Don Bosco lived between August 16, 1815, and January 31, 1888. His birth coincided with the date that marks Europe’s definitive transition from the ancien régime to modern times, helped on by the powerful effect on the course of history wrought by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire (1789-1814). This transition was restrained by decrees issued by the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), and the Holy Alliance (September 26, 1815). The former gave temporary shape to Europe’s political geography.

But the upper hand would come from historical events so profound that by the end of the century the face of Europe and, from many points of view, the whole world would end up being altered. Among the most outstanding of the historical events we can single out rapid social and cultural changes, the industrial revolution, the irrepressible aspirations for national unity which were initially overlooked and later carried through with resolute determination in Germany and Italy, Europe’s colonial expansion and consequent economic, political and cultural imperialism.¹⁰

What happened primarily was a gradual and diversified transition from the secular model of society based on status (Aristocracy, Clergy, The Third Estate), to a bourgeois society based on division of classes. This new society was characterised by growing tensions sharpened through the establishment of an industrial proletariat aware of its own poverty, existing injustices, and also aware of its own importance thanks especially to emerging socialist forces.

The Industrial Revolution is of enormous historical relevance. It was the most dramatic revolution since the Stone Age¹¹, with unforeseeable repercussions at all levels of human existence: technical and scientific, economic and social, cultural and political. The industrial revolution, resulting from a capitalist background, claims England as its place of origin during the second half of the 18^th century. By the middle of the 18^th century it had taken firm hold, to varying degrees, in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, and in the United States of America. Italy had to wait until the beginning of the last twenty years of the 18^th century. Prior to this some phenomena of pre-industrialisation could have been spotted in places like Turin, but with local import only.

The aspirations towards national, political unity would gradually become clear, widespread and intense, thanks especially to the input of liberal and democratic forces. But they would find opposition from political conservatives, advocates of regionalism, self-interested viewpoints and in Italy as well as all of the above, from the special situation of the Papal States. We have to keep in mind that due to the Congress of Vienna Italy, which for centuries had never achieved national unity, was actually divided into the following political entities:

• the Lombard-Venetian Kingdom under the Austrian Empire (Trent, Trieste and part of Istria had become imperial estates);

• the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza given to Maria Louise of Hapsburg (1815 - 1847), former French empress (at her death it was transferred to the Bourbons of Parma);

• the Duchy of Modena and Reggio given to Francis IV of Hapsburg-Este (1815-1846);

• the Duchy of Massa and Carrara given to Maria Beatrice of Este, mother of Francis IV (when she died, the Duchy was transferred to her son in 1831);

• the Duchy of Lucca given to the Bourbons of Parma and Piacenza and later on joined to the grand Duchy of Tuscany at the death of Maria Louise (1847), when the Bourbons of Parma moved to the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza;

• the Grand Duchy of Tuscany given to Ferdinand III of Hapsburg-Lorain (1814-1824), brother of the Austrian Emperor Francis I of Hapsburg (1806-1832);

• the Papal State without Avignon, given back to Pius VII (1800 - 1823);

• the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies given to Ferdinand IV of Bourbon (1815 - 1825);

• the Kingdom of Sardinia given to Victor Emanuel of Savoy (1802 - 1825 ) including Savoy, Piedmont, Nice, Sardinia with the added territory of the former republic of Genoa¹².

With the development of the stronger nations (England, France, Germany, Austria and Russia), Europe reached its zenith during the second half of the century. During the following thirty years the consolidation of capitalism, the intensity of the industrial revolution would give rise to sharper economic competition and a swifter race to arms. At the same time the need to expand commercially, politically and culturally at a global level was more greatly felt. The first and more widespread manifestation of all this was the appearance of Colonialism, with the consequent overturning of the ‘extra-European’ areas¹³. This is the time when two major powers come to the fore in world history: the USA and Japan.

We should not overlook the massive phenomenon of emigration which, from 1842 to 1914, led to some 30 to 35 million Europeans leaving the Old Continent for the rest of the world. A significant factor was strong demographic pressure: the population of Europe, including Russia, was 180 million around the 1800s. In 1850, the population reached 274 million, and in the 1900’s, it reached 423 million.

Together with the growing complications created by economic life, new social and political orders, and by the admittedly slow-growing expansion of freedoms, in-roads were also made by evidently pluralistic world views, political ideologies and new moral and religious ideas. New and different directions emerged both in ideas and activities regarding individual destiny and the way people associated.

Besides persistent conservative and at times reactionary forces, new ideologies arose: liberal ideologies which continued the substantially bourgeois aspect of the French Revolution; democratic and radical ideologies more closely connected with the Jacobean expressions of the French Revolution; national and, later on, nationalistic ideologies of Romantic origin; still later on, socialist ideologies on the one hand, and Christian social ideologies on the other¹⁴.

For an understanding of the Italian spiritual world, its pastoral structure, the nature of the initiatives related to social work and education and catechetical instruction it may be useful to take an historical look at the leading Italian region of Piedmont. The reason behind this is that Piedmont had been connected with decisive events and remarkable changes in the various fields of politics and religion in the socio-economic field as well as in educational and scholastic fields.

After the unforeseen and traumatic experience of the French Revolution followed by the more or less radical overthrow of the old order resulting from Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) Europe seemed obsessed with the idea of ‘prevention’ more than ever before. It was accompanied by variously nuanced ‘Restoration’ plans depending on one or other mind-set or culture.

Various classes of conservatives, reactionaries too, took restoration and prevention to be something based on fear, with more than a hint of repression. The fear was of new revolutionaries, sects, secret societies, liberalism, (standing for freedom of the press, association and worship). There was also an aura of mistrust regarding new educational experiences thought to be subversive. Even new methods of teaching, reciprocal teaching, schools for the working class, kindergartens connected with De Maistre, Monaldo Leopardi, Clement Solaro della Margherita, were looked upon as a threat to the principle of authority because they aimed at training people to use their reasoning power alone and be independent of family and Church. The accent was on strict vigilance, preventive censure, providing ‘missions for the masses’, in order to win them back and offer them moral standards through religion and prevention of idleness and licentiousness.

Among the moderates or the broad-minded, there was instead a tendency to reclaim what was considered valid from the old order such as instruction, religious practices, traditional moral values, but also a tendency to accept new contributions such as the spreading of the ‘light’ of knowledge, the gradual expansion of primary schools and technical schools for the working classes, the re-evaluation of work and social solidarity, the adoption of more just, more humane methods as part of the process of confronting the chronic social diseases of poverty and delinquency, the development of charitable undertakings and mutual social assistance, the spreading of good books, the creation of popular libraries and so forth.

In this context, we notice a more systematic affirmation of the ‘preventive principle’, to the point where it was translated explicitly into the term ‘Preventive System’ which would then become historical fact at a later stage.

This term bears the distinctive marks of the century. In fact, though with different emphasis, the term grew up within the climate of the Restoration, reflected its features and the variegated aspects of the different groups. It could be espoused by those who were nostalgic for the ancien régime and by the Legitimists, fully aware though they may have been of the impossibility of a simple return to the past; it could likewise be espoused by moderates well-disposed to what was new and open, to some extent, to modernity, as also by those who had more courageous projects in mind. Laurentie, Pavoni, Champagnat, Aporti, Rosmini, Dupanloup, Don Bosco and many others might legitimately be associated, at least generically, with the ‘Preventive System’. However, real circumstances, different mind-sets, different objectives or readiness gave different nuances to the same visions or basic experiences and offered some remarkably different features.

This is the same kind of ambiguity or ambivalence related to the ‘restlessness for prevention’ which seemed to pervade the entire century at different times and from different points of view. Don Bosco appeared to be in agreement with it on cultural, political, pastoral and educational levels, but in a more moderate form. He made this evident both in his Storia ecclesiastica, 1845 (Church History) and La Storia d’Italia 1855 (The History of Italy).

Q: Who began the French Revolution? A: The secret societies, some fanatics called the ‘illuminati’ or The Enlightened, who had joined some philosophers pretending to be able to reform the world by providing everyone with Equality and Liberty. These are the ones who are responsible for fomenting the persecution which began in 1790 and lasted 10 years and caused much bloodshed.²⁸

For a period of almost fifty years, peace reigned supreme in Italy, and almost throughout Europe. It was this peaceful atmosphere which allowed many worthy minds to enrich the sciences and the arts with useful contributions but it also granted secret societies an easy way to accomplish their plans.

These secret societies are generally known as Carbonari (the coal-people), Franchi Tiratori (Franchs Machons - Sharp Shooters), Jacobites, Illuminati (the Enlightened) and took on different names at different times, but they all had the same goals. They aimed at overturning the present society which they did not like, because they did not find the appropriate sustenance for their ambitions, nor enough freedom to unleash their passions. To destroy society they made every effort to knock down every religion and remove all moral sense from the hearts of men, to destroy all kinds of religious and civil authorities, meaning the Roman Pontificate and the [Kingly] Thrones … Many were easily led to give their names to these societies because, in the early stages, there was no indication of the wickedness of their goals… The only things up for discussion were brotherhood, philanthropy and the like … It was the middle-class, namely the bourgeoisie, which began the Revolution by using the lower class who, in turn, decided to continue it and make it general, as actually happened. It was then that hundreds of the middle-class who had condemned priests and nobles to death, were themselves thrown to the gallows. Because of this Revolution, what was on top in society was thrown down, and what was on the bottom came to the top of society: that’s how the anarchy of the mob came to rule. The secret societies, which were responsible for the French Revolution, had already found their way into Italy, and, through them, the seductive ideas of liberty, equality and reform were spread all over”.²⁹

The answer to the question makes it evident that the ‘enlightened century’ was not entirely negative. As a matter of fact, the sound and relevant side of it “allowed many worthy minds to enrich the sciences and arts with useful understandings”. As it turned out, this made an enormous contribution of new ideas which would find their ideal and effective place among the positive elements of the ‘Preventive System’, together with moderate requests for rationality (understood more as ‘reasonableness’) freedom, brotherhood and humanity which make up the content of philanthropy and humanitarianism attuned to Christian truth.

During the course of the 19^th century, the global phenomenon of “restlessness for prevention” would be expressed at the following five levels: political, social, juridical and penal, welfare and finally, scholastic, educational and religious.

5. 1. Political prevention

The ‘preventive principle’ was an inspiration for those taking part in the Congress of Vienna: they had gathered, yet again, to draw up the political map of Europe after the Napoleonic fire-storm. Their aim was to restore the old order, keeping however the positive or non-disposable elements that new ideas and new times had generated.

At any rate, generally speaking the following were reaffirmed, at least substantially: the religious and strictly paternal concept of authority at all levels, ecclesiastical, civil and domestic; the observance of law and obedience as an essential balancing element in interpersonal relationships; the well-being and happiness of the people looked after by a State administration expected to be solid, just and guaranteed by a strong centre; responsibilities and powers assigned according to the social, spiritual and economic prestige of the individuals called on to share them; and finally the social, regenerating power of Christianity.

Nevertheless, along with absolutist orientations and repressive realities, innovation also made a strong showing. England, France, followed by Norway, the Netherlands and some German states, made their importance felt in this matter.

The restoration of all the legitimate powers did not mean a return to a pure and simple old order. This was the suggestion made by Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the intelligent French representative at the Congress of Vienna. Making his point, the French representative said: “Universal opinion today (unlikely to falter), is that governments exist only for the people… and that a legitimate power is the best power suited to guarantee their happiness and peace… And it is no less advantageous to the sovereign than to his subjects to set up the government in such a way as to avoid all possible motives for fear”.³⁰ Pope Pius VII held the same belief in 1816 in his re-organisation of the administration of the Provinces of the Papal State which had been recently ‘reclaimed’:

A return to the old order of things in these provinces turns out to be impossible. New customs have replaced old ones; new opinions have crept in and are almost universally shared in various areas of the administration and public economy; new ‘lights’ have been accepted following the example of other European nations and these ‘lights’ demand the necessary adoption, by the aforementioned provinces, of a new system more suited to the present circumstances of the population, circumstances so different from the previous one.³¹

A greater guarantee of order and balance for the future was sought after by some of the protagonists in Vienna through the Holy Alliance, drawn up on September 26, 1815 by the sovereigns of Prussia, Austria and Russia.

The Holy Alliance was guided by Christian principles as expressed by three confessions: Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran. It aimed at providing firm bonds of fraternity among those who signed it, and paternal bonds between them and their respective peoples so as to ensure stability and peace for Europe.

The first two articles stand out as a synthesis of the ‘Preventive System’ to be used on a political-religious level.

Article 1. In conformity with the words of the Sacred Scriptures which command human beings to deal with one another as brothers, the three contracting monarchs will remain united with bonds of true and indissoluble brotherhood and, considering themselves as compatriots on any occasion and in any place, they will provide mutual assistance, help and relief; while considering themselves as fathers of a family towards their subjects and armies, they will guide them with the same spirit of brotherhood, by which they are moved to protect religion, peace and justice.

Article 2. Consequently the only prevailing principle, both among the afore-mentioned governments and among their subjects, will be that of being of service to one another: the principle of manifesting, with unalterable benevolence, that mutual affection which should animate them; the principle of considering everyone as a member of the same Christian nation; the principle of looking upon the allied princes themselves as delegated by divine Providence to rule over the three branches of the same family, namely, Austria, Prussia and Russia. By so doing it will be declared that the Christian nation of which the sovereigns and their people form part, has really no sovereign other than the one to whom alone all power belongs as his own, because it is in him that the treasures of love, knowledge and infinite wisdom can be found, namely God Our Divine Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Word of the Most High, the Word of life.³²

A political debate on the alternatives of repression-prevention was held at a European level during the second half of the century, due to the birth of the International Socialist party (London, 1864). But at this time the cultural and social conditions were profoundly altered.

