, which assisted some
regions in the second half of the 1980s, and the proposal of a course for province youth
ministry delegates held at the Generalate from November 1986 until January 1987.153
Beyond the progress and brighter moments at the animation level, one can also see
shadows, especially at the local operational level and at the level of mentality. One can
also note, especially “a gap between what is proposed and the possibility of implementing
it.”154 Aspects of the lack of translating things into practice include:
– the implementation stages were too short: the constant succession of new proposals
prevented real assimilation. The Rector Major’s motto “from paper to life”155
indicated the necessary but lacking internalising of things, the danger of spiritual
mediocrity and the weakening of identity. It would seem that in some regions the
planning only produced a change of some titles, leaving the previous pastoral model
and mentality untouched;
– different involvement of the provincial and local levels: the educative and pastoral
planning initially involved those responsible for animation at the provincial level,
while the local communities found it difficult to take it on;156
151 Cf. Dicastero per la Pastorale Giovanile, Lineamenti essenziali per un Piano Ispettoriale di
Pastorale Vocazionale, Sussidio 4, [s.e.], Rome 1981.
152 Cf. Vecchi, Verso una nuova tappa di PG, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000, 83.
153 Cf. Dicastero per la Pastorale Giovanile, Programma per il sessennio 1984-1989, in La
società di san Francesco di Sales nel sessennio 1984-1990. Report of the Rector Major Fr Egidio Viganò,
SDB, Rome, 1990, 148 and the accompaniment materials e.g. for the National Youth Delegation
of Spain cf. Centro Internazional Salesiano de Pastoral Juvenil/Roma, Comunidad
educativa en formación. Guiones para educadores, 5 vols, CCS, Madrid 1985-86.
154 Cf. Vecchi, Verso una nuova tappa di PG, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000, 88.
155 E. Viganò, Opening address of the Rector Major, in GC22 (1984), no. 19.
156 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia nella prassi salesiana, in Il cammino e la prospettiva
2000, SDB, Rome 1991, 26.

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– pastoral activity as an object of animation but not of governance: the indications
in the pastoral area were only general encouragements, but not innovative, decisive
and operational structural thrusts involving individuals, means and obligatory
guidelines;
– too many expectations and demands: the communities had to accelerate the pace of
learning in times that already demanded already an acquisition of a new mentality,
a problem connected with the difficult but necessary preparation of personnel;
– too little coordination: the work of the Department, YM Centres and the provincial
teams created autonomous and not always coordinated proposals. Among the
factors noted were: more concern for drawing up proposals than implementing
guidelines; the communication channels between the Department and the provinces
was often problematic; the lack of personnel in animation structures;
– the ambiguity and multiplicity of the recommendations: the drafting, implementation
and verification of the SEPP required unifying criteria, while taking account of
the multiplicity of contexts, which at the same time made a uniform proposal
problematic.157
Another issue, important at the pedagogical level, was the sector-based approach
of planning in five areas with the subsequent subdivisions by works. The loss of the
integrity of the SEPP was pointed out both explicitly, in criticism of the sector approach,
and implicitly, with insistence on the integrity and harmony of the educative and pastoral
proposal. The observations on the division between evangelisation and education are
clearly expressed by Viganò in his letter The New Education. Analysing contemporary
culture, he noted that “the education of the young, so fundamental and indispensable
in every society, is not only no longer linked in practice with evangelization but is in fact
deliberately separated from because it is considered a cultural sector with an autonomous
field of development.”158 The insistence on the grace of unity makes it clear that the
tendency to separate the two areas is not only virtually possible, but it is a problem
found in Salesian YM. Tonelli confirmed this when speaking of the pastoral work of
recent years: “One of the limitations of the work of these years has been... the ‘before’
157 Cf. The Society of St Francis de Sales in the six years from 1984-1990, 1990, 151-159; Vecchi, Verso
una nuova tappa di PG, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000, 88-89; P. Chávez Villanueva, “And he
took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at
some length” (Mk 6:4). Salesian Youth Ministry, in AGC 91 (2010) 407, 9-10
158 E. Viganò, The New Education, in AGC 72 (1991) 337, 5.

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and ‘after’ game. Some used to say: education first and evangelisation afterwards. Some
others preferred to reverse them.”159
In his analysis of the relationship between education and evangelisation in the
Congregation, Frigato notes that “despite the multiplicity of definitions, the role of
faith is substantially ‘extrinsic’ to the educational process. Moreover, faith and education
are considered ‘distinct’ dimensions, ‘mutually autonomous’ and ‘poles in tension.’”160
A separation between the youth ministry of these years and the vocational dimension,
connected with a lack of attention to the latter, is recognisable both in the structure
of the GC21 document,161 and in the organisation of topics in the YM Department’s
booklets, which detached the vocations area from the pastoral work planned in the
various settings. The lack of attention paid to the vocations area in these years was also
testified to by GC23162 and by Tonelli.163
The trap of distinctions and areas, the contents of which were specified with so many
things to do, implied setting up very long lists of elements but without the connections
between them always being specified. This was a risk that the paradigm of autonomy,
sectorial analysis and linear execution found difficult to deal with. In the meantime, the
only way to bring things together succinctly in Salesian YM seems to have been the work
entitled Salesian Youth Ministry,164 which brought together the various issues in the
form of symbolic images, gave an explanation and then referred the reader to a more
extensive bibliography on the subject. The way of presenting the content of disparate
elements with a picture avoided the problem of explaining the relationships between the
elements and gave the impression of unity. Rather than “attempting a synthesis of the
Salesian pedagogical heritage and their current project”,165 the book was presented in
attractive terms as “pleasant and easy reading”166 on pastoral issues. Given that it was
the final publication before GC23, it can be regarded as an icon of the contents and
aspirations of youth ministry between 1978 and 1990.
159 Tonelli, Ripensando quarant’anni, 41-42.
160 Frigato, Educazione ed evangelizzazione, in Bozzolo – Carelli (eds.), Evangelizzazione e educazione,
89.
161 Cf. parts of the document on Salesians evangelising young people: Il progetto educativo e la fecondità
vocazionale, in GC21 (1978), nos. 80-119 and Evangelizing: Settings and Methods, in GC21 (1978),
nos. 120-165.
162 Cf. GC23 (1990), nos. 251-253.
163 Cf. Tonelli, Ripensando quarant’anni, 48-49.
164 Cf. Department for Youth Ministry, Salesian Youth Ministry, SDB, Rome 1990.
165 Ibid., 5.
166 Ibid.

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The Nineties: education to the faith and Salesian spirituality
In his analysis of the evolution of Salesian spirituality in the post-Vatican II period,
Aldo Giraudo notes a detachment of spirituality from the educative and pastoral
dimension, denouncing “prayer that oscillates between intellectualism and the emotional,
often incapable of being transferred into life.” He points out youth ministry experiences
that tend “to be resolved or closed in on themselves, of a gratifying and anaesthetic
nature, without real consistency and inner quality. Should this really be the case [...]
educative and pastoral projects would be in danger of becoming wasted effort, a practice
without soul and without backbone.”167 In addition, matters of Salesian spirituality
were linked more to the sphere of formation, and were not matched by pastoral
reflections, which were more focused on planning and methodological issues to be
animated.
The 23rd General Chapter held in 1990 had the clear intention of filling this gap,
encouraged also as it was by the Church’s reflection on new evangelisation. The Rector
Major, in the introduction to the Acts of GC23, specifies how new evangelisation
requires a new education on the part of the Salesians, saying that the Salesian approach
to educating to the faith “is based on two characteristic and complementary columns:
‘spirituality’ and ‘pedagogy’. These are two dynamic elements on which converges
the preventive system converges.”168 Hence the development of issues of pedagogical
spirituality going beyond the superficiality of the generic educational proposals. Father
Viganò concluded his presentation of the Acts with an essential summary in which the
basic balances of his magisterium emerge once again:
The secret of success lies in the witness of apostolic interior conviction which,
through its grace of unity, makes us “shepherds” and “educators”: educators,
because shepherds of the young; and shepherds, because Christian educators.
I closed my Report on the period 1984-1990 “emphasising the fundamental
condition which is most urgent for our Salesian activity; it can be expressed – I
said – in a word that becomes an appeal: spirituality!169
167 A. Giraudo, Interrogativi e spinte della Chiesa del postconcilio sulla spiritualità salesiana, in C.
Semeraro (ed.), La spiritualità salesiana in un mondo che cambia, Salvatore Sciascia, Caltanissetta
2003, 154. Cf. also pp. 158-159 for the urgent and pressing need for interdisciplinary studies to unify the
organisational, the spiritual and the cultural.
168 E. Viganò, Presentation, in GC23 (1990), 13.
169 Ibid., 16-17.

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Spirituality is also a cohesive factor in the Salesian Youth Movement, which for
the first time was recognised as a category in Chapter thinking. All the groups in the
movement live the values of Salesian youth spirituality at different levels that can be seen
as a series of concentric circles: “from those farthest away, for whom the spirituality is
something only dimly perceived through an environment in which they feel welcome,
to those who consciously and explicitly make their own the Salesian ethic. These latter
constitute the animating nucleus of the whole movement, which is therefore an original
educative movement.”170
In the Acts of GC23, spirituality is described with a few important adjectives:
it is Salesian, youthful and therefore educational. Subsequently, the Rector Major
would write a letter on new education, insisting on the need to “sanctify ourselves
by educating”, hoping that educators would relaunch “interior apostolic conviction
that is at the root of our particular character in the Church. Here we must add that
Salesian spirituality represents for us also the force of the sanctifying synthesis of the ‘new
education’.”171 Commenting on the documents of GC23 he has the following summary
remark:
Education is “the pre-eminent context in which we meet God.” This implies
a special apostolic spirituality which is simultaneously both spiritual and
educational, “always attentive to the world context and the challenges of youth;
it calls for flexibility, creativity and balance, and seeks seriously the appropriate
pedagogical qualifications. The same Salesian consecration which inwardly
‘thirsts for souls’, assumes the pedagogical values and lives them as a concrete
expression of spirituality.” It is not only a spirituality for education in general,
but a true spirituality of education to the faith!172
Viganò invited Salesian educators to form a spirituality that does not detach the
person’s being from action and that always connects the intention to evangelise with the
intention to educate. The secret of the “brilliance of the artist” in the Christian educator
lies in educative spirituality and the “grace of unity” that ensures the vital inseparability
between union with God and dedication to our neighbour, between evangelical inner
conviction and apostolic action, between the praying heart and busy hands, forestalling
the extremes of “activism” and “intimism”.173
170 GC23 (1990), no. 276.
171 Viganò, New Education, 37.
172 Ibid.
173 Cf. Ibid., 39 and references to GC23 (1990), no. 332.

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During the years of his term of office (1996-2002), Fr Juan Vecchi positioned himself
in line with the legacy left him by Viganò, writing much more in his circulars on
the subject of spirituality than in the previous period. The adjectives he preferred to
describe it with were “Salesian” and “youthful”, thus placing it in a vital, community,
relational, pastoral-educational-pedagogical, vocational and communicative context.
Specific topics linked to spirituality were developed only in the background, such as
charity, action, experience, work, the project, practice, animation, daily life, friendship,
prayer and the sacraments.174
An interesting summary of the path of reflection on Salesian spirituality was offered
by Vecchi during the Salesian Family Spirituality Days in 1995.175 He offered a positive
assessment of the ascetic and mystical aspect of the encounter with God through two
types of mediations included in a single sacramental universe: the celebratory and ritual
ones (prayer) and the practical and technical ones (work). In a word, “work and prayer
merged in the total sacrament of a life oriented towards God and moved by charity.”176To
update Salesian spirituality in the context of the 1990s, he proposed three convictions:
That there is a spiritual experience, almost hidden in daily educational life,
known only in fragmentary form by those who live it; that it is possible to create
communion on the basis of this experience at the level of the Salesian Family; that
young people can perceive it and find in it a path of life in the Spirit. The effort
to formulate a path of Salesian youth spirituality responds to this last point.177
Finally, however, a certain discrepancy should be noted: on the one hand, the Rectors
Major spoke of Salesian spirituality being linked to the grace of unity, but on the other
hand, the formulations found in GC23 and in the first two editions of the Frame of
Reference are tied it to the logic of the subdivisions into various dimensions. Of itself,
174 Cf. The semantic context of the use of the key terms “spirituality”, “Salesian youth spirituality” and
“Salesian spirituality” in CD attached to J.E. Vecchi, Educatori appassionati esperti e consacrati per
i giovani. Lettere circolari ai Salesiani di don Juan E. Vecchi. Introduction, key words and indexing
by Marco Bay, LAS, Rome 2013.
175 J.E. Vecchi, Il sistema preventivo esperienza di spiritualità in A. Martinelli – G. Cherubin (eds.),
Il sistema preventivo verso il terzo millennio. Acts of the 18th Week of Spirituality of the Salesian
Family. Rome, Salesianum 26-29 January 1995, SDB, Rome 1995, 221-243.
176 Ibid., 242. In his succinct formulation, Vecchi refers to the Preventive System lived as a journey of
holiness. Week of Spirituality of the Salesian Family. Rome 1980, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1981.
177 Vecchi, Il sistema preventivo esperienza di spiritualità in Martinelli – Cherubin (eds.), Il sistema
preventivo verso il terzo millennio, 221.

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GC23 proposed educating young people in the faith by making them aware of an original
project of Christian life: “The youngster learns a new way of being a believer in the world,
and arranges his life around certain perceptions of faith, choices of values and gospel
attitudes: he lives a spirituality.”178 The latter is expressed, however, in different core
themes that are not always related to the dimensions of the SEPP. From the comparison
between the dimensions, the areas and the core themes one can see the effort of the
period we are examining to express the unity of the Salesian educative proposal. It
seems that the Viganò-Vecchi period characterised by a rich pastoral and pedagogical
production ended with the two editions of the Frame of Reference written according to
the mentality of the project-product divided into dimensions and areas, and focusing on
the coordination structures and methodological steps. This meant the lack of a unifying
anthropologically-based perspective. This would be the challenge facing the next era.
Revision of provincial plans and shared responsibility with the laity
The revision of provincial plans had been decided on by GC23, but despite the Chapter’s
emphasis on practicality and translation into something concrete,179 it only wanted to
examine the formal quality of what the provinces had put in writing; “for now, it has
not entered into the verification of the actual implementation of these projects in the
works.”180 The study of the Provincial SEPPs put “much focus on principles”181 in
writing and the completeness of the topics dealt with in the project itself, several times
repeating the choice of not wanting to enter into the merits of the project in practice.
One can perceive the difference in perspective with respect to what Viganò expected.
In his letter of convocation of the Chapter he had spoken of the need to "verify the
effectiveness of Salesian education in relation to the life of faith of the young people
with whom we work, in order to then review more incisively the educative and pastoral
projects of each province and of the individual houses.”182
178 GC23 (1990), no. 158.
179 Cf. GC23 (1990), no. 230.
180 L. Van Looy, The Educative and Pastoral Plan in the Provinces, in AGC 75 (1994) 349, 36.
181 Dicastero per la Pastorale Giovanile, Il Progetto Educativo-pastorale salesiano. Rilettura dei
progetti ispettoriali. Results of the survey sent to the Provincial delegates for YM and their teams on
the “Educative and Pastoral Project”, SDB, Rome 1995, 6. Cf. also Van Looy, Il PEP nelle Ispettorie,
34-38.
182 Viganò, Convocation of the 23rd General Chapter, 7.

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The discrepancy between the operational emphasis of GC23 and the revision
that was carried out can also be seen when we compare some of the requirements
of the Chapter with the revision method of the provincial projects. The attention
of the Chapter was directed towards the active insertion of individual works within
the local Church and neighbourhood, the review of educational quality, significance
and potential relocation of the works themselves.183 The survey and the analysis that
followed, instead, only involved provincial delegates and their teams, studying in
particular the completeness of the written projects.
The questionnaire, made of up 45 questions, used a scheme based on the following
question: How does the Province SEPP deal with (indicate, describe, define, consider,
analyse, be attentive to, make explicit) a specific issue (dimension, objective, aspect,
educational means, process, choice, concept)? The possible responses were: a lot,
sufficient, little, absent. The emphasis of the study was on the completeness and
up-to-date nature of the project’s texts, and in this area it revealed substantial satisfaction.
But among the 45 questions in the questionnaire only three, and even these in a generic
way, dealt with how the project was implemented in practice. The conclusions of the
survey can be presented by referring to the statistical data in the orientation document
The Educative and Pastoral Project in the Provinces (1994) drawn up by van Looy. The
Councillor for Youth Ministry brought out the following problems of the project:
1. The lack of planning methodology. 38% of the houses do not have a written plan.
17% of the provinces do not have a Provincial SEPP approved by the Provincial
Chapter. Of those provinces that do have the project, in 76% of the cases it was drawn
up by only some Salesians without the shared involvement of others.
2. There is not much of a mindset of shared responsibility with the laity in the educative
and pastoral community. In 36% of the houses the EPC was not established. 78% do
not know how the EPC should guarantee the Salesian charism and 67% state that
they do not understand very well how to entrust responsibility to the laity. 78% of
the communities are not very clear about the function of the Salesian community as
formator of the laity.
3. The lack of integration within the ecclesial and social environment. Only 3%
consider relationships with social and political bodies important and only 4%
relationships with cultural bodies. Insertion in the local Church is important for
19% of the respondents; relationships with the families of the recipients is important
for 11% and 14% want to have relationships with other educational organisations.184
183 Cf. GC23 (1990), no. 230.
184 Cf. Van Looy, Il PEP nelle Ispettorie, 36-40.

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Some results were thought to be alarming, especially collaboration with lay people
in the EPC and neighbourhood. Three quarters of Salesian communities did not give
serious thought to collaboration with lay people and, logically, the same proportion was
true for projects drawn up by a handful of Salesians without involving others. So we can
understand the Congregation’s choice for the General Chapter to follow, on the theme
of communion and sharing between Salesians and the laity.185
The 24th General Chapter was an important milestone in the twenty years of
reflection led by Viganò and Vecchi. The theme of communion and sharing between lay
people and Salesians, in addition to the already mentioned Salesian Family, EPC and the
Salesian Youth Movement,186 developed around the concept of “shared responsibility”
expressing the need for a new relationship between Salesians and lay people: “A change
of mentality is needed: grow together, form together.”187 Shared responsibility becomes
a central term in the document, used almost fifty times, much more than simple
communion, sharing or collaboration between Salesians and lay people. Number 22 of
the Acts introduces the concept in this perspective:
Participation in the Salesian mission also appears as a gradual and progressive
variegated reality: from the simple obligatory presence of one who does paid
work, offering skill and nothing more or one who is a member of a Salesian
parish, to collaboration for motives of work or free choice and to the shared
responsibility of one who takes on with us the common mission. The process of
involvement leads to communion in the spirit; to shared responsibility, and then
to sharing of the Salesian mission. Communion and sharing, involvement and
shared responsibility: these are the two faces of the same medal.188
The concept of shared responsibility is not defined in the Chapter document. Even
though most of the occurrences are exhortative, it is possible to trace other important
core ideas: the shared responsibility of the laity is placed within the single mission and
is exercised as a process of the entire educative and pastoral community, which puts the
185 Cf. The theme and content of GC24 (1996): Salesians and laity: communion and sharing in the spirit
and mission of Don Bosco. Cf. also a more in-depth analysis of some provincial projects in Vojtáš,
Progettare e discernere, 81-88.
186 Cf. GC24 (1996), nos. 39-51.
187 GC24 (1996), no. 101. On the level of attitudes and methodologies of shared formation see no. 103,
for practical aspects cf. nos. 106-148.
188 GC24 (1996), no. 22. [ italics highlighting the concepts used to describe the Salesian-lay relationship
are ours]

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young and their needs at the centre by drawing up a Salesian educative and pastoral
project.189 The working model, “shared more or less everywhere, recognised as valid
and the only one practicable in present conditions, is the following: ‘the Salesians as
the animating nucleus [of the EPC], the involvement and shared-responsibility of the
laity, the drawing up of a possible plan, adapted to the needs of those for whom we are
working, to the forces available and to the local context’.”190 The central body animating
and coordinating shared responsibility is the EPC or Council of the Work, which
fulfils its role both through reflection, dialogue, planning and review of educational and
pastoral action, and through the clear allocation of the roles and functions of Salesians
and lay people.191
The ambitious introduction of the category of shared responsibility should have
repercussions especially for the mentality of the Salesians. In his letter convening
the Chapter, Fr Viganò expresses an important aspect: “A religious community more
attentive to the requirements and shared responsibility of the laity cannot fail to involve,
from the standpoint of identity, the primacy of spirituality.”192 After GC24, the new
Rector Major, Juan Edmundo Vecchi, proposed a reflection consistent with the ideals
traced out by the Chapter, with such far-sightedness as to make them relevant at least
for a quarter of a century until GC28, which in 2020 took up the reflection on shared
responsibility between Salesians and lay people in mission and formation.
In addition to the meanings mentioned earlier, Vecchi often expressed a concept
in his circular letters of shared responsibility with the laity that is both spiritual and
operational,193 while extending the application of the principle to young people who
share responsibility for accompaniment on their own journey, but youth communities
also share responsibility,194 as well as institutions and families, such as in social
initiatives.195 Shared responsibility also applies to the life of religious communities and
in relationships among provinces.196
189 Cf. Ibid., nos. 119-120.
190 Ibid., no. 39.
191 Cf. Ibid., nos. 121, 171.
192 E. Viganò, Convocation of General Chapter 24, in AGC 75 (1994) 350, 22-23.
193 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, The Salesian Family is twenty-five years old, in AGC 78 (1997) 358, 14.
194 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, Sanctity and Martyrdom at the Dawn of the Third Millennium, in AGC 80 (1999)
368, 31; Id., Towards the 25th General Chapter, in AGC 81 (2000) 372, 25.
195 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, He had compassion on them (Mk 6:34). New forms of poverty, Salesian mission and
effectiveness, in AGC 78 (1997) 359, 29 and Id., Church and Family events, in AGC 79 (1998) 364,
18.
196 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, “The Father consecrates us and sends us”, in AGC 79 (1998) 365, 42; Id., Towards
the 25th General Chapter, 29; Id., Sickness and old age in the Salesian experience, in AGC 82 (2001)
377, 25.

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The most far-sighted letter, rooted in twenty years of pastoral animation, outlining
the implications for the future of his thinking, including the principle of shared
responsibility, is entitled “For you I study.”197 Within the circular, in addition to the
theme of intellectual formation, Juan Vecchi outlines the figure of the “new Salesian”
who corresponds to the demands of the “new evangelisation” and “new education”.
It is not a question of a slight modification, but of something more radical. The
Salesian is part of a “new operational model”, a model of pastoral guides who are
primarily responsible for the Salesian identity of initiatives and works, animators of other
educators within a core group that is the driving force. It becomes necessary to become
and remain capable of creatively interpreting culture, animating a broad educational
environment, and together with other educators, accompanying processes of maturation
and growth, giving direction to people, interacting in the social context.198 The new
Salesian is a multifaceted figure: formator, witness, accompanier, disciple, animator of
the community, leader and manager of projects and organisations. Summarising Vecchi’s
indications, we discover a series of characteristics required of the Salesian educator in the
new millennium:
1. an identity as a believer, a spiritual strength that makes him capable of convinced
dialogue with others in a climate of freedom. This requires that the faith and the
reasons for its hope be understood and lived with foundation and transparency;
2. a clear Salesian identity insofar as he is the first one responsible for the Salesian
identity of initiatives and works. To this end, he must have a greater theoretical and
practical knowledge of youth and education issues and be able to authoritatively
propose educational goals and pathways;
3. a capacity for an open, intelligent and pro-active way of tackling new phenomena and
cultural, social and youth trends, enabling him to attempt to proclaim in the midst
of life, interpreting the new languages and codes of meaning;
4. a competence running through everything of giving pastoral guidance, animating
educators within the “animating nucleus” or central driving force and forming
adults who share responsibility in the work of education, going beyond simple
friendship.199
197 J.E. Vecchi, “For you I study...”( C 14) Satisfactory preparation of the confreres and the quality of our
educative work, in AGC 78 (1997) 361, 3-47.
198 Cf. Ibid., 17-18.
199 Cf. Ibid.

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In a certain sense the theme of qualification of the confreres launched by the 19th
General Chapter during the Second Vatican Council had returned. Previously it was
thought that qualification would take Salesians out of the boarding schools, which were
no longer suited to the needs of the time. Around the turn of the millennium the
new demand for qualification asked Salesians not only to change the “place” and the
“structure” of education, but to abandon the logic of fixed roles and environments and
to think of themselves in a new community-based and procedural way, accompanying
the young and adults who shared responsibility with them.
Pedagogical guidelines from major Salesian writers
The later Braido, founder of the Salesian Historical Institute
Stating things simply, it could be said that the effort to study Salesian pedagogy was
carried out by Pietro Braido in two phases, the first characterised by a broad and
systematic approach to the philosophy of education and the second marked by attempts
at historical reconstruction of ‘Don Bosco the educator’.200 His publications between
the mid-1950s and the late 1970s were characterised by a paradigm of interdisciplinarity
and by his collaboration with colleagues in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at UPS.
From the 1980s onwards, however, his greatest and main study effort was linked to the
activities of the Salesian Historical Institute, founded in 1981, the year of publication of
the two volumes of the Esperienze di pedagogia cristiana nella storia.201 His new work
focused on the aim of “making available in scientifically valid forms the documents of the
rich spiritual heritage left by Don Bosco and developed by those who followed him”202
through “critical editions of significant sources, starting with the writings of Don
Bosco.”203 Critical editions of the various documents regarding Don Bosco’s educative
200 Cf. the division of periods, attention and bibliographical references in the contributions by Chiosso,
Lafranchi, Biancardi and Motto in C. Nanni et al. (eds.), Pietro Braido. Una vita per lo studio, i
giovani e l’educazione, LAS, Rome 2018, 19-89.
201 Cf. P. Braido, Esperienze di pedagogia cristiana nella storia, 2 vols., LAS, Rome 1981
202 Statuto dell’Istituto Storico Salesiano, art. 1, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 1 (1982) 1, 5.
203 Ibid., art 2.

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experience were published from 1984 onwards in the Ricerche Storiche Salesiane journal,
then brought together in his Scritti pedagogici e spirituali.204
In the subsequent period, Braido commented on the development of critical
research on Don Bosco, around the time of the Centenary in 1988, in an article
significantly entitled “A turning point in studies on Don Bosco”,205 in which he analysed
the outcome of the Acts of the 1st International Congress of Studies on Don Bosco.206
His convictions on the usefulness of proceeding in a historical-critical manner distanced
themselves markedly from the Biographical Memoirs, which he called the “golden
legend”,207 and also a more critical judgement on the classic essay by Desramaut on the
Memoirs, which we mentioned when speaking of the earlier period.208 Braido took a
stance against the “traditionalism, conservatism, ‘celebration mindset’, ‘intra-Salesian’
attention that had appeared, even during the recent Centenary; advocating for a
much more realistic Don Bosco who was ‘embedded’ into history’.”209 Thus through
a demythologising process he critiqued the “arbitrary over-evaluations”, noted the
limitations and “lacunae of the more traditional Salesian historiography tending to exalt
the ‘heroes’.”210
204 Cf. G. Bosco, Scritti pedagogici e spirituali, eds. Jesús Borrego, Pietro Braido, Antonio Ferreira da Silva,
Francesco Motto and José Manuel Prellezo, (= Istituto Storico Salesiano-Fonti: Serie prima 3), LAS,
Rome 1987 and the subsequent publication P. Braido (ed.), Don Bosco educatore. Scritti e testimonianze,
(=Istituto Storico Salesiano-Fonti: Serie Prima 9), LAS, Rome 1992.
205 Cf. Pietro Braido, Una svolta negli studi su don Bosco, in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 10 (1991)
355-375.
206 Cf. Don Bosco nella storia. Acts of the 1st International Congress of Studies on Don Bosco edited by
Mario Midali, LAS, Rome 1990; Don Bosco en la historia. Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional
de Estudios sobre San Juan Bosco. Edición en castellano dirigida por José Manuel Prellezo Garcia,
LAS/CCS, Rome/Madrid 1990; Saint Jean Bosco. Recherches sur la vie et l’oeuvre d’un prêtre éducateur
italien du dixneuvième siècle. Editées et présentées par Francis Desramaut, LAS, Rome 1990.
207 Braido, Una svolta negli studi su don Bosco, 356.
208 “Desramaut is less convincing when, in his concluding remarks, he almost seems to assume a double
interpretation of the Memorie Biografiche: ‘edifying’, always valid; ‘scientific’, insufficient for the
purposes of a dignified historical work. It seems more correct to think that even a ‘spiritual’ interpretation
should be done with a critical spirit, which helps to distinguish, precisely for the purposes of ‘edification’,
the truth about Don Bosco from arbitrary and distorting superstructures”, in Braido, Una svolta
negli studi su don Bosco, 358.
209 Braido, Una svolta negli studi su don Bosco, 356.
210 Cf. Ibid., 361-362.

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A summary of Prevenire non reprimere (Prevention not Repression)
The final volume on Don Bosco’s preventive system, which he wrote at the end of his
career when already an emeritus professor for ten years, integrates the historical-critical
approach as a whole. Braido completely reformulated the more systematic part basing
himself on more trustworthy sources than the Biographical Memoirs. He had made more
than a thousand references to these as a source of bibliographical reference in the first and
second editions of his Sistema Preventivo. Preference was now given to critical editions
of major educational documents, archival documents, the Opere Edite, the Memoirs of
the Oratory, and collections of Don Bosco’s letters. The Biographical Memoirs and the
Bollettino Salesiano were quoted only as secondary sources. Documents like the Brief
treatise on the Preventive System in the education of the young, the Letter from Rome and
the Confidential Reminders, that were included earlier as appendices, were no longer
to be found in Prevenire non reprimere, so any reading of this work would need to be
accompanied by the anthology published earlier.
If compared with the earlier editions of the handbook on the Sistema Preventivo
(1955, 1964), Prevenire non reprimere should be read as more of an historical than a
systematic reconstruction of Don Bosco as an educator. With regard to the method of
study, we note the fragmentation inherent in the historical-critical method, linked to
many sources of different value and studies adopting different approaches. This was a
difficulty expressed by Braido earlier, stating that “first of all, there seems to be a lack of a
concept, an intuition, a fact that can serve as a unified, indisputable and unquestionable
point of connection.”211
Over time, Braido developed an awareness of the concept of “prevention” as the
key to the overall perspective applied to all of Don Bosco’s educational activities.212 In
Prevenire non reprimere, Braido makes his choice in saying that “the formula ‘preventive
system’ […] is suitable for expressing everything he said and did as an educator.”213
As well as determining the choice of title, prevention guides the structuring of the
chapters. In fact, the work could be considered a treatise on prevention in Don Bosco,
historically contextualised in the first eight chapters and synthesised around core themes
in the following eight chapters. The way of proceeding is “cautious” and, in some
ways, “non-systematic”, in order to respond to the demands of the rigorousness of the
211 Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo di don Bosco, PAS Verlag, Zürich 21964, 19
212 Cf. Ibid., 65.
213 Braido, Prevenire non reprimere. Il sistema educativo di don Bosco, LAS, Rome 2006, 7.

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historical method. And the judgements are very well thought out so as not to lead
the reader into arbitrary interpretations. The wealth of historical references and his
knowledge of so many interpretations of the figure of Don Bosco is surprising.214
Consistent with the choice of the preventive principle, the part dealing with the
historical contextualisation, already found in his 1964 handbook, is enriched and
developed by including as chapters: “Better to prevent than repress”; “Prevention existed
before the preventive system”; “Birth of a formula: preventive system and repressive
system”; “Figures of the preventive system close to Don Bosco.”215 In the light of the
extensive research carried out by the Salesian Historical Institute, the questions on Don
Bosco’s influences and dependencies on other authors were re-calibrated, placing him
within the history of post-Tridentine catechesis and Catholic education.216
With the quantity of sources available, it was much more difficult to weave the
connections within the content and systematic reflection in Chapters 10-18 of Prevenire
non reprimere. It seems that the correctness and exactness of the historical reconstruction
is preferred to the overall view of the different topics. This overview was illuminating
and full of applications in the first two books on the Preventive System. A concrete
case, which can serve as an example, is the separation of the topics of “pedagogy of
the heart” and “pedagogy of correction”, first presented in a single paragraph and then
separated in the last book. Similarly, the theme of familiarity, linked with the pedagogy
of cheerfulness that creates an educative environment, was a theoretically evocative
perspective which was then lost in the distinctions of the last publication.
The unifying idea of “prevention” risks being a (relatively) empty vessel also for
contextual reasons independent of the author. With the loss of a shared philosophia-theologia
perennis, which held the Ricaldonian approach together around mid-century, after
the Council there was a shift to the logic of disciplines and dimensions which
should be interdependent, but are often merely autonomous.217 Braido’s substantially
neo-Scholastic mindset guided him in the first edition, proceeding by way of argument
from the primacy of the “religious-supernatural”, to consequently develop “the natural”
214 Cf. bibliography in Braido, Prevenire non reprimere, 405-415.
215 In the above chapters, Braido integrated several parts of his previous study Breve storia del “Sistema
preventivo”, LAS, Rome 1993.
216 This is a line of thought proposed by Fascie in the 1930s to dismantle the exaggerated triumphalism about
Don Bosco’s originality. Cf. B. Fascie, Del metodo educativo di Don Bosco. Fonti e commenti, SEI,
Turin 1927.
217 Cf. M. Vojtáš, Implicazioni metodologiche del principio religioso nell’educazione salesiana,
in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 64 (2017) 1, 11-36.

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with the dimension of reason, understood as applying and organising religious ideals
and values in a concrete way. In the same way, other topics developed in the part on the
theology of education disappeared: the supernatural ex opere operato effectiveness other
than a purely “psychological” support (comfort, joy, emotion, etc.); the real increase
in grace and divine life; the growth in supernatural stature; the natural-supernatural
pair; prayer as an “ontological” means of education, as well as a psychological and moral
one.218
Other contextual variables, such as the crisis of the Salesian boarding school, the
multiplication of diverse educational contexts worldwide and the changed world of
youth in the 1990s, seem to have induced Braido to abandon, quite understandably,
various notions in the first two editions which could have seemed exaggerated or out
of place. Against the tendencies of the post-68 anti-authoritarian pedagogies, Braido
affirmed instead in Prevenire non reprimere the centrality of the educator in the
Preventive System, abandoning the previous hypothesis of a
pedolatry, pedocentrism, when one thinks that, in Don Bosco’s understanding,
as in Christian understanding, the educator of the “preventive system” is the one
who really “serves” the pupil. Without becoming the “mayor” of Don Bosco’s
“city”, the boy is, in his educational family, the little king and, as in every family,
he enjoys all the privileges and attention of the “elders”, must be able to speak
and act with confident freedom and express himself and manifest himself as a
“boy”. For him it is the noisy joy of life in the playground, of singing, theatre,
excursions; and even his “overlords” and “teachers” are obliged to share in this,
take part in it, renouncing their demands as “adults”.219
In Prevenire non reprimere, Braido insists (echoing Ricaldone) that “the absolute
key player is the educator who holds all power: the executive, the judiciary and punitive.
The pupil, instead, is called to an essentially cooperative execution, a subordinate,
shared role.”220 The education system either works or doesn’t depending on whether
the educators are totally dedicated to the pupils, carry the burden of education and
guarantee its fruitfulness. In this sense, Braido’s reformulation, half a century later, is
more an adaptation to a radically changed era than a change of main concepts.
218 Cf. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 269-293.
219 Ibid., 434.
220 Braido, Prevenire non reprimere, 290.

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Scientific rigour and the problem of dependencies
The intention to adopt a precise and safe scientific method was evolving, as we have seen,
but ever present for Pietro Braido. Consistency and straightforwardness are categories
that Braido also recognised in Don Bosco when he assessed him as being “direct,
straightforward, sincere.” For him, Don Bosco is “sincere” through loving-kindness,
reason, in disciplinary matters and in attitudes towards religion and piety.221 Some
light could be thrown on his attitude by Salesian Cardinal Antonio Maria Javierre
Ortas in the latter’s concluding message at the International Conference in 1989. It
was an invitation to “unconditional service of the truth”, or in practical terms, service
of the “real” Don Bosco: “seeing him as he is, not as someone would like him to be.”
Braido chose this text as the concluding summary of the article on the turning point
in studies on Don Bosco.222 In addition to the increasing use of the historical-critical
method already mentioned, Braido also liked the semantic precision of terms, seen in
the use of inverted commas to always indicate technical or historical terms. Already
from the first edition there are expressions or titles such as: “preventive system”,
“foundation” of pedagogy, “salvation of souls”, “fear of God”, “good education”,
“sensus Ecclesiae”, “loving-kindness” as a pedagogical “principle”, methodological
“foundation”, “pedagogy of the heart”, “family” and “joy”, the “guardians” of family life:
the “assistants” and the “director/rector”, pedagogy of “piety”, “preventive pedagogy”",
“family” discipline, elements of “didactics” etc. In some passages of his publications,
the technical use of terms is so high that it paradoxically seems more confusing than
clarifying.
The problem of the certainty of the sources and the search for dependencies becomes
more acute in the second edition in 1964 and would guide him in including Don
Bosco the educator within the history of the nineteenth century.223 Later, time and
contextualisation are extended in Breve storia del sistema preventivo, embracing the entire
range of Christian education over two millennia. Typical of this is the relationship
between Don Bosco and the Oratory tradition in Italy.
In the first 1955 edition, Braido finds “expressions, positions, attitudes characteristic
of Don Bosco the educator” in Bacci’s biography of St Philip Neri published in Rome
during the last years of Don Bosco’s theological training. There are many affinities and
221 Cf. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 143.
222 Una svolta negli studi su don Bosco, 375.
223 Cf. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 21964, 7.

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expressions such as education to “the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of vice”, which
the two saints have in common.224 Similarly, he evaluates the closeness between Don
Bosco and the tradition of the Lombard oratories.
While recognising a certain originality on Don Bosco’s part, Braido notes that
“with regard to the organisational aspect both Don Bosco and the biographer affirm an
explicit dependence on the Lombard oratories.”225 The importance given to individual
documents would diminish in Braido’s works that followed, and an attempt would
be made to place Don Bosco in a broader historical flow, that of post-Tridentine
catechesis.226
A final field where the attitude of scientific rigour is applied are the so-called dreams
of Don Bosco. From the first edition onwards, Braido does not use them as a source
and, with the exception of the dream at nine years of age, inserted in the vocational
journey, places them in the area of education to chastity, interpreting them symbolically:
“His ‘dreams’, so full of struggles and battles, victories and defeats, are but the symbolic
translation of a realistic and concrete vision that Don Bosco had, through experience
and a very keen natural and supernatural intuition of the hearts and souls of young
people, the innumerable difficulties in which their virtue risks being shipwrecked at
every moment.”227 His personal aversion to the dreams as a symbol of supernatural
triumphalism remained until the end of his research career, when he introduced his last
great work with a passage from Don Bosco’s letter to Cagliero on distrust of dreams.228
224 Cf. Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 76-80.
225 Ibid., 87.
226 A clear expression of this attitude can be found in the evaluation of the publications of Gioachino
Barzaghi, a Salesian who supports the thesis of Don Bosco’s dependence on the Ambrosian model. In
his review in 2004 Braido said: “The intention, in a justifiably frank way, was to highlight the groundlessness
of a completely untenable thesis, which ignores and falsifies Don Bosco. A reader who wants to know
something serious about him – a man, a priest, an evangelical worker in the charitable and social field
– will find nothing to enlighten him, indeed he will be misled. Nevertheless, the work is enormous
and contains much material of great interest. Perhaps it would be better employed if, instead of
being twisted to prove a thesis, a disservice to historical research, it were aimed at reconstructing an
objective and critical history of the oratories from St Philip Neri to Don Bosco or, better, beyond.”
Cf. Braido, Recensione di Barzaghi Gioachino, Don Bosco e la chiesa lombarda. L’origine di un
progetto. Glossa 2004, 937 p., in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” 23 (2004) 45, 492-493 and G. Barzaghi,
Alle radici del Sistema preventivo di don Bosco, Libreria Editrice Salesiana, Milan 1990.
227 Braido, Il Sistema Preventivo, 11955, 312-313.
228 Cf. P. Braido, Don Bosco prete dei giovani nel secolo delle libertà, vol. 1, LAS, Rome 22003, 3.

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Updating the Preventive System
It seems that the later Braido, who developed increasing awareness and competence in
the historical field, had developed a dialectical relationship between the “historical-critical”
method and the “interdisciplinary” one applied by the educational sciences. The
question of the updating of Don Bosco’s educational approach, found in the two
editions of Braido’s Sistema preventivo, is gradually abandoned for an increasing
insistence on the problem of the sources, which implies the use of the historical-critical
method. Leaving aside the breadth of his interdisciplinary interests, Braido no longer
took part in the Scholé meetings, no longer developed theories of interdisciplinarity,
was no longer involved in in the Salesian Colloquiums, and focused purely on historical
research. The work around the Educare encyclopaedia did not continue, and it would
seem that interdisciplinarity was something Braido applied more to the organisation of
the Education Faculty than as a way to rethink or update the Preventive System.
His discussion of the relationship between the Preventive System and scientific
pedagogy seems not to have gone beyond the time of the Council.229 In fact, in
Prevenire non reprimere he still referred to Herbart and Makarenko when speaking
of “contemporary, pedocentric and activist pedagogy, new schools, the Montessori
approach”,230 current positions up to the middle of the last century. It would seem
that Braido distrusted the currents of the so-called “institutional pedagogy” that
promoted self-management of education by young people themselves.231 Nor were
there any references to the appreciation of critical, project-oriented, constructionist or
structuralist pedagogy. Braido was no longer the one pushing interdisciplinary work in
the modules of the Progetto Educativo Pastorale in the 1980s, one that could have been
a continuation of work done on Educare.232
Braido’s reserved positions on innovation following the Council should be studied
in more depth, but some insights can already be gleaned from his final article published
229 Cf. S.S. Macchietti, Ricerca storica e coscienza pedagogica. Riflessione sugli studi di storia dell’educazione
di P. Braido, in J.M. Prellezo (ed.), L’impegno dell’educare, Studies in honour of Pietro Braido promoted
by the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the Pontifical Salesian University, LAS, Rome 1991, 17-27;
B. Bellerate, A.S. Makarenko tra ideologia e educazione. Dalla biografia alle interpretazioni, in
Prellezo (ed.), L’impegno dell’educare, 29-40.
230 Braido, Prevenire non reprimere, 2006, 7.
231 Ibid., 387-390.
232 Cf. J.E. Vecchi – J.M. Prellezo (eds.), Progetto Educativo Pastorale. Elementi modulari, LAS,
Roma 1984.

