To the Minister for the Interior, Luigi Carlo Farini

E I, 439

Memorandum in defence of the Oratory following two “very thorough searches” – declaration of political faith

Turin, 12 June 1860

Your Excellency,

I humbly ask Your Excellency to kindly read what I briefly explain regarding the house known as the Oratory of St Francis de Sales.

Over two weeks I was subjected to two very thorough searches without being given any reason. This threw the spirit and order among these young people into confusion. If Your Excellency should ever wish to show me such kindness as to inform me of the purpose of these searches, I assure you that I would give every satisfaction in accordance with the truth.

In the meantime, I beg you to be convinced that:

1. For twenty years I have carried out the priestly ministry in prisons, hospitals, streets, and squares of this city, gathering abandoned children to introduce them to morality and work, according to their intelligence, abilities, and inclinations, without ever receiving or asking for any compensation whatsoever. In fact, I have invested my resources in building the house and supporting poor young people, and I would gladly do so again today.

2. Throughout this time, I have always been on good terms with the Government, and I have always had support and benefactors in all the Ministries. Both this Ministry and the War Ministry always sent me young people who were at risk and abandoned, and I always took them in. When I found myself in exceptional circumstances, I turned to these Ministries and received help.

This generosity on the part of the Ministry was also based on two agenda items, one from the Senate and the other from the Chamber of Deputies, in which this charitable work was recommended to the King’s Government. I enclose copies of some of the many letters sent to me by the Ministry of the Interior encouraging me to promote this charitable work.

3. I have never been involved in politics. In everything I have said, done, written, or printed over the past twenty years, no one can truthfully point to a single word that is in opposition to the laws of the government. In this house, it is forbidden to talk about politics in any sense; no one has ever been associated with any newspaper. I have always been convinced that a priest can exercise his ministry of charity at any time and in any place, under any kind of law or government, respecting and even assisting the authorities and remaining strictly aloof from politics.

4. If Your Excellency had any advice, counsel, or even assistance to give me for this work of the oratories, I would respectfully ask you to do so as a father who desires the good of his children, but not in a threatening manner that could cause irreparable damage to works that have cost twenty years of solicitude on the part of the government and private individuals.

Please kindly consider these humble but sincere reflections, and in recommending these poor young people to your mercy, I am happy to wish you all the best from heaven, considering it a great honour to be able to express my fullest esteem and gratitude as

Your Excellency’s

most obliged servant

Fr John Bosco