Two rather mobile fronts were formed: one had liberal tendencies and prevailed in England, Austria and Italy; the other was more rigid and prevailed in France, Spain, Prussia and Russia.

The Italian foreign minister, Visconti Venosa, was convinced that to fight against the Socialist International party members, “It was sufficient for the government to be vigilant in order to frustrate the manoeuvres of the agitators, ward off their plots and strongly secure the country against such serious dangers. Preventive measures could eventually be used against the spreading of those destructive doctrines which threatened Europe with a new kind of barbarity”. But such measures had “to be compatible with our institutions and customs”. Instead Spain’s minister Praxedes Mateo Sagasta, though a liberal, outlawed the Socialist International party. France followed suit with a law on March 13- 14, 1872.

The French Foreign Minister, Francois Remusat, thought that “preventive measures were appropriate; namely, it was appropriate to consider the very fact of belonging to the Socialist International Party a crime”. France’s stand, then, was more repressive than that of the Italian government.

Once again, the Roman government showed, substantially, an inclination towards accepting the English laissez faire approach and not towards necessarily preventive and general measures. First, the Minister for the Interior, Lanza, and later, the Keeper of the Seals, De Falco, let it be known to their colleague the Foreign Minister that it was impossible to agree with the Spanish and French stand… The mind-set of the Roman politicians was closer to the attitude of Granville and Gladstone which was clearly profoundly liberal, all imbued with the principle which, in terms of internal politics, was considered the informing principle of English liberalism and the principle of European liberalism as well, namely, the principle of repression and not the principle of prevention. Later on, two representatives of the Left, Cairoli and especially Zanardelli, openly proclaimed the aforementioned principle. This stand contradicted Crispi who was one of the champions of strong government and who supported the principle of prevention. But, at least in those days, in 1871-1873, the repressive principle was also supported by people on the right.³³

Minister B. Cairoli, in a speech delivered at Pavia on October 15, 1878 put it this way: “Government authority should make sure that public order is not disturbed; it should be inexorable in repressing and not arbitrary in preventing”.³⁴ Joseph Zanardelli shared the very same political stance.³⁵

Francesco Crispi, on December 5, 1878, declared that:

political authority has the right to prevent crimes just as the judiciary has the right to repress them”. He clarified his statement by emphasising the need of a certain authoritarian discretion to be used by the government in the exercise of acts of prevention. This discretionary prevention consists in using a complex of prudential acts, cautions, secure and moral provisions thanks to which the government can keep the public peace without falling into arbitrariness. It is certainly hard to carry it out. The one who carries it out should not only have foresight but also be guided by a great sense of justice, and by a profound sense of morality. ³⁶

It is rather interesting that in February 1878, Don Bosco had sent minister Crispi a sketch outline of his Il sistema preventivo nell’educazione (The Preventive System in education), while he had promised to send the same to his successor, the Minister for the Interior, Zanardelli, in July 1878.³⁷ One can imagine the impact that the educational use of the terms ‘preventive’ and ‘repressive’ might have made on those two men, accustomed to use them in an opposite political sense.³⁸

Following the preparatory work done by two committees, one German the other Austrian, from November 7 to November 29, 1872, a conference was held in Berlin which concluded by favouring repressive measures for social crimes. There were no measures issued for preventive interventions against the danger of subversive socialism.³⁹

6. 2. Social prevention: paupers and beggars

The idea of prevention, foreshadowed in some sectors of society during the 17^th and 18^th centuries, was positively supported with new vigour more in the social than the political arena, especially in Spain, France and England, and particularly in connection with the widespread phenomenon of ‘pauperism and beggary’, criminality, the required help for children, and education. Particular attention is given to neglected youngsters, runaways, vagrants and beggars.⁴⁰

Italy faced the same problems also during the 19^th century, with pre-industrialisation and industrialisation, along with the problem of urbanisation, when farmers and mountain dwellers were looking for less precarious work and life conditions.

This phenomenon of urbanisation was a real disorder, a scandal for aristocrats and moderates, and remedies were sought in the guidelines projected by Luis Vives in his work, De subventione pauperum (On how to meet the needs of the poor) 1526. These remedies offered welfare assistance, education, and work in the French Hopitaux Generaux and in the English ‘Work houses’.

The problem was also up for debate in the Kingdom of Sardinia during the 19^th century. However things leaned decisively towards ‘prevention’.⁴¹

According to a Roman priest and future Cardinal, C. L. Morichini (1805 -1879), the term ‘preventive’ includes the entire gamut of charitable undertakings on behalf of the poor of Rome: hospitals, institutions for foundlings, orphans, the elderly, widows; alms-collecting and first-aid organizations, schools. Ideally these charitable undertakings took care of a poor person from birth, throughout his education, in moments of difficulty and unemployment and finally, in old age and sickness. “All the efforts made by people motivated by an intelligent kind of charity are directed toward separating the really poor from the pretender, toward preventing the onset of misery rather than going to its aid, and toward instilling people’s thinking with the need to have a spirit of foresight, economy, the acquisition of virtue”. ⁴²

Count Charles Hilarion Petitti di Roreto (1790-1850), a Piedmontese and enlightened conservative, among the provisions more suited to remove the general causes of beggary, indicated some which were openly preventive:

Promote and favour the elementary instruction of the people of the lower classes by directing them especially toward true religious and moral principles which convey to a human being the clear conviction that he has an obligation to work for his own livelihood, and which make him realise the profit he gets from following them. Promote, favour and encourage the opening of ‘savings banks’… These ‘savings banks’ familiarise a person with the idea that he needs an insurance for the future and that he also needs to economise; they keep him away from vices, and they guarantee reserve funds which can help him, should he be pressed by some need, without being forced to rely on public or private charity.

Likewise promote, protect and encourage ‘mutual aid societies’ among the workers.⁴³

Following these indirect suggestions…, an enlightened, attentive and paternal government is able to provide good morals, tranquillity, strength and comforts, for the entire population .⁴⁴

By examining the repressive and directive laws issued on beggary actually in place in most European states, the Count also highlighted some indications in line with ‘prevention” and which have a positive dimension.

If the causes of evil are not removed, repressive and coercive laws cannot always achieve their goal… Therefore, any government which aims at making true prosperity and morality accessible to everyone, should establish its own civil set-up, with all kinds of study and diligent care, so that once the causes of beggary have been removed through indirect methods, methods more direct and suited to the situation provided by the time and place might be employed to prevent and obstruct the onset of this deadly social plague.⁴⁵

19^th century philanthropists were familiar with the theme of ‘redeeming the needy’ using education as prevention. Coincidentally, the same theme as Morichini’s is developed by the Frenchman, Baron Joseph-Marie Degerando (or De Gérando or De Gerando 1772-1842) ⁴⁶ in his monumental work Della Pubblica Beneficenza (Concerning public charity): Part two, dedicated to the Istituzioni destinate a prevenire l’indigenza (Institutions aimed at preventing poverty).⁴⁷

Of all the ways of performing charity, the one which prevents the onset of misery at its roots is the most fruitful and healthy. Now, there certainly could be no preventive charity more useful than the education of the poor. Here in fact, the two main features of preventive charity come together. This type of charity responds to the present needs and provides for the future… Education will provide the poor with the moral, intellectual and physical strength they need, and this constitutes the wealth of a human being; in turn it provides the poor with what is indispensable in life and will grant them the strength to fight against unforeseen misfortunes. ⁴⁸

The more we study the causes which produce poverty, the more we shall come to realize that lack of education is one which produces the greatest number of poor and delinquent individuals. One of the greatest services we can render to the poor is that of keeping the children, at least, from such a deadly influence. A good education will guarantee that one day these children will take care of their old parents and comfort them.⁴⁹

The education process begins with kindergarten for children below seven. It continues with primary school, and with Night and Sunday schools for those who were not able to take advantage of previous instructional programs.

The rounding-off of their education comes from advice, moral and legal assistance in their choice of profession, work contracts drawn up during the apprenticeship period ensuring that their protection is guaranteed by employers who could happen to be exploitive.⁵⁰

The educational initiative of Ferrante Aporti stems from a similar belief: education begins right from kindergarten. Writing to Giacomo Savarese, from Naples, Aporti says:

The poverty of people, as you yourself have pointed out with supportive proof, stems from the lack of education which renders a human being ‘lazy’ and ‘imprudent’. Poverty will be removed by means of a public and well-organised education program offered people from childhood onwards within institutions created for this purpose. Beggary which is the source of so many other vices for both sexes, is a shameful vice stemming from poverty, and it was completely got rid of through the efficient means of schools for children, repeating principles such as these day after day. A human being is born to work; every person should provide for his own livelihood, with his own work, and should not live off the fruit of someone else’s work. This is what is demanded by the principles of natural justice and religion. ⁵¹

Finally, C. Cattaneo, a moderate Progressive, offers a synthesis which contains political, social and educational features, all seen from a perspective which is positively ‘preventive’ and social welfare-minded. Cattaneo analyses the different positions held by theorists and legislators about the causes of and possible remedies for misery and beggary. His personal option is for foresight, prevention and social welfare.

In the midst of all these discordant debates, some clearer truths arise. The following truths undoubtedly seem useful: the education of the poor; the removal of all kinds of beggary; the foundation of ‘savings banks’ and of ‘mutual aid societies’; deductions from employees’ salaries which would be given back later on in pension form, and other societies of similar nature. All of this helps a private person to provide for himself, saving the means needed for an honourable retirement. ⁵²

REMARK: In reference to problems of the poor, we might recall the terms ‘repressive’ and ‘preventive’ as used by the Anglican ecclesiastic, Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834). These terms are found in his famous work “Essay on the principle of population as it affects the future improvement of society”.⁵³

According to Malthus, poverty is destined to grow because the production of subsistence means is slower than population growth. The only possible way for us to improve upon the condition of the poor is “to lower the population to the level of the poor”.⁵⁴ Now, the obstacles which constantly react more or less forcefully with every society and keep the population at the subsistence level can be reduced to two main categories: some are preventive, others are repressive.⁵⁵ Repressive obstacles are wars, famine, plagues and the many effects of misery and vice. The main obstacle or preventive means is “moral restraint, which is to say postponing marriage, abandoning the idea of marriage if someone is not sure that he can support his offspring, or sexual voluntary continence and keeping the virtue of chastity”.⁵⁶

7. 3. Prevention in the penal field

It is within the penal field, perhaps, in the world of prisons and penitentiaries, that the words ‘repression’, ‘prevention’ and ‘correction’ find their way into the 18^th and 19^th centuries more frequently than before. The already mentioned Petitti of Roreto, who was writing and actively involved in Turin during the years of Don Bosco’s formation and the first oratory experiences, provides us with rich information on the use of the words just quoted.⁵⁷

In a memorandum with a broad historical and theoretical vision dealing with the various methods to provide assistance to people charged with crimes and those found guilty both during and after the judiciary and penal procedures, Petitti distinguishes three forms of ‘detention’: preventive, for those who have been charged; repressive, for those who have been found guilty and condemned to a short-term punishment; corrective, for those who have been condemned to a longer-term punishment. The terms are seen in reference to the different goals to be achieved, together with the treatments and corrective punishment to be used. The first type of detention, preventive, has to do with “people who were imprudent and were arrested but are far from being truly inclined to do harm”. The second type of detention, repressive, is reserved for quite a few young people who are bindoli (swindlers, cheats), or scatter-brained but not yet corrupt and for other younger people “guilty of minor crimes”, or “condemned to light correctional punishments, or even guilty of very small crimes, but not yet truly evil”. The third type of detention, corrective, is reserved for people who have been condemned for crimes calling for long-term punishment and offers a twofold advantage: it prevents the increase of corruption and its spread to others who belong to the previous categories, but above all it helps achieve the main goal for which punishments are given, namely, their ‘correction’.⁵⁸

Naturally, for each type of detention, a corresponding separate type of prison had to be created: a preventive prison, a repressive prison, a corrective prison and some other special prisons.⁵⁹

The theme of prevention has its own specific value, however, when it is a question of anticipating the occurrence of a crime, of dealing with whatever happens after preventive detention, judiciary and penal intervention and its respective ‘correction’. In this case the term ‘prevention’ assumes a double meaning: first of all it means completely preventing the occurrence of crime; when crimes have been committed it means bringing about ‘corrective action’ through a re-education program and consequent renewal, in order to prevent any re-offending. Along these lines both the aristocrat from Milan, Caesar Beccaria (1738-1794), and the English philanthropist, John Howard (1726-1790), were famous.

The break-through work by Caesar Beccaria Dei Delitti e delle Pene (On crimes and punishments), published in 1764, has a chapter which deals with Come si prevengono i delitti (How to prevent crimes). It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them. This is the main goal of any good legislation which is the art of leading men to achieve the maximum of happiness and minimum of unhappiness possible”. ⁶⁰Then he indicated some of the means of prevention: “The nation’s efforts should be fully concentrated on the keeping of clear and simple laws, making sure the citizens are only afraid of the laws and not of men, fighting against ignorance, rewarding virtue.”⁶¹ He finally concluded by pointing out the most secure means of all, education. “Finally, the most secure yet most difficult means for preventing crimes is the improvement of education, much too vast an objective and one which goes beyond the limits I have set for myself. But I dare to say that this objective is intrinsically linked with the nature of government which should not end up by being something cultivated only here and there and only by a few wise people, or else it becomes sterile, right up to the most remote centuries, as far as the attainment of public happiness is concerned.⁶²

This work was followed by several broad-ranging publications spurred on by Degerando, Petitti di Roreto, and Charles Cattaneo. (1801-1869). The preventive theme is intertwined with other themes widely dealt with in publications which had to do with prisons and correction houses: punishments, forced labour, a more or less strict isolation.