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in “Ricerche Storiche Salesiane”. He was not enthusiastic about this period’s division
between pastoralists and pedagogues and said that “along the lines of Vatican Council
II, the intention was to give an innovative pastoral imprint to traditional Salesian
educational activity, forcefully and permanently introducing a term into Salesian
literature that was hitherto foreign to it”,233 meaning “pastoral ministry”. His remarks on
the Special General Chapter, entitled “Fidelity and Utopias”, suggest a distancing from
certain positions on the updating approach following the Council.234 However, the later
Braido also revealed a degree of nostalgia about rethinking the Preventive System. Hence
his comment on the development of the 19th General Chapter, which envisaged
A treatise on Salesian education in our time, to which the Superior Council
could give its official approval. It was the concluding document, a summation,
in which, with the help of experts in the field of educational sciences, a kind of
synthesis of “innovative” Salesian youth pedagogical pastoral work for a “new
education” and an updated version of the preventive system was outlined. But it
probably did not have much impact, far removed as it was from the habits and
overall culture of the Congregation and from the lack of prepared personnel
especially on the periphery.235
It would seem that the nineteenth chapter of Prevenire non Reprimere is the
manifesto of the updated Preventive System. Braido had shifted from the model of
rethinking done by a team of experts or by the systematic historian, to proposing
“renewal [...] entrusted to the persistent on-going theoretical and practical commitment
of individuals and communities.”236 He concludes in this connection that Don Bosco’s
system was “fundamentally dogmatic”, but also “a pedagogy which is, to some
extent experimental, practised, evaluated, improved upon tirelessly in the pedagogical
laboratory which we know as the Oratory in Valdocco.”237 Braido thus leaves the task
of updating to others, but draws up some approaches, re-evaluating the contributions
of classic educationalists like Komenský, Locke, Rousseau and appreciating the
233 Braido, Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano, 330.
234 This is also where Viganò’s evaluations come in, which show the distance between the two: “Even if
[in Viganò] the sympathy for scientific historical research was less visible, he based continuous and
intense reference to the founder on a considerable knowledge of experience [...] moreover assisted by
a penetrating intuition of the figure of Don Bosco.”
235 Braido, Le metamorfosi dell’Oratorio salesiano, 333.
236 Braido, Prevenire non reprimere, 5.
237 Ibid., 404.

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contributions of some colleagues such as Franta, Thévenot, Milanesi, Castellazzi, Lutte,
Grasso, Groppo and Pellerey.
In his research into the area of education, Braido had always been ‘Herbartian’, a
rigorous, even severe scholar,238 distrustful of a range of facile, simplistic solutions, that
is to say, the solutions offered by the simple triumphalist popularisers of the Preventive
System, including the “Catholic” approach of Casotti, and the “pastoral” solutions after
Vatican II that were sometimes hasty and dependent on the intellectual fashions of
the period. This is a rigour that allowed him to give undeniable value to his historical
reconstructions and scientific analyses, but did not allow him to formulate a “valid
preventive project updated for now and for the future” or a “new preventive system”.239
Considering the two key principles of multiplicity and unity within the educational
sciences that sum up his life’s reflection,240 we see the paradox of nominally evoking
unity but thinking in the categories and subdivisions of disciplines. In this way, in
the absence of an integrating principle, we end up by reducing interdisciplinarity to
multidisciplinarity, within which the different approaches are placed side by side without
interacting significantly. The mere concept of “education”, in the case of the educational
sciences, and of “prevention”, within Salesian education, are not enough, as they are
concepts subject to very different and wide interpretations.
In conclusion, and going beyond the simple division between the ‘early’ and the
‘later’ Braido, one could suggest an approach that is both harmonious and respectful
of the evolution of his thought, translated into a reading plan: starting with the first
edition of Sistema Preventivo in 1955, which best expresses his syntheses and movement
between parts. Then going on to Don Bosco educatore: Scritti e testimonianze in 1992,
which contains documentation on Don Bosco’s educational experience in chronological
order. And ending with Prevenire non reprimere in 1999, which gives focus to the core
ideas of the preventive system by locating them within the history of nineteenth century
education.
238 Cf. R. Lafranchi, Pietro Braido e la sua teoria dell’educazione, in Nanni et al. (eds.), Pietro Braido.
Una vita per lo studio, i giovani e l’educazione, LAS, Rome 2018, 22-23.
239 Cf. Braido, Prevenire non reprimere, 377, 391.
240 Cf. Braido’s address on the occasion of the book published in his honour on 3 May 1991, later
published as P. Braido, Pedagogia perseverante tra sfide e scommesse, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici”
38 (1991) 899-914.

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Collaboration between the YM Department and the UPS
The collaboration between the Youth Ministry Department and the Faculty of
Educational Sciences at the Pontifical Salesian University began with a series of meetings
and publications, starting in January 1979, in which a common interest emerged in
examining some points of the Preventive System in relation to the SEPP, something
that been attempted with greater precision following GC21.241 With regard to this
collaborative effort and on the subject of planning, we will spend some time looking
at the Seminar on Progettare l’educazione oggi con Don Bosco (Planning education
today with Don Bosco) in 1980,242 the publication of the Progetto Educativo Salesiano.
Elementi modulari in 1984243 and the conference on Prassi educativa pastorale e scienze
dell’educazione in 1987.244
The Seminar on Planning education today with Don Bosco (1980)
The first joint seminar, held in Rome, involving scholars and pastoral care practitioners
in Europe, had to deal with three planning difficulties which were clearly summed up
by Vecchi in his presentation. The first difficulty was the ambiguous nature of the concept
and practice of a “project”: “Sometimes they are brief treatises, declarations of principles,
lectures on a pedagogical aspect with practical indications, exhortations to take certain
directions.”245 The second problem was “lack of cultural preparation [...] There is
difficulty in approaching the essential core of the Preventive System, with an insufficient
understanding of the historical elements in which it was offered.”246 The approach
developed in the Seminar for the solution of this problem went in the direction of a
systematic and scientific exploration of the Preventive System as a guarantee of pastoral
creativity and fidelity. The seminar moved in the direction of rethinking, offering new
241 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, Presentazione, in R. Gianatelli (ed.), Progettare l’educazione oggi con Don Bosco,
Seminar promoted by the Youth Ministry Department at Headquarters of the “Opere Don Bosco”
in collaboration with the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the Pontifical Salesian University Rome
1-7 June 1980, LAS, Rome 1981, 9.
242 Cf. Ibid.
243 Cf. Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto Educativo Pastorale.
244 Cf. J.E. Vecchi – J.M. Prellezo (eds.), Prassi educativa pastorale e scienze dell’educazione, SDB,
Rome 1988.
245 J.E. Vecchi, Presentazione, in Gianatelli (ed.), Progettare l’educazione oggi, 14.
246 Ibid.

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insights into the following themes: loving-kindness in the educational relationship;
setting up the EPC; education to freedom, sexuality, socio-political commitment;
evangelisation; liturgy; sense of the Church and vocational orientation. The third
difficulty encountered, which was only marginally treated, was the preference for
individual educational interventions and not a convergence at community level.247 In fact,
as noted above, the theme of the relationship between community and project would
only emerge more strongly in the 1990s.
The in-depth studies, although aimed at practicality, were of a general nature,
proposing theoretical models of interpretation, documents to be taken into account,
dimensions to be followed, levels to be studied in depth and structures to be
implemented. It seems that the explicit choice of the Seminar, to be a help to the
confreres in search of pointers at a practical level,248 failed to shape the interventions as a
whole. The more than 300 pages of the Acts were divided into sectors, but without them
being thought through in any overall systematic way, or with concrete methodological
indications. Although it was a “partial and incomplete effort”,249 the seminar was
part of a process of rethinking the Preventive System. Among the interesting and
innovative contents, we would like to dwell on the contributions of Herbert Franta on
loving-kindness and Riccardo Tonelli on the Educative and Pastoral Community. The
two speakers applied two different approaches with respect to the updating of Salesian
pedagogy: the first was by connecting specific, carefully selected scientific models,
updating Salesian tradition this way; the second was of a theoretical and exhortative
nature and referred to current or successful issues of the time and making comparisons
between Don Bosco’s time and today.
In his contribution, Franta rethought the Salesian concept of loving-kindness, broadening
the horizons to include the relational, formative, organisational and recreational
conditions that support the typical attitudes of loving-kindness as a relational mode of the
educator. As a humanistic psychologist, Franta suggested that loving-kindness be
the complex of feelings (joy, happiness, etc.) and pleasant emotional states
(current significant experiences) of the members (educators and young people
in the educative community); feelings and emotional states that arise from
their own life experience, in a family-type community which fits into its
environmental context, in which everyone experiences being able to be themselves
247 Cf. Ibid., 14-15.
248 Cf. Ibid., 15.
249 Ibid., 16.

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and form their personality in genuine contact with others, considered as persons
of value, in a relationship of respect and genuine friendship.250
Drawing on pedagogical and communicative studies on school climate, he developed
loving-kindness as an interdependent system of relationships at three levels: among
educators, among pupils and in the interaction between educators and pupils.251 Pastoral
charity was then considered in terms of its emotional dimension; responsibility as the
embodiment of the dimension of control; and assistance understood as “relationally
active presence.” Franta’s contribution connected Salesianity, in the interpretations of
Viganò, Stella and Braido, with contemporary pedagogy and in an unbroken line,
offering a new harmonious frame of reference with different practical and organisational
implications.
An example of a different approach more generally followed by those taking part in
the Seminar was the reflection on the Educative and Pastoral Community by Riccardo
Tonelli. Remaining at the level of theoretical principles, he structured his address in
the following steps: the situation, Salesian tradition, updating insights and operational
guidelines. The focus, even in terms of method, was more on the inspiring principles
than on how they were to be translated into action and approach. This is how he put it:
Each community creates its own structures for discussion and dialogue. Having
stated the need for this, we can therefore give only a few examples, using
fairly widespread educational traditions: councils at different levels, assemblies,
ways of planning and defining objectives and for verification, coordinating
and decision-making bodies... It is helpful to recall that making proper use
of these participatory structures requires technical competence, to be acquired
through the study of specialised disciplines (group dynamics, for example, and
socio-cultural animation). This trust in and respect for the technical apparatus
is a precise Salesian requirement, as a logical consequence of the awareness that
there is a close relationship between education (and the related educational sciences)
and evangelisation.252
250 H. Franta, Relazioni interpersonali e amorevolezza nella comunità educativa salesiana, in Gianatelli
(ed.), Progettare l’educazione oggi, 21.
251 Cf. e.g. W. Klafki, Studien zur Bildungstheorie und Didaktik, Beltz, Weinheim 1964; H. Fend,
Schulklima. Soziale Einflussprozesse in der Schule, Beltz, Weinheim-Basel 1977; K. Mollenhauer,
Theorien zum Erziehungsprozessen, Juventa, Munich 1972. Also appreciated were Pestalozzi, Buber
and Lewin.
252 R. Tonelli, Impostazione della comunità educativa in un contesto pluralista, in Gianatelli (ed.),
Progettare l’educazione oggi, 83.

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Methodological questions, therefore, were considered technical, and trust in
this technical apparatus was required in the name of an epistemological axiom.
Unfortunately, the article did not go into the differences between the various models
of participation. There are considerable differences, as the variety of theories in
organisational and management sciences shows. The general nature of the exhortation
could produce both an indiscriminate use of various methodologies, which in turn could
also be contradictory, as well as breaking the connection between the principles that
inspire Salesian educative and pastoral activity and the somewhat technical approach to
planning in the 1970s.
The other papers in the seminar also include sections devoted to addressing
operational needs,253 but it is interesting to note that this was mainly about detailed
advice that contrasted with the old “boarding school mentality” or quoting guidelines
from Salesian or ecclesial magisterium.254 Practical pointers, following the General
Chapters style and various Youth Ministry aids, came in a list of things to be done,
without any further exploration of their interdependence. In conclusion, it can be seen
that the Seminar preferred the theoretical approach and further relegated the meaning
of the term “project” to the realm of expert scholars reporting on new trends in their
field of study without recreating a preventive system as an “organic whole of convictions,
attitudes and methodological interventions.”255
The Progetto Educativo Salesiano. Elementi modulari (1984)
Updating Salesian pedagogy by area or dimension is a direction that was reinforced in
the other milestone of collaboration between the Department and the FSE at the UPS,
in its Progetto Educativo Pastorale. Elementi modulari in 1984. This book, almost five
hundred pages worth, tried to respond to the difficulties of planning, as Vecchi pointed
out: “once you understand the dynamics and learn the techniques you realise that the real
difficulties are more at the basic level. They originate in the fundamental understanding
253 Cf. Tonelli, Impostazione della comunità educativa, in Gianatelli (ed.), Progettare l’educazione oggi,
72-86; C. Nanni, Educazione alla libertà responsabile, in Ibid., 110-118; J. Aldazabal, Liturgia,
preghiera personale, devozione mariana, in Ibid., 226-229, 234-238, 243-246 and P. Gianola,
Orientamento vocazionale, in Ibid., 318-324.
254 In the application parts, the renewed Constitutions, GC21 (1978), SGC (1972), the letters of Viganò
and the documents of the Second Vatican Council are cited in particular.
255 Vecchi, Presentazione, in Gianatelli (ed.), Progettare l’educazione oggi, 14.

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of certain key points concerning education and pastoral ministry.”256 Thirty-four topics
were chosen and organised in the form of a module divided into four parts: the definition
of each item, with conceptual or historical references; emphasis on the importance of the
item; essential content; bibliography. The intention was not to give recipes to be applied,
but to broaden awareness and form a mentality by offering “a secure and substantially
complete reference framework”257 on key issues in the SEPP.
The focus of the authors was on describing developments in the sciences of
education and pastoral activity across the board, without basing the treatises on Salesian
experiences or traditions, with the exception of the specific modules written by Vecchi.
A sign of this is the general approach of the modules, which almost always begins with
recent developments in a scientific discipline. This approach was a double-edged sword,
since it encouraged use of this book outside Salesian circles too, and lost the specific
nature of Salesian education and approach or made it implicit. The question of the
Salesian identity of the Educative and Pastoral Project, of the historical development
of the Preventive System and comparison with current experiences of Salesian educative
and pastoral activity were to be found almost exclusively in the module on the preventive
system prepared by Vecchi.258 This module was an excellent summary of the updating
of the Preventive System, but it was a stand-alone unit which did not permeate the rest
of the publication as an underlying paradigm.259
This book turned out to be an excellent mini-dictionary of educational and pastoral
sciences for scholars of planning design. The topics followed the fundamental references
of a project: general aspects, objectives, methodologies, people involved and settings,
and covered the whole area of planning, offering a wide range of pastoral, theological,
philosophical, psychological, sociological and teaching points of view. The elements
of methodology, dealt with in the modules on the educative and pastoral project,
objectives, educational programmes and evaluation260 were all linked but mostly in
terms of education in a school context, leaving aside any details concern oratory, parish,
vocations, missions. This was confirmed by Vecchi as well when he said that
256 J.E. Vecchi, Presentazione, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale, 5.
257 Cf. Ibid., 8.
258 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, Sistema Preventivo, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.),Progetto educativo pastorale, 72-89.
259 Note “the difficulty of achieving unity of perspective” reported in Vecchi, Presentazione, in Vecchi
– Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale, 7-8.
260 Cf. M. Pellerey, Itinerario, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale, 188-196;
Id., Obiettivi, in Ibid., 93-100; S. Sarti, Valutazione, in Ibid., 310-321 and Vecchi, Progetto educativo
pastorale, in Ibid., 15-25.

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terms like project and planning have not entered pedagogical language until
relatively recent times […] This seems to be due more to overall development
in the area of educational sciences than to particular reasons, in which the
systematic connection of the needs of the complex process of personality growth
in the developmental phase has emerged with greater clarity. The decisive
impetus came from the science of teaching, which introduced the concept of the
curriculum.261
For aspects that directly concerned planning methodology, it can be noted that
in the module on planning, Vecchi confirmed what was found the YM Department’s
booklets. He mentioned the four aspects of project content already found in them: ideal
guidelines (frame of reference), analysis of the situation, operational choices and, finally,
assessment. The part dealing with the ideal guidelines was strengthened, in tune with
the emphasis placed on the study of the same publication, thus making it a level of
the project in its own right.262 Another feature of Vecchi’s proposal was the emphasis
on harmonising the various elements of the project, which reflected the fragmented
situation of youth and society. The project should propose: a unified and coherent
framework of values, an overall vision, operational guidelines that bring together roles,
interventions and services.263 In spite of his insistence on being systematic, Vecchi
struggled to break out of the scientific-technical paradigm of linear rather than systemic
planning.264
If we analyse this book from the perspective of the relationship between education
and evangelisation, we notice a clear preference for educational themes. The founding
module of Giuseppe Groppo entitled “Evangelisation and education” is structured
around the paradigm of evangelisation that requires education and human promotion,
and not the opposite. The development of the theme is explicitly under the influence of
261 J.E. Vecchi, Progetto educativo pastorale, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale,
15.
262 Cf. Ibid., 22-23.
263 Cf. Ibid., 16-19.
264 Cf. Vecchi, Presentazione, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale, 5-6. For
the “technical nature” of planning, which was understandable at the time of the 1970s and early
1980s, see the type of examples Vecchi gives to clarify planning concepts: the transition from carriage to
car, the difference between an engineering treatise and designing a building, project understood as a
map with a compass in Vecchi, Per riattualizzare il Sistema Preventivo, in ILE, Convegno sul Sistema
Preventivo, 2-3 and Vecchi, Progetto educativo pastorale, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto
educativo pastorale, 16 and 19.

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the anthropological turn, referring to Gustavo Gutiérrez and Johann Baptist Metz for
the theoretical aspect.265 The operational aspects, on the other hand, were influenced by
what was happening in grassroots ecclesial communities. In keeping with the Nanni’s
and Alberich’s modules, it proposed, in the first instance, a liberating and humanising
education, making use of the limitations of the pre-Vatican II model, the phenomenon of
secularisation and the increased sensitivity to dialogue, collaboration and spontaneous
groups. Evangelisation was described in less than concrete tones, giving it the role of
providing inspiration and meaning to educational activity. Emilio Alberich interpreted
evangelisation in this sense as the generic “proclamation of and witness to the Gospel
by the Church, through all that she says, does and is.”266 By restricting methodology
to the educational sphere, it outlined “education to the faith that is only indirect.
The faith choices of Christians, as individuals and as a community, will become
increasingly free and responsible and more and more mature, the more humanly mature
are the Christians who make them and the communities in which they live their faith
experience.”267 One perceives a clear concern to get out of the Ricaldone-style “fortress
of pre-Vatican II faith” and open up to “human” realities. Paradigmatic in this sense is
the conclusion of Nanni’s module:
On the other hand, it is evident that education is specific as a “secular” work. [...]
Education is in fact significant in itself insofar as it is a radically human work,
directed towards the promotion of the reality which has the dignity of an end:
man. For this reason, individuals and Christian communities can find a point
of encounter in educational activity with “all people of good will”, believers and
non-believers, in view of the search for a different quality of life, individual and
collective human promotion, the construction of societies on a human scale.
Besides some imbalances in the part already mentioned dealing with the “general
aspects”, there were several modules bringing innovations or important stimuli for
Salesian pedagogy. Vecchi’s two contributions on the Educative and Pastoral Project
and the Preventive System functioned as introduction and conclusion respectively
to the systematic part on general aspects. In addition, Juan Vecchi’s third module
265 Cf. G. Groppo, Evangelizzazione e educazione, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo
pastorale, 38-39.
266 E. Alberich, Catechesi, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale, 62.
267 Groppo, Evangelizzazione e educazione, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale,
41.

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on orientation and vocation ministry was very interesting for the methodological
distinctions between orientation of a psychological kind and a broader approach to
vocation ministry. The two contributions by Herbert Franta on assistance, understood
as the active presence of the educator, and on the educative relationship, completed
his proposal to rethink the typical categories of loving-kindness, assistance and the
family educative setting. Facets of the theory of animation emerged in the modules by
Aldo Ellena, Mario Pollo and Riccardo Tonelli. We will dedicate space to these later.
The sections on aims and pathways, by Michele Pellerey, provided a glimpse into the
synthesis and background of planning in the 1980s. The considerations on leadership
theories proposed by Pio Scilligo in the module on the group are interesting, as they
demonstrated his mastery of the subject and his up-to-date knowledge of planning and
design.
Despite the fact that the text emphasised the first aim of planning being a unified
and overall perspective on education, reconfirming what GC21 had said, Fr Vecchi
noted the difficulty in achieving unity of perspective and continuity of style.268 The
need for interdisciplinarity and convergence tools and interventions was noted, but the
implicit message of the book was determined more by its division into modules and
the consequent fragmentation of themes, terms, tools, linguistic and research areas of
the various sciences. The convergence tools and interventions are not clearly legible
and even the module on “integral promotion”, which could be the unifying factor par
excellence, had so many distinctions and subsections.269 Surely this fragmentation was
not intentional, but it was the effect of science tending towards specialisation and this is
fragmentary by nature.
In terms of my overall aim for this work, it can be said, by way of summary, that
this 1984 encyclopaedic publication is a very rich source for the study of the theoretical
background of Salesian education and for perspectives in the methodological field. The
strictly pastoral perspective, which could develop its own methodology, identifying an
approach to evangelisation especially within the spiritual and vocational dimension,
gained little attention and was restricted to some limited insights.
268 Cf. Vecchi, Presentazione, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale, 8.
269 The module was made up of the three tasks of Christian communities, three different processes of
humanisation, four aspects of Christian salvation, five characteristics of specifically Christian education,
two types of dispositions of human maturity (the first integrates five human aspirations, the second three
positive traits), four dimensions of personal integration, two descriptions of Christian maturity,
the second of which is divided into four characteristics, etc. Cf. Groppo, Promozione integrale, in
Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale, 113-131.

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The conference on Educative and Pastoral Praxis and the Sciences of Education
(1987)
The trend towards fragmentation of approaches and the gap between the sciences
and educative and pastoral practice were addressed during the Centenary of Don
Bosco’s death in the seminar on “Educative and pastoral practice and the sciences of
education.”270 The seminar brought together Salesian Family members from about
thirty different backgrounds and, unlike the previous initiatives, sought to encourage
the “dialectical convergence between theory and practice”,271 between the sensitivity
of scholars and that of those working in the educational scene. The interventions
were structured in four parts: historical perspective, current situation, new questions,
orientations and proposals.
The first part, after dealing with the figure of Don Bosco the educator in the
historical memory and study of pedagogy in the Congregation, then presented the use
of the sciences of education in three significant recent Salesian pedagogical experiences:
Rome’s sciuscià in Borgo Don Bosco, the re-education house at Arese and the
Bosconia-la Florida experience in Colombia. Giancarlo Milanesi noted the substantially
eclectic and functional use of the sciences of education, even in the originality of the
Salesian approach which, depending on the case, is placed alongside psychologism and
selects only some techniques or methods, remaining critical of the anthropological
assumptions of the individual sciences. As far as educative and pastoral planning is
concerned, in the first two experiences one could see the lesser influence of the sciences
of education in how the project was formulated, and at the same time a post factum
application of the sciences in order to justify already established educational choices.272
The planning process at Bosconia-la Florida, assessed as being the one most explicitly
linked to an articulated framework of educational sciences, was described as paying
attention to the people involved in the programme, its conceptual framework, objectives,
strategies and evaluation. Eclecticism is noted, however, but unlike the other works it was
presented as intentional and justified.273
The question of educative and pastoral planning was only directly treated in Vecchi’s
intervention. He saw it as an educational tool in an era of complexity. One could see the
270 Cf. J.E. Vecchi – J.M. Prellezo (eds.), Prassi educativa pastorale e scienze dell’educazione, SDB,
Rome 1988.
271 J.E. Vecchi – J.M. Prellezo, Introduzione, in Vecchi – Prellezo, Prassi educativa, 6.
272 Cf. G. Milanesi, L’utilizzo delle scienze dell’educazione nell’impegno dei salesiani per i giovani “poveri,
abbandonati, pericolanti”, in Vecchi – Prellezo, Prassi educativa, 89-90 and 97-99.
273 Cf. Milanesi, L’utilizzo delle scienze dell’educazione, in Vecchi – Prellezo, Prassi educativa,
108-115.

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early results in provinces that were implementing planning: greater convergence between
evangelisation and education, attention to how settings approached matters, attention
to the needs of beneficiaries and innovation in content and method. Starting from the
assessments from the Team Visits274 and his Report on the state of the Congregation,
Vecchi assessed the journey travelled by provinces over the previous decade as being still
in its initial stages, not lacking in problems, and saw that planning was almost absent in
the local communities.275
The other interventions dealt with the diversity of theological and educational
perspectives and their lack of any systematic epistemological approach, the need for
practical details which would entail thoughtful and clear choices, the need for a new
pastoral care in situations influenced by secularism, the cultural changes taking place,
marginalisation, the crisis of Salesian associations and the spread of the mass media. At
the level of proposals a new pastoral approach was evoked in generic terms, characterised
by a deeper pedagogical formation etc.
The discussions also contained concrete suggestions for the use of the sciences of
education in Salesian practice. Among the instruments indicated were the SEPP as
something to be valued and further understood, the creation of study centres or the use
of the contributions from existing consultancy centres, the establishment of teams for
educational animation at provincial level, new magazines, a “scrutinium educationis”,
the application of institutional analysis and educational evaluation.276 At the end of
the 1980s there was a felt need to continue along the line of collaboration between
the FSE and the various Departments of the Congregation to promote both awareness
of the need for pedagogical competence and the study and acquisition of educational
competence, especially in the ongoing formation phase. The proposals were, however,
more along the lines of aspirations and brainstorming than systematic planning of
animation and governance to establish priorities, envisage ways of achieving goals,
distribute resources and plan time-frames.
A gap emerged in the various interventions of the conference between criticism
of the “pragmatic eclecticism” of the Salesians in the use of science, and generic
274 Team visits are one of the Rector Major’s and the General Council’s animation tools. Through
them the leaders of the Congregation verify the journey underway in the different regional Salesian
situations and, while respecting specific differences, ensure convergence and unity.
275 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia nella prassi salesiana, in Vecchi – Prellezo,
Prassi educativa, 140-142. Cf. also E. Viganò, La Società di S. Francesco di Sales nel sessennio 1978-83,
SDB, Rome 1983, no. 170.
276 Cf. Sintesi dei lavori e conclusioni, in Vecchi – Prellezo, Prassi educativa, 324-326.

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vagueness of the educational proposals for Salesians as educator-pastors. It is probable
that the deliberate exactness of the methods used in the sciences of education, lack
of continuity with traditional Salesian education, and the difficult integration of the
different disciplines made the most concrete steps in the line of the seminar conclusions
unfeasible. Connected with this was the fact of having only a small elite of educational
thinkers prepared at Congregational level. Educative and pastoral planning, as a concrete
expression of the applicability of the sciences of education to educative and pastoral
praxis, was mentioned as “valuing and deepening the SEPP; [...] supporting the validity
and centrality of educational evaluation at all levels; applying institutional analysis to our
contexts.”277
The conference, which concluded a decade of close collaboration between the FSE
at the UPS and the YM Department, revealed that there were two existential and mental
“worlds” involved. The first, composed mainly of scholars and experts who were critical
in their evaluation of educative and pastoral practice, strongly and radically expressed
“the need for educational qualification of Salesian activity at every level, starting with
individuals and then extending to general orientations, specific projects of each sector
of intervention, and to the individual educative and pastoral activities.”278 In the second
and larger “world”, connected mainly with daily life in Salesian works, “at a time of
expanding and accelerating educational change such as the present, there is a lack of
capacity to take on board the renewal of content brought about by the evolution of
culture and the reform of structures, and to know how to competently make appropriate
choices.”279 The future development of the 1990s seems to indicate a gradual distancing
between these two “worlds”, which would also imply a gradual decrease in the intensity
of collaboration between the UPS and the various Departments.
Pedagogical reflection by the FMA
The “new evangelisation” approaches proposed by the Church to bring the young
generations closer to the vital encounter with the Christian message, challenged the
Salesian Family to reconsider the relationship between education and evangelisation
by developing specific “new” perspectives. Besides the perspectives of Frs Viganò
277 Ibid., 326.
278 Ibid., 327.
279 E. Viganò, La Società di S. Francesco di Sales nel sessennio 1978-83, in Vecchi – Prellezo, Prassi
educativa, 148.

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and Vecchi, who offered more general lines of approach, some of the core ideas of
pedagogical reflection by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians are interesting
and original. Similarly to the dynamics of collaboration between the UPS and the
central government of the SDB, the 80s and 90s for the FMA Institute were the time
for disseminating reflections that had started in the Pontifical Faculty of Educational
Sciences, the Auxilium, that had shifted to Rome in 1978 and was experiencing a period
of consolidation.
Mother Marinella Castagno, Superior General from 1984 to 1996, summarised the
commitment of the FMA, highlighting in particular the two main sets of ideas. In the
wake of Viganò and Vecchi, she reaffirmed the harmonisation between education and
evangelisation, stating that “the education of the young is the way of evangelisation or
rather it is a single path, because there is no meaning to any educational work that does
not lead to Christ and there is no evangelisation that does not encompass the whole of
culture.”280 Mother Castagno encouraged her sisters to further explore their mission of
education on behalf of the young, bearing in mind the “feminine specificity” that had
characterised the Institute since its origins, but which was valued as being even more
important in the particular historical moment around the centenary in 1988.
The FMA were continuing reflection on Vatican II. With regard to the question of
women, the Council had shifted from a practical introduction to the role of motherhood
to educating to being a woman, or in other words, from education to a single function
to the formation of the whole person.281 The Council’s perspective on the education
of women was therefore open to new promotional and social demands that the FMA
accepted, placing them in dialogue with the Preventive System. If previously, the
participation of women in political and social life was seen almost as a “concession”,
after the Council it was understood as a right of the “woman as an individual”. She is
aware that she is an individual in her own right and demands to be considered as such.
The formation courses offered to young women were therefore more respectful of their
autonomy, in order to encourage them to make a free choice as regards the realisation of
their identity in a social perspective.282
280 M. Castagno, Lettera circolare (28 March 1987) no. 690, in E. Rosso (ed.), Parole che giungono
al cuore con il sapore di Mornese. Circolari di Madre Marinella Castagno 1984-1996, Istituto FMA,
Rome 2008, 132.
281 Cf. Dau Novelli, L’educazione femminile, in Galli (ed.), L’educazione cristiana negli insegnamenti
degli ultimi pontefici. Da Pio XI a John Paul II, Vita e pensiero, Milan 1992, 221.
282 Cf. new emphases already since the Atti del Capitolo Generale XIV dell’Istituto delle Figlie di Maria
Ausiliatrice tenutosi a Torino – Casa Generalizia dal 26 agosto al 17 settembre 1964, Turin, Istituto
FMA 1965.

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The emphasis given to the feminine question and its educational implications for the
FMA and the documents they drew up, emerged in particular during the Conference
“Towards the education of women today”, one that the Superior General Mother
Marinella Castagno had wanted and announced for the centenary of Don Bosco’s death.
Organised by the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the Auxilium, the Conference
aimed at an in-depth exploration of the FMA’s educational charism, rethinking ways of
implementing it in order to offer a proposal for the integral education of young women
in the diversity of various socio-cultural contexts.283
Since the second half of the 1980s, in conjunction with the reinterpretation of
the identity of women and their vocation by the ecclesial magisterium,284 there was a
greater awareness of the condition of women, and the changed social conditions had
made it clear that co-education of the young was the preferred way to improve the
family and society. The core themes around which the FMA gathered the different
instances of updating the preventive system concerned the relational, community and
social dimension of Don Bosco’s method. The relational dimension of Don Bosco’s
preventive system finds its most eloquent expression in loving-kindness. This was chosen
as the most appropriate methodological path for developing a pedagogy that promotes
life and collaborates within the Church in the humanisation of culture.285
The previously mentioned conference in 1988 saw the rediscovery of the category
of reciprocity as a criterion for interpreting personal identity and the relationship
between people and cultures. It proposed developing and sharing the wealth of diversity
involved in being a man or a woman. The educational pathways proposed by the FMA,
therefore, were enriched with new objectives such as formation in realistic self-awareness
in accepting one’s particular identity, mature interpersonal relationships, balanced
management of conflicts, strengthening the sense of collaboration and solidarity
between the sexes and wider social relations, planning one’s existence along the lines of
acceptance of cultural diversity and reciprocity.286
283 Cf. Castagno, Lettera circolare (28 March 1987), 131-132 and A. Colombo (ed.), Verso l’educazione
della donna oggi. Acts of the International Conference promoted by the Pontifical Faculty of Educational
Sciences “Auxilium”, Frascati 1 - 15 August 1988, LAS, Rome 1989.
284 Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, in AAS 80 (1988)1653-1729. The themes
of the letter were already developed earlier in the catechesis dedicated by John Paul II to the theme of
human love, and in the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio. Cf. Id., Uomo e donna li creò,
LEV, Rome 1985.
285 Cf. “A te le affido” di generazione in generazione. Atti del Capitolo Generale XX delle Figlie di Maria
Ausiliatrice (Rome 18 September-15 November 1996), Istituto FMA, Rome 1997, 6-7.
286 Cf. Documento-Sintesi, in Colombo, Verso l’educazione della donna oggi, 406-407 and Istituto
Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, Atti del Capitolo generale XIX, Rome 19 September – 17 November
1990, Istituto FMA, Rome 1991, 60-61.

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A decisive factor in reciprocity as a line of thought was Antonia Colombo, first dean
of the Auxilium and then Superior General of the FMA Institute from 1996 to 2008.
Her particular sensitivity to women’s issues led her to promote numerous initiatives,
specific publications of her own, to establish relationships of study and friendship with
religious and lay people interested in women and specifically with the exponents of the
Italian Women’s Centre, ‘Progetto Donna’, the Catholic feminist movement. There was
a decisive and continuous orientation in her magisterium towards the need to develop a
“uni-dual” model of the person at an anthropological and pedagogical level: a humanism
of reciprocity in Trinitarian terms.287 Her proposal strongly affirmed reciprocity as the
anthropological foundation of Salesian education as lived by women.288 The Superior
General spelt out the anthropological and theological reference framework of the FMA’s
educational choices, stating:
The mutual relationship of love and gift that unites them is the basis of all human
relationships. Being the image of God is the foundation of a person’s relational
being, of his or her existence in relation to the other self. We resemble God to
the extent that we establish relationships that promote life under the banner of
reciprocity, the exchange of gifts. Reciprocity is nourished by the ability to expand
one’s own experience to include that of the other. It is not pure philanthropy,
nor mere altruism, because reciprocity is not a unilateral action that makes us
submissive, dependent, but a willingness to receive, as well as to give, a capacity
to put the other person in a position to reciprocate, to correspond, to feel that
he or she has something to communicate, to offer.289
Reciprocity implicitly refers to an anthropology proposed in different ways by
Martin Buber, Emmanuel Lévinas and Emmanuel Mounier, which has as its fixed point
the idea that the human being is “a relationship” and not simply “in relationship”. In
pedagogical reflection this means the need to differentiate the relationship of reciprocity
from that of exchange. In relationships of reciprocity there is bi-directionality as in the
relationship of exchange, but reciprocity differs from the latter because the one who gives
287 Cf. A. Colombo, Educazione all’amore come coeducazione, in Educare all’amore. Acts of the XVI
Week of Spirituality for the Salesian Family, SDB, Rome 1993, 125-126.
288 Cf. A. Colombo, La profecía a la que está llamada la educación salesiana hoy, in C. Arango –
T. Fernández – E. Garay (eds.), Escuela salesiana: memoria y profecía. 100 años de presencia en
Colombia de las Hijas de María Auxiliadora (Santa Fe de Bogotá 17-20 septiembre 1997), Editorial
Carrera, Santa Fe de Bogotá 1998, 222-226.
289 Colombo, Lettera Circolare del 24 settembre 2000, no. 823.

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something first must put the one receiving in a situation where they can reciprocate.
Reciprocity in the FMA reflection concerns interpersonal relationships, the best icon
of which is the relationship between man and woman. This implies that in order to
build an authentic culture of reciprocity it is essential to start from an understanding
of the fundamental specific nature of man and woman.290 In addition to the emphases
on the specifics and conditions of reciprocity, there are also reflections that emphasise
gratuitousness and gratitude.291
In contexts where discrimination against women still persists, it is important first
of all to redeem female values that are traditionally considered “weak” and promote a
culture that recognises the dignity that women deserve in law and in reality. Sister Piera
Ruffinatto, in her book on the evolution of the educative relationship in the history
of the FMA, summarises the path taken up to 1990, specifying the methodology of
co-education:
Considering the process of re-elaboration of the female “self” is intimately
linked to the male one, at a pedagogical level the relationship is considered
from the point of view of co-education. The discriminating element of
the difference between men and women must therefore be translated into
educational paths that enable us to move from the simple presence of boys and
girls to an interpersonal relationship between the sexes, oriented by dialogue and
confrontation that favours the integral maturation of the person and opens him
or her up to the gift of self in love. Co-education therefore becomes both the
goal of the educational process and the content of the relationship itself, since it
tends to form love as a way of life.292
The methodological translation of the principle of reciprocity into the method
of co-education has had various developments. Going beyond the specific sphere of
co-education of boys and girls, Sister Maria Marchi said that at the pedagogical level
education is by its very nature co-education, in that there is no education if there is
no interpersonal relationship between the individuals concerned, thus widening the
semantic field of co-education to the category of relationality that is constitutive of
the human being. For Marchi, the law of reciprocity is permanently interactive, so
290 Cf. The section “Sistema Preventivo e reciprocità” in M. Borsi – P. Ruffinatto (eds.), Sistema
Preventivo e situazione di disagio. L’animazione di un processo per la vita e la speranza delle nuove
generazioni, LAS, Rome 2008, 165-167.
291 Cf.A. Meneghetti – M. Spólnik (eds.), Gratitudine ed educazione. Un approccio interdisciplinare, LAS,
Rome 2012.
292 P. Ruffinatto, La relazione educativa. Orientamenti ed esperienze nell’Istituto delle Figlie di Maria
Ausiliatrice, LAS, Rome 2003, 483-484.

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that the consistency of a person’s identity depends on the intensity and quality of
their relationships; and at the same time the quality of the relationship depends on
the consistency and quality of personal identity: “So education is always co-education
because there are two people educating each other. There are in fact two protagonists
required for the educational process to take place.”293 In the statements quoted
we can see a general tendency of post-Vatican II rethinking, already mentioned,
which tended to rethink the basic principles by creating criteriological pairs, such
as education-evangelisation, education-animation, education-co-education, etc. These
pairs usually did not translate into concretely integrated educational pathways.
Sister Piera Ruffinatto’s conclusion seems more concrete, linking the new female
self-awareness, implemented in a context of co-education and thus oriented towards the
promotion of reciprocal relationships, to education to values of solidarity, participation
and active citizenship.294 Subsequently, the reinterpretation of Salesian education from
the perspective of reciprocity would lead to a focus on the theme of family spirit.295
The Preventive System is essentially reciprocity in the relationships that spring from
family spirit, from the educative potential of Salesian kindness and are expressed in the
simplicity of interpersonal and community traits. Moreover, the presence of educators
in educational settings encourages the witness of a positive and respectful relationship
between men and women beyond cultural stereotypes. Reciprocity in the educational
mission thus encourages the expression of personal gifts through participation and
shared responsibility.296
It would seem that the paradigm of reciprocity shared a similar fate with the concept
of “integral education”: both are concepts of synthesis but their semantic field is too
broad to be used in any context as a solution to any problem, with very uncertain and
different practical implications according to the various situations. Just as the integrity
of the dimensions was initially affirmed in the educative and pastoral project, but then
the contents of the single dimensions were almost exclusively studied in depth, similarly
the anthropological principle of reciprocity was declared through the methodology of
co-education, but then only the education of women was studied in depth.
293 M. Marchi, Verso l’educazione della donna. Alcune indicazioni metodologiche, in Colombo (ed.),
Verso l’educazione della donna oggi, 355.
294 Cf. P. Ruffinatto, Educare “buoni cristiani e onesti cittadini” nello stile del Sistema preventivo. Il
contributo delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, in G. Loparco – M.T. Spiga (eds.), Le Figlie di Maria
Ausiliatrice in Italia (1872-2010). Donne nell’educazione. Documentation and essays, LAS, Rome
2011, 64.
295 Cf. Comisión Escuela Salesiana América, II Encuentro continental de Educación Salesiana. Hacia
una cultura de solidaridad, Editorial Don Bosco, Cuenca (Ecuador) 2001, 153.
296 Cf. Ibid., 152.

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It is not only lack of planning, weak governance, or insufficient resources that make
it difficult to “move from paper to life.” In our opinion, the paradoxes in a paradigm
of general and summary anthropological solutions (especially in linguistic terms) with
indeterminate implications for educational processes, is something that needs to be taken
note of and dealt with.297 Another example of the same dynamics of paradoxes are the
different currents of animation, which we will explore in more detail in the following
section.
Social-cultural animation as seen by Tonelli, Pollo and Ellena
“Animation”, a very successful concept among Salesians in the 1980s, is tied to the
context in the second half of the 1960s at a time when the traditional school was in crisis,
expressed in Italy in the Lettera a una professoressa by Lorenzo Milani.298 In these years,
some teachers and theatre people started theatrical experiments in compulsory schools
and the first experiences of animation in working-class neighbourhoods also appeared.
The period when animation took off was 1968 and the years immediately following,
when animation embodied a large part of the political tension of the time. In the 80s,
animation moved more in an educational direction, collaborating with institutional
agencies of education and socialisation.299
The term “animation” was successful especially in romance (Latinate) language
countries.300 In each of them, however, it took on a different definition, ranging from
informal education to community development and a holistic educational method. In
France it seems that animation defined itself in continuity with the proposals of informal
or non-formal education of the past, going back to nineteenth century working-class
education which responded to the needs of industrial society and which required
297 For co-education, see the uncertainty about whether it can be implemented and if so, in what form
and with what pedagogical criteria,since some currents of feminism prefer accompaniment between
women and consider co-education as a possible factor of oppression, in C. Barbieri, Natura, finalità
e criteri della coeducazione, oggi, in C. Semeraro (ed.), Coeducazione e presenza salesiana. Problemi
e prospettive, LDC, Leumann (Turin) 1993, 192-194 and J. Schepens, Studio introduttivo, in Ibid.,
13-14.
298 Cf. Scuola di Barbiana (ed.), Lettera a una professoressa. Special edition “forty years later”, Libreria
Editrice Fiorentina, Firenze 2007.
299 Cf. M. Pollo, L’animazione culturale: teoria e metodo, LAS, Rome 2002, 13-15.
300 The authors of the entries on animation in the Educative and Pastoral Project. Modular Elements
compared, besides the Italian authors, with A. Valle from Spain, P. Griéger from France, J. Limbos
from French-speaking Belgium and A. Beauchamp, R. Graveline, C. Quiviger from French-speaking
Canada. Cf. M. Pollo – R. Tonelli, Animazione, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo
pastorale, 309 and A. Ellena, Animatori, in Ibid., 362-363.

