THE POPE SPEAKS TO US OF DON BOSCO

Introduction - The pastoral viewpoint - The “holiness” perspective, - The Baptismal option and the courage of Confirmation - Constant entrustment to Mary - Commitment to vocation - Central role of the priestly ministry - The charism of education - The Gospel and the culture of the common people - Responsibility of the Salesian Family - The “true” Don Bosco. Conclusion

Rome, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception,

8 December 1988

My dear confreres,

As the Centenary celebrations move towards their close, there is a growing conviction in our heart that as a family we have lived through an intense “Year of grace”.

The time is not yet ripe for making an appraisal of it, and in this letter my purpose is solely to draw your attention to one of its particularly significant aspects: the things Pope John Paul II has said and written of Don Bosco in these months of the Jubilee year.

His interventions have been made on the occasion of celebrations of a liturgical or pastoral nature; they do not constitute a systematic study or exhaustive presentation of the figure of Don Bosco; but they express an authoritative synthetic overall view of his unique character as “Saint” and “Founder”. These are two objective aspects which

extend beyond his death and his own period. They are of crucial concern to us because they enter into the origin of the particular “charisma” of the Holy Spirit which has been passed on to us “to be lived, preserved, deepened and constantly developed in harmony with the Body of Christ continually in a process of growth”.¹

It is somewhat unusual for Peter’s Successor to express himself with so much interest and grateful attention to the present-day ecclesial relevance of a Saint.

The pastoral viewpoint

In his interventions the Pope’s approach is always clearly “pastoral”. His starting point is that of his Petrine ministry, Le. the constant and universal zeal that makes of John Paul II an inexhaustible seeker of ever more adequate apostolic perspectives.

On 30 May last, the Pope invited His Eminence Cardinal Ballestrero, Archbishop of Turin, and the Rector Major to a working lunch. He wanted to talk about his approaching visit to Turin and Colle Don Bosco, together with the details of each stage with its practical pastoral significance. He wanted to go to the Archdiocese in the guise of a pilgrim to the historic places linked with Don Bosco, to proclaim his prophetic message to the local Church, the Salesian Family, and the People of God all over the world, and to emphasize his pastoral labors especially for the benefit of the young.

He listened with interest to each suggestion, approved the somewhat lengthy period of two and a half days allotted to the visit, and desired to go more deeply into the motivations lying behind each individual event: the administration of the sacrament of Confirmation at the Sports Palace, the ‘Good Night’ to the young participants in the ‘Appraisal DB88’, the dialogue with priests and religious, the visit to the Baptistery at Castelnuovo Don Bosco, the solemn celebration at the Becchi with the beatification of the Chilean girl Laura Vicuña and the visit to Mamma Margaret’s little house, the meeting at Chieri with the young religious and seminarians, the visit to the State University of Turin for a greatly desired meeting with the world of culture, the festive encounter with the big crowds of young people gathered in the Municipal Stadium, the usual recital of the Rosary on the first Saturday of the month, for transmission by Vatican Radio from the newly restored chapel of Archbishop’s House (where Don Bosco had been ordained priest), the visit to the Italian Army Training School to recall the witness of the Officer Francesco Faà di Bruno who had been a friend of Don Bosco, the brief call at the church of St Francis of Assisi where Don Bosco celebrated his first Mass and met Bartholomew Garelli, the address to women Religious in the basilica at Valdocco, the great Eucharist celebrated in the Square of Mary Help of Christians followed by the Sunday Angelus and the visit to Don Bosco’s rooms, the encounter in Turin Cathedral with those working in schools, the exhortation with a personal embrace to a fair-sized group of sick people in the Piazetta Reale, the farewell to the civic authorities and citizens in Piazza Castello, and two meals in salesian houses (at the Becchi and Valdocco) , where it would be possible for him to say a few words at the end.

In the previous year, when the Rector Major had asked the Pope if it would be proper to offer him some background material for a letter commemorating the Centenary, he replied: “Don Bosco is one of the Church’s great Saints; I do indeed want to write such a letter to relaunch his important and prophetic message, so relevant to the present day”.

The Holy Father’s interventions arise simultaneously from deeply felt pastoral concern and from an intimate personal feeling of gratitude to Don Bosco. He admires his stature as Saint and Founder, as a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church; he is convinced of his prophetic greatness; he is in harmony with his predilection for youth; he admires his original method of education to the faith, his oratory criterion and sensitivity towards the world of work, his openness to the laity, his involvement of women, his bold universal sense and predilection for the poor and little ones of the lower classes. It pleased him especially to emphasize Don Bosco’s intense and practical Marian devotion, so strongly ecclesial in form and having special relevance in difficult times.

A careful reading of the Pope’s Letter of 31 January and of his September addresses invites us to go back to our sources and drink from their pure crystal-clear waters, so that the Centenary may provide us with a powerful stimulus to renew the quality of our pastoral work.

We should indeed be grateful to the Holy Father for helping us to be more authentically Salesians among the People of God in its pilgrimage through history .

Let us listen once again to the exhortation contained in his Letter “Iuvenum Patris”: “‘Don Bosco ritorna’ (‘Don Bosco return again’) is a traditional hymn of the Salesian Family: it expresses the fervent hope and desire of a ‘return of Don Bosco’ and of a ‘return to Don Bosco’, so as to be educators able to preserve our fidelity of old, and at the same time be attentive, as he was himself, to the thousand and one needs of today’s youth, so as to find in his legacy the starting point for a present-day response to their difficulties and expectations.”²

The Pope has also taught us to speak in familiar fashion with our dear Founder: several times he addressed him in terms like: “Dear Saint John Bosco!”, and used the Italian second person singular form of address as with personal friends; he called him a man of “spiritual flair”, one “with a great heart”.