People finally came to understand the following: that the application of legal punishments is not simply a defensive and vindictive weapon used by society; that its objective is not only that of preventing the delinquent from causing more harm and deterring others from imitating him; but that it should aim at bringing about the correction of the guilty party…⁶³

Work should certainly play an essential role, but especially because work is a natural means by which a human being can improve…⁶⁴ Isolation is only a safeguard for a prisoner… because the first condition attached to punishment is that a person be ‘exiled’… Never allow him to be approached by anyone who might deter him from being sorry for what he did or stir up in others the vices he is affected by, or let others be corrupted. Here, however, in our opinion, lies the limit of punishment: there is a type of communication which cannot be denied, not even to the most wicked individual: communicating with good people. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain … and it will not be enough to grant this type of communication-right only to a minister of religion, a prison inspector... Why should his friends and relatives, endowed with an honourable character and who may share the same views, not be admitted nor allowed to actively make sure that their views are followed, adding the influence of their personal affection to the power of exhortation?⁶⁵

Petitti di Roreto pays particular attention to those condemned to ‘life imprisonment’, ‘work-houses’, where young people or even adults are locked up: these are the ones who had lived a shameful life and are hopefully preventively prepared to shun the danger of causing harm.⁶⁶ They are classified according to the level of crime that they have committed. However, the author has as his starting point his fundamental trust in human potential and therefore he favours the use of both protective and positive ‘preventive measures’ in reference to individuals “for whom there is a greater reason to believe that the instinct of doing good is not entirely extinct.” “If, for some reason coercive measures at times seem to be more rigorous, substantially the ruling authority in those institutions should be more fatherly and therefore more inclined to combine the gentleness of good advice to the rigour of command.” ⁶⁷

A similar direction was taken by Charles Cattaneo who stressed the need to scientifically study “the criminal bent” evidenced at times by delinquents, as well as neutralising forces and chances of recovery.

A great part of the reverse push will still be delegated to criminal law, the prison ward and, perhaps, also to the executioner. But a major part will be delegated to indirect cures and other branches of civil authority, especially in what regards behaviour and education. Lastly, another part will be entirely delegated to the physician. Perhaps preventive imprisonment, without any punishment, may appear to be the only way to protect society from certain crimes which may be considered more like acts coming from a natural dishonourable condition than acts of calculated wickedness.⁶⁸

8. 4. Education as prevention

Historically, the idea of education as prevention stands out as clearly connected with preventive education, without considering how it is achieved, whether by repressive or preventive methods. The authors who insisted on this view were already mentioned earlier: Morichini, Aporti, Degerando and Petitti di Roreto.

As Romagnosi perceptively remarks it is up to civil authority, namely it is the absolute right of those who govern to demand that all individuals be given an elementary education, for this is the best means to guarantee a peaceful state to society. It would be foolish to say that civil authority may use punishments, even severe and terrible punishments for crimes committed while it is unable to prevent them. Now there is no wise man who would deny that public instruction is one of the most powerful means of prevention.⁶⁹

Even Charles Cattaneo referred to John Dominic Romagnosi at the conclusion of his essay on the ineffectiveness, or rather the damage produced by penal deportation. “The study of the penal system shows ever more clearly how deep and wise was the statement made by Romagnosi that ‘a good government is a great safeguard, when accompanied by a great educational program’ “.⁷⁰

Ferrante Aporti considered his kindergarten to be a preventive institution aiming at eliminating the deformation encountered by children who grow up in families unable to provide the right education or which cannot do it all.⁷¹ In a word, these families are unable to effectively defend the innocent childhood of the poor from vices and errors.⁷²

With the kindergarten Aporti had intended to commence the creation of a vast network of new institutions destined to prevent immorality from childhood on; “for once this period is contaminated by immorality, there can hardly be any healing for it”.⁷³ In the preface to the Manuale di educazione ed ammaestramento (Manual of Education and Instruction), written in 1833,⁷⁴ Aporti speaks about the child’s extraordinary receptiveness and about the need to respond to this with preventive, educative care. Kindergartens were the offshoot of a “charity directed to prevent rather than allowing evils to be suffered, then provided medical care”.⁷⁵ While he was expressing his gratitude to the Commission for Kindergartens in the city of Venice, Aporti stated:

All in all, in Venice anything to do with this twofold act of charity directed at prevention rather permission for evils to be suffered and then cured, is and will always be for me and for those who aim at doing good, constant cause of due admiration. Therefore may this honourable commission accept the most sincere expression of the congratulations I have the honour to convey. For up to now, the commission has carried out the difficult undertaking of reforming and re-organizing the education of the poor wonderfully. This action is the only means good enough to redeem the poor from the abjection of ignorance, from sloth and from the vices necessarily connected with them. This is the way they can provide an inestimable good for the Catholic Church and for the state.⁷⁶

This idea was fully shared by Petitti di Roreto:

Those who are involved in the education of children, with the so-called kindergarten, and in the education of adolescents, in orphanages both temporary and permanent … are the ones who safeguard them in their tenderest age and protect them from many physical and moral dangers; they are the ones who provide them with the opportunity to learn a skill which will guarantee their future existence…

The shelter- houses provided for young people … can successfully lead these young people by a means of persuasion, firmness and paternal exhortations to again follow good principles and thus prevent society from being harmed by some of them.

The houses for workshops and shelter… provide the means to earn an honourable livelihood.⁷⁷

The idea of prevention is again used in reference to the rules for the Educatori della prima infanzia e dell’adolescenza (educational institutions for early childhood and adolescence). Furthermore it is appropriate that poor children receive a religious and moral, literary and artistic education. The reason for this is the ignorance and the lack of far-sightedness that their parents have, the lack of suitable means, at times even the parents ill will, which will perhaps, allow children and adolescents to be completely uneducated and bent towards immoral and bad behaviour and worse which might follow.⁷⁸

The proposal to educate the masses in order to properly meet their needs, and prevent criminality, takes up more space in the already cited publication, Della condizione attuale delle carceri:. Educarlo, assuefarlo ad essere previdente, e soccorrerlo quando e’ nel bisogno (Regarding jails at the moment: you must educate the prisoner, get him used to looking ahead and help him when he needs it).

The kindergarten program, the primary and elementary schools, the agricultural school, arts and crafts schools, can reach their goal and all governments should truly have the intention of promoting them, fostering them, protecting them, if they really want the improvement of the population entrusted to their care.

However, instruction alone is not enough to reach this goal: it must be accompanied by a religious and moral education. That is how the hearts of the young are trained to good behaviour and to keep away from the dangers to which they are exposed by human passions.

The people’s work often produces abundant revenues, far above their present needs. If there is no incentive to save what is superfluous by putting it into ‘savings banks’, in view of future needs, these extra revenues are uselessly wasted in debauchery, excessive vices or at least in useless expenses.

‘Savings banks’, Life insurances, stocks in mutual aid societies or in productive industrial enterprises are so many useful ways to save extra revenues. They should be promoted, fostered and protected, because they guarantee that the already mentioned revenues not be uselessly wasted or harmfully used. It must however be remarked that is necessary for the government to intervene in such speculations in order to protect the private interests of those who put their revenues in such institutions...⁷⁹

The magazine L’educatore primario (The primary school teacher) was a definite propaganda tool for popular culture from a similar perspective.

The instruction of the masses, though not necessary as some people think, should be considered inevitable in our times. The instruction should be given according to the needs of those who receive it, and according to the needs of the country in which it is given; the government should direct it according to these needs; children should be prepared to become adults; in the schools there should be a training period for a civic way of living. All of these are truths which leave no room for doubt.⁸⁰

9. 5. Religion as prevention

Religion is universally recognized as an irreplaceable ingredient of personal and social prevention, a guarantee of order and prosperity. Naturally, Morichini is convinced of this as he underscores that only religion can establish the required link between scholastic instruction and an authentic education: to reach moral perfection it is essential that instruction should be joined to education.

Now religion is the basis of education, since it provides light for the mind and trains the heart to pursue virtue: and this is the most important feature of all. It stands to reason then, that the most important subject to be taught in the schools should be catechism and next to it, reading and writing. In many schools, the four arithmetic operations should also be included; and finally, in some schools Italian, Latin, French, Church and civil history, geography and drafting should be included.⁸¹

De Gerando, too, is a convinced supporter of this idea when he states that “religion offers the most sublime and valid influence which is particularly evident in Christianity, which in turn is the highest expression of religion.”⁸² “Bright minds have produced great havoc. Today’s minds seem more open to reflection, and religious morality is, almost generally, recognised as one of the most outstanding goods of humanity.⁸³

Pettitti, in particular, is at pains to underscore the importance of the religious element in the corrective process for prison detainees to be re-educated and be given back the chance to have personal dignity. Pettitti denounces the many inconveniences which are a cause of the immorality and impiety which obstruct the success of the religious and moral instruction imparted to detainees, as required by law, in all the prisons. He emphasises the absolute necessity and pressing need of a prison reform.⁸⁴

He lists “the basic subjects” which are called on to regulate life in a truly corrective penal institution. He concludes with the No. 15: “Finally there is no doubt that the moral and religious instruction, if continuously provided, will revive the sentiments instilled in them at an early age, sentiments about any good principle, long forgotten, and at last turn those perverted souls towards what is good”.⁸⁵ Then he deals, in detail, with every type of prison.

In a ‘preventive prison’, moral instruction will either not exist or be inadequate without the contribution of religious instruction. Religious instruction would be imperfect if it were not accompanied by a strict observance of all the practices of worship which every good Christian should attend to. The quantity and quality of these worship practices are relevant. In the ‘repressive prison’, the anticipated demands are similar and even greater. Intensive and personalised care is championed for “correctional or penitentiary institutions, with the addition of a carefully chosen, prudent, and perceptive chaplain”.⁸⁶ He had also called attention, once again, to some ways which might make religious practices more attractive.

Religious materials should be distributed in such a way as to make them suitable to the age and condition of detainees. So, while we want to avoid the danger of alienating the minds of young people from religious sentiment by making religious services too long and therefore boring or a cause of distraction; we should also try to make these worthy practices of worship, something palatable for these inexperienced hearts. And, therefore, we should call upon ecclesiastics, who are intelligent, with a high prestige, and the greatest amount of gentleness, mixed with a necessary firmness.⁸⁷

Don Bosco has an intensely religious section in his 1877 ‘Preventive System’ booklet. He first proposed some fundamental expressions of Catholic worship, and then remarked: “never force the boys to frequent the Sacraments... let the beauty, grandeur and holiness of the Catholic religion be dwelt on.”⁸⁸

Pettitti, furthermore, related the effectiveness of religious education to the personality of the chaplain and dedicated a paragraph of his work to the ‘qualities and duties of the chaplain’:

The chaplain’s task is a very important one, much like the one of the Director. As a matter of fact the initial thrust for any drive to keep the rules and correct oneself really starts from the chaplain…

The ecclesiastical superior should be wise enough to be cautious in proposing (as a chaplain) only a person endowed with intelligent zeal, with evangelical charity, with a firm and yet free and easy character, with much ability to work, with deep knowledge, of mature age, with a dignified look and capable of winning over the confidence and respect of others.

The chaplain, however, should have nothing at all to do with the carrying out of disciplinary rules. Therefore, he should keep out of any act of repression and reward. His job is to provide advice and comfort … His main concern should be that of awakening faith, hope and charity within the detainees. Faith is needed to convince them about religious truths; hope is needed to trust that a better destiny can be merited; charity is needed to lead them to decide to be no longer harmful to society. The whole of religious activity is bound up with these elements. Religious activity, however, is only effective when there is the intervention of grace, sincerely asked for. This grace alone can turn the minds of the detainees towards a sincere or radical emendation. In conclusion we would like to stress again that the chaplain must be the confidante, the counsellor and consoler of the detainees, but in an intelligent sense, in a fatherly and shrewd way.⁸⁹

Pettitti di Roretto’s statements are in tune with those attributed to Don Bosco by whoever reported on the conversation he had with Urban Rattazzi in 1854. Those statements made precise reference to the possibility of introducing the ‘Preventive System’ within the penal institutions, and being actually incarnated in the person, words, captivating attitude of God’s minister.⁹⁰

The actions of the Popes and the Church after the ‘Revolution’ aimed at following the same direction: to create an energetic restoration of unity and authority within the Church and regenerate consciences and society by means of a general religious reawakening.

It was meant to be an activity of recovery, defence and prevention; negatively, it was directed at fighting indifference and widespread libertarian spirit. Positively such activity had to rely on the missionary movement which was developing extensively, new forms of apostolate and education and re-education of the young.⁹¹ And “really a lot of people feel the troublesome necessity to take the new times into account, the changed mentality of the young, not to be too heavy, by going back to the past, and opening up to new possibilities”. ⁹²

The actions of all the Popes of the 18th century followed this perspective:

- Pius VII’s encyclical Diu Satis, May 15, 1800;

- Leo XII’s encyclical Ubi Primum May 3, 1823;

- Pius VIII’s encyclical Traditi Humilitati Nostrae May 24, 1829;

- Gregory XVI’s encyclical Mirari Vos August 15, 1832;

- Pius IX’s encyclical Nostis et Nobiscum December 8, 1849, for the bishops of Italy and then his letter to the bishops of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, January 20, 1858, and, finally the encyclical Quanta Cura, December 8, 1865.

