To the Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, Innocenzo Ferrieri

E VI, 2667

He expresses his gratitude for the advice to avoid any publication concerning the dispute between the Salesian congregation and the Archbishop of Turin, but he describes in detail the persecutory measures taken by the Archbishop against the Salesian congregation and himself, which have led to serious consequences.

Rome, 7 January 1878

Your Eminence,

A few days ago, when I had the great honour of an audience with Your Eminence, I neglected to express my sincere gratitude for the letter you were kind enough to write to me and for the benevolent manner in which you recommended that I avoid any publication of matters relating to the dispute between the Congregation and the Archbishop of Turin.

I can therefore assure Your Eminence that neither now nor in the past, neither by me nor by any of my people, has anything ever been published that could even be interpreted as unfavourable to our Most Reverend Ordinary the Archbishop.

I shall observe this even more scrupulously after this wise advice, especially since the complaints have been referred to the Supreme Tribunal of the Holy See, to which Catholics of every condition must respectfully submit themselves, indeed be glad of whatever judgement is pronounced by this infallible tribunal.

Would that God had granted that our aforementioned Archbishop had maintained such a demeanour! Things would not be as complicated as they unfortunately are now. For many months now, a veritable flood of printed material and letters has been threatening the Salesians with ecclesiastical penalties, refusing them sacred ordinations, and effectively suspending preachers and confessors, the Rector of the Mother House and the Superior of the Congregation himself.

I have written and asked distinguished figures to make use of their good offices in order to mitigate such severe treatment, especially since he himself had referred his complaints to the Holy See.

Efforts in vain: wanting then to ensure and put me in the impossibility of using the same means of defence, he wrote me two threatening letters of which one is of the following tenor: If you etc. With the Salesians unable to express their reasons in any way, I had no choice but to turn to the Mother, the Teacher of truth.

Therefore, with considerable distress and damage, I was forced to interrupt the affairs of the Congregation in Europe and in the foreign missions in order to come to Rome, to seek guidance and justice here.

After my departure, Archbishop Gastaldi continued to send letters, some handwritten and some printed, to many influential people. Then, on 18 December 1877, he summoned the Canons of the Metropolitan Church to condemn a pamphlet which, without any foundation whatsoever, he attributed to the Salesians. The canons did not condemn but simply criticised the way in which the printed text spoke of the Archbishop.

He sent this to be printed in the newspaper l'Unità Cattolica, but the editor categorically refused.

Instead, it was published in the Emporio Popolare on the 20th. With another invitation, he summoned the parish priests of Turin and proposed that they condemn the Salesian Congregation in the anonymous pamphlet. However, the parish priests, pointing out that the matters in question had been submitted to the judgement of the Holy See, did not wish to take that proposal into consideration.

Then the Archbishop arranged (on the 22nd of the same month) for the Canons to be summoned again, so that they might pronounce an explicit condemnation of the notorious pamphlet and of the Salesian Congregation. But they too refused and, according to some who were present, limited themselves to asking the Holy Father to use his authority to put an end to those disputes.

However, the archbishop was not satisfied with these results, and in a special circular letter he summoned all the parish priests of the city of Turin to his episcopal palace on the second day of the current month. After recommending the catechism for children, he went on to emphasise the importance of unity between parish priests and their pastor, reminding them of the benefits he had brought them and asking for their support in a matter of great importance that he would soon reveal to them. Everyone understood, they write to me, that this was an allusion to another invitation to join him in harming the Salesians. Newspapers collect everything and publish it all, offering capricious interpretations. The wicked then take advantage of this with joy, trumpeting it to the detriment of religion.

Your Eminence may get an idea of this from some periodicals that were sent to me, undoubtedly out of contempt, and which I have taken the liberty of enclosing with this letter. I am convinced that those advertisements and malicious interpretations would have been avoided if what Your Eminence wrote had been followed.

The Archbishop would like, at all costs, to blame the Salesians for the dissemination of the anonymous leaflet, and to this end he continues to make accusations in print, verbally, and in writing in Rome and elsewhere. It is slander. I have repeatedly assured the Archbishop that no Salesian took part in this, and in several letters I have condemned the unseemly manner in which the ecclesiastical authority has been spoken of, but that I therefore intended to reject any responsibility whatsoever. He refused to believe me and still insists that I am telling lies. I cannot and will not lie because the truth is exposed there. I asked the Archbishop himself to point out any errors to me, which I would have formally condemned immediately, but he did not deem it necessary to reply.

With such persistent accusations and publications of all kinds, I do not know how the issues can be resolved. What is certain is that:

1. The Salesian Congregation in the diocese of Turin has priests suspended from confession, others from preaching, others from celebrating Holy Mass; clerics are denied holy orders. This is happening while everyone is complaining about the need to work, and Archbishop Gastaldi himself is lamenting the severe shortage of priests in his diocese.

2. During the last days of Christmas, he added one of our professed clerics to his diocese, conferred the tonsure and the four minor orders on him, even though he insisted that he was a professed Salesian and intended to remain so for the rest of his life, and even though he had presented a dimissorial letter from his superior before being ordained.

3. He defamed the Salesian Congregation throughout Italy, discredited it in the city of Turin, and the discouragement among the Salesians is such that several postulants changed their minds, and others who had already been accepted no longer wanted to be part of such a reviled Congregation and left it; for the Salesians can be accused of every kind of villainy, but under penalty of suspension they are forbidden to defend themselves.

4. He also caused serious moral and material damage. I have had to interrupt useful activities, incur expenses in travelling and suspending business, and this at a time when I should be devoting all my attention to the houses already opened and others to be opened in various parts of Europe and abroad.

5. He then caused serious harm to our houses, which are all dependent on charity. Thus publicly slandered, how can the Salesians still present themselves to the faithful to stir up their charity so that they come to the aid of our young people in shelters, whom the Salesians must provide with bread and a Christian education, numbering more than twenty thousand?

Please forgive me Your Eminence if my mind appears somewhat agitated. I am convinced that the greater glory of God and the good of souls are being impeded here, and that a Congregation approved by the Holy See and placed under its effective and paternal protection is being harassed without reason.

Only Your Eminence can put a stop to these evils and take the necessary measures to ensure that they never happen again.

I hope that Your Eminence, in your proven and well-known kindness, will deign to grant me another brief audience to clarify the matters only briefly mentioned here, while with deep gratitude and the most respectful and cordial respect, I have the good fortune to be able to profess that I am

Your Eminence’s

most humble and obliged servant

Fr John Bosco