austraLasia #3377
Valsalice
Don
Bosco's spiritual testament: work and temperance
TURIN: 22
February 2014 -- If you come from the EAO Region think of names
like
Versiglia, Caravario, Cimatti, Braga (but they will be just as familiar worldwide). What do
they have in common? Holiness, you say (and we could add
Comini,
Variara, Beltrami, Czartoryski, Swierc ... to this list) and
you are
right, and the other thing they have in common is that they
all studied
at Valsalice. No wonder Fr Giraudo launched GC27
preparatory
reflections with reflections on Don Bosco's spiritual
testament: work
and temperance, and concluding with these words: "By
meditating on this
mandate from the Founder, which we have listened to at the
place he was
buried – aware of the moral and historic responsibility coming
from our
position and the service the Lord has entrusted us with – let
us begin
the journey of the 27th General Chapter."
Valsalice
- first resting place for Don Bosco's body
1857-61: Built and run by the De la Salle Brothers.
1863: They are forced to abandon it under the very
legislation Don
Bosco was getting help to work around, from the likes of
Rattazzi -
suppression laws relating to Religious. The running was taken
over by a
group of Turin's diocesan clergy who did not fall under those
laws. It
muddled along, student numbers down, money problems. Clientele
was
middle to upper class.
1872: Under much pressure from Archbishop Gastaldi,
Don Bosco accepts
the running of the place, thinking it might help with
vocations,
despite it being a bit out of his league in terms of
clientele. It
still struggles but he buys it outright in 1879 and amongst
other
things sets up the first Salesian museum (natural history -
ornithology) there.
1887: He turns it into a 'seminary for foreign
missions', hence names
like Versiglia and Caravario, Cimatti, Variara etc. who did
their
postnovitiate (philosophy, teacher training) and some even
their novitiate there. Cimatti incidentally became
Rector
there on 15 october 1922 (the link is to a letter he
wrote a
month later announcing the Golden Jubilee celebrations for
Valsalice;
he notes one Salesian who'd been there the full fifty years!)
1888: With no place in the municipal cemetery and no
permission to bury
him at Valdocco, the city authorities themselves suggests
Valsalice (beyond city
limits) as DB's burial place.
1898: See photos above. This year the church was
built and the vault
containing DB's body was given new embellishments.
Valsalice today is a Liceo classico
e scientifico and possibly more still - in
other words offering
a wide range of secondary studies through to university
entrance.
"The
holiness of the
sons is the proof of the holiness of their father":
Presentation
This
is the line that Don Rua ran when he entrusted Don Bosco's
body to
the Salesians at Valsalice. The appeal to these early
Salesians to be
holy, in imitation of their Father and Founder. His body was
to remain
there 40 years - what a blessing for those generations of
young
Salesians who could pray daily at his resting place. It is
also one of
the key ideas in today's presentation of the significance of
Valsalice
for the Congregation (the
full text of the presentation is available here or
search SDL English collection under 'Title' = Pilgrimage -
Valsalice).
Don Bosco's immediate successor asked the Salesians who were
looking
after the founder's remains to show themselves worthy by
practising his
virtues, shouldering his work, faithfully following his
method, seeking
to imitate him as a model, and by saying this also laid down
his own
programme as Rector Major. These are themes that will come up
again and
again in GC27.
But importantly, the presentation draws on an important
address that
Don Bosco gave after the retreat at Lanzo Torinese, when he
retold a
dream. This dream focused on Work and temperance as the
motto of
the Society. You
can re-read that dream here. It is the second one in the
list you will find on that link.
Reminder of timetable for these days.
22 February Saturday:
3.30 p.m. departure for
Valsalice (not
far from Valdocco, across the Po on a hill looking back over
the city
of Turin. Stunning position, really).
4.00 p.m. gathering at the vault
which held
Don Bosco's remains after his burial there on 4 February 1888.
First
reflection by Fr Aldo Giraudo, noted scholar on the Salesian
origins,
Professor at the UPS: Work and Temperance in Don Bosco's
Spiritual
testament. Following this the Chapter members will split into
3
language groups for further commentary: Italian (Giraudo
himself),
English (Fr Joe Boenzi), Spanish (Fr Horacio Lopez).
5.15 p.m. back to Valdocco
6.00 p.m. Mass at the Basilica and
after
supper, a performance by the Postnovices from Nave. This has
been a
long tradition at Nave, where the postnovices put on a major
performance based on Don Bosco's life.