In the encyclical Diu Satis, Pius VII recommended that the bishops should tend the Christian sheepfold but also devote vigilance, solicitude, inventiveness, and preferential love toward children and adolescents, for it is these who, like soft wax, can be moulded for good or evil more than the adults. ⁹³ The Pope quoted the scripture passage, repeated over the centuries by Christians: “adulescens juxta viam suam etiam cum senuerit, non recedet ab ea” (an adolescent even when he becomes old, will never deviate from his original way of living). ⁹⁴

Pius IX exhorted the bishops to take stock of the many “criminal ways” evidenced by the sad times they lived in, and being used by the enemies of God and of humanity to try to pervert and corrupt innocent youths in particular. “The bishops”, the Pope adds, “should direct all of their efforts towards the proper education of youth, for it is mostly on youth that the prosperity of Christian and civil society depends.” Only a Christian education, as a matter of fact, was capable of offering words and means of grace, suitable for the Christian restoration of individuals and of society.⁹⁵

Many welfare and educational experiences of the 19^th century, including Don Bosco’s, would be inspired by these very definitely Catholic roots, and would draw impulses and means from them directed more broadly toward the improvement of all human beings and society according to the needs of the times.⁹⁶

Real experience comes before particular ways of expressing it. Although not the result of a particular work of historical research, the statement with which Don Bosco begins his exposition of the ‘Preventive System’ responds to a thousand year tradition and longer, one which we still see in evidence today. The distinction between ‘preventive’ and ‘repressive’, whether noticed or not, has always been part of the many ways of raising and educating children. As far as Don Bosco was concerned, it was an answer to the personal experiences he had had in his family, school and the seminary he attended.

These broadened as his cultural experience expanded: from teaching catechism to preaching, from school-based learning to out-of-school learning.

10. 1. Preventive themes related to post-Tridentine family education

The young John Bosco might have come to know, from the pages of the diocesan catechism dealing with marriage, that the duties of married people also included duties towards their children:

They should think seriously about responding to their needs; they should give them a good and pious education; they should allow them to feel free to choose the state of life to which God may have called them.⁹⁷

Bellarmine, in his An abundant explanation of Christian doctrine, was convinced that “fathers’ love for their children is so natural and ordinary that there was no need of another written law to remind them of their duties towards their children”. However, in the explanation of the fourth commandment, after pointing out children’s duties towards their fathers, he did not fail to remind fathers that they are also “obliged to provide for the needs of their children with food and clothing but also with the right direction and instruction”.⁹⁸

Charles Borromeo was more than convinced of what we have just mentioned. Borromeo is the great post-Tridentine Council reformer who saw that that children’s Christian education was a very serious obligation both for the family and the parish, especially in reference to teaching Christian doctrine. In an impressive address to the parishioners of Cannobbio on the occasion of his pastoral visit, Charles Borromeo insisted on the educational responsibilities of parents: “It is their task, their duty to lead the children they have received from God to Christ”, and “it is a useless, stupid and false kind of prudence to provide children with temporal goods and wealth when their first concern as parents should be to entrust their children to Jesus Christ, the Church, Christian doctrine classes”.⁹⁹ One of the main goals of marriage is the well-planned education of children namely, that of leading their children to Christ.

Just a year before he died, an ecclesiastical friend of his was writing a magnificent treatise at his request, which he read chapter by chapter as it was handed to him. It was a neat summary of the humanist and Christian pedagogy of Silvio Antoniano, a member of the Curia, a future Cardinal, connected with the spiritual circle of Philip Neri (1540-1603): On the Christian Education of Children.¹⁰⁰

It is significant that the second of the three books was entirely dedicated to religious instruction and education and followed, content wise, the subject matter offered by the Catechismus ad parochos....

Don Bosco almost certainly did not read Antoniano’s work, but thanks to his Christian and priestly formation, ended up being perfectly in tune with post-Tridentine praxis and the notion of family education reflected in Antoniano’s book which contributed to its continued existence.

The text mirrors and displays a well-outlined Christian and theological basis for human, religious and moral educational praxis. “The very first goal of this book and what makes it different from some other similar publications, is the fact that it deals with education as Christian education, which could never take place without the knowledge and observance of God’s laws, and thanks to his holy grace”.¹⁰¹ This is what Antoniano focused on, at the end of the second book entirely dedicated to “Christian doctrine”. But the learned bishop did not forget that Christian education necessarily includes a human and civic dimension.

Therefore it is the fathers’ task to raise their children civilly and in a Christian fashion;¹⁰² to make sure that the children grow up to be honest people, namely good citizens, children really good in the intimacy of their heart, out of love for God and virtue...It is their task to urge them not to yield to greed, which is the most cruel of tyrants, but to serve god ‘s will.¹⁰³… Right reason and faith are the means to contribute to the formation of children in becoming upright people and good citizens from their early infancy.¹⁰⁴

This formation can be accomplished when private ‘paternal’ education, and ‘common’ education under State authority work together, are integrated and are in harmony: “Private education should be linked with public education which, in turn, should perfect private education”. “There is nothing more healthy for a Republic than to have private education oriented in such a way that the good discipline learned by a child through family education is continued in public education, and even be improved on, since it stands to reason that the public good is greater and more perfect than the private good”. It is also right that such cooperation should take place both on the moral and Christian levels, mainly because “any study of moral education turns out to be weak and imperfect if it is not connected with Christian education which is the highest and most excellent of any other form of education and its highest goal”. Therefore, “while the ecclesiastical rector makes sure to bring out the good Christian, with the spiritual authority and means his goal demands, at the same time, he does his best to bring out the good citizen... Consequently, those who separate what should be joined make a great mistake. They think they can have good citizens by other rules and through different means than those which contribute to making a good Christian”.¹⁰⁵

Summing up, once duties related to care of the body, natural life, moral and rational education have been responded to, the proper task of the Christian and of all the faithful is that of raising children according to the rules of Christ so that, by living and dying well and in a holy way, they may become God’s instruments on earth for the benefit and help of human society and, later on, heirs of the Kingdom of God itself.¹⁰⁶

Antoniano prefaces his thoughts on family education with two brief points of clarification. First of all, family education should only take limited account of gender and age differences of the children being educated. As for social and economic levels of the family, education at home will “deal with a middle-of-the-road type of education, considering that the majority of people will live in the city and belong to the middle class”.¹⁰⁷

Secondly, concerning the exercise of responsibility in education, which is like a second birth and should be shared by father and mother who, in turn, should be in perfect agreement on it, the author adds the following suggestions: “Generally speaking, the mother more appropriately takes care of the girls, since they share the same gender. As for the boys in their early infancy and early childhood, mothers should take care of them, most of all in their home education. However, when the boys get bigger and more capable of handling orders, are more mature and ready to get out of the house more often, it should be the father’s role to instruct them and watch over them”. ¹⁰⁸

Chronologically, the mother is the chief one involved in the early stages of the child’s education, which by nature is preventive and which belongs to the family.¹⁰⁹ As a woman she seems to incarnate all the best ingredients for such an education: “she is inclined to be pious and religious; add to that her tenderness, her gentle ways of correcting, her greater perseverance and patience, which perhaps are not ordinarily the features of a father”.¹¹⁰

Beyond the levels and conditions of Christian education, its goal is an essential point of reference: all people, no matter what circumstances they are in, are obliged to know and love God and obey his holy Commandments”. ¹¹¹ “I am a Christian: at my Baptism, I have vowed and assumed the noble profession of fighting under the banner of Christ crucified and being faithful, with his holy grace, to the observance of his most holy law”.¹¹² Therefore the first task of a good Christian father is “to instil, impress on the child’s mind a great reverence for the law of God, and a holy fear of God together with the resolution never to transgress”.¹¹³

The method to be used is the method of love and fear. “Just like a good father, sometimes with love and reward as the carrot, sometimes with fear and punishment as the stick, will motivate the child’s tender mind and thus form him and impress on him some very useful Christian principles for all his life, both for avoiding evil and being encouraged to do good”.¹¹⁴ The terms ‘love-fear’, ‘strictness and gentleness’ are also repeated in reference to obeying human laws, being submissive to one’s parents, as do the terms ‘virtue-idleness’.

A child should get used to respecting and keeping human laws, not so much out of fear of being punished but out of love for virtue, convinced that Princes and the Superiors here on earth are representatives of God and that all authority is from God.¹¹⁵

Later on, as a child’s talent and the light of reason grow, a father should demonstrate the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of vice.¹¹⁶

Stress should be put on a right balance between the two aspects. They should be in harmony with a common attitude of championing the principle of authority. “A father should be careful, therefore, not to be over-indulgent towards his son and never grant him too much familiarity, especially when he is older. At the same time, he should not be over-severe and rigid, while maintaining a certain seriousness seasoned with and tempered by gentleness and kindness, so his son may join fear to love in his regard. This is what we mean by reverence”.¹¹⁷

An important role in educative prevention is given to chastity. Antoniano, dealing with Vane et inhoneste pitture (Vain and shameful pictures) says, “that much work should be done to safeguard the purity of a boy and girl, so as not to allow the devil to steal it away”.¹¹⁸ He forcefully underscores the danger of the “vice of the flesh”, because “this domestic enemy ordinarily attacks youth when the blood flow is greater and passions are stronger. What are needed are diligence, study and work.”¹¹⁹ “We should not be indulgent in this matter and so, as the saints say, there is no other vice which darkens the mind of a child, casts it more deeply into the mud and renders it more obtuse and inept for anything, than the vice of dishonesty.”¹²⁰

The suggested strategy is the traditional one, further strengthened by protective elements in view of the future. Its development has three directions: removing and avoiding the occasions of sin, a clarifying and positive approach to life, and recourse to means provided by grace. First of all, “a victory against the vice of the flesh, as the saints say, can be recorded when there is a running away from it; and there is no better way to fight it than not having to fight it at all”.¹²¹

This is neither the first nor the main means, however constructive and positive it may seem to be, at the level of reason and grace. “At times, the father should talk with his son about chastity, so he may fall perfectly in love with this most beautiful virtue and learn how to hate and loathe the vice of lust, especially when the time comes for the young man to bind himself in marriage. He will also urge him to be faithful in his marriage”.¹²² “I have given final place to the remedy which no doubt should be and is the first remedy, and that is to make sure that the love of God is enkindled in the tender and pure heart of a young person….For this reason, then, let this be the main concern of a good father in the family, that his young boy may fall in love with God and with the glory prepared for us in Paradise and with the beauty of virtue... Therefore a good father, through all kinds of good and holy practices of piety and religion, by giving frequent and gentle instructions and by means of prayer, should provide the right weapons for his son to fight the devil’s arrows, but especially by frequent use of the holy sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist”.¹²³

Similar methods are suggested for fighting against the vice of stealing which considerably fouls up the established order. “When a child has reached the age of reason and is ready to understand the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of vice, a father should present him with the act of stealing as something detestable and to achieve this it would be enough for him to say that this vice is directly contrary to the queen of virtues namely, justice”.¹²⁴ The means are first and foremost positive still, rather than negative: “The constant and living example” of the father; “his advice and the effectiveness of his reasoning, showing the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of vice, will see that his son falls in love with virtue and hates vice”. “He should do this by removing all kinds allurement to evil and by getting the child accustomed to doing good”.¹²⁵

Corrections and Punishments, during childhood, should be balanced by the use of reason, fear and love.¹²⁶ The basic rule is “the middle-of-the-road, the golden mean”.