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this type of approach, also providing the necessary resources.301 If we move to the
Anglo-Saxon context, according to at least one group of writers the term corresponding
to “animation” would be community development, restricting the meaning to the area of
animation of city districts.302
Finally, in Italy we can distinguish three main strands of animation, for two of which
the action and contribution of the Salesians was fundamental.303 The first strand, also in
chronological terms, referred to expressive theatre and theatrical animation, which arose
as a means of releasing expressiveness and imagination through celebration and play.304
The second strand was one of cultural animation, and its main authors were Mario
Pollo and Riccardo Tonelli, Salesian and editor of Note di Pastorale Giovanile. The third
strand, with more social emphasis, developed around Aldo Ellena, also a Salesian, the
editor of the Animazione sociale magazine. We will dwell on the last two strands because
they have had the greatest impact on the concept of animation in the Salesian sphere and
have contributed to the development of some aspects of planning and the educative and
pastoral community.
Mario Pollo’s cultural animation
In this way of conceiving things, “cultural animation is an overall approach to formation
that aims at a harmonious growth and evolution of the individual considered as an
indivisible unit and not as a sum of parts or functions. This growth or maturation passes
through the awareness that the individual and social groups live in a symbolic world and
therefore, first of all, they must develop their ability to learn, create and make concrete
301 We can note the activities of the Association Catholique de la Jeunesse française founded in 1886.
The beginnings of organised animation date back to the beginning of the 20th century with the
founding of the Catholic Union Nationale des Colonies de Vacances in 1909 and the secular Fédération
Nationale des Colonies de Vacances in 1912. The activities of Protestant, Socialist and Scout organisations
etc. are also mentioned among animation activities. Cf. J.P. Augustin – J.C. Gillet, L’animation
professionnelle. Histoire, acteurs, enjeux, Harmattan, Paris-Montréal 2000, 23-40.
302 J.M. Barrado García, La animación sociocultural, un esfuerzo de aclaración, in “ Documentación Social”
26 (1982) 49, 12. Of course, in English there is also the difficulty with the widely spread understanding of
“animation”as the art or process of making movies with drawings or computer graphics.
303 Cf. Pollo, L’animazione culturale, 12. Mario Pollo also adds two other strands of animation: animation
within tourist villages and animation intended only as the use of techniques proper to animation, but
they would be considered only secondary and as derivatives of the first three strands.
304 Cf. the collection of theatre animation experiences in schools in Piedmont and Lombardy in F. Passatore
et al., Io ero l’albero (tu il cavallo), Guaraldi, Rimini 1972.

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use of symbolic systems.”305 The definition offers us some elements that make up the
core reflection found in Mario Pollo’s fundamental publication, L’animazione culturale:
teoria e metodo, which partially influenced the anthropology of animation including
within Salesian circles through the mediation of Riccardo Tonelli: the wholeness of the
person inserted in a symbolic world, animation as an integral formative methodology,
interaction between individuals in social groups, communication as creation and use of
symbolic systems, and finally a specific research methodology.
The human being, the subject and object of animation, is conceived, according to
Ernst Cassirer’s conception, as animal symbolicum. This ties in with Bernard Kaplan’s
communication theory and Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s systems theory, implying its own
concept of symbol, then applied to James Miller’s “living systems”.306 This rather
eclectic anthropology was expected to produce meaningful results: “It is the conviction
of many scholars that the only real outlet for the human sciences, if they wish to
emerge from the insignificance of many of their results, is to tackle the study of the
human being as homo symbolicus. At this level, in the unifying territory of culture, it is
then possible to set up a proper interdisciplinary perspective.”307 The space devoted to
theoretical-philosophical versus practical-procedural issues shows that Pollo’s primary
interest is to construct a theoretical basis.308 According to Pollo, animation offers an
overall approach to formative methodology:
It is undoubtedly a very crude typology to see in man one sphere of affective
life, one of intellectual life and finally one of social life. Cultural animation
tends to overcome this whole series of dichotomies which for a long time have
characterised human choices, such as rationality - emotionality, mind - body,
thought - instinct. [... Man’s] unity is guaranteed by the fact that he builds and
inhabits symbolic worlds.309
A holistic notion of the human being also includes the religious dimension, which
is, however, developed within the coordinates of mysticism and science. It starts with
Ludwig Wittgenstein stating the limits of knowledge: “There is indeed the inexpressible.
305 M. Pollo, L’animazione culturale: teoria e metodo. Una proposta, LDC, Leumann (Turin) 1980,
33.
306 Cf. The works mentioned in the text: E. Cassirer, Essay on man, Yale University Press, New Haven
1944; B. Kaplan, An approach to the problem of symbolic representation: nonverbal and verbal, in “Journal
of communication” 2 (1961) 52-62 and J.G. Miller, Living systems, McGraw-Hill, New York 1978.
307 Pollo, L’animazione culturale, 13. Cf. also Tonelli, Comunità educativa, in Vecchi – Prellezo
(eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale, 405-406 and Pollo – Tonelli, Animazione, in Ibid., 288-293.
308 Cf. Pollo, L’animazione culturale, 15-31.
309 Ibid., 34-35.

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This shows itself; it is the mystical... What we cannot speak about we must pass
over in silence.”310 Subsequently, Pollo understands the religious dimension as the
inexpressible, as symbolism of a non-linguistic nature, and animation would be an
existential communication, considered as an instrument that “succeeds in this difficult,
impossible operation”311 of expressing the inexpressible. The conclusion in which he
states that in practice “I do not know how it happens, so accepting Wittgenstein’s
invitation [...], I have already tried to say too much about what cannot be spoken of,
let me be silent” is symptomatic.312 Relegating the religious dimension to the area of
mysticism was one of the reasons for practically removing direct evangelisation from
the scene, seeing it as problematic, akin to proselytism. On the other hand, a generic
religiosity, a spirituality of the search for meaning, a hermeneutics of spiritual experience
or a psychological and existential analysis of deep motivations, etc. would be more
acceptable.
Pollo also devoted a section to educational planning in his publications, following a
general principle: “Planning is the link between any educational theoretical principle and
its translation into a concrete educational activity within a given social system.”313 This
is a difficult operation and in order “not to contradict a real practice of liberation, it is
essential that planning not be carried out around the table by the organisers or animators,
but that it be done by the organiser together with the group that is both the subject and
object of animation.”314 To avoid things being simple, a question of mechanics, while
at the same time grasping for straws somehow, he points to the fact that systematic
planning models exist, but makes no reference to who or what. Pollo seeks to justify
educational planning as compatible with the concept of cultural animation, but does
not offer procedures, models or concrete methodologies, deliberately remaining at the
level of principles and the generic.315
310 L. Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus, in Pollo, L’animazione culturale, 67.
311 Pollo, L’animazione culturale, 73.
312 Ibid. Cf. the influence of Pollo’s approach on the anthropological model underlying the description
of the religious dimension of man in Pollo – Tonelli, Animazione, in Vecchi – Prellezo
(eds.), Progetto educativo pastorale, 297-298.
313 Pollo, L’animazione culturale, 51.
314 Ibid., 51.
315 Ibid., 66.

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Educational implications of Riccardo Tonelli’s animation
Some methodological indications for planning came from Riccardo Tonelli, who used
the concepts of programming and planning in youth ministry as early as 1968.316 The
author focused mainly on the general approach of youth ministry and not on the
methodology, which he considered a technical issue that
requires technical competence, to be acquired through the study of specialised
disciplines. [...] This trust in and respect for the technical apparatus is a specific
Salesian requirement, as a logical consequence of the awareness that there is a
close relationship between education (and the related educational sciences) and
evangelisation.317
Despite the theoretical emphasis of his approach, he offers an interesting elaboration of
the planning steps in his aforementioned article Per fare un progetto educativo in 1980.
Speaking of education to the faith, he takes up the two planning schemes mentioned by
Michele Pellerey,318 but altering the departure point.319 Cf. Figure F for a comparison of
the two models.
Figure F: Organising a plan in Pellerey and Tonelli
316 Cf. the monograph that attempted to outline some of the issues related to programming already in
the second year of the journal in R. Tonelli, Riunioni di verifica, in “Note di Pastorale Giovanile”
2 (1968) 8-9, 60-65 and Id., Punti fermi per una programmazione valida, in “Note di Pastorale
Giovanile” 3 (1969) 8-9, 43-59. For planning, see Id., Un progetto di pastorale giovanile per i giovani
d’oggi, in “Note di Pastorale Giovanile” 13 (1979) 1, 3-21 and Id., Per fare un progetto educativo, in
“Note di Pastorale Giovanile” 14 (1980) 6, 57-66.
317 Cf. R. Tonelli, Impostazione della comunità educativa in un contesto pluralista, in R. Gianatelli (ed.),
Progettare l’educazione, 83; Pollo – Tonelli, Animazione, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.), Progetto
educativo pastorale, 309 and Tonelli, Comunità educativa, in Ibid., 415.
318 Cf. Pellerey, Progettazione didattica, SEI, Turin 1979, 38.
319 Cf. Tonelli, Per fare un progetto educativo, 60.

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Tonelli rejected Pellerey’s two schemes for epistemological reasons that are debatable,
stating the first planning scheme prefers “objectivity”, not considering the situation, and
the second is overly subjective. He therefore proposed a further “hermeneutic model”.
The objectives and questions that arise from the analysis of the situation must be read in
the light of the “God event”. Tonelli said: “We must use faith as the key to interpretation.
It cannot replace the descriptive sciences. But the descriptive sciences cannot do without
faith when they want to tell us what man needs in the depths of his existence.320
Interpretation in the light of the “God event” is important both for understanding
the youth condition and for formulating the objectives, which are understood by the
author to be in close relationship with the truths of faith, “to prevent the reinvention
of objectives from ending up hollowly and reducing the God event in anthropological
terms.”321 As with other contributions from Tonelli, pastoral theorising stays at the level
of enunciating principles without going down to the methodological level of how to
realise this interpretation in the light of the God event.
In his four-decade involvement as editor of Note di Pastorale Giovanile, Tonelli
produced many reflections on many fields related to youth ministry. Since he was not a
typical author of Salesian pedagogy, but rather a pastoral theologian in general, we do
not intend to offer a synthesis of his thinking, but focus on the fundamental theme for
the period we are considering: the relationship between education and evangelisation,
which for him should be thought in the context of animation.322 As he himself said
when evaluating his forty-year commitment, the early reflections after 1968 started from
the negative and the problematic and then moved on to the positive and the proactive.
In contrast to the models inspired by Ricaldone, Tonelli insisted on the power of the
Incarnation – God becomes man in Jesus – which is subsequently translated into two
fundamental criteria for a renewal of youth ministry following Vatican II:
The first concerns the theological significance of daily life, the great sacrament
of presence and encounter with God, in Jesus. On the side of life, it was possible
to reformulate a serious project of spirituality and to rewrite, at least in broad
strokes, the sacramental and celebratory path. The second strongly calls for the
320 Tonelli, Per fare un progetto educativo, 61.
321 Ibid.
322 Cf. e.g. the emblematic synthesis of Tonelli’s thinking on the relationship between education and
evangelisation in the 7th Quaderno dell’animatore (Animator’s Notebook), which summarises all the main
themes, in R. Tonelli, La scelta dell’animazione nell’educazione alla fede, LDC, Leumann (TO)
1983, 1-32.

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urgency of education, precisely in what we can even call its theological dimension.
Life is a sacrament of the encounter with God when it is authentic, constructed
and expressed according to God’s plan, encountered in Jesus. Education is the
privileged means by which we can restore the quality of life to each person.323
From a pre-Vatican II moralistic, voluntaristic, sacramentally-based and hierarchical
model, an inclusive, egalitarian, gradual, humanistic and educational model developed
as a reaction. The choice of education was perceived by Tonelli as “a concrete expression
of our love for life and our service to the maturation of the lives of young people.”324 It
is interesting to analyse the definition of education that derives from these assumptions:
“to educate means, from the perspective of life, to establish a relationship through which
different individuals, happy to be different, exchange experiences and reasons for hope,
in order to reciprocally return to each other the joy of living, the freedom to hope and
the capacity to be protagonists of their own existence, things which we are very often
violently robbed of by dominant cultural models.”325
In continuity with Mario Pollo’s approach, the dimension of evangelisation is seen from
the perspective of the “mystery” which cannot be spoken about too much and cannot
be translated concretely: “Faith comes from the experience of the mystery.” In Tonelli’s
epistemology, education has the strength of concreteness trusting in its transforming
power. Evangelisation, on the other hand, has its hands tied by the inexpressible, the
mystical, the necessary pre-evangelisation, respect for the concrete growth of the young
person and the danger of being proselytising in the old way. And so it is realised through
“sacramentality diffused in daily life” brought about only through educational processes.
Although Tonelli states that one of the limitations is the “before” and “after”
game in the relationship between education and evangelisation, he nevertheless predicts
that: “usually, education precedes evangelisation. It always accompanies it. It often
returns strongly after the first experiences of immersion in the mystery.”326 For Tonelli,
animation is positioned here as an inspiration that is not just an instrumental technique,
but an overall wager on the human being and a complex project for human maturation.
Within the relationship between education and evangelisation,
323 R. Tonelli, Ripensando quarant’anni di servizio alla pastorale giovanile, intervista a cura di Giancarlo
De Nicolò, in “Note di Pastorale Giovanile” 43 (2009) 5, 18.
324 Ibid., 28.
325 Ibid.
326 Ibid., 42.

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animation, as a holistic way of carrying out education, becomes the place where
the problems, the perspectives and the choices typical of education to the faith
are rethought and made concrete. And, at the same time, through dialogue with
the inalienable demands of the processes that concern the transmission of faith,
animation can understand itself better and reformulate itself in more adequate
terms, while remaining an autonomous process, oriented towards other goals
and other dimensions of human life.327
Given this approach, Tonelli very honestly recognises the most serious limitation of
the work done in recent years: the youth ministry project has often remained only at
the premises (epistemological and relatively generic).328 The fruits of his proposal are, in
our opinion, linked to the historical moment that favoured young people forming their
own groups spontaneously, the educational appreciation of the group and its dynamics,
the desire for commitment to the transformation of the world that was translated into
the commitment of volunteer work. Last but not least, the pathways of education to the
faith, also promoted by Tonelli, led various provinces to develop an educational proposal
that respected the various age groups with their relative developmental tasks.
In conclusion, it can be said that, especially in the oratory scene, the proposal of
group animation could succeed, on condition that it be combined with the systematic
formation of the animators seen as educators, within a functioning EPC encouraging
shared responsibility and governed with the criterion of continuity. In the school setting,
which was very strong in various regions of the Congregation, animation did not
develop as a worldwide educational method, generally being reduced to the animation of
individual events and celebrations that marked the pastoral year. Hence GC25’s criticism
of the “event-centered pastoral” and the need for a more process-oriented logic.329
Aldo Ellena’s social animation
A third type of proposal revolved around the activities of Aldo Ellena, Salesian and
graduate in philosophy from Turin and in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian
University, a teacher and cultural animator in Turin in the 1950s and 1960s, founder
of the Animazione sociale magazine in Milan in 1971 and author of the module on
327 Ibid., 44.
328 Cf. Ibid., 44-45.
329 Cf. CG25 (2002) nos. 37, 44 and 47.

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animators in the Educative and Pastoral Project. Modular elements. His reflections on
animation are closely linked to experiences of animation and formation of animators330
that then became the object of study in the early Quaderni di animazione sociale. Ellena
had previously addressed sociological, political and anthropological issues with the
translation and editing of Harroux and Praet’s Psychology of leaders, the Enciclopedia
Sociale, the Dizionario di Sociologia and two volumes on Presenza educativa.331
Looking more closely at the first three Quaderni di animazione sociale, we see
the interest in animation understood as a social practice that “aims to raise awareness
and develop the latent, repressed or suppressed potential of an individual, group or
community.”332 Moreover, animation is not proposed as a new specific profession, nor
as an external way of doing things, but as a “new way of assuming a professional profile
in a changing society.”333
Animation activities are described in physical, social, expressive and creative areas.
The question of animation in the Quaderni is connected with the volunteer movement,
leisure time, values, local involvement, participation, the group and the masses. Ellena
pays particular attention to the formation of animators, summarised in the module
he edited in the encyclopaedic Progetto Educativo Pastorale published by Vecchi and
Prellezo.
Compared to Tonelli and Pollo, the practical purpose of animation, seen as a
formative and socially transformative methodology, is evident in Ellena’s theory of social
animation. The experiences of the teams that gathered around him in planning, carrying
out and evaluating both the formation of animators and interventions in his local area,
make his proposals practical and methodologically more stimulating. The missing aspect
is the absence of a broader anthropological reference framework inspired by Christianity.
In Ellena’s proposal, animation seems to be too linked to the transformation of society
330 Cf. G. Contessa – A. Ellena – R. Salvi, Animatori del tempo libero, Società Editrice Napoletana,
Naples 1979; G. Contessa – A. Ellena, Animatori di quartiere, Società Editrice Napoletana,
Naples 1980 and P.G. Branca – G. Contessa – A. Ellena, Animare la città, Istituto di Scienze
Amministrative e di promozione sociale, Milan 1982.
331 Cf. H. Harroux – J. Praet, Psicologia dei leaders, SEI, Turin 1957; A. Ellena (ed.), Enciclopedia
sociale, vol. 1: Introduzione ai problemi sociali, Paoline, Rome 1958; F. Demarchi – A. Ellena
(eds.), Dizionario di Sociologia, Paoline, Rome 1976 and A. Ellena (ed.), Presenza educativa, 2 vols.,
LDC, Leumann (TO) 1976-77.
332 Contessa – Ellena – Salvi, Animatori del tempo libero, 132.
333 Contessa – Ellena, Animatori di quartiere, 91. Cf. also Ellena, Animatori, in Vecchi – Prellezo
(eds.), Progetto educativo, 355 and 357.

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and lacks a more far-sighted vision that could make it relevant even outside the context
of the interesting years following Vatican II.
In spite of the limitations mentioned, observing the concrete application of the
animation that took place in working class neighbourhoods in Ellena’s case and in youth
groups in Tonelli’s case, one can grasp a relevant methodological novelty. It is about
group dynamics. Even if experienced in the particular Italian context of the 1960s and 70s
following the Council, these were the most significant indirect contribution to the SEPP
methodology334 which balances the implicit individualism of Stenhouse’s proposal and
that of other curriculum designers who focus on the individual teacher and not on the
educational community.
In addition to the stress on the role of the group and the community in the
educational and planning process, one can accept Tonelli’s invitation (but not as
expressed in practice) regarding the importance of a hermeneutical stage in planning.
The interpretation of the situation and of the objectives through the eyes of faith is, for
obvious reasons, an attention that is missing in curricular theories, but it is required by
the basic link between education and evangelisation within SEPP.335
The methodological split between religion and education
Before Vatican II, the holistic and foundational perspective of the philosophia perennis
and related neo-Scholastic theology held Ricaldone’s and the early Braido’s approach
together, especially the latter in its openness to different pedagogies and their
methodologies. After Vatican II, the human sciences were seen as being relatively
autonomous from theology,336 bringing different approaches and rationales into the
methodological sphere. This was especially evident in the planning area, within which
priority was given to finding workable answers to concrete needs sought through the
technical method of planning and design, while “theory” appeared later merely as
“theory of practice” or a “framework” that often did not hold together systematically.
In this regard, it is obvious that in the period following Vatican II there could
not be “one” Salesian educational methodology, so other rationales, education by
dimensions, each with its own preferred contents and methods, had to be introduced.337
The post factum statements on the need to integrate these dimensions often only
334 Cf. The emphasis on the community principle in Tonelli, Comunità educativa, in Vecchi –
Prellezo (eds.), Progetto educativo, 399-417.
335 Cf. GC21 (1978), no. 13.
336 Cf. Gaudium et Spes, no. 36; Gravissimus Educationis, no. 10 and Apostolicam Actuositatem, no. 7.
337 Cf. Dicastero PG, Elementi e linee, Sussidio 2 and subsequent publications by the Department.

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served as an impossible remedy for a non-integrated mentality. Even within the
reflection on education at the UPS, pedagogy was set aside and educational sciences
preferred as a multidisciplinary concept that often had interdisciplinarity only as
an ideal reference.338 It is understandable that in the crisis years people spoke of
interdisciplinarity while meaning autonomy, so that epistemological discussions were
influenced by the organisational issues in the Faculty of Education. The cultural
horizons of the Educare trilogy in the 1950s completely disappeared and attempts at
reflection in the 1980s, such as the Progetto Educativo Pastorale, revealed the skills of
individuals rather than a jointly developed vision.
The application of this autonomy became paradigmatic in Ricaldone’s preferred
field, which was catechesis. Cesare Bissoli, a biblical and catechetical scholar as well,
explains his approach, followed for several decades, in this typical way:
From the Word of God (the Bible) we can derive a pedagogy, but not as a set of
specific indications that are the same for everyone (in other words, ready-made
recipes), but as an overall approach, or rather a spirit, the founding motivations,
the profound reasons with which to think and do education. This also applies
to the so-called ‘terrestrial realities’, such as political power, the polis and its
government, the economy, bioethics, etc. Not how we educate, but why we
educate, lies at the heart of biblical revelation.339
He is rightly reacting to a reductive perception of the Gospel as a recipe book,
but denies the possibility of deriving methodological indications from Christian
revelation. The nominalism of Ricaldone’s Gospel method, his term for activist
methodology, seems to be revealed, and opens the way to all the scientific, didactic
and educational methodologies of the moment. The ordering force of the principle
of religion in Ricaldone’s system, with so many meticulous applications, was then
shattered by the Salesian boarding school crisis both in the perception of the Salesians
and in the perception of the pupils.340 The model of the Salesian boarding school
338 Interesting and revealing are the endless discussions of the lecturers at the Higher Institute of Pedagogy
(since 1973 the Faculty of Educational Sciences at UPS) on the principle of interdisciplinarity. Cf.
e.g. Verbali Collegio di Facoltà 1971-75 in Archivio FSE.
339 C. Bissoli, Bibbia e Pastorale Giovanile. Interview with Cesare Bissoli by Giancarlo De Nicolò, in
“Note di Pastorale Giovanile” 42 (2008) 7, 20. For a more in-depth analysis cf. C. Bissoli, Bibbia e
educazione. Contributo storico-critico ad una teologia dell’educazione, LAS, Rome 1981.
340 Cf. P.G. Grasso, La Società Salesiana tra il passato e l’avvenire. Risultati di un’inchiesta tra ex allievi
salesiani, Reserved extra-commercial edition, PAS, Rome 1964, 45-152.

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as a total institution which allowed for the integration of different dimensions and
methodologies, was no longer considered suitable to the needs of the times, while
the structure and style of the oratory as a more fluid combination of different
institutions was revalued: “Very special care should be taken with the ‘original’ work
of the oratory [...] so that it succeeds in attracting and serving the greatest number of
young people, with a variety of institutions (youth centres, clubs, various associations,
courses, evening schools...).”341 The updating of the educational methodology in the
oratory went successively in the direction of animation, understood as a gradual,
respectful educational methodology, but also as a distributed and participatory method
of governance.
The most methodologically concrete aspects of education fell within the container
of planning, which was, however, influenced by a reductive underlying anthropology.
From the study of the authors who inspired the SEPP model, an image emerges of the
human being linked to educational planning by objectives, which in turn demonstrates
strong dependence on management by objectives.342 Peter Drucker, the most significant
author of management by objectives at the time, defines his philosophy of action as one
that transforms needs into objectives of action. The human being is viewed simply as
a free and rational being who decides to implement an objective that is not imposed
by others but reflects a real need. The subsequent realisation of the goal takes place
mainly through the instrument of self-control.343 The concept of planning by objectives
sought to involve the actors in the decision-making process of formulating objectives
as a team, going beyond the traditional fidelity to the tasks undertaken and obedience
to hierarchies. This tendency, particularly felt in secular organisations, was in tune with
the Salesian world, which was moving away from a boarding school perspective, leaving
religion and evangelisation in the harmless container of a dimension.
The image of the “modern” human being who thinks rationally, and translates
needs into objectives and acts through the effort of the will and self-control, passed
into Salesian planning through the notion of rational action that follows a linear
process (situation, objectives, means, assessment) and the division of growth into
dimensions that must be planned autonomously (education, evangelisation, group
interest, vocation). This anthropology brought a reactive system (to situations) and
341 GC19 (1965), 103.
342 Cf. A more in-depth analysis in Vojtáš, Progettare e discernere, 113-149.
343 Cf. P.F. Drucker, Management. Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, Truman Talley Books, New York
1986 which takes up many instances from his previous major publication The Practice of Management,
Harper&Row, New York 1954.

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an indifferent one (to individuals) into Salesian education under different guises. In
principle it is not the individuals that matter, but the grand coordinates, demographic
needs and the achievement of the objectives arising from them.
Vocational pedagogy is another field within which the uneasy relationship between
educational methodology and religion became evident. Vocation was understood as a
“life project”, shifting the emphasis from following a vocation to creating a project,
from fidelity to the coordinates of the call to the authentic living out of a life project.
Interesting in this sense is what GC21 had to say about vocational pedagogy: “the
discovery of one’s calling, the well-thought-out free choice of a program of life,
constitutes the crowning goal of any process of human and Christian growth”,344 that
can be interpreted in (at least) two ways. The first is somewhat cognitive and proclaims
the importance of a calling within the processes of growth. The second is more educative
and practical: if the discovery of the calling is a crowning moment, it is not, obviously, the
starting point. It is not appropriate for the educator to begin immediately to implement
vocational strategies, because there are prior steps to be respected. These antecedents are
at least the two that are mentioned: growth in freedom and the reflective and cultural
criteria of the life project.
The second way of interpreting things is to defer matters, and joins the game where
education comes “first” and the other dimensions come “later”. We also find this in
terms of phases as presented in the Youth Ministry booklets. When the topic of explicit
vocational orientation is addressed, first comes the phase of availability, then a phase of
discernment and finally, a choice of vocation.345 In fact, the poorly integrated positioning
of the vocational dimension within the educative and pastoral project can be seen in
various publications, official ones and studies, over the last twenty years of the twentieth
century. In the third series of the booklets, dealing with the SEPP in Salesian oratories,
schools and parishes, the vocational area, reduced to a few sentences, is for all intents and
purposes marginalised. The next booklet, which came out in 1981, instead dealt with
Essential Guidelines for a Provincial Plan for the Vocations Ministry, filling this gap, but
within the perspective of a separate pastoral category, organised separately and planned
centrally by the province.346 The responsibility for vocations promotion was entrusted
in principle to the provincial and the rector; in concrete terms to a vocations promoter
at the provincial level and also at the local level, a figure that was never implemented in
344 GC21 (1978), no. 106.
345 Cf. Dicastero PG, Elementi e linee, Sussidio 2, 48-49.
346 Cf. Dicastero PG, Lineamenti essenziali per un Piano Ispettoriale di Pastorale Vocazionale, Sussidio 4.

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the majority of local contexts. At the level of works, the only structure whose primary
interest was vocations was the aspirantate, which was generally in crisis for the same
reasons that had led to the boarding school crisis.347
In the years around GC23, which took up the theme of education to the faith, we
can see a shift in meaning around the vocational dimension. From vocation understood
as the choice of a state of life we move to vocation as the personalisation of faith. In
the overview which was the 1990 Salesian Youth Ministry booklet, vocation is spoken
about on four levels: human, baptismal, Salesian and personal, including the choice of
a real life project.348 The preferred educational and vocational methodology seems to be
volunteering and commitment to transforming the world. GC23 moved in this direction
when it named “commitment and vocation in what concerns the transformation of the
world” as one of the four areas of Christian growth.349 The same Chapter mentioned
the main core themes of Salesian Youth Spirituality. Since there was not an explicitly
“vocational” one, personal “friendship with the Lord Jesus” and “responsible service”
were the terms used.350
The concept of personal itineraries or programmes of education in the faith was also
introduced following CG23, in the 1990s. One example of thinking along these lines was
the reflection by Jacques Schepens making individualisation the key to the rethinking
of Salesian education after Vatican II. His pedagogical proposal revolved around how
young people individualise things in an emotional, rational, moral way in search for
the ultimate meaning of life. In this last dimension, focused on the meaning of life,
the question is asked: “How can the ‘I’ in the statement ‘I believe’ grow and become a
personal ‘I’?”351 which leaves faith and vocation within the context of self-transcendence,
mystery, symbolism, without a personal call from God.
The whole question of vocation, given the influence of earlier-mentioned approaches
such as gradualism, dimensions, specialised settings and personalisation was treated as a
special and not central category even in the specialised journals. One can analyse the
347 Where the aspirantate structure was used, the Salesians within generally adopted more an approach
of recruitment and not a precise vocational discernment and methodology.
348 Cf. Dicastero PG, Pastorale giovanile salesiana, 72-73.
349 Cf. GC23 (1990), nos. 116ff.
350 Cf. Ibid., nos. 161ff.
351 Cf. J. Schepens, Die Pastoral in der Spannung: Zwischen der christlichen Botschaft und dem Menschen
von heute, Don Bosco, Munich 1994 and then developed in Id. – R. Burggraeve, Emotionalität,
Rationalität und Sinngebung als Faktoren christlicher Werterziehung. Eine Interpretation des pädagogischen
Erbes Don Boscos für heute, Don Bosco, Munich 1999.

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indexes of Note di Pastorale Giovanile in the period from 1967 to 1997 for the field of
youth ministry and of Orientamenti Pedagogici between 1954 and 1988 for the more
explicitly educational field. In the case of the first-mentioned, the indexes of the first
thirty years do not include the vocational proposal among either basic choices or in the
concrete project. We do find the concept towards the end of the list of entries, in the
category “Attention to special categories of those to whom we are sent”, seen in terms of
personalisation between orientation, profession and vocation.352 In the other journal,
vocation does not even feature in the subject or sector index. The few articles that do
deal with the subject understand it mainly as an ecclesiastical-religious-priestly vocation
and adopt a medical, psychological or pedagogical perspective, delving into personality
characteristics, motivational aspects, the process of discernment and the ways religious
form people.353
The concept of vocation is not one of the strong points within Tonelli’s cultural
animation. From the obligations of pre-Vatican II “religion” perceived as moralising
and burdensome he moved on to the more universal but also more generic concept
of “spirituality”. The task of the educator would be above all to “embody” himself,
accept the young person unconditionally. Above all in the educative and pastoral
proposals linked to the theory of animation, a holistic idea of the human being is
proposed, but it incorporates the human being’s religious and spiritual dimension as
lying somewhere between mysticism, subjectivism and science. In 1981, during the
Colloquiums on the Salesian vocation, Tonelli took up symbolic anthropology and the
Wittgensteinian approach of non-argumentative silence,354 proposing an experiential
logic of unconditional acceptance that creates the conditions for telling the story of
Jesus.355 At the end of his talk he once more offered a concept of Christian vocation,
saying, typically:
Welcome is therefore the place where the process of liberating education
develops that gives each young people their own life back, frees them from
352 Cf. Indice NPG 50 anni: Voci tematiche – Autori – Dossier, in bit.ly/npg-it-indice.
353 Cf. Analytical indexes relating to the topic: Vocazione, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 10 (1963) 6,
1165; Vocazione, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 25 (1978) 1313 and Vocazione, in “Orientamenti
Pedagogici” 35 (1988) 6, 1092.
354 Cf. R. Tonelli, Accoglienza e formazione dei giovani nella comunità, in F. Desramaut – M. Midali,
La vocazione Salesiana. Colloquium on Salesian Life Barcelona (Spain) 23-28 August 1981, LDC,
Leumann (TO) 1982, 203-204 and 207. Of interest is the immediate feedback on Tonelli’s address
reacting to the generic nature of his proposal. Cf. Ibid. 217.
355 Cf. Ibid., 207-212.

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alienation and makes them the protagonists of their own and other people’s
liberation. Acceptance is the place where salvation is worked out. The community
accepts them unconditionally in order to bear witness to the radical dignity
of every person. In welcoming, it urges people to live their regained dignity
as responsibility for themselves, others and history. Acceptance is the place of
and the condition for formation: the place of an intense, fascinating vocational
experience, until its eventual radicalisation in consecration and the ordained
ministry.356
356 Ibid., 215.

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Tools and resources
Chronological table

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SDB, Rome 1988.
Viganò A. – Viganò F., Don Egidio Viganò, settimo successore di Don Bosco. Frammenti
di vita, LDC, Leumann (TO) 1996.
Viganò E., The Salesian Educational Project, in ASC 59 (1978) 290, 3-42.
Viganò E., Our African Commitment, in ASC 61 (1980) 297, 3-29.
Viganò E., Replanning our holiness together, in ASC 63 (1982) 303, 3-28.
Viganò E., The Salesian Family, in ASC 63 (1982) 304, 3-45.
Viganò E., The 22nd General Chapter, in ASC 63 (1982) 305, 5-20.
Viganò E., The New Evangelisation, in ASC 70 (1989) 331, 3-43.
Viganò E., New Education, in AGC 72 (1991) 337, 3-43.
Vojtáš M.,Progettare e discernere. Progettazione educativo-pastorale salesiana tra storia,
teorie e proposte innovative, LAS, Rome 2015.
Online resources
Sources, documents, research, full-text publications, photographic material tied to this
chapter.357
357 Cf. salesian.online/pedagogia5

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New evangelisation and
education for the third
millennium (1998–2018)
Postmodernity and the Salesian Congregation
From what we have explored in the previous chapters one could draw an approximate
view of the post-Vatican II period in the Salesian context as one that took up
various currents of modern thought in mental contrast to the traditionalism of
the Ricaldonian period. Analytical science, division by disciplines, anthropocentrism,
democratic-bureaucratic models of management of the Congregation, reliance on
science and technology in planning or in communication are strong signs of the modern
imprint of this era. With the advent of the third millennium, the effects of the new vital
context marked by changing post-modernity was felt within the Salesian Congregation
in terms of the economic, value and vocational crisis of the West, the demographic
growth of non-Western Regions and as a result of ageing in various provinces followed
by the necessary downsizing of works.
The precariousness and fluidity of the third millennium
The end of the bipolar world and the associated perception of victory of the free world
over the communist world, which fuelled the politics and predictions of the future in
the 1990s, faded and became insignificant around the turn of the millennium. The
loss of the Cold War coordinates gave way to the outbreak of various local conflicts
and led to new and no less fearsome global struggles: between the rich North and the

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poor South, and the West and aggressive Islam following the wars of the United States
of America in the Middle East. After a chaotic decade under President Boris Yeltsin,
Russia is emerging as a strategic state internationally, especially after the annexation of
Crimea and interventions abroad, such as during the Syrian civil war. Vladimir Putin’s
iron leadership combined with the economic growth of China, India and the other
BRICS countries has created a strong counterbalance to a liberal democracy marked by
an internal crisis in the first decade of the new millennium. In the second decade, China’s
economic growth, with investments of hundreds of billions in developing countries,
stands out.1
The 2008 financial crisis, also brought about by the deregulation of financial
markets, the entry of new monetary instruments and the use of dark pools algorithms,
dealt a severe blow to the myth of infinite economic growth and the “dogma” of capitalist
success. The ephemeral pro-democratic enthusiasm of the Arab Spring after 2010,
with its massive and idealised use of social media, faded away after a few years, leaving
the region in an unstable situation and mobilising masses of people to emigrate. In
addition, the rise of populist parties and leaders in the West has taken further credit
away from the democratic system. The year 2020, with the final implementation of
Brexit and internal tensions within the European Union, Donald Trump’s presidency in
the US, the Sino-American economic and cyberwar, algorithmically disseminated fake
news, uncertain global economic development and the diminishing role of international
bodies such as the UN, creates a radically different image of the world from the previous
era, very fluid and insecure, without guarantees and much hope for the future.2
Latin America has seen a series of high-risk elections in the new millennium,
with the rise and fall of some socialist regimes. Venezuela’s economic collapse caused
the most severe migrant crisis in the region’s history and required the intervention
of the International Monetary Fund with the largest bailout package ever. Bolivia
experienced the rise of Evo Morales with a policy of indigenous socialism and his fall
in 2019. Unpredictability has many faces: radical changes in political agendas, financial
experiments and economic crises, the impact of drug cartels on insecurity especially
in Central America, migration towards the United States, environmental destruction
1 Cf. G. Sabatucci G. – V. Vidotto, Storia contemporanea. Dalla Grande Guerra a oggi, Laterza, Bari
2019; W.J. Duiker, Contemporary World History, Cengage Learning, Stamford, CT 2014; J. Marr –
R. Cherry, Investing in Emerging Markets. The BRIC Economies and Beyond, Wiley, Chicester 2010;
J. Staniszkis, Post-Communism. The Emerging Enigma, Institute of Political Studies, Warsaw 1999.
2 Cf. A. Bayat, Revolution without Revolutionaries. Making Sense of the Arab Spring (= Stanford Studies
in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures), Stanford University Press, Stanford CA 2017.

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especially in Brazil that called for the convening of a Special Synod for the Panamanian
region in 2019.3
On the eve of independence revolutions, Africa was the continent of hope and
great expectations. By the third decade after independence, the clear optimism was
replaced by the darker hues of ethno-political conflicts, military governments, civil
wars, Islamic movements, poverty and disease. With the rise of re-democratisation in
the 1990s and pan-Africanism resulting from the formation of the African Union,
Africa seemed destined to reclaim its vaunted destiny. In the third millennium, however,
the crisis is continuing with the absence of good governance, the personalisation of state
power, the spread of disease, political failure in education as well as in the economy and
infrastructural development. Although endowed with abundant human and natural
resources, Africa remains an underdeveloped continent, ruled by outside capital,
especially from China.4
In summary, the world of the third millennium would seem to be well characterised
by the English acronym VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.
Changes occur very quickly and are of a different nature, so it is very difficult to
predict the course of events. Models based on linear causality no longer work because
of the complexity and interconnectedness of phenomena. Finally, the ambiguity of
interpretations, caused by the end of the great narratives of modernity, also makes
concepts and theories more fluid.
The Salesian Congregation shifting to non-Western interculturality
As we have seen in the previous chapters, global changes do not always immediately affect
the Salesian world and, if they do, they do not affect it in the same way in the different
regions. In the third millennium it seems that two “worlds” can be distinguished in the
Salesian world: the old Euro-American regions and the new and growing regions of Asia
and Africa. Globally, from 2002 to 2020, the number of Salesians has decreased by 10%,
but the distribution in the different age groups at the end of the second decade holds
3 Cf. BBVA – OpenMind, The age of perplexity. Rethinking the World we Knew, Penguin Random
House, Madrid 2018; World Bank, World Development Report, World Bank, Washington DC 2017;
sinodoamazonico.va.
4 Cf. R.A. Olaniyan – E.A. Ifidon, Contemporary Issues in Africa’s Development. Whither the African
Renaissance, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne 2018; UNDP, Human Development
Report, UNDP, New York 2015, 208-211.

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some promise: Salesians in their thirties and forties outnumber those in their fifties and
sixties by a thousand, who in turn slightly outnumber the confreres over seventy.5
However, demographic differentiation is taking place in the regions and implies
a dynamic of inter-regional migration. Obviously, the situation is not limited to the
Salesians alone: very similar dynamics can be observed in other religious orders and
diocesan clergy. It is enough to see the data on the mobility of diocesan clergy with a
change especially in the second decade of the new millennium. For example, in 2017
we notice more than 6,500 African and Asian priests moving to Europe and America,
compared to those moving in the opposite direction.6 The ageing of Salesian personnel
is strongest in the Mediterranean region of Europe with an average age of 66 years, and
more than 1,500 confreres over seventy. The youngest regions are Africa and South Asia
(India) with an average age between 41 and 43 years. More than 58% of the confreres
under the age of thirty come from Africa or South Asia. This fact also influences the shift
in the cultural-linguistic centre of gravity: more than half of the confreres in formation
(including the quinquennium) speak English.7 In 2002 the majority of newly professed
were still from America and Europe, but in 2020 already three quarters of the newly
professed are from Asia and Africa.8
The average number of Salesians in the communities over the last thirty years has
remained unchanged in Asia and Africa at 7.3 religious per presence. In America and
Europe, however, the number has dropped from 9.6 in 1990 to 7.6 in 2020.9 Moreover,
almost 40% of these confreres are already over 70 years of age (in the Mediterranean
region, the percentage of those over 70 is even higher, at 52%).10 The division of
responsibilities is a more complex phenomenon when it comes to the numerical
consistency of communities. We merely note that the statistics show that there are 13,849
Salesians dedicated full-time to educative and pastoral works and 13,063 part-time in
one of them.11 To be added to this is the work of almost 2,000 rectors and economers
5 Cf. Society of St Francis de Sales, Data and Statistics. 28th General Chapter; Salesian headquarters,
Rome 2020, 27.
6 Cf. I flussi migratori dei sacerdoti tra i continenti. Nota dell’Ufficio centrale di Statistica della Chiesa
(05 July 2019), in osservatoreromano.va/it/news/i-flussi-migratori-dei-sacerdoti-tra-i- continenti.
7 Cf. M. Bay, Giovani Salesiani e accompagnamento. Risultati di una ricerca internazionale, LAS, Rome
2018, 35.
8 Cf. Data and statistics, 28th General Chapter, 18.
9 Cf. Ibid., 83.
10 Cf. Ibid., 26.
11 Cf. Ibid., 95.

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(bursars, treasurers...) of communities and commitments outside the community that
are not reported. In addition, the confreres who do not dedicate themselves fully to
educational work because of age, health or because they are still in initial formation
should not be taken into consideration. If we add up the numbers, we find that confreres
with multiple roles is a widespread phenomenon. The consequence is that people
are overloaded with work and that relative importance is given to institutional and
educational roles, following the principle of the “possible” rather than the “ideal”.
The trend of multiple roles is visible in the growth of works at a time of decrease
and ageing of Salesian personnel. In the period from 2002 to 2020, the number of
work categories increased. Schools have been growing worldwide by about one fifth,
both in terms of structures and number of young people attending them. While the
number of Salesian and lay staff in vocational schools remains constant, new courses of
study are being opened and even more young people are being accepted (around 35%)
without taking into account the new services of continuing vocational training and adult
education. There was an increase of 600 parishes in the 18 years studied: the number of
ad personam parishes has decreased, while the number of parishes in mission territories
has increased. Services for marginalised young people have increased both in terms of
the presence of Salesians (full and part-time) and in terms of structures. The number of
festive and daily oratories has doubled, while the number of youth centres has remained
the same. The number of those attending youth centres has dropped by almost half.12
12 Cf. Statistical Data, 28th General Chapter, 97-226

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Figure G: Salesians involved in various educative and pastoral works
As we can see from Figure G, the greatest number of Salesians in 2019 were engaged
in schools, which would seem to confirm a “traditional” choice of valuing school
environments. However, if one frames the situation of personnel by adding the members
of the Salesian Family, it would seem that the work par excellence on the basis of numbers
must be the parish, where more than 15,000 of them are engaged. In second place
are the oratories/youth centres with 9,000 and in third place are schools, with a total
number approaching 8,000. Rather than being a charismatic force, parishes seem to be
the weakest work from the point of view of Salesian identity. They are not represented
by a person dedicated to them at the level of the Youth Ministry Sector and are more
linked to the “diocesan” mentality that varies from one context to another. The Rector
Major points out the deficit of Salesian charismatic identity, mentioning phenomena
such as “the frequent abandonment of religious life in favour of parish priestly life, the

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easy take-over of parishes by Institutes, which are considered by them as places of refuge
and recycling rather than real mission centres.”13
The essential strengthening of Salesian identity indicated in the Report on the
State of the Congregation in 2020 is not only bound up with the decentralising effects
following Vatican II and do-it-yourself style postmodern individualism. There is also the
need, already strongly pointed out by Fr Vecchi in his magisterium,14 to accompany and
form ourselves together with the lay people who are increasingly involved full-time in
our works. The challenge applies especially to schools, where on average one full-time
Salesian needs to accompany 18 lay people, most of them with an employment contract,
and follow around 340 young people on a daily basis. The proportion of young people
per Salesian is also similar for the oratory/youth centre, but the difference lies in the more
limited collaboration in amount of work and cost involved in employing lay people,
whose number is almost double that of the schools. Thanks to smaller institutions,
vocational training, on the other hand, seems to be able to offer a more personalised
approach, reporting the proportion of 13 lay people and 200 students for every full-time
Salesian.15 Obviously, the numbers are overall averages, so they are approximations that
should be further investigated.
In 2020, about 90,000 lay people who do not belong to the Salesian Family are
involved in Salesian houses with a contract, two thirds of them as teachers or professors.
The remainder are service employees, administrative staff or consultants in works or
provinces. The existence of various formation programmes for the laity at the regional,
national or provincial level has been developed and consolidated especially in the two
regions of the Americas. It is surprising that, despite the strong impetus given by GC24,
shared mission and the joint formation of Salesians and laity did not appear among the
areas and objectives of the three six-year plans at the Congregational level after 2002. The
sharing of mission is an awareness that is slowly maturing in the Congregation, marking
an important change in the model of the ecclesiology of communion and the theology
of the laity of Vatican II.16
13 A. Montan, Il religioso presbitero nella Chiesa oggi: attualità, contenuti, prospettiva di un qualificato
seminario della CISM, in Á. Fernández Artime, Report of the Rector Major to the 28th General
Chapter, 16.
14 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, “For you I study.” (C 14). The satisfactory preparation of confreres and the quality of
our educational work, in AGC 78 (1997) 361, 3-47.
15 Cf. Data and statistics, 28th General Chapter, 97-226.
16 Cf. Á.F. Artime, Report of the Rector Major to the 28th General Chapter. Formation, [s.e.], [s.l.] 2020,
4.

