3362 Servant of God Charles Braga Diocesan Inquiry opens
austraLasia #3362

 
Servant of God Charles Braga
Diocesan Inquiry opens
Thanks to Bros Arnel Jason Mengote and James Antopina sdb for info provided
PAMPANGA: 2 Februry 2014 --  30th January was a significant date for the EAO Region, as the Cause for the canonisation of Fr Charles Braga was formally opened at Pampanga, Philippines, where he died on 3 January 1971.
A large crowd of people, including many past pupils who had had Fr Braga as confessor and spiritual guide,  filled the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Fernando, city of San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines, on the morning of 30 January 2014, for the formal opening of the Diocesan Inquiry into the cause for the canonisation of Servant of God, Fr Charles Braga.

His Eminence, Joseph Cardinal Zen, sdb, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong,  preached the homily while His Grace, the Most Reverend Paciano B. Aniceto, D.D.. Archbishop of San Fernando Pampaga Philippines, presided at the solemn Eucharistic celebration in honour of Don Bosco. Bishop Pablo Virgilio S. David, D.D. Auxiliary Bishop of San Fernando,  Bishop Patrick Buzon, sdb, Bishop of Kabankalan, Philippines, and Bishop Leo Drona, sdb, Bishop Emeritus  of San Pablo, Philippines, were amongst the other prelates concelebrating.
 
Other concelebrants included the Provincials of the Philippines, Frs Eligio Cruz and George Militante, and the Provincial of China, Fr Lanfranco Fedrigotti; the Postulator General, Fr Pierluigi Cameroni and Vice-Postulator for the Cause, Fr Nestor Impelido.

Fr Impelido also gave a brief presentation of the life and work of the servant of God Father Charles Braga (1889-1971).  After the solemn celebration, the opening session of the diocesan inquiry took place. This involved the establishment of the court and the oath of the members, who copmprise the diocesan bishop, the episcopal delegate, the promoter of justice and the notaries
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Fr Charles Braga was born at Tirano, Italy, on 23 May 1889, where he spent his childhood and early teenage years. He lost his parents while still in the bloom of youth. His father (Dominic Braga) had emigrated to Argentina when Charles was just two years old, and he never returned. His mother (Madeleine Mazza) died after a long illness when little Charles was only six.

In the midst of all this, Charles Braga was providentially supported by the Salesians. At Tirano the Salesian Sisters were his teachers from kindergarten to his primary school years. This is where he met someone he would later call his “second mother” (Sr Giuditta Torelli). Later it was the Salesians of Don Bosco who accepted him into the S. Rocco College in Sondrio. While the young Charles Braga was with the Salesians in Sondrio Province, they offered him the extraordinary opportunity of meeting St John Bosco's successor, Blessed Michael Rua. He was picked to be the young secretary of the Rector Major while he was visiting the house at Sondrio. At the end of this unforgettable experience Blessed Michael Rua told him: - “We will always be friends” (27 June 1904)”.

Thus began his journey with the Salesian Family. In 1904 he was sent to the novitiate in the central province (Foglizzo, August 1904). He made his profession (30 July 1906), then had his first experience as a Salesian (1908-1911) at Trino Vercellese, during which he made his perpetual profession (1909) and attended the University (1911); while he was studying theology (1911- 1914) he was also working at the St Aloysious Oratory (1912) where the Superior of the community was the now Venerable Vincent Cimatti.  On 11 April 1914 he was ordained priest.

Almost a year after his ordination (May 1915) Fr Charles enlisted with the Italian army. This meant that he experienced all the rigours of war, until April 1919. Struck down by serious illness, he decided that if he were cured he would go to the missions.

On 29 November 1918 he joined the second missionary expedition to China. He received the missionary cross (April 1919) from the then Rector Major, Fr Paul Albera, in Valdocco, along with another eight ex-soldier Salesians like himself, then after some slight delay, on 23 August he left Italy and arrived in China on 29 September 1919.

Fr Charles Braga spent part of his missionary life alongside Salesian bishop and martyr, Louis Versiglia. From 1919-1924, he was assigned as superior of the St Joseph orphanage in Ho Sai; then from 1925-1929, he was Rector of Don Bosco College,  Shiu Chow. In 1930 he was appointed provincial. For twenty two years (1930-1952), Fr Braga led the Salesians in China through their difficult times. As a missionary in China he found himself right in the midst of the civil war between communists and republicans (1927-1937), and saw the destruction of much of the work that had been laboriously constructed by the Salesians, followed by the abandonment of the country during the Sino-Japanese conflict (1937-1945). Despite all this and the difficulty of exercising his mandate in the northern part of China, in 1941 he opened five new houses, two of which were in Indochina, at the time occupied by the Japanese. A time of relative calm followed (1945-1949), but in reality it was a prelude to the confiscation of all the Salesian works on the Mainland by the Communist government, imprisonment of Chinese Salesians and confreres who did not succeed in fleeing to the nearby islands of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Over all these years Fr Braga was responsible for doing what he could to maintain the Salesian presence in China, doing what he could to contain the destruction and scattering of confreres due to the Chinese crisis (in fact many Salesians were arrested and placed in concentration camps).

From 1952 to 1953 Fr Charles was granted a break after his long term as Superior in China, and was sent to the Philippines, but as Rector of the Salesian technical school at Victorias, Negros Occidental, founded two years earlier. Some break!  In 1955 he was appointed Provincial Delegate for China, on which the Salesians in the Philippines depended. Three years later (1958), he was appointed 'Visitor' of the Philippines when it was separated from the China Province. In 1963 Fr Braga was relieved of the office of superior, an office he had carried out for almost thirty three years (1930-1963) and was assigned as confessor and spiritual director of the Salesians and aspirants to Salesian life.

Fr Braga saw the Philippines as a country lacking vocations and with a strong interest in economic progress. He saw success in the growth of vocations and the setting up of technical schools. A few years before his death there were already twenty eight Filipino Salesians, including confreres and newly professed, and around sixty six aspirants at the college in Pampanga.

During his 65 years as a professed Salesian and 57 as a priest, Fr Braga was Rector for 14 years, Provincial for 23 and Visitor for 5. He died early on the morning of 3 January 1971, the Feast of the Epiphany, at Don Bosco College, San Fernando, Pampanga.