Fathers and teachers should remember that beatings are like a medicine. And, since they are like a medicine, they should be given at the right time and in the right measure. The reason for this is that beatings should not create more damage than help. A father and teachers should use beatings with discretion and judgement, in order to really provide a cure for the soul of the child who ordinarily commits a sin out of ignorance and weakness... A father’s concern should be that his son becomes good from within, so he will run away from sin more out of love for virtue than out of fear of punishments. However, the fear of God, the knowledge of the beauty of virtue and of the ugliness of vice should be the most effective means… The respect for a Father should act as a restraint and an incentive, holding back a child or urging on a child as the occasion calls for. And in short, I would expect that our well-educated son should be so well accustomed to respecting his father, that just seeing his face upset or showing displeasure for an action would be equivalent to a very serious punishment.... Meanwhile, a father should act towards his son in such a way that he is both loved and feared. Being only feared will not win over the heart of the child and the child does not become virtuous from within. At any rate, something done out of fear will not last long. Therefore he should blend love with fear; let him keep a gentle severity so that he may be both loved and feared but the fear we are talking about is a filial fear, not the fear of a servant, the fear of a slave who fears the stick; on the contrary, a son who loves his father is afraid to do something which may displease his dear father. In short, whenever a good father has the intention of beating his son, let him first of all discreet reasons and not blind wrath as his reasons.¹²⁷

Didactic and educational methods should take the fatherly approach as their exemplar, and should be followed both by a private instructor (tutor) and by a school teacher. “A teacher takes the place of a father and his job is not only purely that of teaching literature but of forming the tender mind of a child to achieve virtue through his good example and useful advice, no less than a father. Even more so, father and teacher have to be so well attuned to each other that the child recognises at home what he has been taught by his teacher at school, and in school, what he has been taught by his father at home. In short, much of good Christian education depends on the diligence of the teachers… “let the teacher”, Antoniano concludes, “lead a blameless, exemplary life and behave himself in such a way that children may recognise the very image of true Christian goodness in him. And citizens should deservedly esteem him and recognise him as the common father of their children”.¹²⁸ The fear of God, which is the beginning wisdom, holds primacy over grammar;¹²⁹ besides, devotion to our Lady, mother of purity, will make sure that children are intelligent and docile, and endowed with memory, so that they may learn well”.¹³⁰

Finally, extra special attention should be given to adolescence, that is to the period between 14-21. According to secular and traditional canons handed down to us by Aristotle’s Rhetoric,

Adolescence is the most dangerous period of life: in fact, adolescents are full of whims and passions, bold enough to try to get whatever they want; they so much want to go hunting and horseback riding; they don’t think much about useful and necessary things; they are not careful in managing their money; they do not like being reprimanded, or given advice; they are easily deceived and just like soft wax, easily moulded to follow vice; they love hanging out with people of the same age; they easily strike up friendships for the sake of pursuing pleasures and amusements since they love to laugh and play. Much more is said and might be said about the nature of adolescents but their greatest enemy, as the philosopher has already pointed out, is incontinence of the flesh, namely lust. It is this which plagues them most.¹³¹

A preventive education during infancy and childhood is more decisive than ever. “And certainly, if adolescence is not preceded by a good education, and if the fear of God and the love of virtue have not yet taken root in the youngster’s soul, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible for him to win out... If infancy has not been accustomed to carrying the yoke of discipline when the spirit is less daring, nothing much can be expected when older, when the spirit is more robust and stimulated by more powerful interests such as licentiousness and dissolute living”.¹³²At any rate, the norms previously given for religious and moral education should be followed and strengthened: frequent reception of the sacraments; following the advice and the encouragement provided by a wise confessor, including outside of confession; obedience to one’s father. “The father of the family should be aware of the fact that he has the duty to hold on to his authority with his son and the respect due to him, to the point that his own son should not be able to realise, in a certain sense, that he has left his childhood. But a father should not deal with his son as though he were still a little child. This demands that he should have much prudence, so he should take a middle-of-the-road approach, not treating the young man too harshly so that love may not be in question, but not treating him too indulgently either, so that fear may not disappear. Instead he should be serious and moderate”.¹³³

Still, a pedagogy of restraint, preservation and vigilance would be needed: an adolescent should be warned ahead of time to be on guard as far as “bad and corrupt companions, bad company” are concerned. Consequently, the father of a family should take the greatest care and be vigilant lest his son be caught up with “suspicious associations, dangerous friends”.¹³⁴ He should encourage him to “strike up friendships with those who are good, with deeply virtuous types and not at all with friendships leading to vice, cemented by the bond of charity, sincere love, and not by interest or brief and passing pleasure; he should strike up friendships especially with his father’s friends¹³⁵; with people of his own age too, if the diligent eyes of the father are keeping an eye on him;¹³⁶ he should avoid idleness and lazy, good for nothing types”.¹³⁷

Female pedagogy is for the most part traditional, as we see from the title of the chapter dedicated to it: Safeguarding young girls and how they are to avoid idleness. The preventive measures a father and a mother should use in dealing with their daughters are as follows: safeguard chastity; avoid idleness; proper use of time; avoiding “the habit of being familiar with males”, for this is a danger to modesty. A mother should especially “keep her daughters busy, away from idleness”. Even if they should they be “born of a noble and rich father, they should not feel ashamed to use the needle, the spindle and the other activities proper to their gender”.

[In conclusion] the mother and father of the family should be vigilant over their daughters. Let them make themselves first of all feared, because the feminine sex is ‘slippery ‘, naturally light-minded and that age is not given much consideration. For the rest, one can hope that the education provided, the fear of God, and the holy example of the mother will keep her daughter in such a condition, that by living in a holy way in her father’s house, she will turn out to be a worthy and happy mother of many good sons and daughters whom she will educate for the glory of God and with the very same kind of chaste and Christian education”.¹³⁸

The terms ‘repress’, ‘prevent’, ‘prevention’ and the like, were certainly not new to the 18^th century. Until we have better research results we will continue to say that the terms, ‘Preventive System’, ‘repressive system’, ‘preventive education’ and ‘repressive education’ came into existence in the 18^th century. They seem to have been first used in France in various debates in two contexts and with radically different meanings: school policy on the one hand and family education-boarding school (schools and boarding schools directed by the State, by lay people and by Catholics) on the other.

[Trans note: wherever the term collegio is used, this will normally be translated as boarding school, unless already made clear in a sentence, where it will be referred to simply as school]

14. 1. Prevention and repression in school policy

In French school policy in the first part of the century the two terms, ‘Preventive System’ and ‘repressive system’ surfaced in connection with a very keen debate on the freedom of the school.²⁰³

Article 17 of the Belgian Constitution of 1831 had accepted the principle of freedom and thus given rise to a consistently liberal school system. “Teaching is free. Any kind of preventive measure is prohibited. Only the law regulates the repression of crimes”.

In France, the ‘Preventive System’ was supported by people, most of them secularists, who promoted state monopoly over schooling, as sanctioned by the Napoleonic university system. This prevented any chance of a liberal school, namely a school not controlled by the State, or in other words it made any preventive authorisation impossible. In reality it was a preventive-oppressive system. The repressive system was championed by those who opted for freedom of teaching with different claims sanctioned in principle by the Constitutional ‘Charta’ promulgated by Louis Philip I of Orleans on August 14, 1830. The system was called ‘repressive’ because the Guizot Law of June 28, 1833, applying the constitutional decree, foresaw various ways of controlling private institutions, to the point of eventually suppressing them in cases where there was serious non-compliance of a legal, moral or didactic nature. The conditions, however, were such that they appeared to be doubly repressive. The first of these conditions was their dependence on the university. This was a more telling reason why they should have given a better solution to the problem by issuing a new law which might have also included the secondary schools in its liberalisation.

The one who would insist on this issue in the debates reopened in 1844 was Alexis Charles de Tocqueville (1805-1859), a great moderate liberal, in his intervention on January 17, 1844, and in various articles which appeared in the newspaper Le Commerce.²⁰⁴ The Report made on July 13, 1844 by Adolphe Thiers, president of the parliamentary commission, would have a decisive importance in the debate. The report definitely disposed of any attempt to modify the current Law of 1833. In his report on the work of the Commission, Thiers introduced the terms système préventif and système répressif which were neither mentioned nor found in any previous intervention. They refer directly or indirectly to the solutions proposed for the first two problems: the conditions for opening an institution of public instruction, with the exclusion of the ‘Preventive System’, and the supervision, as demanded by the ‘repressive system’, to which they ought be subjected²⁰⁵

While respecting the legitimate independence of family education, Thiers argued, the State was claiming the rightful responsibility of issuing laws on the education of its citizens. With the university system, the State was trying to make a unified type of formation effective in all institutions, common for all.²⁰⁶ As for the existence of institutions, in order to guarantee the freedom of teaching the commission had bluntly announced the abolition of the previously required authorisation, even though still holding on to certain conditions required for the opening of institutions.²⁰⁷ In a word, the commission was against the Preventive System. But, as Thiers immediately clarified, it was self-evident that any departure from the Preventive System meant immediate entry into the repressive system. When freedom is granted, the need for supervision follows. This supervision was needed to safeguard the quality of instruction, morality and the respect for the institution.²⁰⁸

University inspectors would have carried out the legitimate task of “examining, surveying , issuing warnings and using a simple disciplinary censure”. This might have proven to be a beneficial stimulus for both teachers and students and would have been a way of distinguishing good institutions from those not up to par. However, institutions faced with a decree of suppression always had the opportunity for recourse to judicial authority.²⁰⁹

15. 2. Public repressive and private preventive education

The meaning of the two terms is inverted when they are transferred from a political debate to a pedagogical issue.

This counter position is first of all made evident in France as the aftermath of the debate on the discipline to be used in schools. According to Philip Aries: “right from the beginning of the 19^th century, school discipline had abandoned its liberal tradition and had adopted a barracks-like style”. This was not only due to the impact of the Napoleonic period, but to two more important factors: the pedagogical tradition of the military schools of the ancien régime and the emerging sensitivity to adolescence, taken as the age which lets go of the circumstances of childhood and commences its decisive course towards the adult state. This requires educational measures strongly seasoned with responsibility.²¹⁰

It is in this climate that the idea of the college (boarding school) was imposed, in order to create a more precise framework for the time of growing up.²¹¹

In the 1840s some people in connection with the different regimes used in state boarding schools on one hand and by the family and private Catholic boarding schools on the other, proposed the antithesis between the two pedagogies, the repressive and the preventive, though not without some debate.

This is why the liberal Duke de Broglie, during a debate in the Chambers of Equals, on the law regarding secondary schools already mentioned in the preceding paragraph and dated April 22, 1844, declared:

Education in the home context is essentially preventive. This is its incomparable merit. Its main drawback is that it does not always form either talented people or strong characters. In an atmosphere which is rather artificial and so to say, to all appearances like a hothouse, it cultivates tender plants which later on can barely withstand the storms coming from the outside world. … public education is somewhat repressive and, to a certain extent, deals with boys as though they were grown-ups. It makes them feel the weight of the inflexibility of the law, the powerful impact of competition, the wounds inflicted on their self-love. But it also renders them well trained to confront evil and dangers. However it does not succeed in training them adequately, except by somehow exposing them to dangers and, at times, allowing them to fall and then it waits for them to get up again”.²¹²

Thiers emphasised, once again, the same opposing set of ideas in his Rapport of July 13, 1844 when he introduced his own report admitting the legitimacy of the two types of education: paternal education which is good enough to reproduce a family, while State education is good enough to form the citizen. Each could follow different ways, according to different goals. “For example, one father might like the strict, inflexible type of education used by the great public institutions, but another father might prefer the gentler, more intelligent type of education used by the private institutions”. Besides, a father will guide his son toward the profession that he prefers: but all “will aim at guiding their sons along the lines of tenderness and even the weakness proper to a father”. At this point the state comes into the picture, namely the political entity, society, the nation. And its legitimate commitment is that of making a citizen out of the young man imbued with the spirit of the constitutions and who loves the laws and his country, and is able to contribute to the greatness and prosperity of the nation”.²¹³

Later on, Thiers confronted the problem of evaluating the two systems and entered into a debate with those who claimed that only the clergy were able to educate and instil a moral and religious spirit in the young, something that could not have been done by a secular boarding school.²¹⁴ Each had its own style and a different educational value. The “character of royal colleges (boarding schools) is marked by their discipline: the rule prevails in everything”. “There is no indulgence towards the parents’ weakness; all pupils are equal whether they are from rich or from poor families, whether they are from high or ordinary families: the same law is imposed on everyone”. “When a serious fault has been committed, the school must expel the culprit without any weakness and the institution will receive an immediate benefit from it. The idea of the rule, of equality, stands above everything else. And we should also add: the idea of frankness in dealing with everyone, the exclusion of any delay. Loyalty is both respected and encouraged”. “This is the way men are fashioned into citizens and into honest men”.²¹⁵ “We have to make upright citizens out of young men, good Christians too but also good Frenchmen”.²¹⁶

In private and secular boarding schools instead, the “care provided is more on an individual basis”, children are followed up a lot more, people are more pleasantly inclined to accept their parents’ influence. Even in Catholic boarding schools, the “regime is less strict”, less capable of preparing a youngster to face his entrance into the world; even the religious formation itself, more intense yet more forced, is not necessarily the most suitable for creating more personal and lasting convictions in the area of freedom.²¹⁷

16. 3. Pierre Antoine Poullet’s Preventive System (1810-1846)

The director of the Institute St Vincent of Senlis, Pierre Antoine Poullet (1810-1846) ²¹⁸ argues against Thiers on these points: the superficial judgements on the religious education provided by the public schools, his comparison between the quality and results of such an education in Catholic boarding schools²¹⁹ and the educational method used in such schools. Finally he elaborated on the features of a system of education which is not formally defined as preventive, but contains all of its features. First of all, the system of education used at the Senlis School is based on foundations shared by any authentic system of education. It entails commitment, discipline, responsibility; it is not permissive; it does not allow for uncalled-for family interventions; it demands the exact observance of the rules, quiet, silence, orderliness, punctuality and obedience.²²⁰

Secondly, it excludes the “military regime” of the State schools even though it does require of those who hold responsibility in the school that they have the following features: dedication, conscientious vigilance, zeal mixed with moderate indulgence and fatherly flexibility.²²¹ The immediate goal of educational activity is, in fact, the protection of the pupils’ innocence. This is achieved through constant assistance which means an uninterrupted presence among them.²²² But this assistance is expected to be “intelligent, prudent, tolerant, i.e., charitable”. This type of assistance aims not only at protecting innocence and preventing anything contrary to it, but at being solicitous about it and fostering it. This can actually happen when the following three means are used: vigilance exercised; principles instilled; being kept busy²²³

The last goal of this system of education is to form the human and Christian character of the young, to develop intelligence by means of classical and scientific culture. The religious principle stands out and above, and entails fulfilment of one’s duties towards God, application to study taken as prayer and as a religious and saintly duty”.²²⁴