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Benedict XVI and Francis – different but complementary emphases
on education
The different intellectual and pastoral backgrounds that characterise the two most recent
pontificates are also reflected in their emphasis on education. Benedict XVI, pontiff
from 2005 until his resignation in 2013, made the concept of “educational emergency”
resonate strongly in his concise and very lucid address to the diocese of Rome on the tasks
of education. His brilliant analysis starts by identifying a fracture in the mentality and
relations between generations within a culture that paralyses the educational intentions
of adults:
There is certainly a strong temptation among both parents and teachers as well as
educators in general to give up, since they run the risk of not even understanding
what their role or rather the mission entrusted to them is. In fact, it is not only
the personal responsibilities of adults or young people, which nonetheless exist
and must not be concealed, that are called into question but also a widespread
atmosphere, a mindset and form of culture which induce one to have doubt
about the value of the human person, about the very meaning of truth and
good, and ultimately about the goodness of life. It then becomes difficult to pass
on from one generation to the next something that is valid and certain, rules of
conduct, credible objectives around which to build life itself.17
Benedict XVI often described and reflected on the postmodern cultural climate,
especially in the West, in his speeches, speaking of shaken foundations and a lack of
essential certainties, but he did not close himself off from criticism: the difficulties are
interpreted within the framework of an adventure of freedom for which each generation
must make its own decisions. Unlike culture and science,18 in education there is no
accumulation of content and knowledge: “Not even the greatest values of the past can be
simply inherited; they must be claimed by us and renewed through an often anguishing
personal option.”19 In its delicate balance with educational discipline, gradual growth
17 Benedict XVI, Letter to the diocese and city of Rome on the urgent task of education (21 January 2008),
in bit.ly/vatican-va-2008-01-21.
18 Benedict XVI makes a profound interpretation of the transformation of the Christian faith-hope pair into
the modern synthesis of reason-freedom in a journey from Bacon to Marx in the Encyclical Spe Salvi,
nos. 16-23.
19 Benedict XVI, Letter to the diocese and city of Rome.

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in freedom is placed in a relational context of educational authority for Pope Benedict.
It is the fruit of experience and competence that is acquired above all through the
consistency of one's own life and personal involvement, an expression of true love.
Authentic Christian education is placed between two theological virtues: it starts with
charity, which by giving closeness and trust creates the conditions for authoritative
education, and it is nourished by reliable hope, the soul of education that overcomes the
crisis of confidence in life. The Pope brought his synthesis to a conclusion with references
to the Encyclical Spe Salvi, stating that God
… alone is the hope that withstands every disappointment; his love alone cannot
be destroyed by death; his justice and mercy alone can heal injustices and
recompense the suffering experienced. Hope that is addressed to God is never
hope for oneself alone, it is always also hope for others; it does not isolate us but
renders us supportive in goodness and encourages us to educate one another in
truth and in love.20
While Benedict XVI focused more on the theological foundations of Christian
hope, Pope Francis takes up the theme from a more pastoral point of view, saying “Let
us not allow ourselves to be robbed of hope”,21 encouraging the men and women of
our time to face social change positively, immersing themselves in reality with the light
radiating from the promise of Christian salvation. Emphasis on the merciful face of God
is Pope Francis’ typical paradigm in education, with a special emphasis on sensitivity
to the suffering and marginalised.22 He then develops themes such as the concrete
commitment to creation in the Encyclical Laudato Si’, the invitation to the young to no
balconear, that is, to be involved in life, the path of education in conjugal love in Amoris
Laetitia, and finally an educational and vocational path around the Youth Synod that
continues with the Global Educational Pact.
From his criticism of pseudo-education that calms young people down and turns
them into domesticated and inoffensive beings, Pope Francis proposes an education that
teaches them to think critically and that offers a path to maturity in values, in which
young people are called upon to be the protagonists of their own path to growth.23 While
20 Ibid.
21 Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), in AAS 105 (2013) 1019-
1137, no. 86.
22 Cf. Francis, Misericordiae Vultus. Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy (11 April
2015), in AAS 107 (2015) 399-420, no. 15.
23 Cf. Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, nos. 60, 64, 106.

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Benedict develops the theme of faith-based reasons for education, Francis, bringing
his pastoral logic into play, criticises above all “making education something for the
elite” that produces an educational divide.24 His proposals start from a Church as a
“field hospital” that brings into play the logic of closeness and mercy with rejected and
excluded young people, going on to rethink Catholic universities in their mission to
evangelise different cultures in the contemporary multicultural scene:
Ecclesiastical studies cannot be limited to passing on knowledge, professional
competence and experience to the men and women of our time who desire
to grow as Christians, but must also take up the urgent task of developing
intellectual tools that can serve as paradigms for action and thought, useful for
preaching in a world marked by ethical and religious pluralism. To do so calls not
only for profound theological knowledge, but also the ability to conceive, design
and achieve ways of presenting the Christian religion capable of a profound
engagement with different cultural systems.25
There is, of course, no shortage of readings that interpret the pontificates of John
Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis in terms of discontinuity, reinforcing the opposition
between conservatives and progressives. The interpretations of the recent pontificates,
with the associated ideas about Vatican II, are the tip of the iceberg of very complex
postmodern dynamics. More than the actual differences between the pontificates, the
research indicates that opposition is largely the result of the communication dynamics
of the third millennium – the intertwining of the post-truth paradigm, social media and
the algorithmic processing of search engines.26 This and the educational effects of new
media are briefly addressed in the next section.
24 Cf. J. Bergoglio, Scegliere la vita, Bompiani, Milan 2013, 94-95 and Pope Francis, La mia scuola,
ed. F. De Giorgi, La Scuola, Brescia 2014.
25 Francis, Apostolic Constitution Veritatis Gaudium on ecclesiastical universities and faculties (27
December 2017), in AAS 110 (2018) 1-41, no. 5.
26 Cf. e.g. B.B. Hawks – S. Uzunoğlu, Polarization, Populism and the New Politics. Media and
Communication in a Changing World, Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle upon Tyne 2019; S. Flaxman
– S. Goel – J.M. Rao, Filter Bubbles, Echo Chambers, and Online News Consumption, in “Public
Opinion Quarterly” 80 (2016) S1, 298–320; M.X. Delli Carpini – F.L. Cook – L.R. Jacobs,
Public Deliberation, Discursive Participation, and Citizen Engagement. A Review of the Empirical Literature,
in “Annual Review of Political Science” 7 (2004) 1, 315–344.

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Digital as tool, space and symbol of a generation
The late or postmodern notion of the human being further emphasises the basic
tendencies of the previous era: extreme freedom of choice, cognitive empiricism and
ethical pragmatism. In the third millennium, the human being would be an indefinite
potentiality that is self-created through his or her own choices to the point of complete
self-determination. Starting from the most common small choices in experiences of
leisure, expression, relationships, one arrives at the logic of choice of competences that
an individual implements in the course of education or formation. This can happen
to the extent of wanting to change the culture to which one belongs, one’s gender
identity, or, in extremis, even choose non-existence if reality does not correspond to one’s
expectations.
The postmodern cultural context is thus imbued with philosophical nihilism (there
is nothing stable, true and valid), ethical relativism (the individual is beyond good
and evil) and anthropological genderism (oscillating between gender choice and unisex
procedures). In addition to the potential multiplicity of choices, there is the paralysing
effect of an avalanche of empirical studies and the methodologies derived from them
on the small aspects of life. The fragmentary nature of this pragmatic empiricism
eventually leads the majority of people to adopt a paradoxical standardisation of
lifestyles, sweetened with apparent trivial personalisations: I can choose the background
image of the screen but not the data that the system collects and shares about me with
third parties and for profit. With the conditioning of the digital world, there is a risk of
closing in on a cognitive bubble based on preferences, creating algorithmic consumers.27
Obviously, the effects of new media are strongest on the new generation of young people,
called iGen as opposed to the xGen who grew up with the television of the 1980s and
1990s. Psychology researcher Jean Marie Twenge outlines ten interesting characteristics
of the young people of the third millennium:
– immaturity (childhood prolonged beyond adolescence);
– internet (online activity as a universal pastime);
– incorporeity (decline in personal social interactions);
– insecurity (crisis of mental health);
– irreligiosity (the loss of religious and spiritual reference points);
– insulation (emphasis on security and not on community involvement);
– income insecurity (the precarious nature of work models);
27 Cf. The interesting study by M.S. Gal – N. Elkin-Koren, Algorithmic Consumers, in “Harvard Journal
of Law & Technology” 30 (2017) 2, 1-45 which shows how algorithms not only affect cognition but
also have important economic and social implications.

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– indefiniteness (fluid identity in sexuality, marriage and procreation);
– inclusivity (the tendency to accept differences and minorities);
– independence (at the level of political convictions).28
Salesian Fabio Pasqualetti offers an interesting reading of the dynamics of continuity
among the latest generations of young people. What lies at the heart of today’s society
is the importance of spectacle. The aspects of beauty, harmony, truthfulness, ethics
or coherence are secondary or not considered; what is important is the impact: “The
pragmatism and hedonism found in many adult behaviours reveals a renunciation
of taking responsibility. All this before the advent of the use of the net.”29 I
think it is legitimate to see the current communications revolution in the light of
other communications revolutions in history: from oral to written, from written
to Gutenberg’s printing. Each change does not cancel out the previous one, but
integrates it into a new synthesis that will have to manage the flow of information,
conversations and ‘texts’. Before, there were management systems such as libraries,
private collections, scientific communities with their journals, indexes of banned books,
samizdat, and a whole economic and management system around publishing houses.
Now, in the digital era there are algorithmic indexing (e.g. Google), robot censorship,
digital collections, collections of user ratings, collaborative projects like Wikipedia, fake
news misinformation, hidden or illegal content on the dark web...
The parallels pointed out twenty years ago by international economist James Dewar
are interesting: the changes in the digital age may be as dramatic as those in Gutenberg’s
printing press, which contributed significantly to the transition from the Middle Ages
to the modern era. The digital future will be dominated by unintended consequences,
as in the printing age; it will take decades before the full effects of the digital age are
seen. While events happen faster nowadays and information is almost immediate, the
deep dynamics of network development will last decades, because they are linked to
human and (inter)generational learning rhythms. Despite the rhetoric of rapid change,
significant and permanent cultural change happens at its own non-rapid pace, as emerges
from an interesting study on parallels in communication revolutions in history.30
28 Cf. J.M. Twenge, iGen. Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More
Tolerant, Less Happy and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood and What That Means for the Rest
of Us, Atria Books, New York 2017.
29 Cf. F. Pasqualetti, Dietro le quinte della rete, in M. Vojtáš – P. Ruffinatto (eds.), Giovani
e scelte di vita: Prospettive educative. Acts of the International Congress organised by the Pontifical
Salesian University and the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences at the Auxilium Rome, 20-23
September 2018, LAS, Rome 2019, 84.
30 Cf. J.A. Dewar, The information age and the printing press: Looking backward to see ahead, Rand,
Santa Monica CA 1998.

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As Salesians we had the experience of the first generation growing up around the
middle of the nineteenth century, and of the transition from an oral communication
culture in rural life to a city culture of the printed word. Teaching literacy was the
driving force of Salesian schools, adapting a classical high school model with attention
to modernity, and Salesian publishers found management models that combined the
dissemination of books to low-income populations with the preparation of skilled
typographers and bookbinders. Similar attention will be needed for the transition from
the culture of the printed word to the visual and interactive culture of digital expression.
For now it would seem that Salesians are present in the digital world (with mixed
fortunes), but not yet with a model that successfully combines education and digital
media production.
There is no lack of documents in the Salesian Congregation referring to the
mission of social communication, some of them already at the beginning of the third
millennium, such as the “Social Communication Handbook” that came out under Fr
Martinelli’s coordination.31 The first document to take digital culture seriously was the
Rector Major, Fr Pascual Chávez’s Letter in 2005 entitled With the courage of Don
Bosco on the new frontiers of social communication.32 The letter takes up some of the
previous suggestions and proposes a change of mentality (which has not yet taken
place) by reintroducing Fr Viganò’s 1981 proposal, which envisaged formation in social
communication for Salesians on three levels: a general basic level, another for animators,
educative and pastoral workers, and one for preparation of specialist preparation. Twenty
years after Viganò’s suggestion, Fr Vecchi had insisted on the need for preparation,
writing about its urgency: “The only useful road ahead is through formation. The new
literacy, that is, the ability to read and write in the culture of the media affects everyone,
and in so far as it concerns the faith it affects all believers. How much more then should
it be of interest to educators and evangelisers!”33
It seems that the interventions on communication over the last forty years have
followed a typical Salesian double approach: one of general exhortation on principles,
and then concrete but partial steps in response to problematic situations which require
31 Cf. Dicastero per la Comunicazione Sociale, Manuale per la comunicazione sociale, SDB, Roma
2005. See also Direzione Generale Opere Don Bosco - Social Communications Department,
Salesian Social Communication System: Guidelines for the Salesian Congregation, SDB, Rome 2011.
32 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, With the courage of Don Bosco on the new frontiers of social communication,
in AGC 86 (2005) 390, 3-46.
33 J.E. Vecchi, Communication in the Salesian mission “They were astonished beyond measure. He has
done all things well”, in Chávez Villanueva, With the courage of Don Bosco, 43.

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immediate attention. A further need for formation seems to concern the use of social
media by Salesians. In 2014, the Social Communications Department published the
document on Advice for the use of social media, taking its inspiration from the documents
of the German Episcopal Conference, offering prudent and transparent guidelines for
use of the Internet and social networks at an individual, community and institutional
level.34
Young adults and IUS as a new field of action
Over the last thirty years there has been a strong growth in Salesian Institutions of Higher
Education (IUS). There are several factors behind the Salesian investment in tertiary
education. There is the general growth of university institutions in the world, driven
by the needs of post-industrial society, and there is the sensitivity of the Salesian Family
in accompanying the growth of young people, who need longer rhythms of maturation
than in previous eras. Given the history of the development of the IUS network, it
seems appropriate to outline two sets of motivations.35 The first one comes from the
educative and pastoral needs of young people; the second responds to the needs of
Salesian education. As a consequence, both are inspired by reflections with different
emphases.
The final decades of the last century were characterised in the West by the possibility
for young people from low-income family backgrounds to access higher education. The
university was no longer seen as an area for a privileged few, but as an environment for
a large proportion of young people. In addition, “youth” was being extended in terms
of age range and the term “young adult” (in the 18-28 age group) was introduced to
refer to people recognised legally as adults who were still in the process of maturing and
being educated.36 Particularly in the European context, the Salesians of Don Bosco were
developing reflections on the pastoral care of young university students from the 1980s
onwards, while towards the end of the millennium, attention began to be paid to Salesian
Institutions of Higher Education that had emerged in other contexts. In this process we
34 Cf. F. González, Presence in social networks in AGC 97 (2016) 423, 33-42.
35 Cf. M. Olmos, Origen y desarollo de las Instituciones Salesianas de Educación Superior. Visión crítica
del proceso histórico de las IUS, in M. Farfán (ed.), Carisma salesiano y educación superior, Editorial
Universitaria Abya-Yala, Quito 2019, 21-44.
36 CG22 (1984) states in no. 71 that “it is important not to stop at adolescence... but to go beyond it,
towards youth, where interesting cultural and religious phenomena are taking place at this time.”

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can recognise a typical Salesian way of proceeding: first the needs of the young are met,
then different programmes and projects are experimented with and finally institutional
solutions are clarified.
Juan Edmundo Vecchi, in his role as Councillor for Youth Ministry and later as
Rector Major, is one of the central figures in the animation and thinking of Salesian
higher education. In 1988 he tackled the theme “Salesians and pastoral work among
university students” for the first time in a non-systematic way, organising a meeting at
European level.37 It was noted that “the focus for now is almost entirely on pastoral care
for university students. This pastoral action is carried out in university hostels/residences
(over twenty), in some chaplaincies, and less so in university clubs or circles. No
importance seems to be given to the university world in overall youth ministry.”38
The concluding remarks of the meeting provide some summaries and motivations for
Salesian pastoral work in the “university world”:
• the age of youth has been prolonged;
• university studies have become accessible to young people from the working classes;
• university students are increasingly dropping out and at risk;
• the education of university students is required by the principle of continuity;
• the university is the privileged place for the formation of leaders.
Among the forms of unease or new forms of poverty among university students,
there are essentially two sets of problems. The first is relational: being left to themselves,
individualism, being uprooted, the anonymity of university environments, the crisis
of participatory bodies. The second set revolves around the problematic aspects
of the university as such: the economic-instrumental reduction of culture, strong
competitiveness which induces fear of failure, an uncertain employment future....39 As
responses to the situation, the organisers of the meeting pointed to the promotion of
a pedagogy of the environment and a pedagogy of personal accompaniment. This is
also the context for the psychologically-based orientation project developed by Umberto
Fontana in the early 1990s,40 whereas Carlo Nanni’s proposal went beyond a purely
37 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, Presentazione, in C. Nanni (ed.), Salesiani e pastorale tra gli universitari, SDB,
Rome 1988, 5-7.
38 Sintesi conclusiva, in Nanni (ed.), Salesiani e pastorale tra gli universitari, 162-163.
39 Cf. Ibid., 40-41.
40 Cf. U. Fontana – G. Piccolboni (eds.), Costruiamo un professionista. L’esperienza di Costagrande,
Mazziana, Verona 1993 and U. Fontana, L’orientamento universitario, in “Rassegna CNOS” 10
(1994) 1, 57-61.

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reactive mentality with respect to needs. He proactively envisaged pastoral care among
university students as a privileged field for vocational pastoral activity.41
Just as the model of pastoral activity among university students seemed to prevail
in Europe for sociological and cultural reasons, so did the Universities or Salesian
Institutions of Higher Education develop in Latin America. Context, legislation and
opportunities favoured the emergence of universities that met the general population’s
demand for greater professionalisation. Juan Vecchi says of the IUS that “in the
beginning, the main focus was on organising the service to create opportunities for
higher education in the popular sector and to occupy available cultural spaces.”42 Having
started out with an academic proposal structured at the level of the environment, Vecchi
now pointed out the challenge of forming professionally, pastorally and ‘Salesianly’
qualified teams capable of creating alternative proposals to those of the dominant
mentality: “Having made the initial organisational effort that such initiatives require,
it is now time to tackle cultural and pastoral qualification, decisively and communally,
starting with the preparation of confreres and lay people.”43 The recent development of
colleges in South Asia (India), conceived of as higher education structures dedicated to
the professionalisation of young people from rural and low-income sectors, has moved
along similar lines of proposal and attention.
Another type of higher education has emerged around the formation of the Salesians
of Don Bosco, at the level of ideas but also at the level of mentality, which then structures
projects, curricula and implicit educational models. This is particularly evident in the
IUS, developing with more or less continuity from a philosophical or theological study
centre aimed at the formation of Salesians. The evolution of the need to qualify Salesians
with higher studies culminated in the aforementioned letter by Fr Vecchi, For you I study
in 1997, in which he makes reference to the establishment of the IUS network.44 These
are explicitly placed in the context of the formation of a “new type of Salesian” who
corresponds to the demands of the “new evangelisation” and the “new education.” Fr
Vecchi asked for close cooperation between the IUS and the provinces, in view of a
41 Cf. C. Nanni, Offerte salesiane agli universitari, in Nanni (ed.), Salesiani e pastorale tra gli universitari,
45.
42 J.E Vecchi, “For you I study” (C 14). The satisfactory preparation of confreres and the quality of our
educational work, in AGC 78 (1997) 361, 43.
43 Ibid., 43-44.
44 Cf. J.E Vecchi, A service for Salesian university institutions, in AGC 79 (1998) 362, 97-99.

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new educational model of culturally prepared Salesians capable of discerning, animating,
guiding and accompanying.45
Starting from these ideal references, the IUS institutes, not conceived exclusively for
the formation of Salesian religious but also at the service of the younger generations, have
a vast potential for disseminating thought and action and “must define their orientation
in line with their Catholic character and educative philosophy in harmony with Salesian
criteria, making themselves centres for the formation of persons and the elaboration of
culture of Christian inspiration”, overcoming the temptation to yield to the dominant
mentality. Hence the need and urgency to “confront decisively and at community level,
the cultural and pastoral qualification beginning with the preparation of confreres and
lay people.”46
Post-industrial education and transformational leadership
The postmodern context has obviously also influenced the pedagogical concepts of the
third millennium. There is a need, in the uncertain and ever-changing VUCA world,
to form personalities that are flexible, capable of adapting, rethinking things, and who
have a set of differentiated skills at their disposal. There is also a need for adults to have
a clear identity based on ethical and virtuous attitudes and expressed through a personal
vision-mission. The linear and technical planning proposals of the 1980s (including
Salesian ones) inspired by management by objectives no longer seem to correspond to
the context and the vital world of the new generations.47
Differentiated competences are expressed in different ways where pedagogy is concerned.
One of the most popular theories is the theory of ‘multiple intelligences’ developed by
Howard Gardner, who proposes an education that revolves around the triad of the true,
beautiful and good. There are different types of intelligence with the potential to develop
a flexibility that can be used in the study of very specific subjects as well as in the study of
general human issues.48 Then there is Edgar Morin’s perspective of “complex thinking”
that interconnects individual pieces of knowledge in a reasoned stance with respect to
45 Cf. Vecchi, “For you I study”, 17-18.
46 Cf. Ibid., 40 and 44.
47 Cf. M. Vojtáš, Pedagogia salesiana della scelta e della vocazione. Evoluzioni, riletture, proposte, in M.
Vojtáš – P. Ruffinatto (eds.), Giovani e scelte di vita: Prospettive educative. Acts of the International
Congress organised by the Pontifical Salesian University and the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences,
Auxilium Rome, 20-23 September 2018, LAS, Rome 2019, 347-382.
48 Cf. H. Gardner, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed: Educating for the Virtues in the Age of Truthiness
and Twitter, Basic Books, New York 2011 and Id., Sapere per comprendere. Discipline di studio e discipline
della mente, Feltrinelli, Milan 2009.

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the totality of reality. This unfinished thought moves within the boundaries between
scientific knowledge, beliefs, practical knowledge and evidence of not-knowing, thus
escaping both the exemplifications of functionalist positivism and the tragic paralysis of
the search for an impossible synthesis.49
The positions of Gardner and Morin revolve around the problematic nature
of knowledge in the postmodern era. Other authors differ from them by moving
along procedural rather than gnoseological paths, proposing new ways of learning.
Donald Schön develops a concept of ‘reflection in action’, which is especially evocative
in complex professions such as the educator, teacher, consultant or psychologist.
Educational activity is not seen as a mechanical sequence of programmed activities
but as a constant dialogue of negotiation between people, and a mediation between
ultimate aims, implicit and explicit projects and intuitions. Schön’s focus on process is
further developed in the 1990s by Jack Mezirow, who proposes a transformative model
of learning. The educational relationship is theorised as counselling or mentoring about
deep questions that require a critical examination of underlying social, psychological and
epistemological assumptions.50 Transformation theory also influences the organisational
field, where Noel Tichy and Mary Devanna propose transformational leadership,
with further developments proposed by Otto Scharmer who develops the concept of
spiritually profound transformation.51
Reacting to modern individualism, some educationalists advance theories that value
social and community variables in learning. Salesian Mario Comoglio, an acknowledged
expert in cooperative learning in Italy, follows in the wake of the thinking developed
by Kurt Lewin and Morton Deutsch, offering a model of pro-positive interdependence
relationships in group learning. His proposal develops the themes of sharing the learning
objective as a driving factor, the potential of the group, proactive social competences,
the analysis of inner motivations, self-esteem or mental health by addressing fears and
anxieties in learning.52 Étienne Wenger’s proposal of the “community of practice”,
moves in a similar direction, valuing shared social practices that, in addition to fostering
49 Cf. E. Morin, Educare per l’era planetaria. Il pensiero complesso come metodo di apprendimento nella
condizione umana di errore e incertezza, Armando, Rome 2004.
50 Cf. J. Mezirow et al., Fostering Critical reflection in adulthood. A Guide to Transformative and Emancipatory
Learning, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco 1990 and Id., Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning,
Jossey-Bass, San Francisco 1991.
51 Cf. C.O. Scharmer, Theory U. Leading from the Future as it Emerges. The Social Technology of Presencing,
SoL, Cambridge MA 2007
52 Cf. G. Chiosso, I significati dell’educazione. Teorie pedagogiche e della formazione contemporanee,
Mondadori, Milan 2009, 169-172 appreciating the work of M. Comoglio – M.A. Cardoso, Insegnare
e apprendere in gruppo. Il Cooperative Learning, LAS, Rome 1996.

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the learning of knowledge and skills, build the identity of a community of practice that
goes beyond the simple project team united only around the task.53
Alasdair MacIntyre initiated another current of pedagogical thinking with an
emphasis on ethical character education. For example, David Carr’s proposal shows that
liberal perspectives are not sufficient to ground the morality of social and democratic life.
His virtue ethics goes beyond the logic of rights alone, proposing both particular and
general principles independent of community-based and constructivist perspectives.54
The study of virtues and habits also extends to the field of educational planning,
balancing the technicality of the previous era with ethical, community and servant
leadership.55
What kind of youth emerges from the 2018 Synod
Third millennium trends among young people and related ecclesial reflection emerged
at the Synod of Bishops on “Young people, the faith and vocational discernment.” We
want to explore, in this section, the image of young people and the Salesian Family as it
emerged around the event of the Synod, rather than the complex evolution of thought
that went on between the Preparatory Document, the Instrumentum laboris, the Final
Document of the pre-synodal meeting, the Final Document of the General Assembly of
Bishops and the Apostolic Exhortation Christus Vivit.
A significant novelty of the synod was dialogue through an online questionnaire sent
out to young people from all over the world during the preparatory phase of the work.
The aim was to “give virtually every person between the ages of 16 and 29, wherever
they are in the world, the chance to tell their story and make their own contribution to
the Synod’s journey.”56 In fact, the questionnaire allowed opinions and states of mind
to be freely expressed through open questions, with the possibility of making requests
and proposals in view of the preparation of the Instrumentum laboris. The second
53 Cf. E. Wenger, Communities of Practice. Learning, Meaning, and Identity, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge 1998; E. Wenger – R. Mcdermott – W.M. Snyder, Cultivating Communities of
Practice, Harvard Business School, Boston MA 2002.
54 D. Carr, The moral roots of citizenship. Reconciling principle and character in citizenship education,
in “Journal of Moral Education” 35 (2006) 4, 443-456.
55 Cf. Vojtáš, Progettare e discernere, 152-161.
56 Cf. Synod of Bishops, Il mondo delle nuove generazioni attraverso il questionario online. The world
of new generations according to the online questionnaire, ed. Osservatorio Giovani dell’Istituto Toniolo,
LEV, Città del Vaticano 2018, 4.

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motivation of the questionnaire, that of providing a portrait of the reality of young
people in the various areas of the world, was only partially achieved due to the digital
divide and only partial participation by entire areas, such as North America.57
The majority (over 70%) of the young people taking part in the survey saw themselves
as responsible, able to relate positively to others, and at a cognitive level saw themselves as
empathetic, capable of critical thinking and with dreams to be realised. The competences
that appeared to be less developed were conflict management, positive self-perception
and leadership. Leaving aside differences by continent or gender, the image of the future
is linked to professional fulfilment (a stable job in accordance with one’s aptitudes),
then comes the family (having one’s own family and children). Towards the end comes
a commitment to social transformation combined with distrust of institutions.58 At the
religious level, following God is associated with the concepts of ‘life’, ‘truth’, ‘salvation’
and ‘father’ with very close percentages. It is interesting to note that the term ‘happiness’
is highest in Latin America and lowest in Europe, where the concept of ‘doubt’ appears
more frequently.59 In the responses on associations/groups with the central concept of
“vocation”, indications of continuity and discontinuity with the previous era emerge.
Although personal fulfilment through a life project, which includes a dimension of
service, is still important, the discontinuity with the post-Vatican II period can be
seen in the increased importance of faith, the gift of self and a lesser importance of
anti-authoritarian issues linked to fear or constraint.60
Interesting insights into self-perception were subsequently offered by the final
pre-synodal youth document. Clearly, like the online questionnaire, this was a
representation of young people in contact with the Church, not of the whole world
of youth. Nevertheless, it is stimulating to read the pre-synodal document as it unfolds
in terms of thematic cornerstones: 1. The need for a supportive, edifying, authentic
and accessible community as a place for growth; 2. Joy and the sacred responsibility of
accompanying the young in their journey of faith in Jesus and in vocational discernment;
3. The request for an authentic Church that promotes the active involvement of the
young; 4. Concretisation: places, initiatives and tools.61
57 Cf. Ibid., 7.
58 Cf. Ibid., 9-19.
59 Cf. Ibid., 36-40.
60 Ibid., 43.
61 Synod of Bishops XV ordinary general assembly “Young people, the faith and vocational discernment”,
Pre-synodal meeting. Final document, Rome 19-24 March 2018, in bit.ly/synod-va- 2018.

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At the Salesian level, the conference on “Young people and life choices”was
significant. It was held a few weeks before the General Assembly of Bishops. The
addresses on the specific details of the different worlds of youth in the various continents
made it possible to become aware of their characteristics. Here are some of the most
stimulating:
• a digital selfish, individualistic and consumerist culture;
• an emphasis on vocational education in Africa and Latin America;
• the need for empowerment of young people in Asia, characterised by “hope and
despair”;
• the dilemmas between the slavery of fashion and a home-made religiosity in Europe
or a Latin American “Catholicism in my own way”;
• the need to overcome a socially disengaged false non-confrontation.62
Franco Garelli’s interpretation of the research among Salesian pastoral workers
proposes a range of pairs characterising the ambivalence of the worlds of youth:
young people are described as: more cheerful than optimistic, more sociable than
willing, more curious than interested, more active than confident; and parallel to
this, they appear more courageous than strong (able to react to difficulties), more
open than profound (and “believing”), more generous than reflective; the last place
assigned to coherence seems to be the clearest sign of an ambivalent condition,
typical of individuals who struggle to put their choices and life agenda in order.63
Reading the interviews helps us understand how we speak about young people
(communicatively), but how we “read” the Salesian soul (meta-communicatively).64 In
spite of all the limitations of selective research, which however does not weaken the most
authentic aspect, the tendency of Salesians (men and women) is to look at the young
people of today in overall positive terms while noting many tensions and contradictions
in them. This is not so much a “bleeding heart” or “naive” view of the condition of young
people as it is a “mature” reading of the younger generations that seems to be supported
by experience and educational practice. The image that emerges in this comprehensive
work is not that of an “abstract” and “generalised” subject, but of young people “in
62 Cf. M. Vojtáš – P. Ruffinatto (eds.), Giovani e scelte di vita: Prospettive educative. Acts of the
International Congress organised by the Pontifical Salesian University and the Pontifical Faculty of
Educational Sciences, Auxilium Rome, 20-23 September 2018, LAS, Rome 2019, 31-201.
63 Cf. F. Garelli, Presentazione della ricerca “Giovani e scelte di vita” e conclusioni, in Vojtáš – Ruffinatto
(eds.), Giovani e scelte di vita, 190.
64 Cf. Ibid., 199.

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the flesh” who meet in Salesian houses. Garelli confirms the typical trait of Salesian
discernment, which is not located in objective sociological readings, but is rather the fruit
“of a daily verification, the object of continuous and lasting verification in the ordinary
dynamics of life and the educational relationship.”65
Pedagogical guidelines from Rome at the turn of the
millennium
Domènech and the syntheses of the Frame of Reference (1998
and 2000)
The Rector Major, Pascual Chávez Villanueva, summarises the situation in the educative
and pastoral field at the beginning of the 1990s, with the subsequent emergence of the
Salesian Youth Ministry Frame of Reference, as follows: “there was an extraordinarily
rich and sound heritage of reflection and practice on Salesian pastoral action, and the
need was felt to have a complete overall view, and to bring together, in a structured and
shared synthesis, the fundamental guidelines so as to facilitate their personal assimilation
and provide directives for the praxis. The Youth Ministry Department tried to respond
to this need by offering the Provinces and the communities a guidance manual, and in
these years providing a systematic process of pastoral formation, in particular for those
confreres with responsibilities for animation and government, insisting on certain key
issues to be borne in mind.”66
In fact, after GC24 (1996), which deepened reflection on communion and shared
responsibility with lay people, closely linked to the theme of the EPCP, the new Rector
Major, Juan Vecchi, expressed the need for “a spiritual frame of reference which, with
the ‘grace of unity’ accompanying Salesian apostolic consecration helps to translate the
exertions of knowledge and action into an experience of life in the Spirit. We have often
said that spirituality, pastoral work and pedagogy must be united in the mind and in life:
the road to sanctity, pastoral commitment, and the education of the young and of people
65 Ibid., 200.
66 P. Chávez Villanueva, “And he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd,
and he set himself to teach them at some length” (Mk 6:4). Salesian Youth Ministry, in AGC 91 (2010)
407, 20.

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in general.”67 The two terms of office (1996-2008) of Antonio Domènech’s leadership
were marked by the commitment to make the Salesian model of youth ministry a new
mentality through special formation meetings for provincial leaders in this sector, and
the effort to organise the contents in the two editions of Salesian Youth Ministry. Basic
Frame of Reference. The Councillor’s way of animating the two action guidelines is to be
appreciated, as the second edition of the Frame of Reference also reflected the feedback
from province teams received during these formation meetings.68 The publication is an
important step for youth ministry and enables us to grasp some basic choices that have
influenced Salesian pedagogy in recent years.
The first edition of the Frame of Reference (1998)
The overview produced by the Youth Ministry Department two years after the 24th
General Chapter sought to respond to the need felt by various provinces, communities
and individual Salesians to have an overall pastoral vision. There was, therefore, an
aspiration to offer a systematic collection of existing proposals. In fact the Frame of
Reference listed about fifty documents from the last quarter of a century.69 The aim
was to propose a unified reference framework and some operational criteria to guide
pastoral animation.70 This was not an easy task, given the amount of material produced
over a long period of time and the different purposes for which these items were written.
Knowing the background of the document, it is necessary to approach it without
expecting that it offers an easy systematisation, follows a straight line of argument or
arrives at practical solutions of immediate use.
The publication followed a subdivision into six chapters, aiming to be practical in
nature, moving from the most general to the most applied: the fundamental elements
of Salesian youth ministry, the SEPP in its dimensions, the EPC and its animation, the
different works and services, the animation structures and the methodological guidelines
for constructing and verifying the plan. The material produced over the last decades had
been brought together in summary form in the various chapters, “offering a synthesis of
67 J.E. Vecchi, “For you I study...” (C 14). The satisfactory preparation of confreres and the quality of our
educational work, in AGC 78 (1997) 361, 37.
68 Cf. Dicastero per la Pastorale Giovanile, La pastorale giovanile salesiana. Quadro di riferimento
fondamentale, SDB, Rome 22000, 7.
69 Cf. the list of inspirational documents in YM Department, Frame of Reference, 11998, 11-12.
70 Cf. YM Department, Frame of Reference, 11998, 10. The Frame of Reference is considered by the
Rector Major Pasqual Chávez as an “organic collection” that responds to the “need to have a complete
overview and to collect the fundamental guidelines in an organic and shared synthesis”, in Chávez
Villanueva, Salesian Youth Ministry, 20.

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the fundamental guidelines of Salesian youth ministry, in view of a better assimilation
and concrete application in the SEPP.”71 In the following paragraphs we focus on some
interesting themes for Salesian pedagogy, such as the dimensions considered in planning,
the idea of community and the planning methodology.72
The dilemma of a unified whole and the SEPP’s division into dimensions
The second chapter of the Framework, focusing on the foundations of the educative
and pastoral project, is structured according to the four dimensions of the division of the
second booklet produced on the SEPP published in 1979, but removing the community
area, since the identity and animation of the EPC which was the content of that area,
was now a separate chapter. In order to see the development and the articulation of the
Salesian educative and pastoral proposal in the twenty years from 1979 to 1998 it seems
useful to make a comparison of the different types of division into areas introduced in
the various Salesian documents.
71 YM Department, Frame of Reference 11998, 5.
72 We leave aside the analysis of the part on general principles, as they refer to the contents dealt with in
Chapter 5, and the part on works because of the particular nature of the elements involved, which in
any case refer to aids produced in the early 1980s.

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Figure H: Dimensions, criteria, areas and core concepts of Salesian education
The following are compared in chronological order in Figure H: the five areas of
the SEPP proposed in Sussidio 2 (1979);73 the four features of the oratory criterion
established by the Constitutions (1984) and the division of articles in the General
Regulations concerning the SEPP (1984);74 the areas of the educative and pastoral project
in the book Salesian Youth Ministry (1990);75 the areas of Christian growth as defined
by GC23 (1990) and used in drawing up pathways for education to the faith;76 the basic
73 Cf. Dicastero PG, Elementi e linee per un progetto, Sussidio 2, 15.
74 Cf. C. 40 and R. 5-10.
75 Cf. Dicastero PG, Pastorale giovanile salesiana, SDB, Rome 1990, 63-73.
76 Cf. GC23 (1990), nos. 116-118.

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core concepts of Salesian youth spirituality, defined by the same Chapter;77 and finally,
the areas of the Project in Salesian Youth Ministry. Basic Frame of Reference (1998).78
The four dimensions (education-culture, evangelisation-catechesis, groups and
associations, vocation) are found in every document that deals directly with the SEPP.
The choice of the Frame of Reference to deal with the EPC in a separate chapter brings
with it both advantages and disadvantages. The benefit of the choice is the widening of
the space and implicit importance given to the EPC, understandable after GC24 which
had explored and emphasised the theme of communion in spirit and mission between
Salesians and lay people. On the other hand, the collateral risk of the division into two
chapters is the mental separation of the project from the community. This leads to the
practical and very common consequence, if we consider the projects of the 1990s, of not
paying attention to the formation of the EPC within educative and pastoral planning.
Another emphasis which appears around 1990, is not reinforced: it is about the service
and commitment of young people for the transformation of the world, which GC23
had highlighted both as an area of Christian maturity and as a core concept of Salesian
spirituality. The theme of division into dimensions is automatically linked to the need
to emphasise integral growth and the systematic unity of all the elements of the Project.
The text expresses itself in this regard:
The SEPP, as a mediation of Salesian youth ministry, must express the overall
unity of the different objectives, interventions and actions that are mutually
intertwined and all oriented towards the same goal, manifesting their concrete
complementarity and forming a global unity. This comprehensive, systematic
nature of the whole is expressed in the four dimensions of the SEPP.79
Unfortunately, the exhortation to ensure the SEPP hangs together as a whole is not
accompanied by methodological suggestions that could answer the question of how
to achieve this, and the most we find are general expressions such as: bringing about
a positive development of the cultural situation of the human group in achieving a
synthesis of faith and life; educating to a unified and harmonious personality where
the dimensions and aspirations are placed in a hierarchy according to their value; the
vocational option is an ever-present dimension, in all the moments, activities and phases
of our educative and pastoral activity; the youth group should see how it can be involved
77 Cf. GC23 (1990), nos. 158-161. Cf. also FMA-SDB Youth Ministry Departments, Salesian
Youth Spirituality. A gift of the Spirit to the Salesian Family for the life and hope of all, [s.e.], Rome
1996.
78 Cf. Dicastero PG, Quadro di riferimento, 11998, 26-39.
79 Ibid., 26.

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in Church and society according to its vocational option; educating by socialising can be
added to the helpful formula of educating by evangelising etc.80
The logic and composition of the second chapter of the SEPP is characterised by
the division into four dimensions. Even elements such as the preventive approach to
youth at risk, Salesian youth spirituality, the educative style of animation and the Salesian
youth movement are, as a consequence, placed in the various dimensions and their
multidimensional potential for integration has not been highlighted. The text reveals the
paradox of wanting to make the proposal more concrete within the dimensions while at
the same time emphasising the need to integrate these dimensions.
The educative and pastoral community in the service of the project
The predominance of a planning approach can be seen both by where the chapter on the
EPC is placed and by how its roles are described in terms of their function in the project:
“The first fundamental element in the implementation of Salesian youth ministry is the
community. A community that involves young people and adults, parents and educators
in a family atmosphere, until it can become an experience of Church revealing God’s
plan.”81 Strengthening this argument, it says that “convergence of intentions and beliefs
of all those involved” in order to draw up and carry out the project. The problem of
analytical division of the project into dimensions, as seen in the previous paragraph, is
passed on as a task to be solved at the level of practical convergence of interventions in
the community.82
GC24’s emphasis on communion and sharing with lay people is evident in the first
two editions of the Frame of Reference. Often stated are the active involvement of young
people, the participation and formation of parents, and of lay people involved at various
levels of responsibility and collaboration. The authors value the contribution of each
vocation, the experiential dimension of community life and commitment within the
Church and local area, both as a point of aggregation and as a centre of diffusion and
agent of transformation.83 In spite of the insistence on a broader and more effective EPC,
at times we sense a theoretical background that gives priority to technical planning that
needs the community in order to achieve effectiveness. The community, in this sense,
80 Cf. Ibid., 27-38.
81 Dicastero PG, Quadro di riferimento, 11998, 45.
82 An inversion of the importance of project vis-a-vis community is only developed in the third edition
of the Framework, which describes community life as a characteristic of ecclesial life which is then
translated into a community project seen as the realisation of the mission. Cf. YM Department,
Frame of Reference, 32014, 136-137.
83 Cf. Dicastero PG, Quadro di riferimento, 11998, 45-48.

