To the bishops

E IX, 4330

Request to support the Pious Union of Cooperators — offer of the Salesian Cooperator certificate with a collection of the ‘Bollettino Salesiano’

Barcelona, 1 May 1886

Your Excellency,

Ten years have now passed since the late Pope Pius IX canonically approved the Pious Society of Salesian Cooperators for the benefit of poor youth, enriching it with many spiritual favours.

By the grace of the Lord, the number of members quickly multiplied everywhere, greatly benefiting abandoned youth.

Since most of the Most Reverend Bishops of Italy, France, Spain and other regions have honoured this pious institution with their names, and in accordance with your wishes, I take the liberty of sending you the Cooperator Certificate together with the volume of Bollettini containing a large part of the History of the Oratory of St Francis de Sales.

I have no doubt that Your Excellency will kindly accept them, and I hope that with your valuable support you will cooperate in the expansion of this pious institution in your diocese, for the benefit especially of young people of both sexes.

In commending to Your Excellency’s charity the numerous poor young people gathered in the Salesian Institutes, I reverently kiss the Sacred Ring and, with profound veneration and the highest esteem, I remain

Your Excellency’s

most devout and obliged servant

Fr John Bosco