Education is carried out in a true family-like atmosphere and in a twofold sense: first of all, collaboration and integration between family and school education are sincerely fostered. No teacher will ever claim for himself the gratitude, trust and love which bind children to their parents. At the same time, the school carries out its education, thanks to an authority which is like the extension of a father’s and mother’s authority. “If the school is not a family, then it is nothing at all”.²²⁵

Added to all this is the theme of love as a pedagogical principle and the theme of indulgence as a method.²²⁶

Love should take first place in educational activity. ‘The Heart’.. yes! It is above all, and first of all, through the heart, with a loving heart, with a tender and generous heart that the teacher should carry out his important ministry”.²²⁷ No, the heart is not only expected to pour the oil which facilitates the heart’s movement; the heart itself must be the first mover... It is not enough to call upon the heart as an auxiliary tool, it must be the dominant principle: in a word, education is not the work of the spirit directed by the heart, it is actually the work of the heart directed by the spirit”.²²⁸

Indulgence is the expression of the heart and is made evident all along the various stages of education. Poullet excludes the kind of indulgence which stands for weakness or flattery. “Indulgence implies an attitude of waiting, tolerating, closing an eye to, forgiving. It is an educative dimension which needs to be joined to all others: to zeal which is always on the alert for action; to vigilance which lets nothing escape the eye; to authority which commands, and to justice which punishes”.²²⁹

Indulgence is something required by a boy’s nature, by the limits of his availability to co-operate with his educator. A boy is a “human being weak in soul, body, will, reason. A boy is a human being who is frivolous, inconstant, ruled by a thousand ideas, a thousand feelings which happen to be contradictory; he is a human being subject to all kinds of impressions coming from inside and from without”. “Boys are boys. Freedom, movement, noise are irresistible needs at a boy’s age. When a guilty young man innocently says I didn’t think about it, we can always believe him”.²³⁰ However, indulgence should be balanced and prudent. “Let us be indulgent when confronted with weakness but let there be no weakness in our indulgence”.²³¹

In particular, indulgence should be measured according to the different stages of education: less is needed when it is a question of disciplinary rules to be observed; more is needed in reference to moral and religious education: “a man cannot be reformed except by means of the heart and we cannot reach the heart except through love.”²³²

Only in an atmosphere of gentleness can a healthy fear, the beginning of wisdom, come to the fore in particular circumstances, and with great effectiveness. Fear is the beginning of wisdom, and nothing more, as we remember that we are called to be the “friends and fathers of our pupils”.²³³

The final and overall outcome will be the spirit of a place of education.²³⁴ “This spirit is constituted by the prudence, moderation, zeal and heart of the educators but above all, and essentially, by the spirit of the pupils which creates an atmosphere of sincerity, modesty, good behaviour, openness and affection”.²³⁵ “Moreover, this spirit brings true piety towards God, complete loyalty and a cordial benevolence in the pupils’ relationships with their teachers and classmates and the scrupulous observance of the sacred laws of modesty”.²³⁶ This is why it is indispensable that a system of freedom, love and trust, of a love regulated and a trust moderated by a just authority, should be preferred to a repressive system”.²³⁷

It is not enough to stop evil; we have to develop what is good”.²³⁸

This sum total of principles and orientations, Poullet concluded, does not constitute a great theory or complex system or an art reserved only for the initiated. “What is simply needed is to assist constantly and loyally, to instruct solidly, to use frequent reminders, to encourage with kindness, to reward with joy, to punish with due motivation and in moderation, and especially to put up with everything with tireless constancy, and to love with an unalterable tenderness. All of this may require some virtues, but a very small amount of skill; it may require experience but no deep research; it may require the quick glance of a practical observation, but not the genius needed for high speculation. All of the above can and must be done with simplicity”.²³⁹

17. 4. A comparison between two types of college-boarding school and two systems of education

In the contrasting between the two types of boarding school, artificial or that which Thiers highlights, the one secular, the other Catholic, the Frenchman Pierre Sebastien Laurentie (1793-1876) sees two different educational systems pitted against each other: one based on strictness, the other on love.²⁴⁰

This contrast obstructs a correct view of the legitimate differences between the two systems. And it leads to the Manichean, sketchy kind of presentation to be expected of an intransigent monarchist Catholic, a Legitimist. It gives the impression of being guided by not so hidden views belonging to the Restoration.²⁴¹

Laurentie tells us of the strong accusations brought by some people against the public boarding schools: intelligence degraded, creativity squashed, a boy’s personality lost amongst the mob, the climate of fear, hypocrisy, malice and squalor.²⁴² He gives us, for his part, an entirely negative description which he claims to have been the result of a just and considered observation.

The public boarding school looks like a prison, like the Spielberg which Silvio Pellico wrote about in his Mie prigioni (My prisons) …. The public boarding school is a place full of sadness and grief. Young people grow old ahead of time, under the authority of gloomy teachers…. What prevails in a public boarding school is rigid organisation as far as studies and recreational activities are concerned, distinctively marked by bell or drum. The teacher does not get close to the pupil; the tone of his command is sharp and inspires fear. The pupil does not get close to the teacher; obedience is loaded with fear and mistrust. It is a mechanised kind of world where nothing is forgotten. There is neither trust nor love. No gentle words can be heard which might reach the heart. Even God has his place, but God is absent from the youngster’s inner thoughts. The end result of this exterior orderliness is that the vices are kept hidden and they are the ones which devour and poison the heart. Even the boys’ ages are deceiving. They show a childhood grown prematurely old, a woebegone adolescence… The consequences of this situation are the advent of destructive passions, hidden rebellious attitudes, sterile studies....and this is only the foreshadowing of a life without hope and without élan.²⁴³

By contrast we have the enticing image of the Catholic boarding school.

The Christian boarding school is a family. The prevailing authority is the father’s authority, transferred to another father, who substitutes the natural fathers: the teachers who share their zeal and their love. Religion presides over this holy unity. It renders commands acceptable and obedience lovable. There is orderliness in this school, but we are not dealing with that dark discipline which hides deep suffering and hatreds. There is an orderliness which goes deep into the souls of the pupils and sets their innermost thoughts in order. Advice is given with gentleness and is always available. The teaching is variable, flexible, accessible to all kinds of intellect. Piety is not something imposed as a duty to be carried out at given times and on certain days. It is more like an inspired habit which nicely fills one’s entire life. In this school, pupils are like brothers and teachers are like friends. The boarding school forms a man for society, because this young man has been provided in timely fashion with all the weapons needed to face society, thanks also to the solid and lasting friendships made. The boarding school is a small world, with its little passions but these passions are held in check by means of a vigilant authority. But what I love the most in a boarding school is the perfection achieved. This ‘becoming a civilized person’, as Montaigne says, this being accustomed to community living, is the beginning of social life, it marks the beginning of the first development of human virtues….The boarding school does not create a precocious maturity but allows the boys to act as boys as long as possible. What a fine combination is this blending of graces and ingenuity of early age with the strong virtues, constant work and the severe constraint of studies! The Christian boarding school offers this kind of blending, and adds beautiful harmony, the ornament of the arts. This is why studies are agreeable, discipline is elegant, and instruction is both brilliant and attractive”.²⁴⁴

The author, however, staunch conservative that he is, also sees some dangers in the kind of friendship and brotherhood in some Catholic boarding school open to new ideas, ideas such as the proclamation of political equality. He sees this as a fantasy which causes conflicts which destroy the harmony of the old order with its various levels according to nature’s own immutable order”.²⁴⁵

18. 5. Felix Dupanloup (1802-1878)

Felix Dupanloup, a great educator, an active catechist, Bishop of Orleans, has handed down to us a rich literary pedagogical output. His Concerning Education is remarkable, and was available in its Italian translation in Don Bosco’s Oratory library. It was known to Don Bosco, either directly or indirectly.²⁴⁶ In the third book in particular, first and second volumes, dedicated respectively to discipline and the instructor, we find clear indications preventive touch both in language and content.²⁴⁷

According to Dupanloup, the antithesis between repressive and Preventive Systems is expressed practically in the opposition between the civil and penal courts as seen in society and in the Board of education.

The art of governing implies the use of force and repression. The art of education implies and requires prevention. “The Ministry of education stands for fatherliness and the constituted authority of the Board at one and the same time and, I would almost say, a kind of priesthood. And this is how it does it. In all civilised societies the need was always felt not only to repress evil by controlling human passions through punishments but also to prevent it by training men to acquire virtue through education. To achieve this, peoples better schooled in wisdom have thought it best to make out of a magistrate, and a magistrate of the highest degree out of the teacher.²⁴⁸

But the difference between repressive and preventive interventions is evident in the educational area itself. They represent two of the three stages of the disciplinary action involved in the formation of the will and the forging of character. All of these stages are called for by the nature of the child we are helping in his growth. The word ‘discipline’ comes from the verb discere, to learn and the word does not stand only for an external type of discipline but also for a type of teaching which reaches the inner part of a child. It also stands for virtue. For this reason discipline stands for orderliness without which education is not possible.²⁴⁹

The good qualities and defects of the child require orderliness. ²⁵⁰

The child is curious, mobile, restless, eager to play games, hostile to submission…. Childhood is affected by frivolity; it loathes application, is presumptuous, violent, stubborn. Childhood is the age of recklessness, of heated passions, and pleasures. All of these defects come from the nature of a child. But at least, children have not yet acquired defects… In children, everything is flexible and new. It is quite easy to straighten up those tender plants and have them turn towards heaven… This is why, even with all their defects, nothing is as delightful as when we come to notice how reason and virtue are born in them…Notwithstanding the appearances of frivolity and passionate urge for amusements, a child may be wise, reasonable and sensitive to virtue… I have no difficulty recognising that a child, even without excluding that he be lucky enough to be born with a happier character, is nothing but a voluble, frivolous human being who jumps from one wish to another, is at the mercy of his own instability. But all pious instructors should know well that the very task and glory of education lie in the ability to overcome such frivolity and know how to turn this inconstancy into stability.²⁵¹

Those responsible for the educative community should provide for this kind of growth. They are to operate on three fronts: l) They should keep constant, practical observance of the rules with steadfast exactness. 2) They should prevent the violation of the rules through zealous assistance. 3) They should repress transgressions of the rules with timely justice, in order to correct the disorder as soon as it appears. Discipline, therefore, has been assigned three tasks, the same ones assigned to education: to conserve, to prevent, to repress. Discipline is precisely directed towards the training of the will and the formation of the character, along with both intellectual and physical education and crowned by religious education.

The two terms ‘discipline’, ‘education’, strictly understood, and distinct from the various stages of formation (physical, intellectual and religious) find their expression in a threefold function which is ‘repressive’, ‘preventive’ and ‘directive’. The task of ‘repressive discipline’ is to avoid leaving whatever is at fault uncorrected. The task of ‘preventive discipline’ is to eagerly keep dangerous occasions at a distance. The task of ‘directive discipline’ is to show the right path to be followed always and everywhere.

One can easily understand, without any need for comparisons, that it is better to prevent than to repress. But exactness in maintaining what is good and vigilance in preventing what is evil make the need to repress less urgent. Consequently, the greater importance lies with directive discipline which maintains what is good. Preventive discipline is of secondary importance. It prevents the onset of evil. The least important, though necessary, is repressive discipline which punishes.²⁵²

19. 6. The preventive suggestions of Henri Lacordaire (1807-1861)

Henri Dominique Lacordaire , a French Dominican, brilliant orator and reformer of the Dominicans, spent the last years of his life (1854-1861) after his six year term as Provincial, entirely dedicated to an educational institution located within the Benedictine Abbey of Soreze, in the Toulouse area. The Soreze institute had been entrusted to the Dominican Third Order founded by Fr Lacordaire, who was its director and its competent, passionate leader.²⁵³

In the title of the opening chapter clearly profiling Fr Lacordaire, Apostle and Director of youth, Fr Noble clearly indicates his basic character: Il les aima (He loved them).²⁵⁴ This feature of Lacordaire had been indicated earlier on in the preface: His deep and unflinching love of the young.²⁵⁵

In the direction of youthful souls, Lacordaire preferred to use a system which might be called a spontaneous system instead of an authoritarian system, the latter characterised by a fixed program and by forced conformity.²⁵⁶ This system implied all of the following:

Faith in the soul of the young…providing them with the opportunity to be great while keeping control over them; appealing to their latent energies, their good dispositions, their readiness of heart, their generosity and power to commit themselves; removing the dross from their exuberance and enthusiasm; favouring their spontaneity; bringing forth living souls where goodness flows out from within, where virtues are the natural outcome of their personal effort, the outcome of needs which are felt, wanted and loved; rendering duty attractive and liberating, instead of making it look like something boring or tyrannical; generating the optimism which brings serenity and fire; removing the pessimism which turns everything cold and runs the risk of turning into lethal scepticism; taking the side of hope rather than the side of dim prophecies; dressing wounds rather than aggravating them; discovering a platform for God; loosening the knots which allow evil to be intertwined with the good; collecting all the natural goodness which may spring from it and a render it ready to serve a higher ideal”. All this seems to have been the main general features of the directional method followed by Fr Lacordaire in dealing with youth.²⁵⁷…It is essential to jump the present and cross over to dream of the future. Humanity always looks to the future even if it is far off, and looks to greener pastures because it needs more foresight and faith….²⁵⁸ Live in the future, then: this is the great present, the great calling cry! It is the norm for a demanding and joyful programme of life”.²⁵⁹

The core supporting idea for this process is proposed in strong terms: form human and Christian characters shaped through obedience, ready to enter the world with personal and well defined ideas; virtue and intelligence requires character: esto vir! (be a man!) as their foundation. Character is made up of two sets of values: natural virtues which are its foundation; religion, in which is peaks. Religion is of the greatest importance since it implies knowledge of God, the soul and its destiny. Religion is the most brilliant light for men, the decisive power against sensual and spiritual passions.²⁶⁰

These two motives are explained in a speech delivered on August 7, 1856, to the young and their families who were taking part in an award ceremony. Don Bosco may have read an outline of it in the New Year’s Galantuomo of 1865, which was also the strenna (souvenir gift) in Catholic Readings. The text from Lacordaire’s talk had been inserted in an article entitled Il clero e l’educazione della gioventù (The clergy and the education of the young).²⁶¹ The first three short pages are dedicated to recalling the dedication shown to the young by St Jerome Miani, wrongly thought to be a priest, and by St Philip Neri. All the rest deals with Fr Lacordaire and his boarding school at Sorèze.