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is only a “need of the Church”; a “necessary condition for educative activity” which “is
a social fact”; it is a consequence of the choices of the “preventive system [...] which
requires an environment of participation”; finally, the community is a decisive element
of evangelisation seen as “a task” which is realised through the witness and service of the
community.84
Methodology for drawing up and verifying the SEPP
The last chapter, on methodological guidelines for drawing up and verifying the SEPP,
brings the work to conclusion and should be the translation of the previous chapters into
a working model. The title itself does not express the aspiration to deal with the planning
methodology; it merely offers guidelines and the fact that it is just over five pages
worth bears witness to this. The lack of an in-depth examination of the methodological
aspect is confirmed on the last page of the book, where it is recommended that “a
methodology be devised that favours the participation of all the groups and bodies in
the EPC according to their responsibilities and possibilities.”85 This leaves the freedom
to choose different methodologies, but there is a risk of the EPC going forward without
a unifying approach, and falling into the trap of becoming too bureaucratic, or too
efficiency-driven depending on the adopted methods. Summing up its content, it can
be said that the publication offers planning elements and guidelines summing up the
proposals contained in the two booklets from 1978-79.86 Further specifications involve:
– planning levels (frame of reference, project, planning, yearly plan, program);
– planning steps (situation analysis, planning, evaluation;
– planning criteria (involvement of everyone, participation by everyone, clarity of
points of reference, clarity on levels of participation, constant evaluation);
– the EPC as the subject of the process.87
Even when it points out the importance of a methodological approach, for example,
when it says that “the journey we embark on together and the methodology adopted are
much more important than what is eventually put in writing”,88 the Frame of Reference
84 Cf. Ibid., 45-46.
85 Ibid., 122.
86 Cf. Dicastero PG, Progetto Educativo Pastorale. Metodologia, Sussidio 1 and Id., Elementi e linee,
Sussidio 2.
87 Cf. Dicastero PG, Quadro di riferimento, 11998, 117-122.
88 Ibid., 117.

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devotes only a few lines to it, leaving open many other questions that could paralyse the
entire pastoral proposal. Let us list some of them. How do we formulate an objective
properly so that it adequately expresses a concept and is achievable? Should objectives,
action guidelines, criteria, roles, functions be divided by dimensions or not? How is a
comprehensive, unified whole created? Which groups within the EPC should participate
and intervene at the different levels of the project (house, section, group, person)? Is it
always necessary to start “from the top”, i.e. from the reference framework, and work
down to the most concrete levels, or is it also advisable to work “from the bottom”, from
pilot experiences, best practices? What is the relationship between a program and the
project? Is the participation of everyone in Salesian planning a necessary requirement or
a point of arrival? What logic is there between the various elements of the project so that
appropriate choices can be made in real situations of lack of personnel, motivation, time
and other resources? These methodological questions are a sign of the typical impasse
between paper and life.89
Methodological additions to the second edition of the Framework
Antonio Domènech and his team took some concrete steps to promote a more
comprehensive and unified Salesian proposal, ensuring the translation of the Frame of
Reference in various languages and organising regional courses to help provincial teams
to understand it. “Partly as a result of this effort and the experience of the regional
courses, the department has put together a set of suggestions to make the text clearer
and more precise”90 and published the second edition in July 2000. One of the major
changes was the moving of the third chapter on the EPC from the section on the
“operative model” to the one on “basic elements”. Thus, the community dimension was
at least partially affirmed as a fundamental reality, not just a pragmatic and operational
one, although it was still seen to come after the SEPP as in the first edition. In the
present section we go into the most interesting improvements concerning planning
methodology. The proposals are the outcome of the contributions from the provinces,
but one can recognise the influences of José Raúl Rojas and his notions of “research and
89 For possible answers to these planning dilemmas, see the analysis of the theoretical background of the
methods in Vojtáš, Progettare e discernere, 113-173.
90 YM Department, Salesian Youth Ministry: A Basic Frame of Reference, SDB, Rome 22000, 7

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participatory action in and within the community”, as well as those of Jerome Vallabaraj,
a scholar of catechetics but also of transformative organisational models.91
The first interesting operational refinement concerns the framework of the project,
which is linked not only with a “statement of principles that define a philosophy
of education”,92 but with the response “to the questions: Who are we and what are
we doing? What do we want to achieve and where do we want to get to?”93 What
becomes clear in this regard is the relationship with the concepts of mission, vision and
educative proposal that did not appear in the first edition. The publication also offers the
desired content within the vision-mission: beneficiaries (those to whom we are sent),
convictions and values of the province, the presentation of the concrete mission as a
response to their needs, the fundamental criteria for the process and the final goals.94
A second improvement concerns the more logical subdivision of the planning
phases. The most general phase is the creation of the frame of reference. The second more
concrete phase is the educative and pastoral project, and at a more specific level are the
annual pastoral plan, overall planning and path to be followed. In the previous edition
this specification was missing and there was a risk of confusing the three qualitatively
different concrete forms of the annual plan, the programming and the path to be
followed.95 At the level of the planning stages (situation analysis, working plan and
its evaluation) there was not a great deal of further understanding or clarification.
There is a tendency towards more precision in management terms, replacing the term
“educative and pastoral choices” with the more appropriate and common term “general
objectives” in the operational planning stage. At the evaluation stage, the overly precise
indications of the first edition are simplified by adding an important focus on process: to
verify “whether a genuine educative process has evolved through the different activities
(continuity, interaction, new possibilities and resources generated, the involvement of
people concerned, etc.).”96
91 Cf. J. Vallabaraj, Empowering the Young Towards Fullness of Life, Kristu Jyoti, Bangalore 2003 and
E. Alberich - J. Vallabaraj, Communicating a Faith That Transforms. A Handbook of Fundamental
Catechetics, Kristu Jyoti, Bangalore 2004.
92 Dicastero PG, Quadro di riferimento, 11998, 117.
93 YM Department, Frame of Reference, 22000, 129.
94 Cf. Ibid., 129-130.
95 Cf. Ibid., 131
96 Ibid., 136.

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The emblematic task of the EPC as indicated on the final page of the publication,
“Think up a method to encourage the participation all the groups and organisations...”,97
remains unchanged in concluding the section on methodological approaches. This is
referred to in the evaluation of the Rector Major Pascual Chávez Villanueva in 2010,
where he affirms the existence of compartmentalisation and raises the methodological
question: “More care needs to be given to [...] the model of Salesian Youth Ministry
which fosters a more unified and integrated view of the apostolate [...] development of
ways of operating which are geared to facing in a positive manner the complexity of the
apostolate and to rising above compartmentalisation.”98
Holines, spirituality, evangelisation in Pascual Chávez Villanueva’s
magisterium
Picking up the wording of GC25 once more, “God must be our first ‘concern’”,99 the
Rector Major, Pascual Chávez Villanueva, just elected by the Chapter, expressed his
choice of agenda for the next six years through the concept of “holiness”. The concept
of holiness was not only a synthesis, but understood comprehensively, was a programme
of life, a choice of government and an educative proposal that is translated into the
urgency of evangelisation.100 With this choice, Pascual Chávez concluded a period of
thinking since Vatican II. This had started from the reform of the Congregation as a
whole, in its founding texts as well as in its coordinating structures, and had continued
with the reflection on the importance of both the religious and the educative and
pastoral community during Fr Vecchi,’s term of office, to arrive at the importance of
the conversion of each person in the Salesian Family.101 It is clearly stated in Fr Chávez’s
magisterium that the person, the individual, in his “essential task” of journeying towards
97 Ibid., 139.
98 Chávez Villanueva, Salesian Youth Ministry 2010, 24.
99 GC25 (2002), no. 191.
100 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, My dear Salesians, be Saints!, in AGC 83 (2002) 374, 3-37 and Id,
“You are my God, my happiness lies in you alone”, in AGC 84 (2003) 382, 7.
101 In order to reconstruct the hermeneutic context of Fr Chávez’s proposal, it is important to consider
the letters of his predecessors, to whom he is connected in his work. Chávez, My dear Salesians, be
Saints!, 6.

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“the highest goal”, is the subject of the desired change of mentality following Vatican II
that is so often evoked and hoped for and so little to be found in the grassroots.102
In his agenda-setting letter, Pascual Chávez links up with John Paul II’s Novo
millennio ineunte, placing at the centre of his reflection the priority and “essential task”
of sanctification, which is none other than “the high standard of ordinary Christian
living.”103 Against the tendency to spiritual superficiality, already denounced by Fr
Viganò, the Rector Major asserts a parallelism between charity and holiness: “If we attain
this, we shall have attained everything; if we fail to do so, all is lost, as is said of charity […],
the very essence of holiness.”104 Specifically, the letter presents the individual saints in the
Salesian Family as so many “in-depth monographs” of the founder, drawing from them
a synthesis of Salesian spirituality which stems from pastoral charity lived in a family
spirit and with joy, and then expresses itself through the humility of daily work and the
balanced synthesis of work and temperance, taking on the dimension of sacrifice and
harmonising contemplation with activity.105
The priority of holiness casts a different light on some of the key concepts of the
post-Vatican II period such as planning, incarnation and aggiornamento. Again with
reference to the Pope’s programmatic document for the new millennium, he notes that
sanctification is primarily a gift of God and his saving initiative, so thinking that the
results in this field depend on our ability to do and plan is seen as a temptation. Of
course, real collaboration with the divine initiative is necessary but not sufficient, and
therefore we are invited to invest all our intelligence and practical resources in our service
to the cause of the Kingdom, but we must never forget that “without Christ we can do
nothing.”106
The implications for education seem to echo Paul Albera’s approach when Fr
Chávez says (quoting John Paul II) that “holiness is the best guarantee of an efficacious
evangelisation, because in it is to be found the most important testimony to offer to
young people, the ones for whom you carry out your various activities.”107 As educators
of the young to holiness,108 Salesians are called upon to update both their educational
proposals and their style of presence among young people. In fact, the need to enhance
102 Cf. Chávez, My dear Salesians, be Saints!, 5 and 11.
103 John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, in Chávez, My dear Salesians, be Saints!, 12.
104 Chávez, My dear Salesians, be Saints!, 12.
105 Cf. Ibid., 8-10.
106 John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, in Chávez, My dear Salesians, be Saints!, 12.
107 John Paul II, Address to participants in the General Chapter, in GC25 (2002), no. 170.
108 Cf. GC25 (2002), no. 143.

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the proposals for a high quality of life which develop a yearning inherent in all young
people, is combined with the importance of the educational presence that accompanies
the paths followed by individuals, because the paths to holiness are personal.109 The
entire proposal of Salesian youth spirituality found in GC23 is, therefore, re-read in the
context of education to holiness, proposed to all. Everyday life, joy, friendship with the
Lord, belonging to the Church, apostolic commitment and the presence of Mary Help
of Christians are proposed as stages of the unique path to holiness.110
The basic ideas in this important first letter were then once again proposed in a letter
a year later “You are my God. My happiness lies in you alone”, which more strongly links
the consecration of the Salesians to the educative and pastoral mission. Referring to the
last biography of Don Bosco written by Pietro Braido, the Rector Major notes how it
was the mission that required the birth of a group of consecrated persons and therefore
Salesian religious life was born at the service of the Salesian mission.111 However he
broadens the link between consecration and mission with a second reverse movement
that envisages a mission that is determined by Don Bosco’s choice to have educators
who are consecrated persons. The Salesian educative and pastoral mission becomes
intertwined with the mission of consecrated life to bear witness to the primacy of God
and to keep alive the awareness of the fundamental values of the Gospel.112
Fr Pascual Chávez develops his reflections starting from the central theme of his term
of office, the identity of consecrated life after Vatican II,113 and then outlining a revision
of some important concepts for pastoral ministry and education. Analysing the malaise
of consecrated life and criticising the liberal model of the same, he denounces a reductive
theological interpretation of the principle of the incarnation, which relegates to second
place or entirely omits the newness that comes to us from God through the incarnation
itself. Wanting to overcome the rigid structures of the past, the liberal idea of religious life
held that “renewal must consist in its adaptation to modern times by incorporating what
is best in enlightenment, emancipation and human rights. In this way the person came to
take centre stage with his awareness, dignity and personal project.”114 The Rector Major
109 Cf. John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, in Chávez, My dear Salesians, be Saints!, 21.
110 Cf. Chávez, My dear Salesians, be Saints!, 22-25.
111 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, “You are my God, my happiness lies in you alone”, in AGC 84 (2003)
382, 6-8.
112 Cf. Ibid., 19 and 26.
113 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, Testimoni del Dio vivente. Natura e futuro della vita consacrata una
visione salesiana, LEV, Rome 2012.
114 Chávez Villanueva, “You are my God, my happiness lies in you alone”, 20.

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denounces the greatest problem of the “liberal” model, currently in deep crisis, which
claims to evangelise modern culture, but instead simply embraces it to the detriment of
evangelical choices and values. The consequence is that secularised consecrated persons
are transformed by the logic of the world, instead of becoming evangelisers of culture.115
Clearly, these observations have implications for Salesian education and youth
ministry. A clear synthesis of them can be found in his 2010 letter on Salesian youth
ministry, which takes up the documents of the 26th General Chapter in terms of
the educational and evangelising mission.116 The prospects for the future outlined by
Pascual Chávez express both a concern for evangelising pastoral ministry, clearly oriented
towards the proclamation of Christ and education in the faith, and a focus on the
full insertion of evangelisation into the field of education, pursuing the “consistency
between the material being transmitted or the methods employed and the values of the
Christian faith, in such a way that this informs in an effective manner peoples’ personal,
professional and social lives.”117 The area that reveals this faith-culture-life synthesis is
vocational growth. Fr Chávez takes up the invitation of GC26: “Today we feel more
strongly than ever the challenge of creating a vocational culture in every setting, such
that young people may discover life as a call and that all Salesian ministry may be truly
vocational”118 and adds that the best youth ministry does not awaken apostolic and
consecrated vocations without giving specific attention to an explicit vocational call, to
a decisive personal proposal, to constant spiritual accompaniment.119
The spiritual reminders of the urgency of evangelisation, the principle of modelling
and the drive towards holiness would seem to be distant echoes of Fr Albera’s
“heavenly pedagogy”. There are, however, other aspects of Fr Chávez’s magisterium that
demonstrate his attention to contemporary issues, including attention to new forms
of poverty and human rights. The integration of the two poles of his magisterium
(consecration - mission) also emerges in the letter of convocation of the GC26. Fr Chávez
reads the traces of a spiritual theology and an active consecration in Don Bosco: “His
hard work was a consequence of his interpretation of a particular aspect of ascesis: it was
an apostolic activity from start to finish. […] He preferred not to hold rigidly to certain
115 Cf. Ibid., 24.
116 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, “And he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd,
and he set himself to teach them at some length” Salesian Youth Ministry, in AGC 91 (2010) 407, 3-59.
117 Ibid., 50.
118 GC26 (2008), no. 53.
119 Cf. Chávez Villanueva, Salesian Youth Ministry, 51.

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schemes; he found a practical, pastoral and spiritual approach better than one that was
theological and speculative.”120
In this sense the motto “Da mihi animas coetera tolle”, especially its first part,
“Da mihi animas”, expresses the zeal for the salvation of souls which, overcoming the
liberal and secularised model of a faith that is only subjective, takes concrete form in the
urgency of evangelisation and in the need to raise up vocations to Salesian consecrated
life. The second complementary part of the motto, “cetera tolle”, signifies the ascetic
detachment from all that can distance us from God and the young. This is the place for
reflections both on evangelical poverty and on the preferential option for the “poorest,
most abandoned and at risk” young people, rethinking it in terms of the “new forms of
poverty” and the “new frontiers”.121
Chávez: focus on new forms of poverty and human rights
In his concluding address to the International Congress on The Preventive System and
Human Rights, the Rector Major presented the quality of Don Bosco’s educational
experience as the ability to see social reality, to grasp its meaning and to draw practical
consequences from it that needed to be addressed. From compassion for youngsters
at risk comes a choice of consecrated life that draws from the merciful fatherhood of
God and develops educational, preventive and social projects. Fr Chávez recalled Pope
Benedict XVI’s observation on the educational emergency, declaring it both a denial of
the right to education in developing countries and a betrayal of the educational mission
in advanced and excessively competitive societies.122 He offered a similar religious and
social interpretation in his letter on youth ministry:
In many of the societies and cultures in which we carry out our educative and
pastoral services, a culture is developing which puts religion, and particularly
Christianity, to one side, a style of life which fosters the growth of the material
and spiritual poverty of many and which multiplies the factors leading to social
120 P. Chávez Villanueva, “Da mihi animas, cetera tolle” Charismatic identity and apostolic passion.
Starting again from Don Bosco to reawaken the heart of every Salesian, in AGC 87 (20063) 394, 39.
121 Cf. Ibid., 37-42.
122 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, The Salesian mission and human rights, especially children’s rights,
in Youth Ministry Department of the Salesian Congregation, The Preventive System and
Human Rights. Acts of the International Congress. 2-6 January 2009 Rome, International Volunteering
for Development, Rome 2009, 78-79.

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exclusion … In this climate, religious values and the motivations of believers
which in other times were obvious and recognised in the service of education
and human development often become insignificant and irrelevant.123
The perspectives of an integral educational project – of the proclamation of Jesus
Christ and the development of human, cultural and social values – are present both
in the above-mentioned congress on human rights and in Father Chávez’s speeches at
the Universities of Genoa and Bari in 2007.124 “The educator, according to the heart of
Don Bosco […] seeks to awaken or deepen in young people an openness to the religious
meaning of life, to develop the capacity to discover in everyday reality the signs of God’s
presence and action, to communicate a conviction of the profound coherence between
faith and the human values of solidarity, freedom, truth, justice and peace.”125
Quoting Benedict XVI’s address to the Latin American Episcopal Conference’s
Assembly, the Rector Major agrees with the fact that that in a godless society one does
not find the necessary consensus on moral values and the strength to live according to
the model of these values. There are subtle balances to be maintained, both theoretical
and practical. In the language of human rights it is useful to dialogue and insert Salesian
pedagogy into the different cultures of the world, and at the same time one cannot forget
the orientation of the young towards Christ in their vocation as children of God. But
the coexistence of the different approaches is even more delicate. It is necessary to offer
young people the necessary elements for an adequate, holistic and full development in
physical, mental, cultural, spiritual, moral, social and political aspects. From a practical
perspective the young and the marginalised should be actively involved in any proposed
project, and Salesian educators are invited to develop a network mentality involving
others working to the same end.126
We find similar directions in Fr Pascual Chávez’s two addresses to Italian universities
in 2007. He pointed out the drama of today’s humanity in the fracture between
education and society, which is exacerbated by the ever-growing gap between school and
123 Chávez Villanueva, Salesian Youth Ministry, 49.
124 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, Educazione e Cittadinanza. Formare “salesianamente” il cittadino, Lectio
on the occasion of the conferral of the doctorate honoris causa at the University of Genoa on 23
April 2007, in bit.ly/unige-it-2007-04-23; P. Chávez Villanueva, Cristianità e prevenzione, in
Università degli Studi di Bari, L’educatore, oggi. Tratti per un profilo di san Giovanni Bosco.
Study seminar 26 April 2006, Servizio Editoriale Universitario, Bari 2007, 11-28.
125 Chávez Villanueva, The Salesian mission and human rights, 81.
126 Ibid., 82-84.

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citizenship. A new school and a new social logic is proposed, starting from the ideal of
the classic paideia. In continuity with the two-thousand-year-old tradition of classical
and Christian education, there is the ever-valid thread of formation of a spirit capable of
judging with freedom and fitting into society with responsibility. Without denying the
practical objectives of education, its aims are of a higher humanistic order. In this sense
the Salesian school must go beyond the pedagogical contradiction of a school as a simple
means of ideological reproduction, or military type formation, or simply aimed at the
technical formation required by the economic system.127
The idea of the “salvation of the soul” resounds in the updating of Salesian pedagogy
as the ultimate aim of Don Bosco’s preventive education, defined today as a fulfilled
individual, social and religious human existence.128 The Rector Major’s proposal offers
meaningful insights, taking into account the postmodern and multicultural context.
However, he also speaks honestly of the incompleteness of attempts to update, of the
need to go beyond the questions in order to refound, rethink and update concrete
educational models. Referring implicitly to Braido’s thinking, he states that the historical
roots are solid, “the sources clear, and from them can once more come the Rector Major
Fr Egidio Viganò’s much hoped for ‘new preventive system’, in forms rich in their future
but not yet brought together as a whole.”129
New projects and the method of discernment
Fr Pascual Chávez did not only insist on spiritual and theoretical dimensions in
his magisterium, but pointed to a number of practical challenges associated with a
“planning mentality.” The connection between inspirational ideas and educative and
pastoral methods was picked up once again in the proposal of an updated reinterpretation
of the preventive system on the theoretical and practical level, involving both the great
basic ideas and methodological guidelines.130 Even in his reflection on human rights
their connection in a context of virtue emerges. The Rector Major says that an effective
human rights approach in Salesian setting will be developed if there is acceptance of
an undeniable relationship between education and evangelisation at different levels of
inspiration, personal and social virtues:
We need to recall that evangelisation develops along with human development
and authentic Christian freedom. Love of God and love of neighbour have
127 Cf. Chávez Villanueva, Educazione e Cittadinanza, 2.
128 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, Cristianità e prevenzione, 20.
129 Ibid., 27.
130 Ibid., 12.

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become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we
find God (Cf. Deus Caritas Est, 15). For the same reason social catechesis and
adequate formation in the church’s social teaching will also be needed. Christian
life is not expressed only through personal virtues, but also in social and political
virtues.131
There are other requirements of an operational nature at a concrete level: the
necessary and continuous effort to assimilate and put into practice the Salesian youth
ministry model; the redefinition of our presences in order to make them more significant;
the increasingly connected and coordinated animation of the Salesian “Departments of
the mission” (youth ministry, social communication and missions).132 Overcoming past
structures is also necessary. In the Magisterium on the consecrated life, too, attention
emerges to practical models of participation and new models of life. In earlier times we
ran the risk of enclosing ourselves in a network of precepts and regulations which did not
always help people to mature and live according to the freedom of God’s children. Even
more so, forms of religious life such as community life or modes of prayer, even those
renewed after Vatican II, do not always correspond to the new situations in which life
and mission must be carried out today. These forms and structures that oscillate between
the traditional and the post-Vatican II renewal fail to express new values such as the sense
of dialogue and participation. There is a feeling that the direction in which we need to
move is well known, but in reality we have not yet found a model of life and action that
facilitates and supports this journey.133
Meanwhile, under the pressure of operational problems in communities and in
restructuring of the provinces, facing new problems and demanding new results, the
“old” planning tool given “new” names was opted for. The ideal of Salesian holiness and
the balance between education and evangelisation had to be put into practice through
the method of discernment in personal, community and provincial level.134
The discernment method was suggested for the study of the fundamental aspects
of the first two General Chapters in the third millennium and subsequently also for
developing the personal project of Salesian life and the project of Salesian community
131 Benedict XVI, Opening address at the 5th CELAM conference (13 May 2007), no. 3 quoted in
Chávez Villanueva, The Salesian mission and human rights 81.
132 Cf. Chávez Villanueva, Salesian youth ministry, 47ff.
133 Cf. Chávez, “You are my God, my happiness lies in you alone”, 14.
134 Cf. Chávez, My dear Salesians, be Saints!, 26-28 and 33-34.

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life.135 Antonio Domènech’s instructions for the Overall Provincial Plan made no
mention of the “discernment method”, but did contain a new three-step planning
scheme: call, situation, putting into practice;136 It differs from Vecchi’s method for
drawing up educative and pastoral projects, which started from the situation, then
practical suggestions and finally moved on to evaluation.
The departure point for the discernment method is identifying God’s call which
enables a grasp of urgent appeals and priorities. The province, the community and the
individual ask themselves what God is calling them to be and to do in order to guarantee
the significance of their lives and their actions. The key question for the God’s call is
to distinguish what is fundamental from what is secondary, so that one only dwells
on priority needs and the basic choices. An innovation with respect to educative and
pastoral planning could be proactivity and a greater breadth of questioning about the
call, not narrowing horizons through often reductive descriptions of the situation.
The second stage of discernment is analysing the situation, which should make it
possible to grasp the resources underpinning hope, the limitations and the challenges,
but always with reference to the fundamental choices identified and described in first
stage of God’s call. A SWOT analysis of internal strengths, weaknesses and external
opportunities or threats is introduced into the discernment method.
The third stage of the discernment method is identifying the guidelines for action.
At the outset, the processes that need to be activated in order to move on from the
challenges to a better configuration in terms of mentality and structures are identified.
Once the processes have been identified, an attempt is made to make the path more
concrete by indicating concrete steps and specific interventions.
Francesco Cereda, Councillor for Formation since 2002, summarises the discernment
method as follows: “The three stages of discernment could then be expressed through
expectations, appeals, desires in the first step, which presents God’s call; resources,
difficulties and above all challenges in the second step, which describes the situation of
135 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, Presentation, in GC25 (2002), 15-16; Id., Presentation, in GC26
(2008), 11-12; F. Cereda, The Salesian Community Project. Process of discernment and sharing. Letter
to Provincials and Provincial Councils Provincial Formation Delegates and the Provincial Formation
Commission (13 December 2002); Id., Ongoing Formation, the Personal Project of Life. A journey of
creative fidelity towards holiness. Letter to Provincials and Provincial Councils Provincial Formation
Delegates and the Provincial Formation Commission (21 June 2003); Id., Initial Formation. The
Personal Project Of Life. A journey of identification with the Salesian vocation. Letter to Provincials
and Provincial Councils Provincial Formation Delegates and the Provincial Formation Commission
(5 July 2003).
136 Cf. A. Domènech, The Overall Provincial Plan, in AGC 84 (2003) 381, 35-42;

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the community; objectives, strategies or processes and interventions in the third step,
which identifies the action guidelines.”137
Compared to the SEPP logic, the perspective of changing mentality has been
added, so the model could be less linear and mechanical. There are measurable and
concrete objectives to be pursued, but the aim is not just to achieve them. It is a
matter of following a call and changing one’s mentality, not merely achieving an
improvement in a concrete aspect of the educative and pastoral process. The method
of discernment, therefore, would lead to more streamlined and integral planning,138
creating a perspective139 enabling a change of mentality, and also including spiritual140
and motivational resources.141 These aspects seem to be convincing and important in
personal and community projects, whereas they appear more difficult to initiate at
the province or world level. In fact, it would be useful to explore the methodological
differences for the various planning levels: in all probability no method can be suitable
for the personal and world planning levels. If we are facing the choice of a single method,
it will necessarily be only a nominal or generic one.
The greatest difficulty in the discernment method, however, is placing the God’s
call stage at the beginning of the project, leading to an understanding of vocation as
a disembodied reality and reducing it, operationally, to citations of documents that
“challenge” us. It would seem that the situation analysis stage only comes later and that
its only purpose is to arrive at practical solutions.142 In fact, later on, around the reflection
of GC27 and GC28, we return to the previous order of steps, talking about: 1. Listening,
2. Interpretation, 3. Way ahead.143
137 Cereda, The Salesian Community Project.
138 GC25 (2002) hoped that the result of discernment would be a shift from “a pastoral approach built
around activities and needs to an approach centred on processes” Cf. GC25 (2002), no. 44.
139 The construction of shared and personal vision is one of the outcomes of discernment. Cf. Address
of the Rector Major Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva at the closure of GC25, in CG25 (2002), no. 185
and Cereda, Initial Formation. The Personal Project of Life, 2003.
140 The method of discernment starts with the Word of God through Lectio Divina and discernment of the
signs of the times. Cf. Chávez, Presentation, in GC25 (2002), 15-16 and GC25 (2002), no. 81.
141 Cereda gives some indications: “In developing it we do not absolutise methodological refinement;
instead we try to reach the confreres in depth, starting from their experience and the experience of
the community itself.” In addition, “one must reach the point where the confreres are open, if not
exactly enthusiastic, to embarking on this path. The community does the project, not because it is
forced to but because it feels the need, not because it has to but because it wants to.” Cf. Cereda,
The Salesian Community Project, 2002. Cf. Also GC25 (2002), no. 73.
142 Another difficulty is the absence of theoretical references concerning the discernment, method which
implies the impossibility of reconstructing the theoretical background of the method. Some epistemological
and methodological analyses are proposed in Vojtáš, Reviving Don Bosco’s Oratory, 74-125; 208-217.
143 Cf. The structuring of the GC27 document (2014).

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A further problem lies in the multiplication of the number of projects (using
different methods), which are becoming increasingly difficult to coordinate and
synchronise. Interaction at the various levels is envisaged both by Domènech, based on
the proposal of the Overall Provincial Plan, and by Fabio Attard’s team in the third
edition of the youth ministry Frame of Reference.144 It is not surprising that the Provinces
often followed a simpler path, investing in a single comprehensive project, approved
by the Provincial Chapters and sent to the Generalate, leaving aside the educative and
pastoral project.145 Attention at central level was directed more towards reinforcing
the basic theological and charismatic approach in order to reformulate the Frame of
Reference, as we shall see in the next section.
Attard and the third edition of the Frame of Reference
Receiving the mandate from GC26 to adapt the Frame of Reference, the General
Councillor for Youth Ministry, Fabio Attard, with his team, coordinated a broad
consultation on the requested “deeper understanding of the relationship between
evangelisation and education, in order to put the preventive system into practice and
adapt the frame of reference for youth ministry.”146 In the interview at the end of his
twelve-year term he retrospectively described two risks within the relationship between
education and evangelisation:
a certain functional efficiency of education at the expense of the fundamental
call to be “signs and bearers of God’s love to the young”, and secondly a certain
insistence on evangelisation which loses its educational dynamic, capacity for
processes and gradual growth. In this case the evangelising process is reduced to
a process detached from history, from living reality in all its complexity.147
144 Cf. Domènech, The Overall Provincial Project, 42 and YM Department, Frame of Reference,
32014, 280.
145 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, The Society of St Francis de Sales 2008-2014, SDB, Rome 2014, 42-57
and Á. Fernández Artime, The Society of St Francis de Sales 2014-2020, document as part of GC28
(2020), first part “The Congregation in its sectors of animation”, Chap. 3 “Youth Ministry Sector”.
146 GC26 (2008), no. 45.
147 Dodici anni di PG/1: Il passato, una storia di Congregazione. Interview with Fr. Fabio Attard, outgoing
General Councillor for Salesian YM by Renato Cursi, Giancarlo De Nicolò and Jesús Rojano, in
“Note di Pastorale Giovanile” 54 (2020) 1, 43.

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Fr Attard mentioned other challenges considered when revising the Frame of
Reference: fear of evangelising, being trapped in a purely human horizon, the difficulty of
admitting the change of era, the failure of the institution, the “it has always been done
this way” mentality and, finally, the underestimation of young people’s desire to seek
answers.148 Some of them relate to the post-Vatican II period and concern above all the
generations that grew up in that era, while others are more characteristic of the context
of the third millennium, young people, youth workers and educators.
The third edition of the Salesian Youth Ministry Frame of Reference is intended to
be in continuity with the previous editions, enriching them with a more accentuated
theological, spiritual and charismatic reflection. Within the new or very much revised
chapters we find elements found in the reflection of the Congregation in the early
years of the third millennium. Some themes emerge more strongly, making a valuable
contribution to the internal balance of Salesian pastoral ministry and education:
– the need to be open to the life and culture of the young (Chapter 1);
– the importance of inspiration from Christ the Good Shepherd and inclusion in the
evangelising Church (Chapter 2);
– the insistence on the relationship between evangelisation and education (Chapter 3);
– the idea of the preventive system understood “as a proposal of Christian life (Salesian
youth spirituality) and as a practical pedagogical methodology”149 [rewritten
Chapter 4];
– the methodological importance of the discernment process throughout the whole
framework.
The magisterium of Pope Benedict XVI, the challenges mentioned by Pascual
Chávez and the obvious further challenge of an “internal” secularisation of religious
orders after Vatican II help reinforce the role of evangelisation. A greater presence of
theological language in the first four chapters is evident and the desire to update youth
ministry is declared. The reasoning develops in three stages: Jesus Christ is the evangeliser
who announces communion with God-Love; the Church is the “mystery of communion
and mission” animated and sustained by the Holy Spirit; the Salesian Congregation is
part of the Church’s evangelisation through its specific choice of the mission to the
young.150 Consistently, the chapter on the Educative and Pastoral Community is moved
148 Cf. Ibid., 44-46
149 YM Department, Frame of Reference, 32014, 77.
150 Cf. YM Department, Frame of Reference, 32014, 41.

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before the chapter on the SEPP and the educative and cultural dimension is preceded by
education in faith, reversing the order of the second edition.
Despite the strengthened theological aspect, the model of “integral development”
remains. It appears more than 80 times in the text, and is a concept connecting Benedict
XVI’s Caritas in Veritate, through its understanding of the integral nature of the person
in every dimension, to what the preventive system says about the “good Christian
and upright citizen”, finally affirming the integral nature of the Salesian educative and
pastoral project in all its dimensions for the full growth of the young person.151 The
concept then broadens out to the integral development of peoples, integral humanism,
becoming an adjectival form that characterises vision, reflection, development, growth,
promotion, formation, liberation, maturation, and including the integral nature of the
rights of the person and of institutional life (in the new part on Salesian Institutes
of Higher Education). The integration between the dimensions of the project is also
reinforced through the many animating choices of youth ministry running through
them all: vocational, missionary, volunteering, social communication and Salesian youth
movement.
Bearing in mind all the things the text is intended to respond to, it is understandable
that the third edition of the Frame of Reference is not easy reading, containing several
layers of thought and drafting, and being twice the length of the previous edition. Given
that the magisterium of the Congregation has been expanding with each six-year period,
the criteria, the different rationales, the mentalities to be changed have increased in
number, but so have the fields of mission and the structures of animation and planning.
Therefore, in the 2014-2020 period, the Department introduced a school for provincial
delegates for youth ministry, taking up and studying the text. I believe that in addition to
the essential attention given to the study of a complex text, it would be useful to develop
and simplify the methodological aspects of the educative and pastoral proposal. It is easy
to list the criteria for judging projects, programs and activities, but it would also be useful
to indicate the steps and a focus on “how to do it” and how to shift “from paper to life.”
Fabio Attard, too, mentioned this in the interview we have referred to, stating the urgent
need for planning so as not to fall into the extremes of improvisation or fixation on doing
things the way we have always done them.152
The methodological issue emerges around the paradigmatic theme of projects and
pathways. It is an area addressed more in the last part of the last chapter. The provincial
and local SEPP are included in a set of documents that guide action at different levels.
An important place is occupied by the Overall Province Plan, the Province Directory and
151 Cf. Ibid.
152 Dodici anni di PG. Interview with Fabio Attard, 49.

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annual planning, for which further specifications are offered. By way of illustration we
refer to Figure I on the interrelationships mentioned in the Frame of Reference. Annual
planning becomes a “mini-project” that focuses on one main objective for the year,
breaking it down into specific objectives (processes, interventions, tasks and distribution
of personnel), which are to be evaluated at the end of the year. The planning should also
include the organisational chart of the province or work, and the timetable.153
Figure I: Interdependence between various projects154
153 Cf. YM Department, Frame of Reference, 32014, 282-283 and 285-288.
154 Ibid., 280.

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The idea of planning set out this way does not seem to have been substantially
affected by the theological change of perspective in the first three chapters. At a nominal
level, the role of discernment is emphasised, understood as an attitude of being attentive
to God’s plan in everything,155 but the planning stages (situation analysis, practical
planning, verification) remain unchanged in their logic of planning by objectives.
Discernment is not integrated into the planning stages, but is conceived of as an overall
focus that accompanies the whole process in order to prevent extremes of technical,
commercial, economic, political planning on the one hand or spiritualism on the other.
The static, rigid and anonymous nature of planning should be put into perspective
through the introduction of discernment, which has the task of keeping “the educative
and pastoral spirit of the SEPP, its evangelical nature of offering salvation to the young
person in Christ” at the centre.156
Compared to the second edition’s generic suggestion that “a methodology be devised
that favours the participation of all”,157 the third edition names three discernment
methodologies to be chosen according to circumstances and contexts: see-judge-act;
God’s call-situation-action plans; review of life.158 A similar type of approach is repeated
in the question of planning programmes for education to the faith as part of the
chapter on the preventive system. The programmes are thought of as being projects that
will develop over time: “We need to translate the theory into practical programmes of
structured learning, in gradual stages, suited to the condition of the young people who
are to implement them (objectives, attitudes, knowledge, concrete commitments and
experiences) with some clearly-defined content.”159 Instead of a method, four areas of
human and Christian growth are proposed (which are not directly aligned with the four
dimensions of the SEPP) and two sets of criteria to be considered.160
A number of lessons can be drawn from the evolution of the three editions of the
Frame of Reference. One concerns the core idea of creating complete and up-to-date
syntheses. It would seem that after the next Synod or some new magisterial document,
155 Cf.Ibid., 27-28 and 290-292.
156 Ibid., 292
157 YM Department, Frame of Reference, 22000, 139.
158 Cf. YM Department, Frame of Reference, 32014, 281-282.
159 Ibid., 99.
160 The Frame of Reference soffers operational criteria (flexibility, continuity, orientation, comprehensiveness)
and methodological criteria (concreteness, symbol, narrative, internalisation, experience, protagonism
and participation, personalisation and socialisation) in YM Department, Frame of Reference, 32014,
99-103.

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the Frame of Reference will once more need to be rewritten. Yet the symbolic and
essential approach taken in the 1990 book Salesian Youth Ministry seems to be less
subject to ageing: the fundamental ideas and their relationships expressed in a design
that leaves room for interpretation is a more stable, simple one and more capable of
changing mentality. Another lesson is the need to attend to the delicate relationship
between the anthropological approach and methodologies. In the first two editions, it
was the methodology that was given emphasis, implying an anthropology that could be
improved. In the third edition, it was the anthropological approach that was reinforced,
obscuring the earlier methodological clarity. The search remains open, but it can be
said that we have many elements that will guide us in any future construction of a
more evolved and balanced methodology between discernment and practice, allowing
ourselves to be guided by the stimulating and beautiful bottom line: “The pedagogical
approach of the method, closely linked to the contents and dynamics, is important [...]
In this sense, the method is also the message.”161
The bicentenary and first years of Fr Fernández Artime’s term of
office
The preparation for the celebrations of the second centenary of Don Bosco’s birth
was outlined by Fr Pascual Chávez well in advance, setting out a three-year period
marked by three successive proposals: knowledge of the historical Don Bosco (Strenna
2012),162 rediscovering his Preventive System (Strenna 2013)163 and insights into
Salesian spirituality revolving around pastoral charity (Strenna 2014).164 The final theme
of the spirituality of evangelisation was already explicitly inspired by Pope Francis’
Evangelii Gaudium that “offers a view of how the Church should be: unafraid of the
161 Ibid., 101.
162 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, “Let us make the young our life‘s mission by coming to know and imitate
Don Bosco” First year of preparation for the Bicentenary of his birth, in AGC 93 (2012) 412, 3-39.
163 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, “Like Don Bosco the educator, we offer young people the Gospel of joy
through a pedagogy of kindness.” Second year of preparation for the bicentenary of his birth, in AGC
94 (2013) 415, 3-29.
164 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, “Da mihi animas, cetera tolle”, Let us draw upon the spiritual experience
of Don Bosco, in order to walk in holiness according to our specific vocation “The glory of God and the
salvation of souls.” Third year of preparation for the Bicentenary of his birth, in AGC 95 (2014) 417,
3-46.

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modern world, that seeks new ways of preaching the Gospel, more missionary, more
merciful, more courageous in making all the changes necessary.”165 The subdivision
of the years of preparation became a paradigm of the threefold division that was also
reflected in the layout of the first volume of Salesian Sources between the historical,
educational and spirituality sections, and partially conditioned the way the scientific
congresses for the bicentennial were managed: partially because a historical congress was
held in 2014 and a pedagogical one in 2015, but an event of in-depth scientific study on
Salesian spirituality was missing.
The ecclesial Zeitgeist at the time of the bicentenary revolved around the practical
pastoral focus of Pope Francis, with some reinforcements concerning attitudes of
closeness to the little ones, outreach to the peripheries and a synodal approach. In fact,
his magisterium is enhanced if it is read more from a pastoral-relational perspective
than from one of dogmatic reform or theoretical redefinition. Fr Ángel Fernández
Artime, elected at GC27 in 2014, has placed himself very much in tune with the pope,
developing a style of animation that follows in the footsteps of Renato Ziggiotti, visiting
the individual provinces of the Congregation and animating the processes around the
Rector Major by listening to concrete situations.
Picking up the wealth of post-Vatican II reflection, this seems to be the time for
implementation, for integral pastoral models and for accompaniment of decentralised
and necessarily slow processes, with rhythms linked to the changed demography of the
Congregation. It will be a work of decades, in search of models for a consistent, profound
and intercultural community life involving “new Salesians” who know how to live the
balance between spiritual depth, accompaniment of young people and adult educators,
and who can discern and plan formation programmes and manage the coordination
of the educative and pastoral communities in concentric circles. The lessons of history
regarding the “regularisation” of studentates during Fr Rinaldi’s time, or the slow and
partial restructuring in the post-Vatican II period, are examples of the time needed
for profound change. The alternation of times for innovative rethinking and vital
practical assimilation is to be accepted with humility so as not to fall into a cultural war
between those who exalt the glory of the distant past and those who have internalised
liberal-progressive secularisation with the “arm” of polarisation of history, thought
and, not least, the recent two pontificates. As emerges from the report on the state of
the Congregation in 2020, we are not immune to the populist, clerical or secularised
solutions that signal a deficit in Salesian charismatic identity.166
165 Cf. Ibid., 4.
166 Cf. Á. Fernández Artime, The Society of St Francis de Sales in the six-year period 2014-2020, 1-2,
15-17 and 25-26.