Rector Major
congratulating postnovices from Nave for their outstanding
performance
of the 10 Diamods in the Theatre at Valdocco a few minutes
ago (as we
write this).
Want
to read the Dream?
23 February Sunday
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer in the St
Francis de
Sales Church, the first church DB built for his incipient
permanent
oratory after adapting the Pinardi 'shed' for the purpose
originally.
There simply had not been room for increasing numbers of boys.
9.00 a.m. departure for Colle
Don Bosco
about 30 kms away.
10.00 a.m. second major reflection by
Giraudo:
Work and temperance: its origins in Becchi and later at the
beginnings
of the Oratory. Break into 3 groups once more as above.
12.00 noon Mass in the now minor
basilica of
Don Bosco at Colle. Main celebrant and homilist is the
emeritus
Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Poletto.
1.30 p.m. Lunch
2.45 p.m. Back to
Valdocco
4.30 p.m. Personal time
to reflect
in Pinardi chapel, Francis de Sales Church, the 'Camerette'
(DB's rooms
which he himself built and later extended), today's weekend
(festive)
oratory, the vault below the Basilica of MHC where the graves
of the
Rectors Major are.
6.00 p.m. 3rd
key talk
by Giraudo: Work and temperance: the lifestyle, radical
dedication and
apostolic zeal of the original Salesians. Again following
this, 3
groups.
7.00 p.m.
Evening
prayer in the Basilica
24 February Monday
8.30 a.m. Off to St
John the
Evangelist's in Turin, the church built by Don Bosco close to
his
second oratory of 'San Luigi' (St Aloysius).
10.00 a.m. 4th and final
talk by
Giraudo: Work and Temperance: Don Bosco's motto as seen by his
Successors. And again, 3 groups.
11.00 .a.m. back down
towards
Valdocco again, but this time to the Church of the Consolata
where the
Archbishop of Turin, Cesare Nosiglia, will be main celebrant
and
homilist at the Mass to be celebrated at 12 noon. Our Lady of
Consolation (the 'Consolata') is the Patroness of Turin. It is
a
fascinating history as to how this came about - check it
out on the
Internet
1.30 p.m. Lunch at
Valdocco
and by 2.30 p.m. departure by coach(es) to Rome.
PS: The North American
Provinces are
running a Facebook
page which will also help with information and
background.
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Terminology
If there is any
terminology used
that you are unsure of, and you don't have the app, look it up
in the Salesians
A-Z
web page.
-------------
Valsalice - a Liceo
classico e scientifico: what on earth is that all
about?
The
"Liceo" concept was created by the Gentile education reform in
1923 and
indicated a specific type of secondary school. You really can
end up
with any number of schools here, e.g. :
• Liceo Classico,
which features Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, history and
philosophy
as its most important subjects.
• Liceo Linguistico
puts emphasis on modern foreign languages learning and the
lan-
guages usually taught are English, French, Spanish and German
— although re-
cently Russian, Arabic and Chinese have been introduced as
well.
Education terms that cause translators from Italian to English
most problems today are ones like scuola media, liceo, ginnasio, and their
various levels or approaches (liceo classico, scientifico,
and not only, since they include art, technology also today in
this
list; see above for Liceo
linguistico, for example). Many of these
terms go back to the original Casati legislation, and are
still with
us, even though by now, 2014, there are entirely different
ways of
describing things: secondary education is now divided into two
stages:
Scuola secondaria di primo
grado (lower secondary school), also known as Scuola media, which
corresponds broadly to the Middle School grades, and Scuola secondaria di secondo
grado (upper secondary school), which corresponds to
the senior school level.
The Scuola secondaria di
primo grado lasts three years (roughly from age 11 to
13), and provides further education on the subjects studied at
the scuola primaria
(primary school, obviously), with the addition of technology
and a
language other than English (typically French, Spanish or
German). The
curriculum is the same for all schools. At the end of the
third year
students sit an exam which enables them to continue their
education. The Scuola
secondaria di secondo grado today lasts five years
even though some istituti
professionali
(vocational training centres) might offer a diploma after only
three
years. Every tier involves an exam at the end of the final
year, called Esame di
Maturità, required to gain a diploma and have
access to further education.
The main division for school types is
between the Liceo,
the Istituto Tecnico
and the Istituto
Professionale (which is not 'professional
institute' in English, but Vocational Training Centre, or
similar).
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