Particularly interesting is Fr Lacordaire’s insistence on what he means by educational growth, in the first part of the speech: “the fact of being able to see the living marks of the work of the spirit on their foreheads, the signs of reason which holds primacy in their life, the gradual appearance of the beauty which comes from the heart”. The educators, in the evaluation of their students, were not only guided “by justice, but also by tenderness, by the fatherly tenderness which follows on from their parents’ tenderness”.²⁶²

This reference leads inevitably to an examination of conscience as far as the identity of the teacher is concerned. This identity draws its value and power from the world of thought: “it comes from where truth resides, together with beauty, justice, order, greatness and all that contributes to the making of a man, a divine being , and of a child, a being who has the vocation to become a man. And this happens, when we recognise that the soul is the country of true freedom and that this freedom is acquired through knowledge and virtue”.²⁶³ Teachers live with their pupils to have them start their journey toward this Kingdom with all of their dedication. “They continue God’s work and their families’ work, they are the trailblazers of the world”.²⁶⁴

The teacher’s first task is to:

hold on to faith and make it grow to the point of opening up the minds of the young to the understanding of the invisible world; to hold on to the hope which strengthens the heart with a view to well-deserved happiness; to hold on to love which makes the young feel God’s presence in life’s cold shadows and, in spite of them, still feel the warm temperature of eternity…Therefore religion has reclaimed, through the school, a command which will be never taken away from it; religion reigns not through constraint or just with the prop of worship, but thanks to a unanimous sincere conviction, to duties secretly carried out, to aspirations known only to God, and thanks to the peace which comes from doing good and from remorse for the wrong which has been done…Where there is no God you may, at most, have a ray of light on rubble. Whenever God is present, even the rubble comes back to life and in time even the rubble will be built up again from the foundations.²⁶⁵

“Love, which extends the work of a family together with affection, is inseparable from God’s presence…It is God ‘s will”. Lacordaire insists:

that no good may be accomplished on behalf of man unless he is loved. God has infused that love into the parents and the educators cannot but be clothed in something of the affection shown by parents: this is the second love created by God…Should the contrary take place, then, the school will be cold, sad, alienated, like a prison. It entails a total involvement in the life of the pupils and this involvement is summed up in this single expression: We Love them. In fact, from the moment God became incarnate among us, the care of souls, which was already so great, has become a love which is far superior to any other love and a fatherliness which has no rivals. The skilled teacher is no more a skilled teacher but a father. The scholar is no more a scholar but a priest. Therefore it is not difficult to love the pupils. It is enough to believe in their souls, in God, who created them and redeemed them, in their origin and in their destiny”.²⁶⁶

Religion and affection are the two columns of the educative structure.

Lacordaire does not fail to mention the third element. “It is essential for justice to have a stern demeanour. Affection without justice is weakness and without justice even religion would veil the more harmful, the more outstanding corruption of the heart. By rewarding the good and by striking the evil done, human society can be safeguarded”. Without this element, “the child who has not yet come to know what it is and in a way suited to his weakness, will inevitably have neither the fear of what is evil nor the understanding of what life is. One needs to experience the weight of justice to learn how to bend one’s will to accept the laws of duty: one must taste the joy of a reward well-deserved to acquire a feeling for honour”. “Here, on the very threshold of the school, a child finds justice. But he does not find it alone, separated from religion and affection; he will find it by getting accustomed to the law of the world in which he is going to live, according to which any crime calls for atonement, every fault calls for a reprimand, every failure calls for being ashamed of it, and every weakness calls for dishonour”.²⁶⁷

The text published in the Galantuomo referred only to the sections which dealt with religion and love. It remains improbable, as it has been pointed out, for the article to have been penned by Don Bosco himself: it is not his style. However, the fact that many of Don Bosco’s ideas coincide with Lacordaire’s and that some of these are related to ideas of religion and affection widely diffused in the world of Catholic education before and after the Restoration, does not permit us to speak about Don Bosco’s dependence on Lacordaire’s.

That religion is the basis of all moral and social life and therefore of every educational action, is a conviction which Don Bosco made abundantly evident throughout his priestly ministry. The same may be said for the method of charity expressed in affection, loving kindness practised, proclaimed and recognised from the outset of his commitment to caring for young people.²⁶⁸

20. 7. Antoine Monfat, educator and pedagogue (1820-1898)

With exceptional educators and animators like Poullet and Magne, the St Vincent de Senlis College enjoyed a prosperous development followed by years of decline during which the number of students decreased considerably. The school was handed over to the Fathers of the Society of Mary. Its first director was Antoine Monfat (1820-1898), Provincial, from Lyons, and a man of great culture and prestige. Monfat was open to the ideas of the school. He had come to know and understand its methods during the years 1857-1867 at the Minor Seminary of Maximieux where he taught Latin and rhetoric before he professed his vows as a member of the Society of Mary in 1867.

In the first speech delivered at Senlis, Antoine Monfat declared he was willing to follow its founder Poullet’s programme, and also retain his style. One could really have more reasonably said of him what was written later about one of his confreres, Fr Terrade: “His direction was a combination of gentleness and strictness. One could easily have applied to him the motto of St Vincent de Senlis College: Suaviter et fortiter (gently, but strictly).²⁶⁹

His activity as St Vincent’s was limited, however, because of the occupation of the school by the German troops in 1870 and because of his short term in office. In 1872 he left the school and during the following years was taken up with assignments which required his commitment to the direction of his own religious society. However, this did not prevent him from putting the richness of his experience and of his vast readings into numerous and various writings, some of a pedagogical nature. They found echoes abroad, including in Italy. Les vrais principes de l’education chretienne (The true principles of Christian education); ²⁷⁰ Pratique de l’education chretienne; practique de l’enseignement chretien (Christian education in practice; Christian teaching in practice) in two volumes.

The first volume was entitled Grammaire et Literature, the second Histoire et Philosphie. ²⁷¹ The first two were translated into Italian²⁷² and The Practice of Christian Education even found an echo at the Valdocco Oratory, the Mother House of all of Don Bosco’s Institutions. In the minutes of the conference held November16, 1882 with all the Salesians involved in youth work, we find recorded what dealt with the duties of educators. “A paragraph from Antoine Mofat was then read out which gave rise to several remarks, especially that of being united and to be of one accord, which should be made evident to the young being educated by us”. ²⁷³

The general structure dealing specifically with the education carried out in a boarding school is clearly inspired by and directed towards a Christian view of life. Against the danger of secularism it is strongly stated that without any exception, it is absolutely essential that faith should hold the most prominent and sovereign place in education, “that the young man be turned into a Christian first of all”; ²⁷⁴ “the first duty is that of directing the entire school’s discipline towards faith, subjecting and referring all that is being taught to faith”. ²⁷⁵ “It is on this solid base that the two essential dimensions of an integral human formation depend: the formation of the heart and will, the formation of the mind are the main objectives of all teaching. ²⁷⁶

The prime mover is discipline, understood as education, namely instruction, and the proper direction of morals, and as the set of means needed to achieve both. ²⁷⁷

Preventive and constructive educational action is the meeting of two positive conditions. The first condition is provided by the marvellous resources found within the natural dispositions of the soul of a child, a soul that is new, simple, open to confidence, tender and easily moulded. The child, once the hazards and obstacles of the child’s age are overcome successfully, will move along the path already undertaken: Adulescens juxta viam suam etiam cum senuerit non recedet ab ea (a child will never leave the path he has undertaken in his youth even when he grows old). ²⁷⁸ This is what the author adds as the Christian, optimist and humanist that he was.

The second condition is the educator’s authority. He presents himself to his pupils with the prestige of a father, teacher and priest who always refers to reason and to the heart with unlimited patience. Authority comes from the verb augere which means to increase, to protect the vitality already possessed by the body, mind, family, society and country.²⁷⁹ Monfat attributed a definite methodological function to the exercise of authority, to the point of placing it ahead of virtue and the knowledge of the educator. For this reason: “with a prestige that rules without compelling, and leads a soul to heartily accept the yoke of submission, a tiny bit of good teaching and good example will elicit more fruit for souls which will allow themselves to be entered into more easily than with a great amount of knowledge and a high degree of sanctity, which might be imposed upon their trust and which might find them impenetrable”.²⁸⁰

Besides indicating the religious sources of authority,²⁸¹ the author also points the educator to the natural means he should have recourse to. He reduces them to three: “Making oneself feared, respected and esteemed, and loved”.²⁸² The third resource is particularly stressed: making oneself loved! In fact, “fear should not be servile but filial, reverential, affectionate, the end result of zeal mixed with strictness and gentleness: Suaviter et Fortiter, a happy blend where strictness remains hidden and allows itself to be hinted at “in ready support of gentleness”.²⁸³ However, this does not exclude, but rather demands the restraint and seriousness which combines respect, silence and attention.²⁸⁴

The counter position leads to three duties educators have towards their pupils. These duties are taken from the Constitutions of the Society of Mary: love, patience, respect.²⁸⁵

Therefore, along with the idea of fatherliness, the concept of love is dominant: a love that is sincere, unselfish, supernatural, ready to grow, ready to forgive, ready to be generous, full of benevolence and encouragement.²⁸⁶ This is a preventive love which calls the prefect or assistant to task in particular. “As far as the Prefect is concerned, it is true to say that he is expected to be the first to love and prevent, at all times; he is entrusted with the mission not so much of disposing of ignorance, but preventing vice from being born or being diffused… What solicitude is needed to prevent the onslaught of so many dangers! How much vigilance and delicacy are needed to have one accept the removal of dangerous occasions...! In short, uninterrupted prevention is absolutely necessary, during study periods, recreation, walks, day and night. The great goal is that of leading the pupils to freely obey. The success of an educator depends on the attainment of this free obedience which distinguishes freedmen from slaves”.²⁸⁷ However, any familiarity or intimacy which may detract from authority and prestige should be avoided.²⁸⁸

Patience, which holds second place, will help. Patience should take into account the impetuousness of a youngster, his changing moods and patience will be necessary, most of all, at the critical point of repression, in moments of fear, inflexibility and when medicinal chastisements (not punishments) must be administered.²⁸⁹

Repression is the third stage. It is the stage of emergency, relationships between pupils and educators. Repression is preceded by two factors more authentically preventive and constructive. The first factor is an inner discipline or discipline of the will directed toward love of duty in particular, by appealing to reason, the heart and the sense of honour.²⁹⁰ The second factor is that of vigilance which implies a kind of continuous, discreet and loyal prevention.²⁹¹ “All educators know that it is incomparably better to prevent evil rather than to have to fight against it and punish it”.²⁹²Repression is involved when the two more noble ways of reasoning prove momentarily inadequate, that is when motives of duty and honour fail, along with supervision. ²⁹³For educational activity to be kept open and allowed to continue, according to Monfat the norms should be as follows:

l. Do not use (repression) until all other means have been exhausted.

2. Know how to choose the appropriate time.

3. Exclude anything which might arouse suspicion that you are acting out of emotion.

4. Act in such a way as to leave the door open for hope, forgiveness. ²⁹⁴

On this last, Monfat suggests that punishment be just, moderate, proportionate to the fault and useful for improvement.²⁹⁵

Don Bosco was no isolated historical personality and much less so in the 19^th century. The Preventive System he employed, of which he spoke and eventually wrote, came to the fore in a historical context where similar directions were being followed, codified and proposed by others. There were educators of both genders, often neighbours in geographical terms who in certain instances had an impact or might have had an impact on him. This was due either to the fact that he had read some of their writings or that he somehow came to know about them.

We are dealing here with people and institutions sharing the same anxious concern for young people in times that were both new and difficult. These were people who undertook similar kinds of initiatives on behalf of young people with a mind-set and language revealing a definite meeting of minds in reference to an educational style which we can legitimately call ‘preventive’.

We will also keep in mind institutions which, though linked with earlier centuries, were still operating in Don Bosco’s times and with which Don Bosco had direct contact. We mean, in particular, the Institutions of the De La Salle Brothers and the Barnabites.

21. l. The Cavanis brothers

Venice, which belonged to the Lombard-Venetian kingdom from 1797 to 1866 and was assigned to the Hapsburgs of Vienna, was the place where two brothers were at work, both priests and members of the noble class during the first decade of the 19^th century. They were Antonio Angelo Cavanis (1772-1858) and Marco Antonio Cavanis (1774-1853).²⁹⁶

The two were the founders of a Marian Congregation (1802) which developed out of an oratory and in “charity schools” for poor and abandoned youth. The first school went back to 1804. Later on, the two brothers extended their work to Possignano (near Treviso) and to Lendinara (near Rovigo).