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The last two General Chapters have made us see how the potential of the
post-Vatican II model of “magisterial rethinking” that implies a shift “from paper to
life”, has run its course. The 2014 and 2020 Chapters further reinforced the process
component of discernment linked to the world situation of the Congregation. GC27’s
synthesis between the mysticism of the interior life, the prophecy of communion and
the educative and pastoral service to the young is not, in itself, theoretically innovative,
it is only reversing the order of the Constitutions’ scheme: “Sent to the young-in
communities-following Christ.”167 In addition to pointing out the topicality of some
post-Vatican II approaches, such as going out to the peripheries and towards the poor or
the need to plan together with the laity, practical issues such as the protection of minors,
the consistency of communities or transparency in the management of goods and works
are made concrete.168
In his letter on the “five fruits of the bicentenary”,169 Fr Fernández Artime
summarises the vision for the future around the “dream” of a Congregation of happy
Salesians who are men of faith filled with God, passionate about the poorest young
people and therefore missionaries, evangelisers and educators in the faith. Again we find
the scheme of “double fidelity” in this approach, one of listening to the young and
listening to the Church, one of the balances of the first chapters of the new Frame of
Reference.170 In the more educational part, about being present with the poorest young
people, Fr Ángel reinterprets the post-Vatican II magisterium on the preferential option
for the least, applying it to the Salesian way of life. Taking up the argumentation of Pope
Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium on the globalisation of indifference and the “throwaway
culture”,171 the Rector Major affirms, in the last General Chapters, the intrinsic link
between the choice of poor young people and a consequent sober, transparent and
service-oriented lifestyle.
“Don’t be closed in on yourselves” the pope says “don’t be stifled by petty
squabbles, don’t remain a hostage to your own problems... A whole world awaits
us: men and women who have lost all hope, families in difficulty, abandoned
children, young people without a future, the elderly sick and abandoned, those
167 Cf. The second part of the SDB Constitutions, articles 6-95.
168 Cf. GC27 (2014), nos. 35, 52ffs, 60, 71, 73ff.
169 Cf. Á. Fernández Artime, “So that they may have life and have it to the full” (Jn. 10:10) Five fruits
of the bicentenary, in AGC 96 (2015) 421, 3-26.
170 Cf. YM Department, Frame of Reference, 32014, 35.
171 Cf. Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, nos. 53-58 in Artime, Five fruits of the bicentenary, 16-17.

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who are rich in the world’s goods but impoverished within, men and women
looking for a purpose in life, thirsting for the divine.172
Thus, in the Salesian Magisterium in the third millennium, we pass from the
approach of education in itself to the importance of the link between the identity, the
lifestyle of educators and the planning choices of education. In the third millennium, the
demography of the educators has changed between the dynamics of shared responsibility
with lay educators in an ageing West and the growth of consecrated vocations in other
contexts with the risks of self-referentiality and clericalism.
The Rector Major takes up some issues that need a more concrete translation
through his various Strennas. The typical example is accompaniment, chosen as the Strenna
for 2018. At the beginning of the commentary, Fr Fernández Artime asks himself, and
it is not a rhetorical question: “What are we waiting for? Why do we not decide to be
much more available to accompany all our young people in what is most important for
their lives? What is holding us back? Why ‘being busy’ or ‘spending time’ on other things
when this is a real priority for education and evangelisation?”173 It would seem that the
disparity between the increasing amount of theoretical, ideal stimuli and the decreasing
number of forces has reached a point of no return. This is the “gap between the number
of proposals and the possibility of implementing them”174 pointed out by Fr Vecchi
already at the beginning of the 1990s and now being further reinforced.
In this connection, the dynamics of the alternation between periods of greater
reflection and implementation, the exhaustion of the post-Vatican II Chapter model
and, not least, the demographic dynamics of contemporary consecrated life are to be
considered fundamental. There are also other events, such as the move of the Generalate,
the unfinished GC28 due to the global pandemic, to be considered as “events symbolic”
of a change of era. The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic not only interrupted the work
of the General Chapter, but has also cast doubt on various pastoral models and urges us
to rethink Salesian “presence” and the educational relationship with new balances.
172 Cf. Francis, Apostolic Letter to all consecrated persons on the occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life,
in Artime, Five fruits of the bicentenary, 17.
173 Á. Fernández Artime, Strenna 2018 “Lord, give me this water” (Jn 4:15). Let us cultivate the art
of listening and of accompaniment, in AGC 99 (2018) 426, 4-5.
174 Cf. Vecchi, Verso una nuova tappa di PG, in Il cammino e la prospettiva 2000, 88.

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Salesian currents of pedagogical thinking in the third
millennium
The historical-critical approach to Salesian education
Shortly after the centenary in 1988, Father Pietro Braido became an emeritus professor,
but this did not prevent him from continuing his work at the Historical Institute
and gathering the fruits of his life’s work in two concluding volumes, Don Bosco
prete dei giovani nel secolo delle libertà (Don Bosco, the young people’s priest in the
century of freedoms) and in four substantial articles on the history of the oratory in
contemporary Italy. His typical systematic and precise approach were just as decisive
for the form of his final publications. In his preface to the work on the history of the
oratory Paolo Alfieri clearly expresses the key to interpreting Braido’s contribution in
“determining the exact relationship of each experience to the historical context as a
whole” as a “fundamental condition for an objective assessment and the surest means
for a courageous and innovative comparison, beyond irrational inflexibility and eclectic
and transformist solutions.”175 Statements of the kind can be found in the introduction
to the volume on Christian pedagogical experiences in history of the early 1980s and are
the expression of the “later Braido”, the historian of education.176
The image of Don Bosco the educator is outlined in the two substantial volumes
of 2002 in a continuous meticulous alternation between his personality and the
presentation of individual experiences. Braido avoids both an analysis of “mental
frameworks”, a method typical of Pietro Stella, and the narrative style of Desramaut,
although these authors are used as points of reference. The biography by Pietro
Braido (also his scientific “testament”) needed to be “the summa vitae of Don Bosco,
substantiated by situations and events that overlap and that would be inadequately
represented by general statements.”177 The critique of the sources is central, within
which Don Bosco also becomes a “problematic self-witness”, and the priority is given by
175 P. Alfieri, Per una storia dell’educazione giovanile nell’oratorio dell’Italia contemporanea. Il contributo
di Pietro Braido sull’esperienza salesiana, in Braido, Per una storia dell’educazione giovanile nell’oratorio,
15.
176 Cf. P. Braido, Presentazione, in Id., Esperienze di pedagogia cristiana nella storia, LAS, Rome 1981,
vol. 1, 6.
177 P. Braido, Don Bosco prete dei giovani nel secolo delle libertà, LAS, Rome 22003, 17.

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the author to the “multiplicity of things he did.”178 The typical historical-critical method
of Braido’s two volumes actually incorporates two worlds belonging to the past: Don
Bosco’s world of a Piedmont in transition from rural to industrial, and the “modern”
world of the critical, precise and meticulous Braido, as opposed to the triumphalism
symbolised by the Biographical Memoirs fuelled by the dialectic between freedom and
tradition.
The perspectives of Braido’s pedagogical rethinking still move in a post- Ricaldonian
universe between the coordinates of discipline and the activism of the “new schools”,
with solutions balancing neo-Thomism, modernity and the humanities. The updating
envisaged in the famous Chapter XIX of his Prevenire non reprimere is set within these
coordinates of overcoming the “classic opposition between authority and freedom”,
re-proposing the centrality of the child and its natural and spontaneous activity,
referring both to the founding fathers Komenský, Locke and Rousseau and to more
recent currents of personalisation, self-management or youthful protagonism.179 Braido
envisages a path that is impossible to follow, as it combines the appreciation of the
“immeasurable progress” of the educational sciences, the more radical contributions
of Lutte, Milanesi or Grasso in the post-Vatican II era180 with specialised insights by
Pellerey, Castellazzi, Thévenot and others.181
If we place Braido’s proposals in the context of the third millennium they seem to
be unconvincing, since we are direct witnesses (at least in the West) to the problematic
nature of modern, anthropocentric solutions. The modern hubris is wearing off and
one perceives the fragmentation of society, the fragility of the human condition, the
limits of science that does not touch the quality of life experience. Moreover, in the
ecclesial sphere there has been a rising awareness of the limits of the historical-critical
method summed up excellently in the preface to Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth.182 At
the same time there is also a division of the educational sciences in to separate sectors
178 Cf. Ibid., 15-17.
179 Cf. Braido, Prevenire non reprimere, 362-367 and 377-379.
180 Cf. Ibid., 381-383.
181 Cf. Ibid., 377, 380 and 384. In the bibliographical guidelines Braido also points to other contributions
to innovation that include contributions from psychology, sociology, history, conference proceedings,
social and intercultural educational practice proposed by Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of
Christians. Cf. Ibid., 396-398.
182 Cf. J. Ratzinger Benedict XVI, Gesù di Nazaret, Rizzoli, Milan 2007, 7-20. (also in English as
Jesus of Nazareth, Penguin Random House, 2007)

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which are held together more by diplomatic practical than epistemological dynamics.183
An implicit acknowledgement of dissatisfaction with de facto interdisciplinarity is,
for example, the insistence on the need for the principle of transdisciplinarity found
in Pope Francis’Veritatis Gaudium.184 Pietro Stella, too, noted in his later years that
“unfortunately the Salesian University did not serve as a transmission belt for a renewed
education system: I have the impression that this renewal was being done only in
fragments.”185
Following Braido and the paradoxical outlook of the last chapter of Prevenire non
reprimere, it has become fashionable to talk about rethinking with an ever longer list
of challenges to be considered, but without offering a more concrete and integral way
of implementing it all. More and more “challenges” are being added that are not then
addressed or solved with the same seriousness and meticulousness with which the
problematic part is taken care of. In the meantime it seems that the triumphalism of the
Biographical Memoirs is not the biggest problem, but rather the poor knowledge of Don
Bosco and Salesian history. Fr Pascual Chávez, who with the sensitivity of the biblical
scholar knew how to appreciate the importance of a balanced historical interpretation,
valued the contributions of Braido and the Salesian Historical Institute especially in the
preparation of the Bicentennial celebrations:
On the other hand, the events of these years – the 150th anniversary of the
foundation of the Congregation, the centenary of Don Rua’s death, the 150th
of Italian unification - have increased in us a historical mentality, which must
however be re-appropriated. […] It is an opportunity for all of us to get in touch
with the great work done over the years. Finally, point 7 motivates the need to
have a current image of Don Bosco.186
The valuable work of the scholars of the Salesian Historical Institute is continually
enriching the Salesian world with contributions that also reconstruct Salesian education
up to the middle of the 20th century. Since 1996, the Associazione Cultori di
183 The unifying centrality of the philosophy of education or metaphysics within the sciences of education
as envisaged by the “early Braido’’ has not been established.. Cf. P. Braido, Umanesimo e pedagogia,
PAS, Turin 1957, 15-46; Id., Introduzione alle Scienze dell’educazione, in P. Braido et al., Educare.
Sommario di scienze pedagogiche, PAS Verlag, Zurich 31962, vol. 1, 19-20; Id., La teoria dell’educazione
e i suoi problemi, PAS Verlag, Zurich 1968, 10-13; 131-133.
184 Cf. Francis, Apostolic Constitution “Veritatis Gaudium” on ecclesiastical universities and faculties,
no. 4c, in bit.ly/vatican-va-2018-01-29.
185 Pietro Stella racconta il suo percorso come studioso di don Bosco (14 December 2006), in M. Lupi – A.
Giraudo, Pietro Stella. La lezione di uno storico, LAS, Rome 2011, 123.
186 P. Chávez Villanueva, “Let us make the young our life‘s mission by coming to know and imitate
Don Bosco“. First year of preparation for the Bicentenary of his birth, in AGC 93 (2012) 412, 10.

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Storia Salesiana (ACSSA) or the Salesian History Association, has also been active.
Its “aim is to promote studies on Salesian history, encouraging research, updating
and collaboration among its members, and animating the Salesian Family from an
historiographical point of view.”187 Among the most significant contributions are the
two volumes on Salesian education between 1888 and 1922, the volume on Salesian
education in difficult times, or the contributions to the historical conference on the
Salesian charism on the occasion of the bicentenary.188 Important for the dissemination
of historical knowledge was the publication and subsequent translations of the Salesian
Sources, commissioned by GC26 and drawn up by the Salesian Historical Institute.189
Many sources, historical reconstructions of individual houses, provinces, regions,
research on persons and various themes and other publications contained in the series
produced by the ISS, ACSSA and the Don Bosco Study Centre at the UPS are available
to readers, but they seem to be few. The scenario of Salesian historiography is quite
complex and differentiated and it is not easy to move within it without a professional
background. In several countries there is a frequent disproportion between the relevance
of Salesian activity and the scarcity of historiography.190 There is an increasing need for a
selection of essential materials, comprehensive studies and meaningful syntheses that can
illuminate the reflections of educationalists, scholars of pastoral ministry, theologians
or philosophers of education. Without this type of publication we will move, as often
happens, on parallel tracks with rationales that are difficult to reconcile and, in the end,
with results that are not always relevant to the educational, formative and planning
experience of the members of the Salesian Family in the different contexts. An intelligent
use of the computer and digital tools will be strategic for the meaningful development of
187 Statuto dell’Associazione Cultori di Storia Salesiana (ACSSA) updated on 24 May 2016, art. 1, in
iss.sdb.org/?page_id=142
188 Cf. J.G. González et al. (eds.), L’educazione salesiana dal 1880 al 1922. Istanze ed attuazioni in
diversi contesti. Acts of the 4th International Conference on the History of the Salesian Work Mexico
City, 12-18 February 2006, 2. vols.; S. Zimniak – G. Loparco (eds.), L’educazione salesiana in Europa
negli anni difficili del XX secolo. Acts of the European Seminar on the History of the Salesian Work
Krakow, 31 October - 4 November 2007, LAS, Rome 2008 and A. Giraudo et al (eds.), Sviluppo
del carisma di Don Bosco fino alla metà del secolo XX. Acts of the International Congress of Salesian
History Rome, 19-23 November 2014. Reports, LAS, Rome, 2016.
189 Cf. Istituto Storico Salesiano, Fonti Salesiane. 1. Don Bosco e la sua opera. Raccolta antologica,
LAS, Rome 2014. Translated in English as Salesian Historical Institute, Salesian Sources 1:
Don Bosco and his work. Collected Works, LAS – Kristu Jyoti, Rome – Bangalore, 2017.
190 Cf. G. Loparco – S. Zimniak (eds.), La storiografia salesiana tra studi e documentazione nella
stagione postconciliare, LAS, Rome 2014, 14 and 20.

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Salesian historiography, to create databases in order to carry out multi-criteria research
using textual and semantic analysis algorithms.191
Youth ministry and the priority of evangelisation
As we have seen in the section on the third edition of the Salesian Youth Ministry Frame
of Reference, some of the simplifications of the 1980s and 1990s that revolved around
the education-evangelisation pair proved to be insufficient and reductive. Different
conceptions often implicitly or explicitly reduced Viganò’s synthesis simply to a set
of equal dimensions, planning parallel educational programmes or even just a slogan.
The approaches developed on this “dimensions” basis generally present the religious
dimension in a way that is relatively autonomous from the others, expressing it through
topics of a generic spirituality focused on the search for meaning and the practice of
certain human values.
For example, around the turn of the millennium Roger Burggraeve and Jacques
Schepens developed a modernised version of the reason, religion and loving kindness
triplet seen in terms of the young person individually coming to maturity in the areas
of affectivity, rationality and the meaning of life.192 Each area of growth is refocused
with relevant and interesting reflections on the age of youth as a time of personal
appropriation of values and attitudes. The risk of their approach, however, is to see
these areas as relatively and practically independent and to reduce “religion” to a generic
spirituality, by working with the concepts of motivation, the meaning of life and values
in general. Christianity comes “after” as a “further concretisation”.193
A similar approach was presented by Michele Pellerey during the Salesian Pedagogy
Congress in 2015, proposing a reinterpretation of the classic triplet as a system of
relationships that is based on reasonableness, is oriented towards a youthful spirituality
191 Cf. classification, taxonomies and indexing of Salesian resources in salesian.online and sangiovannibosco. net
and the rich bibliography on the topic of semantic research in A. Meroño-Peñuela et al., Semantic
technologies for historical research: A survey, in “Semantic Web” 6 (2015) 6, 539-564.
192 Cf. R. Burggraeve – J. Schepens, Emotionalität, Rationalität und Sinngebung als Faktoren christlicher
Werterziehung. Eine Interpretation des pädagogischen Erbes Don Boscos für heute, Don Bosco, Munich
1999 a summary of which was published in French as J. Schepens, Affectivité rationalité sens de
la vie. Le trinôme salésien: raison, religion, affection, réactualisé dans le langage contemporain, Don
Bosco, Paris 2001.
193 Cf.Schepens, Affectivité rationalité sens de la vie, 24.

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and is animated by self-giving and affective reciprocity.194 His systematic approach
to the three is interesting, combining and interconnecting them. Also interesting is
the attention paid to the rediscovery of practical wisdom, educational intuition, the
principle of gift of self or youth spirituality. The following is a summary passage that
illustrates well the insistence and importance of a spiritual approach in education:
An authentic development of the very religious dimension of human life does
not seem possible without radical existential experiences that urge us to go
beyond the superficiality of the everyday, the temporariness of the immediate,
the materialist nature of consumption. Not only that, but there is probably
a need for an apprenticeship that also initiates a persistent search in the
cultural field for a more incisive truth about human, personal and social reality,
and about the reality of the universe that surrounds us. It is necessary that
educational pathways, including school ones, be a place and time for ethical,
aesthetic and authentic truthful experiences, existential experiences that prompt
an awakening of the inner self, and for accompaniment on the journey. There
needs to be a spiritual adventure towards the ultimate meaning of life, the
fundamental purposes of existence, towards a profound personal encounter
with the Absolute.195
Without detracting from the value of some of the interesting and meaningful
applications of the approaches mentioned, we should also point out the weaknesses
of a generic spirituality. In fact at the centre of the Congregation there was a
greater resonance of approaches linked more explicitly to the themes of evangelisation,
discernment, accompaniment and vocation. Simplifying, I think that it is not a question
of a shift from the sciences of education to theology, as it is often interpreted, but
rather a shift from the simplification of Rahner’s fundamental theology (which sees
religiosity as transcendence inherent in human life linked to the mystery that is beyond
our control),196 to the theology inspired by von Balthasar, within which the cross of
Christ, which manifests the glory and love of God, is the central event of human history
and the gaze of faith is present from the beginning of all reflection onwards. Below we
194 M. Pellerey, La professionalità educativa e la competenza pedagogica. Attenzioni irrinunciabili dell’offerta
formativa della famiglia salesiana oggi, in V. Orlando (ed.), Con Don Bosco educatori dei giovani
del nostro tempo. Acts of the International Conference on Salesian Pedagogy 19-21 March 2015 Rome
Salesianum/Ups, LAS, Rome 2015, 190-206.
195 Ibid., 193-194.
196 Cf. K. Rahner, L'esperienza di Dio oggi, in Pellerey, La professionalità educativa, 194.

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illustrate some of the steps in the theological reformulation of the relationship between
evangelisation and education that originated in northern Italy.197
To summarise, we can start from the analysis by Paolo Zini, who takes up
the historical and cultural premises of the processes of secularisation that today
contribute most to making the peaceful integration between educational practice and
the proclamation of the Gospel difficult. Looking back at the thought of Voltaire, Locke
and Hume, one can see the first break between speculative and practical thinking. Faith
is perceived as belonging to the subjective sphere and it is practical reason instead that
balances social relations around the founding idea of tolerance that can be rationally and
publicly shared.198 The faith-reason split is also reflected in other contrasts between the
outward nature of public law and the inward nature of subjective awareness; between
the knowledge of means and the knowledge of ends, right up to the separation between
verifiable rationality and merely subjective, mystical and inexpressible faith, typical of
some exponents of the Vienna Circle. Following Charles Taylor’s fundamental work
The Secular Age, Zini then sets out the effects of dissociation at the level of social and
cultural processes that defined modernity. From the context of religious intolerance in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries come the processes of considering the “Name
of God” as a civil danger, the social obfuscation of believing practice, the secularisation
of educational concern and the “enjoyable weakness” of freedom.199
The theological proposal of Andrea Bozzolo, Roberto Carelli and the subsequent
developments of Rossano Sala’s youth ministry are situated within von Balthasar’s
understanding of fundamental theology, with references to Pierangelo Sequeri’s notion
of the “believing conscience”, Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenology of self-gift or
Klaus Hemmerle’s and Piero Coda’s Trinitarian anthropologies.200 Andrea Bozzolo
offers some fundamental reflections and the essential elements of the concept of
evangelisation, going beyond the division between faith seen as the goal and education
197 Cf. A. Bozzolo – R. Carelli (eds.), Evangelizzazione ed educazione, LAS, Rome 2011 and the
summary of his theoretical approach in R. Sala, Evangelizzazione ed educazione dei giovani. Un
percorso teorico-pratico, LAS, Rome 2017, 47-168.
198 Cf. P. Zini, Il divorzio tra fede e cultura. Alle origini della questione educativa, in Bozzolo – Carelli
(eds.),Evangelizzazione ed educazione, 293-299.
199 Cf. P. Zini, Il destino dell’educazione tra i lumi della ragione e l’oscuramento della fede, in Sala,
Evangelizzazione ed educazione dei giovan, 48-79.
200 Cf. The rich bibliographical references in Sala, Evangelizzazione ed educazione dei giovani, 203-207.
Of fundamental importance to the proposal is P. Sequeri, Il Dio affidabile. Saggio di teologia fondamentale,
Queriniana, Brescia 1996 and J.-L. Marion, Dato che. Saggio per una fenomenologia della donazione,
SEI, Turin 2001.

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as the means to get there. Evangelisation is not just the spreading of a message, but
should be understood in greater depth as the radiating of the event of revelation through
the lives of those who have accepted its transforming power and can thus become a
mediation for others. Evangelii Gaudium is read in this courageous and stimulating
sense, “in which Pope Francis shows how evangelisation can only be achieved within a
dynamic dialogue and process.”201 Going beyond the modern divide between believing
subjectivity and objectivity of the Gospel message, the author proposes a view of
tradition as a living, dynamic process of continuous dialogue with God who speaks
in human history. Consistently, priority is given to the action of the Spirit, to the
proclamation of the kerygma of Jesus crucified and risen, and not to systematised
content or methodologies. By outlining evangelisation, revelation and tradition in this
way, the basis of the argument is the person of Jesus who unites the view of the divine and
the human, thus going beyond the modern divides of private devotion and the affairs of
the world, between doctrine and “animation”, between mystery and the everyday. This
implies that
the link between evangelisation and education should not be understood as
the coordination of two extrinsic instances, but as the declination of a polarity
internal to the very fact of revelation. We say that it is an internal polarity because
God reveals himself precisely while he “educates” his people, shows his face while
he liberates them, presents himself as the absolute Lord while he leads them as a
caring shepherd.202
Bozzolo, in continuity with the proposed view, points out the need to rediscover
the intrinsic educational value of Christianity also through the formation of conscience
and behaviour during all phases of life. In this way we recover a fundamental element
present in Salesian education, unfortunately lost due to the post-Vatican II criticism
of the problematic and rigid positions of Peter Ricaldone’s “Gospel method”. From
the animation of youth groups typical of the previous period, the wider ecclesiological
dimension of education is reinforced. The context of education and evangelisation is
not given by sociological groups with their dynamics but by an ecclesial community,
“the living memory of Christ and the privileged space for access to the encounter
201 A. Bozzolo, L’evangelizzazione: le dimensioni costitutive della missione ecclesiale, in Sala,
Evangelizzazione ed educazione dei giovani, 91.
202 Ibid., 104.

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with Him.”203 Obviously, the Church is seen as semper reformanda in Pope Francis’
perspective, less clerical, more pastoral, missionary, evangelising, on the part of all the
baptised called to holiness.
In correlation is the theological approach to education proposed by Roberto Carelli.
In the first part of his contribution he more radically retraces the scenarios of thought
already proposed by Zini and Bozzolo, emphasising the asymmetry, the dramatic
nature, the total gratuitousness of God’s plan, human life as fascinating and unbearable
transcendence, ending up saying that “education coincides with the education of faith,
and that pedagogy is basically mystagogy.”204 In our opinion, what emerges in his
intervention is the pars destruens of twentieth-century pedagogy and not the “logic of
an alliance” that is declared but not pursued with valid arguments.205
Rossano Sala then develops a theological-pastoral approach to Jesus’ gift of self,
as a central idea for understanding the history of salvation. The anthropology of
self-gift then gives direction to the seven criteria of youth ministry and the forms
of pastoral activity. The other pastoral criteria revolve around the paradigm of the
gift of self: the closeness of life as a combination of God’s incarnation, the attitude
of Salesian assistance combined with the Evangelii Gaudium, involving a style of
sympathy, compassion, friendliness and sharing of life with young people. The educative
and pastoral commitment is proposed within the process of Christian discipleship,
understood as broad and articulated, unified by the reference of friendship, sonship
and marriage with Jesus Christ, made concrete in the call-vocation. “The ultimate goal
of everything can only be ‘communion’. It becomes clear that incarnation-closeness
is in view of the gift of self-cross and that it is in view of communion-community.
The direction of the theological-pastoral path is therefore clear: incarnation (closeness)
→ cross (self-gift) → communion (community).”206 Communion, seen as a winning
ecclesial style, is lived in terms of the alternative strategy of the beatitudes, not rights,
in order to propose the shared and unifying point of holiness for all, which is typically
Salesian.
203 Ibid., 110.
204 R. Carelli, L’educazione e le sue articolazioni, in Sala, Evangelizzazione ed educazione dei giovani,
138.
205 Cf. Ibid., 141-142. The author articulates the four theses of his contribution in opposition to modern
pedagogy, which in turn becomes a meta-message of incompatibility between pedagogy and theology
of education.
206 Sala, Evangelizzazione ed educazione dei giovani, 217. For the part on his criteria for youth ministry
cf. pp. 209-241.

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In order to understand the proposal of the authors presented, one must consider
their particular and debatable perspective, called “intradisciplinary”, that is, the
appreciation of the contribution of the human sciences only within theology.207 The
greatest contribution to overcoming the dimension- based, compartmentalised and
compromised relationship between education and evangelisation is to be found in the
field of fundamental theology applied to youth ministry. This current of thought, even
if it is not explicitly in the field of Salesian pedagogy, should be considered for its
contributions and influences on the formulation of the third edition of the Salesian
Youth Ministry Frame of Reference. I think there is further room for dialogue and
alliance between the insights, criteria and proposals set out with other contributions of
thought, experience and planning from around the world, so as not to remain anchored
in the framework of an overly specific fundamental theology. While anthropological
reflections may be meaningful in some Western contexts that have experienced the effects
of the “overly incarnated” model of youth ministry post-Vatican II, this is not the case
for the majority of Salesian contexts that experience other cultural, social, educational,
inter-religious and institutional dynamics. It will be necessary and stimulating to initiate
the perspective of patient and humble “missionary synodality”, which takes care of both
identity and processes, both thinking and planning.
Accompaniment, the new paradigm for postmodern education
As is often the case when there is a change of era, it would seem that the recent
insistence on accompaniment is not only a trend responding to the new needs of
young people, but also a critical feedback on the approach of the previous era. In fact,
what was in the foreground in the post-Vatican II era was the concept of personal
freedom (in an experiential context of struggling against the standardisation of a
“Ricaldonian” boarding school). If freedom is conceived as an ordering principle, then it
logically follows that pedagogical thinking and educational practice should diminish any
interference with personal choices. In this context, one can understand the post-Council
resistance towards a concept of traditional spiritual direction linked to confession (moral
perspective) and to accountability to the rector (juridical perspective), as can be seen for
207 Cf. Ibid., 257-258 which evaluates the contribution of S. Lanza, Teologia pastorale, in G. Canobbio
- P. Coda (eds.), La teologia del XX secolo. Un bilancio. 3. Prospettive pratiche, Città Nuova, Rome
2003, 393-475. It should be noted that the “intradisciplinary” perspective does not take into account
the instances of “transdisciplinary” thinking proposed in Pope Francis’ Veritatis Gaudium.

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example in Aloysius Ricceri’s letter in 1976 which reacts to the crisis situation,208 or in
the assessment of Guido Gatti who situates spiritual direction in a context of old and
new moral paradigms, and in the interpretation of Albert Druart, who sees the Salesian
tradition of spiritual direction up to 1965 as linked to the practice of accountability.209
The perspective followed was one of “orientation”, understood as a helping
relationship in the wake of the humanistic psychology of Rogers and Carkhuff.210 Juan
Edmundo Vecchi’s encyclopaedic volume on the educative and pastoral project of the
mid-1980s recognises the importance of the concept of orientation, but also realises its
possible limitations:
Even if there are close links and common areas between professional vocational
orientation and growth to maturity of the Christian vocation, the two are
fundamentally different in terms of the theoretical presuppositions from which
they depart and the reflection that serves them. […] Vocational ministry belongs
to pastoral care and this starts from a theological reflection even if it assumes
pedagogical criteria and admits instruments of psychological enquiry, making
the most of their conclusions. […] To assume and follow a vocation is to be
attentive to the Lord who calls. [...] A vocational orientation which belittles or
nullifies this reality would lose its roots and its biblical-Christian specificity.211
In later passages, affirming the irreplaceable nature of personal accompaniment by the
educator, Vecchi proposes the concept of the “educative and pastoral conversation”,
which should go beyond the mentality of orientation and perform the following tasks:
– create a relationship in which the young person can become freer and more capable
of perceiving himself, reality and signs from God;
– offer elements for an enlightened vision of one’s inner self and the motivations for
behaviour;
208 L. Ricceri, We need men of God to guide us. Personal spiritual direction, in ASC 57 (1976) 281, 894.
209 Cf. G. Gatti, Direzione spirituale e nuova morale, in Desramaut – Midali, La direzione spirituale,
151-164 and A. Druart, La direzione spirituale nei documenti ufficiali salesiani del ventesimo secolo,
in Desramaut – Midali, La direzione spirituale, 128-141.
210 Cf. L. Cian, Le critiche mosse alla direzione spirituale salesiana dalla psicologia contemporanea. Contestazioni
e orientamenti, in Desramaut – Midali, La direzione spirituale, 181-210. and one of the different
models used in the Salesian setting in A. Arto, Metodologia per impostare un processo di autoaiuto.
Il modello di R. Carkhuff, in “Animazione Sociale” 8-9 (1994), 26-33.
211 J.E. Vecchi, Orientamento e pastorale vocazionale, in J.E. Vecchi – J.M. Prellezo (Eds.), Progetto
Educativo Pastorale. Elementi modulari, LAS, Rome 1984, 242-243.

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– prepare to welcome and understand the Spirit’s promptings;
– help to synthesise the various experiences and direct them towards a life project in
God;
– accompany and support God’s work in the young person in order to develop a secure
Christian spirituality;
– balance dynamics that are not appropriate for Christian growth in an educational
way.212
Vecchi then lists the (many) qualities required to be an accompanier. He enriches
the typical traits found in the Salesian tradition, such as being capable of responsible
assistance, testifying to a joyful maturity and accompanying on non-formal occasions
by sharing life with the essential theological and psychological preparation and specific
formation in the field of vocations. It should be noted how Vecchi himself struggles to
indicate a Salesian bibliography on the subject and how, subsequently, the category of
the “educative and pastoral conversation” has not had much success. Not being included
in the first two editions of the Frame of Reference, a proposal remained that could
refer to the image of a “gap between the number of proposals and the possibility of
implementing them”213 pointed to so honestly by Fr Vecchi himself.
The topic of accompaniment, which has been central to youth ministry since
GC26, has been the subject of reconsideration, studies and research. The book
L’accompagnamento spirituale. Itinerario pedagogico spirituale in chiave salesiana al servizio
dei giovani,214 summarises the results of the four seminars organised since 2010 for
the multidisciplinary approach and the wealth of contributions. These delve into
both the Salesian tradition of accompaniment in Francis de Sales and Don Bosco
and contemporary pastoral challenges, especially those related to postmodernity,
multiculturalism and the formation of accompaniers.215 In the following paragraphs we
look at some stimulating passages for Salesian pedagogy.
212 Cf. Ibid., 254-255.
213 Cf. J.E. Vecchi, Verso una nuova tappa di Pastorale Giovanile Salesiana, in Il cammino e la prospettiva
2000 (= Documenti PG 13), SDB, Rome 1991, 88. For other aspects of the operation of the 1980s
proposals, see Vojtáš, Revivivng Don Bosco’s Oratory, 53-56.
214 Cf. F. Attard – M. A. García (eds.), L’accompagnamento spirituale. Itinerario pedagogico spirituale
in chiave salesiana al servizio dei giovani, LDC, Turin 2014.
215 Cf. The publication by Louis Grech is also interesting for its richness of content and integrated
approach in L. Grech, Salesian Spiritual Companionship with young people today inspired by the
praxis and thought of St John Bosco, Horizons, Qormi 2018.

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Features of Salesian accompaniment
As a spiritual accompanier, Francis de Sales develops a pedagogy starting from
the dialectic of desires and the tension towards unification with God. Salesian
accompaniment assists the person to become aware of and perfect their desire for
union with God, which involves subordinating everything to the desire for God
and strengthening resistance to contrary desires.216 This common thread of Christian
spirituality is specified with the particularities of the Salesian approach: personalised
and proactive attention to the whole person; the centrality of love; gradualness and
respect for the rhythms, conditions and particularities of each person. The latter also
shape the form of accompaniment defined as the “[spiritual] direction of friendship”,
enhancing the climate of confidence, mutual trust, freedom and also father-son-type
relationships. The contribution of Józef Struś highlights the characteristics of the St
Francis de Sales the accompanier: a man of charity, knowledge and prudence, with
respect for the uniqueness of each individual, attitudes of gentleness, humility, respect
and the necessary prudence and balance.217
By getting these different approaches to interact, some more practical methodological
attentions emerge that revolve around the personal and relational Salesian style of
accompaniment. The decentralising attitudes of loving-kindness (preference for the
good of the other) and humility (knowledge of one’s limits and appreciation of smallness
and ordinariness) help to create a context that favours constant attention to the presence
of God in the ordinary daily life of the person accompanied. Even though the authors
agree that there is no Salesian method of accompaniment in the technical-modern sense
of the term, they do offer some methodological elements regarding this process.218
Some common traits in Francis de Sales and Don Bosco which could become criteria
for Salesian accompaniment are: the importance of the relational dimension, attention
to the everyday, a spirituality of action and the anthropology of the heart, which works
in accompaniment with the deepest desires, tendencies, attractions and inspirations.
The differences between the style of the bishop of Annecy and the priest of the young
people of Valdocco are linked to the choice of those accompanied (noble adults or young
216 Cf. E. Alburquerque, San Francesco di Sales come direttore spirituale. Prassi pastorale della direzione
spirituale del Vescovo di Ginevra, in Attard – García (eds.), L’accompagnamento spirituale, 23-25.
217 Cf. J. Struś, La persona del direttore spirituale secondo san Francesco di Sales, in Ibid., 53-64.
218 We find McDonnell, Alburquerque, Struś and Finnegan in agreement, who speak more of a Salesian
profile, characteristics, model, spirit or style and not of methodology. Cf. Ibid., 23, 77-80, 99-100,
198-199.

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people from among the common folk), the options of the context within which the
accompaniment takes place (personal or community) and, not least, the preference of
the sources used (personal letters or biographical narratives).
Don Bosco’s preventive choice and accompaniment, directed also to pre-adolescents,
sets the beginning of the educational relationship with the young person in informal
situations linked to educational or pastoral activities not directly related to accompaniment.
Once the interpersonal communication channel has been established and mutual trust
has been achieved in an “unstructured” context, personalised accompaniment can begin.
The start of the conversations is linked to the needs of the young person, who is
looking for practical advice on concrete situations or tasks for growth. A lot of empathy
and flexibility is required of the Salesian educator in the first and still partially “fluid”
phase.219 When the conversation enters a more habitual phase, regular accompaniment
meetings may be planned.220 Another focus is on accompaniment through the care of
the educational environment by means of the figure of the catechist. Aldo Giraudo notes
that:
All this has been handed down in the Salesian tradition until relatively
recent times. For more than a hundred years the spiritual accompaniment of
pre-adolescents and adolescents was a priority, to the point that every Salesian
work had a confrere especially dedicated to this, the “catechist” (who was not
simply a “pastoral animator”). He was chosen with great care, on the basis of
specific human and apostolic qualities. He had the task of assisting the rector
in the community’s spiritual management and in personalised formative work.
He had to watch over the morality of the environment, see to the quality of
Christian formation: catechesis, prayer life, the sacraments, the preparation of
feasts, monthly recollections and annual retreats. He had to encourage religious
sodalities (associations) and ensure their formative scope. He was invited to seek
219 Cf. the summary of procedural elements in the biographical narratives of Don Bosco in A. Giraudo,
Maestri e discepoli in azione, in G. Bosco, Vite di giovani. Le biografie di Domenico Savio, Michele
Magone e Francesco Besucco. Introductory essay and historical notes by Aldo Giraudo, LAS, Rome
2012, 28-30.
220 Cf. E. McDonnell, La direzione spirituale in san Francesco di Sales. Linee fondamentali del metodo
spirituale e pedagogico nella prospettiva salesiana, in Attard – García (eds.), L’accompagnamento
spirituale, 69.

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opportunities for personal dialogue with each individual, to suggest texts for
meditation and spiritual reading, take special care of vocations.221
Giraudo also observes that from the years of Vatican II onwards, community
accompaniment through care of the environment has entered a crisis, especially because
it is not linked to an educational role with concrete tasks, thus dissolving into the generic
concept of animation. Don Bosco’s pedagogy of community accompaniment is instead
integrated with regular personal accompaniment during confession and with informal
accompaniment in the context of recreation or other activities of the day. The dialogue
of explicit accompaniment is emphasised more clearly by Don Bosco during periods of
crisis in the growth of his young people,222 and in moments of vocational discernment.
It should be noted that from the very beginning of the reflection on accompaniment,
the volume on spiritual accompaniment is implicitly or explicitly linked to vocational
pedagogy and to the formation journeys in consecrated life.223
Contemporary challenges and responses
Jack Finnegan’s reflection is enlightening as he places accompaniment in the current
postmodern and post-secular context and points to the importance of the West, which
translates, especially after the 1968 protest, into attitudes of emancipation from any
power or influence in a context of rejection of metanarratives. It seems paradoxical to
speak of the human person as “central” and then to place him or her in a fragmented,
disconnected, complex and pluralistic world which, as a result, has no centre, no logic
or common past. Narcissistic and individualistic consumerism obviously also affects the
relationship with spirituality and spiritual accompaniment. This prefers a subjective
spirituality unrelated to institutionalised religions, a taste for the exotic and exciting,
the division between the sacred and the secular. It relies on sentiment and an irrational
mysticism with an evasive and subjectively liberating experience from metaphysical or
pragmatic laws, etc.224 Although Finnegan offers more questions than answers, he points
out, as one of the most important tasks of accompaniment and the new evangelisation,
221 Cf. A. Giraudo, Direzione spirituale in san Giovanni Bosco. Connotazioni peculiari della direzione
spirituale offerta da don Bosco ai giovani, in Ibid., 151.
222 Giraudo speaks in terms of a mystical, ethical and emotional crisis in Giraudo, Maestri e discepoli
in azione, in em Bosco, Vite di giovani, 29-30.
223 Cf. quotations and references in the introduction to the book in Attard – García (eds.),
L’accompagnamento spirituale, 5-13.
224 Cf. J. Finnegan, L’accompagnamento spirituale. Le sfide del postmoderno e post-secolare nell’Occidente
contemporaneo, in Ibid., 195-198.

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the “redefinition of rationality”, moving from secularised thinking with worldly criteria
to Christian thinking that “means the direct or indirect acceptance of all things in
relation to our eternal destiny as sons and daughters of the King.”225
The focus on Western issues is partly counterbalanced by Joe Mannath’s contribution
on multi-religious contexts, which only really delves into the Indian Salesian context
(excluding the provinces of the north-east). It is clear from the approach to the
subject that the use of terms such as “multi-religiousness” and “multiculturalism” is
often ambiguous and implicitly refers to a counterpart, shifting the semantics towards the
non-western or simply “different”. There are multiple multi-religious and multicultural
models, especially in Asia, that should be studied in their specificity, and one should not
forget the multi-religious Western contexts such as the United States of America or other
countries with strong immigration and diverse ethnic communities within them.226
Miguel Ángel García Morcuende concludes the work by reaffirming the importance
of personal accompaniment in Salesian youth ministry. Starting from the characteristics
of the world of youth and from the subdivision of the Frame of Reference into
accompaniment through the environment, groups and through the personal accompaniment,227
he finally emphasises two important aspects in the acquisition of the “grammar of faith”:
personalisation and evangelical discernment. The discourse on personal accompaniment
also has implications for the Salesian educational environment:
Although the group and the environment in the Salesian tradition already
provide a certain level of support, all young people need personal space for
discussion. In the context of a Salesian house one breathes values, attitudes
and habits, but to anchor and consolidate a Christian identity it is necessary to
personalise it. [...] If we do not offer this personalised environment of “face to
face”, personal growth in the personal universe will be left at the mercy of other
contexts of influence in which young people are immersed: social networks, the
peer group or the street.228
225 Cf. D.N. Entwistle, Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity. An Introduction to Worldview
Issues, Philosophical Foundations and Models of Integration, in Ibid., 206.
226 Cf. J. Mannath, L’accompagnamento spirituale dei giovani in scenari multireligiosi: contesti, possibilità,
limiti, prospettive, in Ibid., 211-213.
227 Cf. YM Department, Frame of Reference, 32014, 114-117. NB the concept of accompaniment is found
140 times in the third edition of the Salesian Youth Ministry Frame of Reference and is a key to its
interpretation.
228 M.A. García Morcuende, L’accompagnamento personale nella proposta educativo-pastorale salesiana,
in Attard – García (eds.), L’accompagnamento spirituale, 271.

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The Salesian accompanier should not be a dazed manager living under the pressure
of time and business. Considering accompaniment as an art and a science and as
an apostolate in its own right requires a lot of attitudes, attention and maturity on
the part of the accompanying individuals, who should be trained through specific
courses.229 The requirements multiply, since “it is not enough to offer formative
processes suitable for all ages; it is necessary to offer differentiated personalised processes,
concrete and appropriate programmes, coherent, intelligent and bold pastoral projects
to differentiate personal attention, to seek new formative paths.”230 Logically, this leads
to the conclusion that it is important to encourage educators to accompany adolescents
and young people. Not an easy task given the requirements.
This comprehensive work on accompaniment seems to conclude a journey of over
half a century. From an accompaniment through environment in Ricaldone's time,
focused on uniform compliance through regulations, attention shifts, after Vatican II
to accompaniment through group work often carried out from a generic humanist
perspective without attention to evangelisation. The pre-Vatican II practices of spiritual
direction through confession and dialogue with the rector, seen as unifying factors, were
left aside. The trajectory continues in the third millennium, partly copying Western
sensitivities, moving from generic group animation and event-based pastoral activity
to personal spiritual accompaniment with an explicit “grammar of faith”, which also
includes vocational proposals.
Even if we are speaking in very generalised terms, it seems that pastoral practice also
shows signs of obvious risks in the current approach: 1. A pastoral model in which there
are a few chosen ones around a spiritual “guru”; 2. The lack of spiritual accompaniers
who meet all the requirements and criteria. In the next section we would therefore like
to delve further into the overview of Salesian accompaniment emerging from recent
research and publications.
A global and realistic look at accompaniment
At present, accompaniment in the Salesian world, whether by religious or lay people,
is becoming a necessity. If before, in the late 60s, personalisation was carried out in a
spirit of criticism and breaking the usual patterns, now the general situation has changed.
At the level of references, the horizon of meaning has been liquidated and shattered.
229 Cf. Ibid., 267-276
230 Ibid., 276. The quote refers to YM Department, Frame of Reference, 32014, 99-103, 285.

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On a psychological level, the phenomenon of performance anxiety is increasing. On
a professional level, global competition has made the requirements for success in life
tougher. Unlike previous generations, today’s young people need to personalise their
lives by relying on a helping relationship and growing within a credible community
context.
However, it should be noted that despite the appeals and rhetoric, in fact it
seems that personal accompaniment in Salesian environments is quite neglected.
More than 72% of the Salesian pre-novices report that they only discovered spiritual
accompaniment in the pre-novitiate.231 If three quarters of those who entered Salesian
formation made an important decision without being accompanied, we can only
speculate what the percentage would be for the vast majority of young people in Salesian
houses.232 Even the accompanying persons in Salesian formation who carry out this
service, and who have such a task as part of their role description, say that it is only a
relatively intense commitment. Almost half of them accompany five or fewer individuals
and another 30% between 6 and 15 individuals. In terms of time, almost three quarters
of the accompanying individuals range from a few hours dedicated to this to a couple of
days a week, up to one meeting every 2-3 months.233
While realising there are differences in contexts, which emerged in the above-
mentioned research by Marco Bay,234 I would like to offer a twofold perspective on
differentiated and isomorphic accompaniment. We can accept the reflection of the
Instrumentum Laboris of the Synod on young people, which is linked to the whole
tradition of spirituality that insists on how fundamental accompaniment is in a broad
perspective:
Those who accompany the young might be men and women, religious and
lay persons, couples; the community also plays a decisive role. Therefore, the
accompaniment of young people by the Church takes on many different direct
and indirect forms, weaves together a multiplicity of dimensions and makes use
of manifold instruments, depending on the context where it takes place and the
degree of ecclesial and faith involvement of those who are being accompanied.235
231 Cf. M. Bay, Young Salesians and accompaniment. Results of an international survey LAS, Rome
2018, 47.
232 Cf. also Á. Fernández Artime, Strenna 2018 “Lord, give me this water” (Jn 4:15). Let us cultivate
the art of listening and of accompaniment, in AGC 99 (2018) 426, 4-5.
233 Cf. Bay, Young Salesians and accompaniment, 420-421.
234 Cf. Ibid., 455-493.
235 “Instrumentum laboris” of the XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, in bit.ly/vatican-
va-2018-06-19, 122.

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The diversification of accompaniment realistically envisages different types of
accompaniment, already described by Fr Vecchi. The Salesians who accompany are
characterised by different styles of accompaniment according to the geographical
and cultural areas. The data must be interpreted with caution, inasmuch as the
preferences may be influenced not only by style, culture and language, but also by
the number of those accompanied/formees, which may be lower or higher. In the
Central & North Europe region, spiritual accompaniment is preferred, favouring a
style of discernment and personalised orientation with patient and proactive dialogue,
without impositions. In America, a coaching approach is preferred, focusing on problem
solving and/or psychological counselling, together with a strong Salesian identification
of the partners in accompaniment. In the East Asia-Oceania and the Mediterranean
regions, situational coaching is more sporadic and spontaneous, with some references to
problem solving. In the Africa-Madagascar and South Asia regions, where the number
of vocations to consecrated life is the highest, there is a more standardised and normative
style of direction, with the risks of little connection between inward conviction and
outward behaviour, little personalisation and little self-formation through study by the
accompaniers.236
Another issue of differentiation concerns the three experiences most present in
Salesian environments: spiritual accompaniment, confession and the friendly talk with
the rector. What emerges from the research is a general tendency to keep the three
distinct by referring to three distinct individuals (spiritual director, confessor, rector).
There is also an image of the rector as relational, fatherly and always at home. The ideal
confessor is seen in terms of mercy and confidentiality. “Salesianity” is often interpreted
in relational terms as trust, sincerity and the fatherly approach of the one accompanying.
If we go beyond the research carried out in the context of the initial formation of
consecrated persons, the principle of differentiation presupposes going beyond the
image of the “professional” accompanier. Attention to the care of all vocations obviously
makes it necessary for mothers and fathers of families, competent lay people and young
people themselves to be involved in the mission of accompaniment through the various
models of peer education.
Among the difficulties to be noted, in some formation phases and in some regions,
is the lack of systematic accompaniment, which results in an insufficient number of
236 Cf. Bay, Young Salesians and accompaniment, 386-398.Some dynamics that emerged in the research
can be found in Mannath, L’accompagnamento spirituale dei giovani in scenari multi- religiosi: contesti,
possibilità, limiti, prospettive, in Attard – García (eds.), L’accompagnamento spirituale, 211-228.

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meetings. Despite the perceived absolute importance of confidentiality, “many of our
interviewees have the impression that what is shared with a guide is often revealed to
others.”237 There are also some sets of questions missing from the questionnaires: the
themes and “content” of accompaniment in the dimensions of growth and formation are
not addressed (health, consecration, study, apostolate, community, spiritual life, affective
and relational life, etc.).
Although about 80% of the respondents perceive the usefulness of personal planning
tools (“life project” and “personal verification”),238 there is a low formative impact of
community educative and pastoral planning, which is seen more as a management task
than a spiritually charged formative area. The potential accompaniers and rectors of
Salesian houses are few and busy, above all, with management tasks. Numerous studies
on accompaniment in the organisational sector and also some Salesian experiences
confirm, however, a potential close connection between management responsibility and
accompaniment. Obviously, it is necessary to move away from the narrow confines of
technocratic management towards holistic horizons that see management as an area in
which participation, formation, community discernment and profound personal and
community transformations take place. In this mentality, accompaniment is not one more
thing to do but the way of doing it, becoming a “form” of the organised culture in Salesian
houses which structures the management of educational processes and environments
at different levels. The educators who also accompany should agree on some basic
criteria (ethical, pedagogical, Salesian) for all levels and types of accompaniment, in
order to be able to speak of an isomorphic style: there are different particular ways of
doing this but there is a form of Salesian accompaniment recognisable in them all.
Various forms of accompaniment can be carried out by teams or individuals with specific
preparation, such as the case with confession, spiritual accompaniment, psychological
counselling or pastoral counselling. The generative potential of young people should
not be underestimated: from accompanied “recipients” they become “apostles” in line
with the Salesian tradition of the “guardian angel”. More informal and contextual modes
of accompaniment such as mentoring, tutoring, peer coaching, can be included here.239
Other aspects of the evolution of Salesian pedagogy in the field of organisation and
planning will be explored in the following section.
237 Formation Department – Youth Ministry Department, Young Salesians and Accompaniment.
Orientations and Guidelines, Salesian Headquarters, Rome 2019, 56.
238 Cf. Bay, Young Salesians and accompaniment, 407.
239 Cf. M. Vojtáš, L’arte dell’accompagnamento in chiave salesiana, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 65
(2018) 2, 303-322.

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Transformative and virtuous pedagogy that goes beyond planning
by objectives
The image of the rational human being who translates needs into objectives and
acts through the effort of self-control, has passed into Salesian educative and pastoral
planning through the idea of rational planning that follows a linear approach (objective
– situation – means – evaluation) and the division of growth into dimensions
planned with relative autonomy (education, evangelisation, groups, vocation). In the
contemporary debate, however, the model of the rational modern human being has
collapsed, affirming the growing importance of:
– systemic-integral and not just linear thinking (Deming, Senge);
– transformational and not only transactional change (Tichy, Devanna, Mezirow,
Scharmer);
– participative and community leadership (Schein, de Geuss, Wenger);
– excellence instead of effectiveness (de Pree, Bennis, Covey, Gardner);
– multiple “intelligences” (Polanyi, Agor, Mintzberg, Argyris, Gardner)
– spirituality in planning (Giacalone, Jurkiewitz, Benefiel).240
These authors of organisational science, not incorporated into Salesian planning
until recently,241 realise that the methodology of planning by objectives leads to
ephemeral results if it is not accompanied by certain deeply rooted attitudes (virtues)
of the educators, who are the operators of the project through concrete educational
interventions. The nature of the planning and implementation of the project in practice
also has an ethical dimension and methodologically demands some virtues for its
operation, especially in the educational and pastoral field. In this sense the process
of planning can and should also be a path of formation of virtues and cognitive and
operational skills within a “community of practice” which in the Salesian context is
realised in the educative and pastoral community.242 Many planning scholars, especially
in the educational field, share the notion of the inseparability of who one is and how
240 Cf. References in Vojtáš, Reviving Don Bosco’s Oratory, 110-125.
241 The same inertia was perceptible in the wider ecclesiastical sphere e.g. around the see-judge-act model.
Pope Francis states how this method “suffered this temptation in the form of ‘asepsis’. The method
of ‘see, judge, act’ was used, and it is fine. The temptation lay in opting for a totally aseptic ‘seeing’,
a neutral ‘seeing’, which is unrealisable”, in Incontro con i vescovi responsabili del CELAM. Discorso
del Santo Padre Francesco, in bit.ly/vatican-va-2013-07-28.
242 Cf. the contribution that replaces the ethics of rights with the ethics of virtues in Darius Grządziel,
L’educazione del carattere e l’educazione salesiana alla cittadinanza, in “Salesianum” 77 (2015) 92-126.

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one acts concretely as a participant in an educational project. In this sense, identity
determines methodology. Educational transformation occurs first and foremost in the
interaction of educators and not only in organisational or educational systems and
processes. The theme of the ethical and operational virtues of the members of the
community, which are a sine qua non of a successful project, makes explicit the paradigm
of authentic educational leadership: “having to be the change you want to create.”243
In my proposal of transformative planning outlined in Reviving Don Bosco’s Oratory,
Fr Viganò’s intuition regarding the “new education” is further developed. It is an art
that transforms any artist-educator as they create their work. If we see education and
youth ministry as similar to a masterpiece of visual art, it becomes important to be clear
about the desired “product” of the creative effort: what is to be represented, how will
the characters be arranged, what emotions are to be awakened, in what environment
will the scene be set... So far, however, there is nothing new, the answers to these
questions are the objectives for what you want to produce (product paradigm). For a
work to be a masterpiece, the artist’s style, technique, method and artistic processes that
guide the entire journey leading to the work’s completion are equally important (process
paradigm). Last but not least – in fact, first and foremost – it is essential to form and
accompany the person of the artist-educator. They find themselves in front of the blank
canvas, their inner worlds, their past, the traditions that have influenced them, their
motivation, the spirituality that fuses values, their dilemmas, weaknesses, questions and,
above all, the roots of theirs vocation as an artist (identity paradigm). When a work of
art is a masterpiece, there is not only harmony between parts and the whole, but there is
a profound unity between the artist, the process and the product. Each part is not only
in its place, but its placement reinforces both the logic of the whole and the sense of
placement of the other parts.
An educative and pastoral project should be “designed” and “carried out” with a
method that reflects the specific educational nature of the activity, vision and values
it embodies. The Frame of Reference says: “The pedagogical approach of the method,
closely linked to the contents and dynamic, is important. […] In this sense, the method
is also the message.”244 If you want to create an educative project that goes beyond a
simple transmission of content from the handbook to the head (transmission) or a linear
behavioural conditioning through pre-programmed activities (transaction), but rather
243 P.M. Senge – C.O. Scharmer et al., Presence. Exploring Profound Change in People, Organizations, and
Society, Currency Doubleday, New York 2004, 147.
244 YM Department, Frame of Reference, 32014, 101.

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aim to form the virtues of educators and students, embody values, create a dynamic of
communion and personalisation (transformation), then their is a need to review both
the operational-planning virtues and the planning steps (cf. Figure J).245
Figure J: models of educational planning: transmission, transaction and transformation
The formation of the “planner” is connected with the process of planning at
various levels: the mentality, i.e. the deep convictions about reality, the quality of
the cognitive-emotional character which guides the research process, and finally,
operational and organisational skills. In this sense we propose “planning virtues”
that characterise human action at different levels of depth, going beyond the limited
rationalistic-voluntaristic anthropology of design by objectives. In addition to the
already well-known virtues of creative fidelity, which emerged with updating post-Vatican
II, and of operational coherence implicitly contained in Fr Vecchi’s model of planning,
importance is given, in the transformative model, to the virtues of discernment and
of personal and community accompaniment. The strategic moment of planning is the
acceptance of the “call” to educational change linked to the transformation of identity.
This overcomes the technical understanding of planning and the exaggerated emphasis
on the precise formulation of objectives and related activities.
245 For the integration of the concepts of transformative education in the Salesian pedagogical proposals,
see e.g.: J. Vallabaraj, Empowering the Young Towards Fullness of Life, Kristu Jyoti Publications,
Bangalore 2003 and E. Alberich – J. Vallabaraj, Communicating a Faith That Transforms. A
Handbook of Fundamental Catechetics, Kristu Jyoti Publications, Bangalore 2004.

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Figure K: Steps and levels of transformative planning
Integral and in-depth planning requires a process model that accompanies the
educative community through the different levels of dialogue. (cf. Figure K).246 There
is a more rational conversation that describes the situation in as objective a way as
possible. A second, more empathetic level of dialogue comes down to sharing more
personal aspects of paradigms of interpretation of reality, expectations, fears, hopes.
This requires a greater degree of trust within the planning group.247 Finally, the third
level of a profound dialogue linked to a more passive and contemplative discernment.
This listens to the call/voice of reality and in conversation tends to connect the more
246 Cf. Vojtáš, Progettare e discernere, 217-314 taking advantage of Scharmer, Theory U. Leading
from the Future as it Emerges; D. Bohm, Thought as a System, Routledge, London 1994 and D.
Bohm, On dialogue, (ed) Lee Nichol, Routledge, New York 1996.
247 Here one can mention the contribution on the expansion of modern rationality by M. Pellerey, La
professionalità educativa e la competenza pedagogica. Attenzioni irrinunciabili dell’offerta formativa
della famiglia salesiana oggi, in V. Orlando (ed.), Con don Bosco educatori dei giovani del nostro
tempo. Acts of the International Conference on Salesian Pedagogy 19-21 March Rome Salesianum/UPS,
LAS, Rome 2015, 190-198.

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rational elements with the more emotional elements of the interpretative paradigms into
a spiritually and motivationally meaningful vocation. Only afterwards does the dialogue
go back to the second level and the call is made narratively explicit in a vision statement
in the fourth planning moment. In this moment it is also advisable to test the vision in
small prototypes, in order to get the first feedback from praxis. Finally, we come to the
fifth moment of operational planning, which brings the vision into reality, sets goals and
strategies in an effort to align everyone in the direction of the vision.
Community, narrative and praxis are the principles that emerge both in the Salesian
model of educational planning and in the education of virtues and character as proposed
by Dariusz Grządziel, who takes up several instances of MacIntyre, Carr, Pellerey and
Abbà. Grządziel sees the “community of tradition” as the natural milieu of character
development, as the life story of each person, as well as the history of each human
practice, are always embedded in a social context and in the broader histories of
traditions. Character education takes place primarily in the family environment, where
the young person, by entering into relationships with other members of the community,
is a participant in their moral life, first learning exemplary skills and moral behaviour
and then learning to recognise respected ideals. Participation in virtuous practices and
the narrative forms that embody values and virtues are the most incisive forms of
ethical formation recognisable both in Don Bosco’s Preventive System and in some
contemporary currents of study. The individual actions and educational activities derive
their meaning if they are inserted into a narrative that places them within the history and
tradition of a community to which they belong. Narrative and belonging are elements
that give unity to life, which can be conceived as a “whole”.248 Planning and virtue
formation can thus ideally flow into a process of community participation in discerning
and creating a new version (project) of the community narrative (tradition) that actively
moves members to act with a new and transformed awareness (praxis).
Going beyond the historical critique, by integrating transformational pedagogy
we can also positively re-evaluate the link and the subtle balances between narrative
pedagogy and project pedagogy in Don Bosco’s educational proposal. This had not been
considered in the linear project model. The vision narrated in the form of the story or
dream is completed by the concrete nature of regulations, division of roles and tasks,
and the process is regulated through accompaniment of individuals and with constant
248 Cf. Grządziel, L’educazione del carattere e l’educazione salesiana, 102-118 and M. Pellerey, Processi
formativi e dimensione spirituale e morale della persona. Dare senso e prospettiva al proprio impegno
nell’apprendere lungo tutto l’arco della vita, CNOS-FAP, Rome 2007, 128-129.

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attention to discernment. The vision formulated, therefore, is not only a declaration
of objectives, but a whole symbolic educational environment built from narratives,
stories, symbols and theories that implies an organisational culture, management style,
the division of roles and tasks.249
Salesian formation of adult educators
The importance of a transformative and virtuous approach becomes very important
in the formation of Salesian educators who not only need pedagogical skills but also
accompaniment in their Salesian identity. Already at the end of the last century, Fr Vecchi
suggested that one of the roles of the Salesian of the future, besides being a “guarantor
of the charism”, would be that of forming and accompanying adult educators. This is a
necessity which logically derives from the model of collaboration/shared responsibility
between consecrated individuals and lay people, but which has been stressed more
strongly in the concrete pastoral experience of various provinces. It seems interesting to
us to mention some more developed formative models, oriented towards the theme of
the Salesian identity of educators.
Provincials in the Interamerica Region were already aware of this need for formation
at the time of the Special General Chapter and to respond to it they founded the
Regional Salesian Centre for Ongoing Formation in Quito in 1974, entrusting its
direction to Fr Fernando Peraza Leal. The experience of the centre was facilitated by
the innovative energy generated in the Americas after Vatican II, as well as by the use
of a single language, the popular diffusion of the image of Don Bosco and, last but
not least, by the coordination of Fr Peraza, who gave continuity to the project with a
friendly and fatherly style in an atmosphere of “oratorian” familiarity.250 The most solid
element of the experiential and vital formation method proposed in Quito is not an
explicit pedagogical theory of reference,251 but a “methodology” based on identification
249 Cf. A. Giraudo, L’importanza storica e pedagogico – spirituale delle Memorie dell’Oratorio, in G.
Bosco, Memorie dell’Oratorio di S. Francesco di Sales dal 1815 al 1855. Introductory essay and
historical notes by Aldo Giraudo, LAS, Rome 2011, 5-49; Braido, Il progetto operativo di Don Bosco,
6-7.
250 Cf. R.D. Jaramillo, Il Centro Salesiano Regionale di Formazione Permanente (Quito – Ecuador),
in Orlando (ed.), Con don Bosco educatori dei giovani, 184-189.
251 Cf. CINAJ, Evaluación y proyección del Centro Salesiano de Formación Permanente: Elementos para
la planificación institucional de servicios y programas, in Jaramillo, Il Centro Salesiano Regionale,
in Orlando (ed.),Con don Bosco educatori dei giovani, 188.

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with Don Bosco, encouraging the emergence of attitudes, motivations, mentalities, life
options and decisions. The criterion of forming by teaching and teaching by forming is
realised in the balance between the brain and the heart, knowledge of and love for Don
Bosco, historical knowledge and the stimulus to present practices.252
In his approach to the study of Don Bosco, Fr Peraza followed the criterion of the
“absence of dogmatism and prejudice”, which placed him in a dialectical relationship
between both valuing yet distancing himself from contemporary Salesian studies: “In
the transmission of novelties, it is important to bear in mind that the last word has never
been said. Many things in the interpretation of Don Bosco are still hypotheses and what
is being investigated we cannot present as categorical statements.”253 In spite of this, the
basic four-year course at the Quito Centre has so far revolved strongly around the gradual
gaining of knowledge of Don Bosco’s life, starting from the Memoirs of the Oratory, and
without formally entering into matters of updating Salesian pedagogy. The peculiarity
of the course is the formation of the Salesian identity of lay and consecrated participants,
which is achieved through a skilful alternation between moments of exposition, study
and active participation in group work or in assembly discussions.
Carlo Loots and Colette Schaumont, who are linked to the experience of the
Oud-Heverlee Centre in Belgium, offer an approach to Salesian education that is not
too distant in methodological terms but more rooted theoretically.254 Their model
for the formation sees the Salesian identity as a dynamic and process-oriented reality.
Referring to the inspirations of Charles Leget,255 they envisage the interaction between
three elements to create an institutional identity: the link with tradition and with
future prospects, the network of internal and external relations and the identity of key
collaborators.
The history of an institution in its relationship with tradition is important, in that
the choices made in the past largely determine its identity. It “resembles the identity of
an individual: everyone has his or her own life story, which is rewritten when important
events occur. In the same way, an institution writes and rewrites its own history. It
252 Cf. F. Peraza Leal, Iniciación al estudio de don Bosco, Centro Salesiano Regional, Quito 2003, 1-4.
253 Ibid., 3.
254 C. Schaumont – C. Loots, La formazione dei collaboratori laici: integrare la pedagogia salesiana
nella propria persona e nel lavoro educativo, in Orlando (ed.), Con don Bosco educatori dei giovani,
150-161.
255 Cf. C. Leget, Geloven in wat je doet. Zorginstelling en katholieke traditie, Damon, Budel 2004 cited
as a reference model in Ibid., 153, 155, 158.

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is an ongoing process.”256 The network of relationships both within and without can
increase the Salesian dimension through the internal structuring of the institution and
through the way communication and collaboration between all its sections takes place.
The way in which the organisational chart is implemented, the division of roles and tasks
reveals and shapes identity at the same time. The network of external collaborations,
the relationship with the founding Salesians and with the various civil and ecclesiastical
bodies is also part of the identity dynamic. Finally, the identity of individuals, especially
key people, gives a face to the institution or at least to a part of it. This has a great impact
internally and externally on management and the educational environment and radiates
inspiration and motivational power, implicitly or explicitly.
The innovation and significance of Loots and Schaumont’s model is that it
simultaneously considers identity processes on a personal and institutional level. Valuing
the principles of adult learning, they envisage interesting procedural focuses for an
intentional formation of identity that actively invests in processes of development,
change and learning. Some examples of application are the initiation programs for new
co-workers who have to learn to integrate the Salesian identity into their attitudes, ways
of thinking and acting. For staff who have been in service for many years, formation is
needed to revive and deepen the fundamental principles which will help them to check
their practice against the basic guidelines. The management staff, on the other hand,
must have the opportunity to learn how to safeguard and give substance to the Salesian
identity of the work through processes of critical evaluation of their management in the
light of the criteria of the Salesian mission. These are key persons for the Salesian identity
to be visible and recognisable in language, management, practice and mentality.257
The proposal of Loots and Schaumont, aiming to “take totally seriously” the
message on the shared responsibility of the laity “which must be pushed to the
point where the laity feel responsible for the responsibility of the Salesians”,258
would seem to go beyond Fr Vecchi’s vision and not consider the different forms of
gradual accompaniment in the Salesian formation of the laity and their involvement
in educational responsibilities. Being concerned not to see the Salesian charism as
a “ready-made package”, in the end they only arrive at hermeneutical, critical and
256 Schaumont – Loots, La formazione dei collaboratori laici, in Orlando (ed.), Con don Bosco
educatori dei giovani, 158.
257 Cf. Ibid., 158-161.
258 Ibid., 152. As a background of these ideas there is a particular interpretation of Don Bosco’s relationship
with the laity that emphasises the importance of the concept of the “extern(al) Salesian” planned for
the first Salesian constitutions. Cf. Ibid., 150-153.

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methodological processes in the form of questions that sketch the outlines of a working
document.259 The logic of the “process” practically smothers the charismatic “contents”,
which thus lose the power to question the identity of the educators. This is especially
evident in the field of pedagogy of the faith, which becomes a “challenge” and it is enough
for the educator to be willing to grow in the questions of faith or to have “a certain affinity
with educational spirituality.”260 Salesian pedagogy thus becomes a process-oriented
pedagogy based on the concepts of alliance, trust, growth, play, joy and hope.261 In terms
of the relationship between content, process and identity, the Quito model seems to us
to be more balanced, even if it is less rooted in pedagogical theories.
Many provinces around the world adopt models of Salesian formation of educators
and lay collaborators. Among the most developed, given the strong presence in the
scholastic sphere, one can name the courses run by the Spanish and Brazilian provinces,
developed in collaboration between the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Daughters of
Mary Help of Christians. Adopting physical attendance, online and blended learning
models, they have put in place a strategic collaboration of Salesian higher education
institutions with the Salesian schools network. In the Spanish model, the courses are
aimed at staff in leadership roles and pastoral coordinators. Those for teachers, due to the
large number of people involved, are only offered online. In addition to the contents, the
methodological choice is interesting: “Salesianity is not intended as a ‘module’ separate
from the others, but as a common thread and the focus that illuminates the rest of
the content.”262 The themes of Salesian pedagogy, the educative and pastoral proposal,
charismatic origins and Salesian magisterium run across all the modules on leadership,
management of educational projects, quality, innovation and, finally, legal and economic
issues. Another interesting methodological feature is the creation of small groups within
the online courses and the assignment of a tutor to each group, thus preventing the
feeling of anonymity and favouring the personalisation of learning.263
259 Cf. Ibid., 163-165.
260 C. Schaumont – C. Loots, Preparare un futuro per la pedagogia salesiana. La formazione come
leva. L’esperienza belga, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 54 (2007) 5, 899. The formative model is
influenced by Schepens and Burggraeve’s concept already presented which combines religion with
the search for meaning in life.
261 Cf. Schaumont – Loots, La formazione dei collaboratori laici, in Orlando (ed.), Con don Bosco
educatori dei giovani, 169-171.
262 O. González, Proyecto formativo de directivos y educadores de las Escuelas Salesianas en España, in
Orlando (ed.), Con don Bosco educatori dei giovani, 179.
263 Cf. Ibid., 178-181.

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Already with a relatively long experience there is the online course in Salesianity
offered by the Universidade Católica Dom Bosco, in Campo Grande, Brazil. The
well-structured course combines knowledge about Don Bosco and Francis de Sales
with the identity elements of Salesian pedagogy and pastoral care, the dynamics of the
world of youth, women’s perspectives and psychological-social aspects.264 Regarding
online courses, there is no shortage of doubts and debate about the effectiveness of
merely distance Salesian formation. It would seem that the majority of online proposals
are intended as an “umbrella” guaranteed at the national or provincial level to be
integrated with physical attendance formation guaranteed locally or at province level.
In reality, therefore, the formation would be a mixed course between online and
in-person elements. The tutors who accompany formation at virtual and also local
level are important.265 The experience of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to change
the approach and balance around online education, as almost all educators worldwide
have had experiences with online learning and raised awareness of the advantages and
disadvantages of different models.
Variations and innovations in different areas
A number of updates, insights and best practices in the field of social pedagogy
emerged at the international conference on Salesian pedagogy held on the occasion
of the bicentenary in 2015,266 It partly took up the most significant reflections from
the Congress on the Preventive System and human rights in 2009. The focus on
social aspects was reflected in the preferential choice for the peripheries, the frequent
mention of the throwaway culture and in Pope Francis’ option for the least.267 The
format of the Congress, with a large involvement of scholars and professionals, has also
influenced the methodology of the study of Salesian pedagogy, preferring the rationale of
a “partial specialist updating” that starts from the central concepts of the author’s field of
competence and then creates links with Don Bosco’s preventive system or presumes they
264 Cf. virtual.ucdb.br/salesianidade
265 Cf. González, Proyecto formativo de directivos y educadores, in Orlando (ed.), Con don Bosco
educatori dei giovani, 180-181 and the formation course for tutors of IUS Europa.
266 Cf. V. Orlando (ed.), Con don Bosco educatori dei giovani del nostro tempo. Acts of the International
Conference on Salesian Pedagogy 19-21 March Rome Salesianum/UPS, LAS, Rome 2015.
267 Cf. References to Evangelii Gaudium in Á. Fernádez Artime, Apertura del Convegno, in Ibid.,
13-14.

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are implicit. The advantage of this type of approach is related to the breadth of references
and the practicality of the pedagogical tools of each specialist area. The disadvantage
is the danger of linking Salesian pedagogy to (almost) any contemporary pedagogical
theory, neglecting the connection with the roots and balances of Don Bosco’s founding
experience.
In Jean-Marie Petitclerc’s perspective, the concept of the educational relationship is
as an alliance which is built on trust and envisages the role of the educator as mediator.
The educational postulate of trust is expressed in the deep conviction of the educator
that every young person, however wounded by life, has a zone of freedom worthy of trust,
which makes it possible to form an alliance with him or her. It is essential that young
people see that we believe and hope in them, whatever happens. Salesian pedagogy would
thus be an education in fellowship, which is found in the interweaving of the ideal of
the good Christian and the upright citizen, and which grows through communication,
prevention and the regulation of conflicts.268 Petitclerc’s proposal is set in the context of
“human rights”, but goes beyond it in terms of its methodological focus.269
The practice of education to human rights is another focus promoted during this
period. In a survey of GC26 participants, interesting insights were found in terms
of sensitivity to new forms of poverty and needs. In general there is agreement that
the promotion of rights is an effective way to create a more just society, but there is
more scepticism as to whether the “educational way of human rights” is useful for
updating the preventive system. This distrust is found especially among European and
American Salesians.270 The connection between the logic of rights and evangelisation is
even more problematic,271 in line with the principles outlined by MacIntyre, Carr and
Grządziel regarding the fact that moral education cannot be reduced to the logic of rights
alone. The presentation of best practices in the congresses in 2009 and 2015 also seems
to confirm the tendency that education for rights, connected with the field of social
268 Cf. J.M. Petitclerc, Le système préventif repensé dans l’horizon actuel, in Ibid., 83-85 inspired by
X. Thévenot (ed.), Éduquer à la suite de Don Bosco, DDB/Cerf, Paris 1996.
269 Cf. J.M. Petitclerc, La pédagogie de Don Bosco en douze mots-clés, Éditions Don Bosco, Paris 2012.
270 Cf. V. Orlando, La via dei diritti umani e la missione educativa pastorale salesiana oggi, Results
of an investigation among GC26 Chapter members and operational perspectives, LAS, Rome 2008,
108-114.
271 Cf. V. Orlando, I diritti umani come via efficace della missione educativa salesiana. Risultati della
ricerca, in Dicastero Della Pastorale Giovanile Della Congregazione Salesiana, Congresso Internazionale
Sistema Preventivo e Diritti Umani. 2-6 January 2009 Rome, [s.e.], Rome 2009, 34-36.

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pedagogy, has a well-established presence in Salesian provinces, but it is a limited sector
and it is not included in the main activities of schools.
From a social perspective, there are also some significant concepts and insights
related to service learning, resilience, empowerment and the principle of reciprocity. The
process of in-depth study carried out by the FMA on the Sistema preventivo e situazioni
di disagio (Preventive system and situations of hardship) from 1999 to 2007 helped
to focus on some aspects of the Salesian method.272 Mara Borsi finds some common
ground between resilience and the Preventive System: preventiveness, environmental
pedagogy, an anthropological concept open to transcendence and mystery. The quality
of the Preventive System is linked to healthy and positive relational experiences in a
favourable environment.273 The concept of resilience was echoed by several authors at
the 2015 congress, in addition to Sr Borsi: Carlo Loots, Colette Schaumont and Thierry
Le Goaziou spoke about it with regard to the educator and his necessary formation in
it; Thomas Koshy links the concept with the paradigm of “expressive” education,274
which seeks to discover and express the resilient quality within each young person; Rafael
Bejarano emphasises its transformative potential.275
Another typical aspect highlighted in the reflection of the FMA Institute is
reciprocity as an expression of relational anthropology, based on the view of life as
a gift and, at the same time, a project of freedom and ethical responsibility: “Being
created in the image of the Triune God, according to the duality of man and woman
is the foundation of the relational being of the person who exists in relation to others
and matures in a continuous dynamic of reciprocity.”276 Within the framework of
the paradigm of reciprocity, the relationship is understood and expressed through
the category of “mutual accompaniment” and empowerment, understanding the
accompanier as the person who does not precede or follow the other, but walks alongside
the other on the same road, pointing out obstacles and teaching how to avoid them, and
helping to reach the goal.277 The principle of reciprocity correlates with the relational
272 Cf. M. Borsi – P. Ruffinatto (eds.), Sistema preventivo e situazioni di disagio. L’animazione di
un processo per la vita e la speranza delle nuove generazioni, LAS, Rome 2008.
273 Cf. M. Borsi, Sistema preventivo e resilienza. Un possibile e fecondo dialogo, in “Salesianum” 73
(2011) 2, 309-332.
274 Cf. The theory of “Expressive System” which replaces the “Preventive System” in P. Gonsalves, Don
Bosco’s Peace Culture. A theory-based study of his response to conflicts (= Pubblicazioni del Centro Studi
Don Bosco - Studi e Strumenti, 6), LAS, Roma 2022.
275 Cf. Orlando (ed.), Con don Bosco educatori dei giovani, 168, 217-221, 258-272 and 341.
276 Nei solchi dell’alleanza. Progetto formativo delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, Turin (Leumann),
LDC 2000, 28.
277 Cf. References to the approach by J.M. García, Accompagnamento spirituale dei giovani: quadro
di riferimento, in Id. (ed.), Accompagnare i giovani nello Spirito, LAS, Rome 1998, 99-101.

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model based on asymmetry and complementarity, insofar as the educators give credit and
space to the initiative and decision-making of the young men and women who feel valued
and accepted, and open themselves up to them with trust by offering them the riches of
their personality. Furthermore, the reinterpretation of the Preventive System from the
point of view of reciprocity leads to a focus on the theme of familiarity.278 Reciprocity
is seen as the guiding principle that promotes communion by overcoming barriers,
fragmentation and dissonance even within the Salesian Family and its mission.279
A further trend in the pedagogical field is the rethinking of voluntary work in the
context of service learning. The intention to transform the world, linked to the image
of volunteering in the 1970s and 1980s, is enriched with a focus on the integration of
the life project, the service performed and the formative learning process. By preventing
the difficulty of “doing without learning”, the service learning approach pursues a
win-win combination of the benefits of young people, educational institutions and local
communities.280 Some ideas in the Salesian context, at the level of reflections, can be
found in the guidelines on Voluntary Service – Salesian Mission and in the Frame of
Reference in 2014 valuing the integrating potential of volunteering in a young person’s
growth.281 More specific, on the theme of service learning, is the publication edited by
several FMA entitled Didattica della solidarietà, service learning e pedagogia salesiana
(Didactics of solidarity, service learning and Salesian pedagogy) which combines the
principles of the Salesian pedagogical tradition with a tool that makes it possible to
methodologically bring some of the typical features of the charism into ordinary school
teaching, planning and evaluation.282
In the field of innovation in formal education there are also other updates that range
from constructivist didactics to inclusive community management and empowerment.
278 Cf. Comisión Escuela Salesiana América, II Encuentro continental de Educación Salesiana. Hacia
una cultura de solidaridad, Cuenca - Ecuador, Editorial Don Bosco 2001, 153.
279 Cf. M. Borsi, Sistema preventivo, “sistema aperto”, in Orlando (ed.), Con don Bosco educatori dei
giovani, 120-131 and the founding inspirations in A. Colombo, Educazione all’amore come coeducazione,
in Aa.Vv., Educare all’amore. Atti della XVI Settimana di spiritualità per la Famiglia Salesiana,
SDB Rome 1993, 97-127.
280 Cf. M. Guardiani, Educazione alla prosocialità: impatto sulla maturazione dei giovani, problemi
aperti e potenziali soluzioni, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 65 (2018) 1, 133-144.
281 Cf. YM Department, Frame of Reference, 32014, 157-161; Youth Ministry and Missions
Departments Voluntary Service – Salesian Mission. Handbook and Guidelines, Direzione Generale
Opere Don Bosco, Rome 2008.
282 Cf. CIOFS Scuola FMA, Didattica della solidarietà. Service learning e pedagogia salesiana,
FrancoAngeli, Milan 2019.

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A typical example of a specialist update is the publication by Jorge Álvarez Medrano
on the constructivist approach to didactics, which is linked to Don Bosco’s Preventive
System.283 Following in the footsteps of Casotti and then Ricaldone, who saw in
Don Bosco a precursor of the active schools, the author proposes the constructivist
didactic approach as being a Salesian one, since some principles are similar or connected,
without, however, creating a framework between all the important elements. The
distance-learning course promoted by the Latin American IUS has moved in a similar
way, strongly emphasising co-operative learning as the concrete way to update Salesian
education in a university context.284
The theme of social inclusion from the point of view of Salesian pedagogy saw
significant development in the context of the Salesian Institutions of Higher Education
(IUS) around the bicentenary of Don Bosco’s birth. The Salesian presence in higher
education is proposed as a response to the challenge of building a more just and
inclusive society, permeating the organisational and formative culture of Christian
humanism that forms the new leaders of generations of university students. The
seminars dealt with the political, economic and educational aspects of the proposal
of a Salesian pedagogy that prefers both interventions to prevent marginalisation or
social exclusion, and an educational methodology that builds pluralistic and diverse
educational environments.285
An open conclusion between the Synod and Covid-19
There was a multitude of activities and publications around the 2018 Synod on Young
People, as is typical for a global ecclesial event of this kind. Some factors have diminished
the impact of this important theme for the future of the Church, such as the fast pace of
the succession of different Synods during Pope Francis’ pontificate, the circumstances
that questioned the credibility of the Catholic Church’s approach to young people, the
traditionalist-progressive oppositions or the multiplicity of official documents around
283 Cf. J.Á. Medrano, Constructivismo y sistema preventivo. Una relectura cualitativa de la obra maestra
de Don Bosco, CCS, Madrid 2010.
284 For an assessment of the course cf. F.U. Botelho – R.M. Vicari, Evaluation of Distance Course
Effectiveness. Exploring the Quality of Interactive Processes, in “Informática na Educação” 12 (2009)
1, 39-46.
285 Cf. M.S. Villagómez – R. Soffner – A. Rocchi – L. Marques (eds.), Desafíos de la educación
salesiana. Experiencias y reflexiones desde las IUS, Abya-Yala, Quito 2020, 379-521.

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the Synod. It seems that even at the Salesian level the reception has been rather modest.286
Some reflections were offered during the “Young people and life choices” Conference
held in Rome shortly before the Synod, others were to be given concrete form during
GC28 by answering the question “What kind of Salesians for the youth of today?”
The international congress in September 2018 was organised in collaboration between
the UPS and the Auxilium, a significant step in the collaboration of the two institutions.
The theme of the Synod on young people, faith and vocational discernment was
extended to the category of life choices, to allow for a broader educational perspective in
the dialogue between different sciences. The congress program was marked by plenary
sessions modelled on the three actions: recognise, interpret, choose.287
In the first session, Listening to the young, it was possible to perceive the international
and intercultural breadth guaranteed by the several hundred participants, the reflections
of the sociological panel, which offered (only) some interpretative keys to understanding
models, styles, values and life choices in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, and by
the results of the research among the youth ministry teams of the Salesian provinces of
Don Bosco and the FMA around the world.
The second session, In dialogue in order to discern, was devoted to exploring
the relationship between young people and life choices from the point of view
of anthropological, philosophical, pedagogical and pastoral reflection, in order to
accompany young people in the task of transition to adult life and the construction of
their identity.
The third session, Educational perspectives from an Ecclesial and Salesian point of
view, was given the task of taking up the challenges that emerged in the congress’s
reflection and reinterpreting them starting from the original contribution of the Salesian
educational charism. The hermeneutics of some Salesian sources, by Wim Collin
and Eliane Petri, offered the opportunity to compare the educational and formative
experience of St John Bosco and St Mary Domenica Mazzarello, in order to bring out
from the writings of the two founders the attitudes and values, the models and strategies
that help young men and women to mature in their human and Christian vocation
and to describe the characteristics that qualify those who accompany them in their life
choices.
286 Cf. a similar process with the previous Synod on the Family, which was reflected in the Salesian Youth
Ministry Conference in Madrid.
287 Cf. M. Vojtáš – P. Ruffinatto (eds.), Giovani e scelte di vita, Prospettive educative. Acts of the
International Congress organised by the Salesian Pontifical University and the Pontifical Faculty of
Educational Sciences Auxilium Rome, 20-23 September 2018, LAS, Rome 2019.

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In a second phase, through a pedagogical reflection carried out by Piera Ruffinatto,
it was highlighted how education to choice is an essential dimension of the preventive
method, aimed by its very nature at forming young people as good Christians and
upright citizens, and a privileged methodological way of educating beliefs, systems
of meaning and secure frames of reference for life. Finally, my contribution offered
some insights into the updating of the pedagogy of choice and vocation. The pre- and
post-Vatican II models were compared with today’s needs, re-interpreting and proposing
a framework and some tools for vocational pedagogy today. Other interventions,
indicated in the programme as “communications” and “best practices”, subsequently
proposed an updating of processes of accompaniment to choice in the various spheres
of life: in school and university pastoral ministry, oratory and animation, voluntary
work and social commitment, courses of preparation and accompaniment for marriage,
specific vocation ministry and, finally, in the sphere of the new media.
The events and reflections surrounding the Synod on young people were an
opportunity to perceive the intertwining and complexity of the different worlds of
youth, of the educational practices in place and of the pedagogical, anthropological,
theological and charismatic criteria, in a process that revived “integral formation” as it is
described in the Final Document of the same Synod:
The contemporary situation is marked by growing complexity of social
phenomena and individual experience. In daily life, the changes that are taking
place have an impact on one another and cannot be addressed selectively. In
real life, everything is interconnected: family life and professional engagement,
the use of technologies and the way of experiencing community, defence of
the embryo and defence of the migrant. Concreteness presents us with an
anthropological vision of the person as a whole and a way of knowing that
does not separate but grasps connections, learns from experience, re-reads it
in the light of the Word, and draws inspiration from exemplary testimonies
rather than from abstract models. This requires a new type of formation
which aims to integrate perspectives, makes them capable of grasping the
interconnectedness of problems and knows how to unify the various dimensions
of the person. This approach is in profound harmony with the Christian vision
which contemplates, in the incarnation of the Son, the inseparable encounter
between the divine and the human, between earth and heaven.288
288 Synod of Bishops, XV Ordinary general Assembly, Young people, the faith and vocational
discernment. Final document. The results of the Synod Assembly, no. 157.

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A meta-message of the pontificate of Pope Francis, which goes beyond the topics
dealt with, concerns the basic attitude and the style of action of Christians, to build
a Church that is ever closer to people, more missionary, more open and, finally, more
synodal.289 We have been reminded by the synodal processes of the fact that this is
neither a foregone conclusion nor an easy path. The processes also brought to light
disagreements and resistance. We have also been challenged by the events linked to the
pandemic, which paralysed traditional pastoral activity and education for a certain time.
The pandemic brought to light both the fragility of systems, people and convictions
and the resilience found in the willingness to rethink, to be creatively faithful. It was a
stark reminder that an education that goes “from paper to life” cannot work. Adding
further criteria and abstract or disembodied slogans to the lists, already too full of
requirements for an ideal Salesian education, would only increase the frustration of
educators. Or it would increase the corrosion of the educational objectives with empty
rhetoric, the pursuit of undeclared secondary goals leading to an unsustainable increase
in the distance between the ideal and the actual situation.
“What kind of Salesians for the youth of today?” was GC28’s question. But since it
was interrupted by the health emergency, it could not fully respond. It seems, however,
that the convergences go more in the direction of process than content: “Salesians who
walk with the youth of today.” In the period of crisis with a change of era it is not possible
to come up with too much radical rethinking, but we can see to a process of updating the
Salesian educative charism through a grateful, faithful, creative, synodal, transformative,
virtuous and patient approach.
If we enter into the paradigm of processes, we can imagine that educationalists and
educators who have planned communally, starting with Fr Vecchi’s proposals will, in all
probability, be able today to involve the laity by sharing responsibility with them in and
for the mission, and in the near future will know how to walk synodally as a Salesian
Family. I think that, beyond the different terms and themes, there are some typical
balances that characterise Salesian education and are like a gold thread running through
the periods we have covered, though with different emphases. These interconnected
principles could be developed in a threefold way: a basic theory intertwined with a process
methodology and a formation of identity in view of an updating of Salesian pedagogy...
but this will be the subject of another publication.
289 Cf. S. Currò – M. Scarpa (eds.), Giovani, vocazione e sinodalità missionaria. La pastorale giovanile
nel processo sinodale, LAS, Rome 2019.

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Tools and resources
Chronological table

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Select bibliography
Alberich E. – Vallabaraj J., Communicating a Faith That Transforms. A Handbook of
Fundamental Catechetics, Kristu Jyoti, Bangalore 2004.
Attard F. – García M.A. (eds.), L’accompagnamento spirituale. Itinerario pedagogico
spirituale in chiave salesiana al servizio dei giovani, LDC, Turin 2014.
Bay M., Giovani Salesiani e accompagnamento. Risultati di una ricerca internazionale,
LAS, Rome 2018. Also in English as Young Salesians and Accompaniment. Results
of an international survey.
Borsi M., Sistema preventivo e resilienza. Un possibile e fecondo dialogo, in “Salesianum” 73
(2011) 2, 309-332.
Borsi M. – Ruffinatto P. (eds.), Sistema preventivo e situazioni di disagio. L’animazione
di un processo per la vita e la speranza delle nuove generazioni, LAS, Rome 2008.
Bozzolo A. – Carelli R. (eds.), Evangelizzazione ed educazione, LAS, Rome 2011.
Braido P., Don Bosco prete dei giovani nel secolo delle libertà, LAS, Rome 2003.
Braido P., Prevenire non reprimere. Il sistema educativo di don Bosco, LAS, Rome 22006.
25th General Chapter of the Salesians of Don Bosco, The Salesian Community Today. Chapter
Document, SDB, Rome 2002.
26th General Chapter of the Salesians of Don Bosco, “Da mihi animas, cetera tolle.” Chapter
Document, SDB, Rome 2008.
27th General Chapter of the Salesians of Don Bosco, “Witnesses to the radical approach of the
Gospel”: Work and Temperance. Chapter document, SDB, Rome 2014.
28th General Chapter of the Salesians of Don Bosco, “What kind of Salesians for today’s
youth?” Post-Chapter reflection, SDB, Rome 2020.
Chávez Villanueva P., My dear Salesians, be Saints!, in AGC 83 (2002) 374, 3-37.
Chávez Villanueva P., “You are my God. My happiness lies in you alone”, in AGC 84
(2003) 382, 3-28.
Chávez Villanueva P., With the courage of Don Bosco on the new frontiers of social
communication, in AGC 86 (2005) 390, 3-46.
Chávez Villanueva P., Cristianità e prevenzione, in “Università degli Studi di Bari”,
L’educatore, oggi. Tratti per un profilo di san Giovanni Bosco. Seminario di studio
del 26 aprile 2006, Servizio Editoriale Universitario, Bari 2007, 11-28.
Chávez Villanueva P., La Missione Salesiana e i diritti umani in particolare i diritti dei
minori, in Dicastero PG, Sistema Preventivo e Diritti Umani, 77-85.

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461
Chávez Villanueva P., “And he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a
shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length” (Mk 6:4). Salesian Youth
Ministry, in AGC 91 (2010) 407, 3-59.
Chávez Villanueva P., “Witnesses to the radical approach of the Gospel”: Called to live in
fidelity to the apostolic project of Don Bosco. “Work and temperance”, in AGC 93
(2012) 413, 3-56.
Chávez Villanueva P., Testimoni del Dio vivente. Natura e futuro della vita consacrata
una visione salesiana, LEV, Rome 2012.
CIOFS Scuola FMA, Didattica della solidarietà. Service learning e pedagogia salesiana,
FrancoAngeli, Milan 2019.
Currò S. – Scarpa M. (eds.), Giovani, vocazione e sinodalità missionaria. La pastorale
giovanile nel processo sinodale, LAS, Rome 2019.
Deportment for Social Communications, Social Communications Handbook, SDB,
Rome 2005.
Department for formation – Department for Youth Ministry, Young Salesians
and accompaniment. Orientations and guidelines, Salesian Headquarters, Rome 2019.
Department for Youth Ministry, Salesian Youth Ministry. Basic Frame of Reference,
SDB, Rome 11998 22000, 32014.
Department of Youth Ministry of the Salesian Congregation, International
Congress on the Preventive System and Human Rights. 2-6 January 2009 Rome,
[s.e.], Rome 2009.
Departments for Youth Ministry and the Missions, Volunteer service – Salesian
Mission. Handbook and Guidelines, Direzione Generale Opere Don Bosco,
Rome 2008.
Departments for Youth Ministry FMA-SDB, Spiritualità Giovanile Salesiana. Un
dono dello Spirito alla Famiglia salesiana per la vita e la speranza di tutti, [s.e.],
Rome 1996.
Dodici anni di PG/1: Il passato, una storia di Congregazione. Interview with Fr Fabio Attard,
outgoing General Councillor for Salesian YM by Renato Cursi, Giancarlo De
Nicolò and Jesús Rojano, in “Note di Pastorale Giovanile” 54 (2020) 1, 42-52.
Domènech A., Il Progetto Organico Ispettoriale, in AGC 84 (2003) 381, 35-42.
Farfán M. (ed.), Carisma salesiano y educación superior, Editorial Universitaria Abya-Yala,
Quito 2019.
Fernández Artime Á., Come don Bosco, per i giovani, con i giovani! Bicentenario della
nascita di don Bosco, in AGC 96 (2015) 420, 3-23,

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Fernández Artime Á., “So that they may have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:0) Five
fruits of the bicentenary, in AGC 96 (2015) 421, 3-26.
Fernández Artime Á., Strenna 2018 “Lord, give me this water” (Jn 4:15). Let us cultivate
the art of listening of of accompaniment, in AGC 99 (2018) 426, 3-32.
Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), in AAS 105
(2013) 1019-1137.
Francis, Apostolic Constitution Veritatis Gaudium on ecclesiastical universities and faculties
(27 December 2017), in AAS 110 (2018) 1-41.
Francis, Christus Vivit. Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation of His Holiness Pope Francis
to young people and the whole people of God, 2019.
García J.M. (ed.), Accompagnare i giovani nello Spirito, LAS, Rome 1998.
García Morcuende M.A., L’accompagnamento personale nella proposta educativo-pastorale
salesiana, in Attard – García (eds.), L’accompagnamento spirituale, 261-289.
Garelli F., Presentazione della ricerca “Giovani e scelte di vita” e conclusioni, in Vojtáš –
Ruffinatto (eds.), Giovani e scelte di vita, 190.
Giraudo A., L’importanza storica e pedagogico – spirituale delle Memorie dell’Oratorio, in
G. Bosco, Memorie dell’Oratorio di S. Francesco di Sales dal 1815 al 1855.
Introductory essay and historical notes by Aldo Giraudo, LAS, Rome 2011, pp. 5-49.
Gonsalves P., Educating for a Happy Life in Don Bosco’s Way. A study guide for parents,
educators and youth leaders of different faiths, Don Bosco Institute of Technology
– Tej-Presarini DB Communications, Mumbai 2011.
González F., Presence in social networks in AGC 97 (2016) 423, 33-42.
Grech L.,Salesian Spiritual Companionship with young people today inspired by the praxis
and thought of St John Bosco, Horizons, Qormi 2018.
Grządziel D., L’educazione del carattere e l’educazione salesiana alla cittadinanza, in
“Salesianum” 77 (2015) 92-126.
Guardiani M., Educazione alla prosocialità: impatto sulla maturazione dei giovani,
problemi aperti e potenziali soluzioni, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 65 (2018) 1,
133-144.
Istituto Storico Salesiano, Fonti Salesiane. 1. Don Bosco e la sua opera. Raccolta
antologica, LAS, Rome 2014. Also available in English.
Meneghetti A. – Spólnik M. (eds.), Gratitudine ed educazione. Un approccio interdisciplinare,
LAS, Rome 2012.
Nanni C. (ed.), Salesiani e pastorale tra gli universitari, SDB, Rome 1988.

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463
Nei solchi dell’alleanza. Progetto formativo delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, Turin
(Leumann), LDC 2000.
Olmos M., Origen y desarollo de las Instituciones Salesianas de Educación Superior. Visión
crítica del proceso histórico de las IUS, in Farfán (ed.), Carisma salesiano y
educación superior, 21-44.
Orlando V. (ed.), Con don Bosco educatori dei giovani del nostro tempo. Acts of the
International Conference on Salesian Pedagogy 19-21 March, Rome Salesianum/UPS,
LAS, Rome 2015.
Pellerey M., La professionalità educativa e la competenza pedagogica. Attenzioni irrinunciabili
dell’offerta formativa della famiglia salesiana oggi, in Orlando (ed.), Con Don
Bosco educatori dei giovani del nostro tempo, 190-206.
Peraza Leal F., Iniciación al estudio de don Bosco, Centro Salesiano Regional, Quito 2003.
Petitclerc J.M., La pédagogie de Don Bosco en douze mots-clés, Éditions Don Bosco, Paris
2012.
Ratzinger J. Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Penguin Random House 2007.
Sala R., Evangelizzazione ed educazione dei giovani. Un percorso teorico-pratico, LAS, Rome
2017.
Schaumont C. – Loots C., La formazione dei collaboratori laici: integrare la pedagogia
salesiana nella propria persona e nel lavoro educativo, in Orlando (ed.), Con don
Bosco educatori dei giovani, 150-174.
Schaumont C. – Loots C., Preparare un futuro per la pedagogia salesiana. La
formazione come leva. L’esperienza belga, in “Orientamenti Pedagogici” 54 (2007)
5, 897-910.
Synod of Bishops, XV Ordinary General Assembly, Young people the faith and
vocational discernment. Preparatory document and questionnaire with the letter
of Pope Francis to the young, LDC, Turin 2017.
Synod of Bishops, Il mondo delle nuove generazioni attraverso il questionario online. The
world of new generations according to the online questionnaire, ed. Osservatorio
Giovani dell’Istituto Toniolo, LEV, Città del Vaticano 2018.
Synod of Bishops, XV Ordinary General Assembly, Young people the faith and
vocational discernment. Final Document. The results of the Synodal Assembly
2018.
Society of St Francis de Sales, Statistical data. 28th General Chapter, Salesian
Headquarters Rome 2020.

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Vecchi J.E., “For you I study.” (C 14) The satisfactory preparation of confreres and the quality
of our educational work, in AGC 78 (1997) 361, 3-47.
Vecchi J.E, A service for Salesian university institutions, in AGC 79 (1998) 362, 97-99.
Villagómez M.S. et al. (eds.), Desafíos de la educación salesiana. Experiencias y reflexiones
desde las IUS, Abya-Yala, Quito 2020.
Vojtáš M., Progettare e discernere. Progettazione educativo-pastorale salesiana tra storia,
teorie e proposte innovative, LAS, Rome 2015.
Vojtáš M. – Ruffinatto P. (eds.), Giovani e scelte di vita: Prospettive educative. Acts of
the International Congress organised by the Pontifical Salesian University and the
Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium Rome, 20-23 September 2018,
LAS, Rome 2019.
Online resources
Sources, documents, research, full-text publications, photographic material, related to
this chapter.290
Full bibliography, index of authors, index of topics for the entire publication.291
290 Cf. salesian.online/pedagogia6
291 Cf. salesian.online/pedagogia-dopo-db

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Afterword
I gladly accepted Fr Michal Vojtáš’ invitation to write an afterword to his valuable work
on The evolution of Salesian pedagogy. I had the privilege of having the draft of his work
in hand and, from the first reading, I was very pleased with its seriousness, scientific
nature and his ability to follow the path taken in the Congregation from the time of
Don Bosco’s experience until today; from the time of his “pedagogical treatise” on the
preventive system, where, after many requests, he sought to put in writing what lay
behind his educational art. From this point of view, his research and exposition is very
complete and up-to-date.
Right from the start, Fr Vojtáš has made it clear what he intends to do and his
consequent approach to the work. This helped him to be rigorous in dealing with the
different “moments” of educational experience and pedagogical reflection. I have really
appreciated the historical framework of each of these periods, also because he has tried to
outline the social, political and cultural framework in the different regions of the world.
Fr Peter Ricaldone’s attempt1 to “define” Salesian education, even though before
him there was all the work carried out by the Congregation’s essayists like Fr Cerruti
and Fr Caviglia, means that he became a constant point of reference for the evolution of
Salesian pedagogy. All the more so, since it was his “last will and testament” written or
brought together at the end of his long and fruitful term of office. The author rightly
considers him to be the first attempt to do “pedagogy”.
Nevertheless, it would be Fr Pietro Braido, especially Braido the philosopher of
education, the historian of pedagogy, and finally himself an educationalist before delving
into history to write his two-volume masterpiece Don Bosco, prete per i giovani, nel secolo
della libertà, who was the first true “Salesian pedagogue”.2 He went through several
stages until he concluded that the proper nature of “Salesian pedagogy” would depend on
a fundamental core that makes it what it is, and this is Don Bosco’s Preventive System, then
adding, one other, meaning, the need to “update and inculturate” its constitutive elements
from time to time, to avoid falling into the trap of repeating slogans devoid of content:
1 Cf. P. Ricaldone, Don Bosco educatore, Libreria Dottrina Cristiana, Colle Don Bosco (Asti) 1951.
2 Cf. P. Braido, Il sistema educativo di Don Bosco, SEI, Turin 1971.

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what reason – religion – loving-kindness means today; what it means today to be father
– friend – brother; what good Christian – upright citizen means today and so on.
There is no doubt that it was the SGC, the Chapter of profound change for the
Congregation in every sense, that responded to the call of the Second Vatican Council at
a time of great social, cultural and ecclesial change. That Chapter, together with GC21,
took the updating process seriously, although it was not a conference of scholars, nor a
mere assembly of confreres, but a real Chapter assembly backed by experts in the field
of educational sciences, starting with Braido, and with confreres fully immersed in the
fields of formal, non-formal and informal education.
Fr Egidio Viganò’s letter3 is therefore of great value precisely because it presented
the fruits of the work of GC21, which would later be the starting point for Fr Vecchi
as Councillor for Youth Ministry, after the experience of Frs Giovenale Dho, Rosalio
Castillo, and Gaetano Scrivo. Just to make it clear that it is not as if his thinking sprang
up overnight like a mushroom.
From then on it would be Fr Juan Edmundo Vecchi,4 along with his department, who
would not so much develop a theory as translate into practice the change of approach to
our presence in the educational scene that led to a different configuration of the General
Council. Suffice it to say that it was Fr Antonio Domènech who set out what had been
done so far in the first Frame of Reference.
Fr Vojtáš defines the different periods of the Congregation in his work, from the
perspective of his field of work, namely the evolution of “Salesian pedagogy”. This means
that, although making reference to history, hence the citations from Morand Wirth’s
book (Don Bosco nel tempo), he is not pretending to offer an assessment of the various
Rectors Major and their terms of office, a much more complex task, but of the life of
the Congregation in the diversity of its contexts, circumstances, types of works and
activities, and the speed at which it has moved. In fact, when we met with the preparatory
Commission for the Fonti Salesiane (Salesian Sources), they did not want to go beyond
Fr Ricaldone due to the lack of historical distance. And I asked that in the historical
congress in November 2015, there be a conference by the RM on the evolution of the
Congregation since Vatican Council II, because it seemed to me that while admitting
what was written before, we would run the risk of presenting a Congregation that no
longer exists today.
3 Cf. E. Viganò, Il progetto educativo salesiano, in ACS 59 (1978) 290, 3-42.
4 Cf. J. Vecchi, Pastorale, educazione, pedagogia nella prassi salesiana, in Vecchi – Prellezo (eds.),
Prassi educativa pastorale e scienze dell’educazione, SDB, Rome 1988, 123-150.

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Indeed, social and ecclesial environments and contexts have been profoundly transformed.
Young people have new values and new criteria for living which constitute a genuine
new culture; the traditional links of cultural and religious transmission (family, school,
Church, etc.) have been weakened and often broken. The situation in which educative
and pastoral commitment must be implemented is diverse and constantly changing. It is
not possible, therefore, to limit oneself to small adjustments to traditional practice, nor
to think of a scheme of action that is the same for everyone.
That is why for some time now, with this increasingly explicit awareness, we began
to plan a “new” Salesian presence among the young,5 a “new evangelisation”,6 a “new
education”,7 even a “new preventive system”.8 These statements were intended to express
the need to rethink and further explore the contents and approach of Salesian education
and pastoral ministry, in response to the new situation of the young.
Rediscovering the preventive system
I would like to recall that in preparation for the bicentenary of Don Bosco’s birth, I
dedicated the second year of this preparation precisely to his pedagogy.9 The aim was
to more closely examine his educative proposal: what Don Bosco intended to offer the
young and the method he used to open the doors of their heart, to win their confidence,
shape strong personalities from a human and Christian point of view. So, it was a case of
a deeper understanding and updating of the preventive system.
Since our programme was aimed at the members of the Salesian Family, our
approach could not be purely intellectual. There is certainly a need for an in-depth study
of Salesian pedagogy in order to update it according to the sensitivity and needs of our
time. The social, economic, cultural, political and religious contexts in which we find
ourselves living our vocation and carrying out the Salesian mission today have changed
profoundly. And, for charismatic fidelity to our Father, it is equally necessary to make
our own the content and method of what he offered in educative and pastoral terms. In
5 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, Together for the young people of Europe. Final address of the Rector Major
at the meeting of European Provincials, 5 December 2004, in AGC 86 (2005) 388, 113-115.
6 Cf. E. Viganò, The New Evangelisation, in ASC 70 (1989) 331, 3-43.
7 Cf. E. Viganò, New Education, in AGC 72 (1991) 337, 3-43.
8 Cf. E. Viganò, Called to freedom. Let us rediscover the preventive system by educating the young to values.
Commentary on the Strenna for 1995, Istituto FMA, Rome 2014, 9-12.
9 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, “Like Don Bosco the educator, we offer young people the Gospel of joy
through the pedagogy of kindness”, in AGC 94 (2012) 415, 3-29.

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the context of today’s society we are called to be holy educators like him, giving our lives
like him, working with and for the young.
Thinking back over Don Bosco’s educational experience, we are called to relive
it faithfully today. Certainly we are all convinced that, because of certain particular
expressions and interpretations, his Preventive System appears decidedly dated, in
that it is linked to a world that no longer exists. In fact, there have been so many
revolutions at the pedagogical, psychological, religious, political, cultural, philosophical,
technological and demographic levels during the twentieth century. The world has
become a global village. It is permeated by continuous globalising media innovations
which influence all the cultures on the planet. The way of thinking appears to be marked
by new cultural criteria of productivity, efficiency, calculation and scientific rationality.
Therefore, within this framework of reading social phenomena, many old interpretative
categories now appear to be outdated.
Now, for any correct updating of the preventive system, rather than immediately
thinking of programmes, formulas, or repeating generic slogans for all seasons, our
effort today – I wrote – will be that of an historical understanding of Don Bosco’s
method, knowing that particular contextual considerations gave rise to his approaches
of principle, the theological, anthropological, pastoral, pedagogical formulations he
thought appropriate for the young people of his time. This historical understanding
should help us not to isolate his experience, but apply it, along with its principles,
in new ways. In concrete terms, it is a question of analysing how different his work
was for the young, the people, the Church, for society and religious life, and also how
different was his way of educating young people in the first festive Oratory, the minor
seminary at Valdocco, his Salesian and non-Salesian clerics, his missionaries. This does
not detract from the fact that already in the first Oratory which was the Pinardi house,
there were some important intuitions that would later be acquired in their deeper value
of a complex humanistic-Christian synthesis:
a. a flexible structure (the way Don Bosco thought of the Oratory) as a work of
mediation between Church, urban society and its youthful working-class strata;
b. respect and appreciation for this working-class setting;
c. religion as the basis of education according to the teaching of the Catholic pedagogy
he absorbed at the Convitto or Pastoral Institute;
d. the dynamic intertwining of religious formation and human development, catechism
and education. In other words, the convergence between education and education
to the faith (integration of faith and life);

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e. the conviction that education is an essential tool for enlightening the mind;
f. education, as also catechesis, developing in all expressions compatible with the
constraints of time and resources: literacy for those who have never been able to benefit
from any form of schooling, job placement, week-long assistance, development of
group and mutual benefit activities, etc.
g. keeping busy and appreciation of leisure time;
h. loving-kindness as an educative style and, more generally, as a Christian lifestyle.
From the dynamics of his particular experience this method, later to be called the
“Preventive System”, became a “system” that was publicised and presented as a universal
method. Don Bosco proposed it and wanted to be adopted for the education and
re-education of young people belonging to the most different kinds of groups.
As is known, and as we find written in the Charter of the Charismatic Identity of
the Salesian Family, the Preventive System “represents to some extent the quintessence
of Don Bosco’s pedagogical wisdom and is the prophetic message he has left to his followers
and to the whole Church. It is a spiritual and educative experience founded entirely on
reason, religion and loving-kindness.
“Reason emphasises the values of Christian humanism, such as the search for
meaning, work, study, friendship, cheerfulness, piety, freedom with responsibility,
harmony between human wisdom and Christian wisdom.
Religion means making room for the Grace that saves, cultivating the desire for God,
fostering an encounter with Christ the Lord insofar as he offers full meaning to life and a
response to the thirst for happiness, progressively becoming part of the life and mission
of the Church.
Loving-kindness expresses the need for young people not only to be loved, but also
to know that they are loved, in order to initiate an effective educational relationship; it is
a particular style of relationships and it is a willingness to love that awakens the energies
of the young heart and matures them to the point of self-giving.
Today, more than in the past, reason, religion and loving-kindness are indispensable
elements in education and valuable leaven for creating a more humane society in
response to the expectations of the new generations.”10
Once we know correctly what has been passed on to us from the past, it is necessary
to translate the great intuitions and virtues of the preventive system into today. It is
necessary to modernise the principles, concepts and primary orientations, reinterpreting
10 Charter of the Charismatic Identity of the Salesian Family of Don Bosco, Rome 2012, art. 21.

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on the theoretical and practical plane both the major ideas underpinning it that everyone
knows (“the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls”; “living faith, steady hope,
theological and pastoral charity”; “good Christian and upright citizen”; “cheerfulness,
study and piety”; “health, study and holiness; “piety, morality, culture, civilisation”;
“evangelisation and civilisation”… ), and the major approaches of the method (“make
yourself loved before being feared”; “reason, religion, loving-kindness”; “father, brother,
friend”; “familiarity, especially in recreation”; “win over the heart”; “the educator
“consecrated” to the good of his pupils”; “ample freedom to jump, run, make noise
at will”…). And all this to the advantage of the formation of “new” young people in
the twenty-first century, called to experience and tackle a vast and unprecedented range
of situations and problems in decidedly changed times, in which the human sciences
themselves are undergoing critical reflection. In particular, I would like to suggest three
perspectives, analysing the first one in greater depth.
1. Relaunching the “upright citizen” and “good Christian”
In a world that has changed so profoundly from the nineteenth century world, it
would be a serious shortcoming of a sociological and even theological order to practise
charity according to narrow, local, pragmatic criteria (and here we must recognise that
Don Bosco was certainly not in a position to do more than he did), overlooking the
wider dimensions of the common national and global good. The ethical development
of the contemporary conscience has in fact revealed the limits of the sort of welfare
aid that overlooks the political dimension of underdevelopment and fails to have any
positive influence on the causes of poverty, the structures of sin that give rise to the
social condition condemned by all. Thinking of charity just as alms-giving, emergency
aid, means running the risk of acting within the ambit of a “false Samaritanism”. The
intentions might be good but sometimes it ends up becoming a poor expression of
solidarity because it is beholden to models of development that aim at the wellbeing of
some while sugar-coating the bitter pill for others.
Let us remember that in the period following Vatican II, the terms “a poor Church”
and “Church of the poor” had many faces, even contradictory ones, and yet we must
also remember that we did not invent the Gospel, just as we did not invent its enormous
impact on politics and economics. Faith touches history, although it is not reduced to it.
Although love of neighbour is not the whole Christian message, can we deny that it is
central and essential?

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It has been said and written that given that the modern State that has taken over
the protection and social assistance of citizens, the Church no longer has the room
to intervene on the level of charity and welfare that it had in the past. The reality
we are experiencing today belies this hypothesis that has nourished secularist and
state-sponsored ideologies. The Church very often returns to being a point of reference
even within the Welfare state. For many years we have heard it said that charity and
welfare are old and useless tools, that they could no longer be used in modern society
and in the democratic state. Today, even in secular circles, there is recognition of the
social function of Christian voluntary work, of the so-called third sector – non-profit –
initiatives that start from parishes, associations, institutions, local churches...
Can the fact that billions of people are now living in conditions far removed from
the “civilisation of love” advocated by Pope Paul VI and reiterated by his successors up
to Pope Francis and his Encyclical Fratelli tutti, find a specific response by going back to
Don Bosco’s formula, the “upright citizen and good Christian”?
In reference to the “upright citizen”, deep reflection is called for, and the Rector
Major’s Strenna 2020 has helped in this regard. “Good Christians, upright citizens.”
First of all, at the speculative level, it must extend its consideration to all the contents
relating to the theme of human, youth and popular promotion, while paying attention
to the various qualified philosophical-anthropological, theological, scientific, historical
and methodological considerations involved.
This reflection then needs to be made concrete at the level of experience and practical
reflection by individuals and communities. I would like to recall here that, for the
Salesians of Don Bosco a very important General Chapter, GC23, had indicated the
“social dimension of charity” and “setting young people on the road to commitment
and participation in public life”, “a sector we have somewhat overlooked or disowned”
as important places and objectives of education (cf. GC23, nos 203; 210; 212; 214).
If we understand Don Bosco’s choice not to do anything other than “the politics of
the Our Father” included, however, in the Gospel words he himself quoted “your will
be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10), then we must also ask ourselves how
much his initial choice of education in the strict sense, and the consequent practice
of his educators to exclude “politics” from their lives, did not condition and limit
the important socio-political dimension in the formation of the students. Apart from
the objective difficulties created by the different political regimes Don Bosco had to
coexist with, was it not perhaps the case, too, that educators inclined to conformism
and isolationism, with insufficient learning and a poor knowledge of the historical-social
context also contributed to this?

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We should, therefore, move in the direction of an updated reconfirmation of Don
Bosco’s “socio-political and educative choice.” This means not promoting ideological
activism linked to particular party political choices, but forming a social and political
sensitivity, which in any case leads to investing one’s life as a mission for the good of the
social community, with constant reference to inalienable human and Christian values.
It is therefore a question of working towards a more consistent practical implementation
in the specific area. In other words, the reconsideration of the social quality of education
– already immanent, even if imperfectly realised, in the fundamental option for youth,
even from the point of view of statements and formulas – should encourage the
creation of explicit experiences of social commitment in the broadest sense. But this also
presupposes a specific theoretical and vital commitment, inspired by a broader vision of
education itself together with realism and concreteness. Proclamations and manifestos
are not enough. We also need theoretical concepts and concrete operational projects to
be translated into well-defined and articulated programmes. This is precisely what Pope
Francis has sought to call us to with the Global Educational Pact and The economy of
Francis.
Those who are truly concerned about the educational dimension try to use political
means to influence it so that it is taken into account in all areas: from urbanisation and
tourism to sport and the broadcasting system, where market criteria are often preferred.
And the same should be said of the revival of the “good Christian”. When Don Bosco
was “burnt out” by his zeal for souls, he understood the ambiguity and danger of the
situation, challenged its assumptions, found new ways of opposing evil with the scarce
resources (cultural, economic...) at his disposal.
It is a matter of revealing to people and helping them to consciously live what is the
human being’s calling, the truth of the person. It is precisely in this that believers can
make their most valuable contribution.
For they know that a person’s being and relationships are defined by his or
her condition as a creature, which does not indicate inferiority or dependence, but
gratuitous and creative love on the part of God. Human beings owe their existence to a
gift. They are placed in a relationship with God that must be reciprocated. Their life finds
no meaning outside of this relationship. The “beyond”, which they vaguely perceive and
desire, is the Absolute, not a foreign and abstract absolute, but the source of their life that
calls them to themselves.
The truth of the person, which reason initially grasps, finds its total illumination in
Christ. By his words but above all by virtue of his human-divine existence in which the

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consciousness of being the Son of God is manifested, Jesus Christ opens people to the
full understanding of themselves and their destiny.
In Him we are made children and called to live as such in history. It is a reality and
a gift, the meaning of which human beings must gradually penetrate. The vocation of
being children of God is not a luxury, an extrinsic addition to human fulfilment. On the
contrary, it is their total fulfilment, the essential condition of authenticity and fullness,
the fulfilment of their most radical needs, those which are part of their very structure as
creatures.
But how can Don Bosco’s “good Christian” be updated? How can the human-
Christian totality of the project be safeguarded today, in initiatives that are formally
or predominantly religious and pastoral, against the dangers of old and new forms of
integralism and exclusivism? How can we transform traditional education, the context
of which was “a mono-religious society”, into an open and at the same time critical
education in the face of contemporary pluralism? How do we educate people to live
autonomously and at the same time participate in a multi-religious, multi-cultural,
multi-ethnic world? In the light of the current obsolescence of the traditional pedagogy
of obedience, adapted to a certain type of ecclesiology, how can we promote a pedagogy
of freedom and responsibility aimed at building responsible persons, capable of free
and mature decisions, open to interpersonal communication, actively involved in social
structures, in a non-conformist but constructively critical attitude?
2. A return to young people with more qualification
It was among the young that Don Bosco developed his way of life, his pastoral and
pedagogical legacy, his system, his spirituality. The uniqueness of the youth mission in
Don Bosco was always and in every case real, even when for particular reasons he was
not materially in contact with the young, even when his activity was not directly at the
service of the young, even when he tenaciously defended his charism as founder for all the
young people of the world in the face of pressure from clerics who were not always well
enlightened. Salesian mission is consecration, it is “predilection” for the young, and this
predilection, in its initial state, we know, is a gift from God, but it is up to our intelligence
and our heart to develop and perfect it.
The true Salesian does not desert the youth scene. A Salesian is someone who has a
vital knowledge of young people: his heart beats where the young people’s heart beats.
The Salesian lives and works for them, committing himself to respond to their needs and
problems; they are the meaning of his life: work, school, emotions, free time. A Salesian

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is someone who also has a theoretical and existential knowledge of young people, which
enables him to discover their real needs, to create a youth ministry appropriate to the
needs of the times.
Fidelity to our mission, in order to be incisive, must be brought into contact with
the “issues” of today’s culture, with the underlying reasons for today’s mentality and
behaviour. We are faced with truly great challenges, which require serious analysis,
relevant critical observations, in-depth cultural comparison, and the ability to share the
situation psychologically.
Presenting a commentary on the Letter from Rome of 10 May 1884 to GC28
Chapter members, I said that it seemed to me enlightening and stimulating to address the
theme of the Chapter: “What kind of Salesians for the youth of today?”, because with this
theme, in the mind of the Rector Major, we wanted to bring out the willingness to give
a charismatic response to the youth of today, especially the poorest and the excluded.
This requires Salesians who are prepared and ready to work with Don Bosco’s mind,
heart and hands in the Church and society, and who accompany young people in the
world of work, in the digital world, in the defence of creation, etc.11 And all this calls us
back to our origins.
And I went on to say: The danger today, as yesterday, for which Don Bosco wrote
that famous letter is the loss of the physical presence of the Salesians among the boys,
of the almost inherent ability to understand their culture, and the transparent, familiar,
good love that reveals God and wins them over to God. It is his spiritual testament, so
vibrant and heartfelt are its tones. And he does so in order to recommend precisely the
presence among young people (rediscovering Salesian assistance), the familiarity of the
past (accompaniment), something that must absolutely be recovered, something that is
nurtured especially through recreation, leisure time, in open structures, being in the
midst of the young, sharing their lives and taking their dreams seriously, day after day (a
rejuvenated youth and vocations ministry). These elements are all amply developed both
in the Final Document of the Synod on Young people and in the Post-Synodal Apostolic
Letter Christus vivit.12 All this requires a Salesian in a state of ongoing formation, on
mission, shared with lay people.
11 Cf. A. Fernández Artime, What kind of Salesians for the youth of today? Letter of convocation of the
28th General Chapter, in AGC 99 (2018) 427, 3-33.
12 Cf. R Sala, Entrevista a don Rossano Sala. Secretario especial del Sínodo, in “Mision Jóven” (2019)
510-511, 5-16.

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And the letter – as Fr Caviglia notes13 – is concerned with nothing other than the
life of the Salesians in recreation. Hence the value of the “playground” understood as
a category that includes all the activities that place young people in an atmosphere of
spontaneity, encouraging their active involvement and free expression: because it is there
that they show themselves for what they are, thus opening the door of their inner being,
available then to welcome the stimuli that are offered to them; always on condition that
there is the educator who is just as actively involved and spontaneous, and opens up their
inner being, letting the vital goods flow that make them adults, believers, educators. It
is at this point that educational communication is triggered, from the educator to the
young person and from the young person to the educator, realising the miracle which is
an enrichment of humanity for both.
Yesterday’s and today’s playground: it is there that Salesian pedagogy stands or falls,
and with it the mission; from there emerges one of the greatest challenges for educating
today: in the family, in the school, and in every other institution of formal, non-formal,
and informal education.
I therefore focused my commentary on six passages from the letter:
1. knowing how to use the language of the heart
2. understanding young people
3. having happiness at heart
4. being there
5. overcoming formal approaches
6. sharing activity
I would like to spend time here on the first two of these.
Knowing how to use the language of the heart: The language of love is always
the object of “assiduous study” in the sense that Don Bosco gave to this term: concern,
commitment, passion. And our culture is also characterised by a lack of attention to the
language of love, even worse, by a distortion of the natural languages of love, the sexual,
affective and friendship languages; so that a profound distrust creeps in among young
people: love is impossible, love is a fairy tale, love is a rarity that only the privileged few
can afford.
13 A. Caviglia, Conferenze sullo spirito salesiano (Conferences on the Salesian spirit), edition edited by
Fr Aldo Giraudo, Centro Mariano Salesiano, Turin 1985, 60.

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The Salesian must be a passionate student of the language of love; a lesson he
learns not only by listening to himself but also by listening to others: their needs, their
sensitivities, their possibilities of expression and their capacity to receive. This, today – it
seems to me – is the fundamental challenge for the educator: to make it understood that
he really does love, loves forever, that he loves everything about the human being who
appears before him and who reveals him or herself and changes with the passing of time.
The challenge is to show that he loves even despite rejection, forgetfulness, distortion
or profiteering; and thus convince the other to love, that is to say give birth to the inner
conviction that one is worthy of love. There is more – to show that one is capable of
love (and this is the perception of one’s own inalienable value, the foundation of one’s
dignity, the root of every authentic hope). The challenge is to make people understand
(but this is also grace) that there is a Source, which is always open and available for me
and for you, never depleted of its inexhaustible richness.
Understanding young people: There is, therefore, an element of rationality that must
intervene, or rather a need for knowledge that must take hold of and guide the Salesian
educator: this is to know the young, understand their circumstances, questions, needs, in
order to know how to deal with them. A wide range of scientific and technical knowledge
is required to interpret the set of values concretely available and that young people
can assimilate for appropriate growth now and in the future. Too many educators
insist on the negative, the problematic, the irrational, the morally unacceptable, so as
to focus on the “no’s” to be firmly insisted on (often alternating with a laissez faire
approach) rather than on the “yes’s” to be offered them intelligently (reason), intuitively
(love) and courageously combined with prudence. Hence there is enmity, keeping at
a safe distance, not listening, and the natural generation gap simply gets wider. The
relationship becomes functional and institutional (when it still exists) or is openly or
subtly rejected along with all the legacy of values that the Salesian has within him and
that he would like to (as well as should) transmit, if he wants to be an educator and sees
himself as one.
Understanding youth culture is the basis of a commitment to ongoing formation
which enables us to bridge the inevitable gap between us and young people. It is the
pedagogical competence which, when combined with empathy and regularly being
there, makes it possible to live in harmony with young people, finding ways to penetrate
their hearts and win them over to life and joy. It seems to me that this is an aspect
that is rather lacking in certain Salesian circles. It is enough to note the superficial way
in which the conduct of young people is commented on: the desire to intus legere, to

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read within and beyond the data. Or it is enough to see the difficulty we experience in
outlining goals and planning paths that are as close as possible to the concrete difficulties
and possibilities, not of “the” young people, but of “these” young people. Because it
is still true that if we don’t know “what young people like”, that is, their inner interest,
attraction, desire, dream, it will be difficult for them to see the value of the educational
goals that we propose that ask for commitment, hard work, dedication (all ingredients
of true love!), precisely the kind that Don Bosco suggests when he talks about study,
discipline, mortification... “so they will learn to do these things lovingly.”
3. Education of the heart
Over recent decades, perhaps the new Salesian generations have felt a sense of
bewilderment at old formulations of the Preventive System, either because they do
not know how to apply it today, or because unconsciously they imagine it to be a
“paternalistic relationship” with the young. On the contrary, when we look at Don
Bosco in the very reality he experienced, we discover his instinctive and ingenious
surpassing of the educational paternalism inculcated by much of the pedagogy of the
centuries preceding him (1600s to 1700s). At that time, pedagogical discourse reflected
European society, which was structured paternalistically even at a political level. Yet Don
Bosco’s life is a fabric of interpersonal relationships with young people and adults, from
which his personal enrichment also stems. Think of the thousand episodes and sayings,
such as “Let me tell you and let no one be offended: you are all thieves; I say it and I repeat
it: you have taken everything from me [...] I still had this poor heart left, whose affections
you had already stolen from me completely [...] they have taken possession of all this
heart, nothing of which is left except a keen desire to love you in the Lord.”14 These
indicate the symbiosis, modernity, and relevance over and above the labels: prevention,
loving-kindness, charity. For Don Bosco, to take possession of the heart is an analogical
and symbolic expression. The boys entered Don Bosco’s heart, found themselves there,
were enriched by it, enjoyed it. Today, of course, the modes of interpersonal relationship
are different: pluralistic society, global forms of knowledge, internet, travel, etc.
And here, I would like to insert a note on the Preventive System and Human Rights,
because the Congregation has no reason to exist except for the integral salvation of
young people. Like Don Bosco in his time, we cannot be spectators; we must be actively
14 G. Bosco, Lettera ai ragazzi di Lanzo. Letter to the boys at Lanzo (3 January 1876), in Epistolario,
ed. Francesco Motto, LAS, Rome 2012, vol. 5, 38.

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involved in their salvation. The Letter from Rome in 1884 also asks us today to put “the
young person at the centre” as a daily commitment in all our actions and as a permanent
choice of life in each of our communities. For this reason, for the integral salvation of
young people, the Gospel and our charism today also ask us to follow the path of human
rights. We must leave no stone unturned for the salvation of young people. Today it
would not be possible for us to look into the eyes of a child if we did not also promote
their rights.
It is true that ever since the Congregation felt challenged by Card. Giovanni Battista
Montini, in 1954, to take on the juvenile prison at Arese and to see ourselves as dealing
not with “good” boys, but with those who had been victims of negative experiences,
the Salesians accepted the challenge and this gave rise to a series of new presences on
behalf of street youth, such as the Fr Javier De Nicolò’s work in Colombia and from
there throughout Latin America, Asia and then Africa for young soldiers, boys exploited
in sex tourism. The turning point was the widening of the concept of “prevention” or
“preventiveness”, understood not only as making it morally impossible for young people
to sin, but as the ability to stem these negative experiences so as to rebuild healthy, robust
personalities who fitted into society and the world of work with a guarantee of success.
This led to a generous and creative openness to new youth frontiers, especially to new as
well as older forms of poverty (street kids, drop-outs, migrants…).
However, this work among the poorest youngsters, those in need and those at
psycho-social risk, was only seen as a type of welfare work within the preventive system,
but without having anything to do with human rights other than to denounce violations.
On the contrary, the preventive system and human rights interact, enriching each
other. The Preventive System offers human rights a unique and innovative educational
approach compared to the movement for the promotion and protection of human rights
hitherto characterised by the perspective of denunciation post factum, the denunciation
of violations already committed. The Preventive System offers human rights, preventive
education ante factum, i.e. action and proposal before the fact.
As believers we can say that the Preventive System offers human rights an
anthropology that is inspired by evangelical spirituality and sees the ontic datum of the
dignity of every person as the foundation of human rights, dignity “without distinction
of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, wealth, birth or other status.”15
15 As found in Art 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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In the same way, human rights offer the Preventive System new frontiers and
opportunities for dialogue and networking with other agents, in order to identify and
remove the causes of injustice, inequity and violence. Human rights also offer the
Preventive System new frontiers and opportunities for social and cultural impact as an
effective response to the “drama of modern humanity of the gap between education and
society, the gap between school and citizenship.”16
In the new globalised context, human rights become a tool that can transcend narrow
national boundaries to set common limits and goals, create alliances and strategies and
mobilise human and economic resources.
By way of conclusion
I would like to conclude this afterword to Fr Michal Vojtáš’s book by congratulating
him on this valuable treasure that he brings not only to the UPS, but to the whole
Congregation. It will give us the opportunity to better see the path taken by Salesian
pedagogy, current challenges and what is expected of us today. I thank you for the
opportunity you have given me to read your book, which I have really enjoyed reading
and which has done me much good, as I am sure it will do to all those who will have it
in hand, and my opinion of it could not be better: excellent! I hope that the book will be
very well received and arouse the desire to continue reflecting on Salesian pedagogy, the
priceless legacy left to us by Don Bosco for the effectiveness of our educative and pastoral
presence among the young.
Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva, SDB
16 Cf. P. Chávez Villanueva, Education and citizenship. Lectio Magistralis for the Doctorate Honoris
Causa, Genoa, 23 April 2007.

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Bibliography, indexes and further online materials
On the salesian.online site17 you can find the following resources related to Salesian
pedagogy:
1. Complete biography of this volume
2. Author index
3. Subject index
4. Index of illustrations
5. Reference library of full text works
6. Videos of Salesian pedagogy conferences
7. Multimedia materials and online courses
17 Cf. salesian.online/pedagogia-dopo-db. The salesian.online project came about as a result of collaboration
between the Don Bosco Study Centre (Salesian Pontifical University, Rome) and the Study Centre
of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences "Auxilium",
Rome). On the site you can find original documents in a reliable and citable form: sources, studies,
research and digital resources on Salesian history, pedagogy and spirituality. The downloadable materials are
organised by categories, themes, authors, entities, temporal and geographical coordinates.

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