To guarantee the continuity of the schools the Cavanis Brothers founded the Congregation of the Clerics Secular of the Schools of Charity, which were approved by the Patriarch of Venice in 1819 and canonically approved by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836. The Schools of Charity offered free elementary and secondary school instruction with religious formation, social assistance and recreational activities as well as prevention from physical and moral dangers.

Fatherly familiarity may be considered the core of their educational method. It was characterised by constant vigilance, continuous loving supervision and kindly discipline, aimed at creating a vital educational blend of religion and human values. Some fundamental rules taken from the Constitutions of this religious society fit in nicely with the above and lead to an authentic educational spirituality.

The institution wholeheartedly welcomes children and adolescents with fatherly love; it educates them gratis; it defends them from being contaminated by the world, and spares no sacrifices and no hardships to make up, as much as possible, for the harm and almost universal deficiency of family education.²⁹⁷ Teachers should commit themselves to carrying out this task among the children not so much as teachers but as fathers. Meanwhile, teachers should assume the task of caring for the children, with the greatest of charity. The teachers should teach nothing unless it is seasoned with the salt of piety. Let teachers make sure that the children are inwardly disposed to follow Christian morals. Let the children be kept away from the contamination of the world, through paternal vigilance. Let teachers draw the children to themselves with much love, through oratories, spiritual meetings, daily catechism classes, schools and innocent games.²⁹⁸

Don Bosco himself, on several occasions, acknowledged that he used the Cavanis brothers’ Constitutions while drawing up the Salesian Constitutions.

As I was drawing up each and every chapter and article (of the Constitutions), in many things I have followed other Societies already approved by the Church and with a goal similar to ours. For example, the rules of the Cavanis Institute, Venice, the rules of the Institute of Charity; the rules of the Somaschi Fathers Institute and of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.²⁹⁹

As for what constitutes the rules I have consulted and, to the extent that it was suitable, followed the Statutes of the Cavanis Institute of Venice, the Constitutions of the Rosminians, the Statutes of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, all bodies or religious societies approved by the Holy See.³⁰⁰

22. 2. Lodovico Pavoni

The activity, institution and writings³⁰¹ of Lodovico Pavoni from Brescia (1784-1849),³⁰² take on importance in terms of the development of preventive ideas and preventive undertakings. They also offer some analogies on different levels with what would be Don Bosco’s experience some decades later.³⁰³

In fact the festive congregation or oratory and the arts and crafts technical school created by Pavoni anticipated Don Bosco’s initiatives by several decades, with echoes far and wide.³⁰⁴ Don Bosco might have also had to hand some of the Regulations drawn up by the educator from Brescia. Rosmini himself, in a letter dated December 1853, brought Don Bosco’s attention to the printing establishment created by Pavoni and suggested a similar initiative.³⁰⁵

Lodovico Pavoni remarks: “Brescia was provident and had not failed by then to create congregations and oratories for young people to receive their Christian education in. Only one class of child was left out, the class most in need of such a charitable Institute. These were the children who were ostracised and in bad shape, children who hardly dared to join the established groups of civilised and learned youngsters”.³⁰⁶

This is how the congregation-oratory of St Louis came about in 1812. In 1819, Lodovico Pavoni was asked to run the rectory of the church of St Barnabas and he annexed an oratory to it, then later in 1821, a home for orphaned or abandoned artisans.³⁰⁷

In 1840 Lodovico Pavoni opened up a section for deaf and mute artisans next to the home. Finally, in 1843, to guarantee on-going support for the various educational initiatives, he brought all of his co-helpers, priests and lay people (he called them coadjutor workshop supervisors), together in the Congregation of the Children of Mary Immaculate, encouraged by the Decretum Laudis of 1843 and canonical approved in 1847.

The goal of the new religious institution was to provide “an education for the lowest class which, neglected as it is, becomes a hothouse sprouting an ungodly mob creating political and moral havoc, that is, poor children who feel compelled by their circumstances and needs to drop out of school and abandon the vigilant care of wise teachers who would like them to learn a skill”.³⁰⁸ The home in particular was expected to be “a school of good morals for abandoned and unskilled youths, in order to make them useful to the Church and society”.³⁰⁹ The sacred family of religious educators aimed at committing themselves “tirelessly to the welfare of abandoned youth, wholeheartedly doing their best to provide young people with a Christian, religious and professional education”.³¹⁰ The holistic aspects are emphasised repeatedly: personal and social, temporal and eternal, for children who need everything. The goal is that of providing “poor orphans or abandoned children with religious education and the acquisition of skills without which they grow up in the midst of misery and licentiousness as a disgrace to Christianity and the scum of society”.

The Institute’s goal, then, is to be “influential, as much as possible, in reforming a rotten and depraved world and therefore giving back to the Church some excellent Christians and to the State, good artisans as well as virtuous and loyal citizens”.³¹¹ The formula “good Christian and upright citizen” (the subject, in an absolutist regime) was particularly apt in the social and political context in which Pavoni was operating: the Hapsburg Empire.

Let this turn out to be your glory: the fact that you sacrifice your talent and dedicate your work to give back well-behaved children, faithful subjects, and useful citizens to the Church, to the country, to the state.³¹²

(The rector) will give all of his mind and heart to making sure that the sheltered youngsters be properly instructed and firmly trained in their religion and in civility, so that they may turn out to be excellent Christians, good family fathers, faithful subjects, in a word, children dear to religion and useful to society.³¹³

To achieve the successful religious and civil education of youth, methods and means proper to preventive pedagogy are adopted: religion and reason, love and gentleness, vigilance and assistance within a family-like milieu dedicated to an intensive commitment to work. The lifestyle and the activity of every educator must conform to a family-like structure according to the specific responsibilities entrusted to them: such as the prefect of the congregation, choir members inspector, regulator, the workshop supervisor.

The Prefect is invited to remember that “his zeal should in no way alter the exercise of humility, charity and gentleness which are to be his distinctive virtues. When he is dutifully called on to admonish some of the youngsters for some of their defects he should try his best to do it in a kindly way. And when he knows that there is need for an authoritative reproach he has no other choice than to let the rector be told about it”.³¹⁴

The Choir members’ Inspector. Since he is dealing with an elite group of youngsters he should keep in mind that he has been entrusted with a job requiring great caution, vigilance and tact. It is his task, then, to direct them through persuasion and first of all gentleness, to fulfil their duties, using his good example as the most effective means to achieve his goal.³¹⁵

The Regulator is the one Don Bosco called the “prefect of studies”. The regulator was expected to be always with the boys. Therefore, the first duty of the regulator is to exercise continuous supervision over the young people entrusted to him both in the oratory and outside. He should try his best to keep in touch with their parents or guardians, inform them about their school attendance or truancy, and let them know about their behaviour. The regulator “should gently urge them to receive the sacraments frequently... He should correct their defects with loving kindness. The regulator should also try to instil the love of piety and hatred of vice in them by word and example,”.³¹⁶

Regulations for the workshop supervisors are particularly full of educational and innovative ideas which have, to a great extent, being included in the Constitutions. The shop supervisors should see to it that the young entrusted to their care apply themselves diligently to their assignments and are charitably assisted so they may progress in knowledge of their technical skill according to their talents and abilities”.³¹⁷ A kind of mini summa pedagogica is offered them by their Constitutions, where there is a chapter dedicated to them.³¹⁸ Don Bosco could have accepted it without reservation.

257. They will safeguard the young entrusted to them like a precious and holy deposit. They are to love them as the apple of their eye. They will use civil and respectful manners in their regard; they will never show disrespect towards anyone, either in deed or in word; they will make themselves feared and respectfully loved in a healthy manner.

258. They will lead them to love their work. They will get them used to working more out of love than fear. They shall never yield to their unreasonable pretences, neither will they allow their whims to have their way. They should never demand too much but nor should they ever seem weak.

259. They will study their pupils’ character and strength well to guide them on the right path; since not all the young want to be guided in the same way, they will not expect the same response from everyone but one suited to their ability and the gifts they have received from God.

260. They will treat their pupils with much politeness and gentleness, instilling in them good behaviour, the required respect and confidence for and in their superiors. They will never leave them alone in the classroom in the workshop, and when they need to absent themselves for some interest or necessity, there should always be someone to assist in their place. They will not allow secret conferences or conversations, especially between boarders and outside students. Woe to supervisors who might be negligent in this.³¹⁹

Supervision is given several guidelines, particularly in reference to the prefect of supervision and the vice rector.³²⁰

The vice-rector should conduct himself with much caution and exquisite prudence rather than showing the boarders his abundant good faith in them... Recreations especially should get his attention: he will never allow the younger ones to be without supervision, but he will do so in such a way as to leave them a certain amount of freedom, thus allowing them to better demonstrate who they are. This will help him more easily come to know their character and inclinations and provide easy access to forming them and handling them successfully... Let him see everything but pretend not to see everything; and let him correct with prudence and use few punishments which, however, should be beneficial and effective. Let him be slow to punish defects which are the result of youthful exuberance, fickleness or thoughtlessness. But let him be inexorable in punishing defects which spring from ill will coming from heartfelt obstinacy.³²¹

The Spiritual Director’s “instructions should try to present their religious duties as a sweet yoke, a light burden which turns out to be easy and comforting once experienced,”.³²² In boarding institutions, in fact, “special care should be taken to achieve good formation of young hearts, to instruct them correctly according to faith and religion, to provide a foundation of true piety which honours God, sanctifies the souls, edifies one’s neighbour, brings happiness to the family; piety which is solid, robust, freely performed, well understood and aimed at the exact observance of one’s duties”.³²³ This is the first focal point of the educational process which sees how “someone can be made industrious, and capable of earning what he needs for an honest living in society through his own work”.³²⁴

Reason and Love are also the means which are expected to guide the method of correcting. “Instead of having recourse to severity which is often used to lead small children to act out of fear and hypocrisy instead of feeling and love, we should use the method of imitation and honour. If these are not abused we can do anything with the sensitive heart of the young”.³²⁵

23. 3. Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840) and the Marist Brothers

Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840) ordained priest in 1816, founded the religious society of The Little Brothers of Mary or the Marist Brothers at La Valla, (Loire, France) in 1817. The Society was canonically recognised in 1824 and approved by the Holy See in 1863.³²⁶ Marcellin Champagnat is one of the most representative of those working to ‘recover’ children and the positive prevention championed in France by some ten or more teaching Congregations especially at the elementary school level.³²⁷

In fact, the common aim of these Congregations was to “guarantee a future for the younger generations who were the main victims of the French Revolution and strengthen them beforehand against the disintegrating spirit of the 18th century by providing children with a truly religious education”.³²⁸ “Children are the Church’s nurseries. It is thanks to children that the Church is renewed and faith and piety are kept alive”.³²⁹

The aim of the new Society, emerging out of a rural context, is defined in the following promise:

We commit ourselves to teaching all needy children given us by the parish priest, gratis, teaching them and all children entrusted to us catechism, prayers, reading, writing and all the other subject matter proper to elementary school, according to need.³³⁰

Christian education and catechism have first place, but all the various elements of a human and cultural formation are brought together. The initial instructional framework is largely inspired by the method used by the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the ‘little schools’. As far as catechesis is concerned, we can detect the impact of the method used at St Sulpice. But the orientation as a whole ends up taking on distinctive features which characterise the Christian preventive pedagogy of the 19^th century from within. The main objectives are:

To see to the salvation of souls, religious instruction as a means of wresting children from vice, and forming their heart, conscience and will. Devotion to Mary — the Brothers take the blessed Virgin Mary who served and educated the child Jesus, as their exemplar; the method of love is to be used for discipline, which has as its goal not to hold back the pupils by means of force and fear of punishments, but to keep them away from what is evil, correct their defects, form their will. Educators are expected to be fathers and not slave-masters; there must be a family spirit with feelings of respect and love, mutual trust and not fear”.³³¹ … The brother is a perfect model to be imitated by fathers and mothers, showing tender charity towards his pupils, patience in putting up with their faults, zeal in forming them to achieve virtue and useful knowledge, vigilance concerned with keeping far away from them all that can be harmful, steadfast dedication to their spiritual and temporal interests; he is an on-going lesson showing them what they should do and be in order to give their children a true Christian education”.³³² … He does good to everyone: the children whom he educates and helps improve by means of instruction, Christian instruction; families whose place he takes; parishes which he helps build up, preserve, improve; the entire country by preparing children to be good citizens; the church, by helping pastors to instruct the most interesting section of their flock; by tirelessly forming new generations of learned, convinced and faithful Christians for the Church. The brother is entirely dedicated to the service of religion and the community, and offers his energies and life to promote the glory of God and the sanctification of his neighbour”.³³³

The tasks assigned to the director of the community of religious educators contain much wisdom, undoubtedly close to the features of the effective and gentle manner of governing proposed by Binet.³³⁴ The director’s qualities are abundantly explained: common sense, reasonableness, a good disposition, piety, observance, sanctity or solid virtue, charity, humility, gentleness, firmness and constancy, vigilance and ability to correct.³³⁵ The pedagogical life-project presented for the Brothers in “lessons and instructions” appears no less clear and complete. The project starts off from the notion of education, its objectives and its requirements, namely: catechesis, respect towards the child, discipline and the personality of the teacher-educator. This is a systematic vision which leaves no reason at all to envy the lived and reflective experience of Don Bosco the educator.³³⁶

Education has to reach and grasp all the dimensions of a child’s life: to enlighten his intelligence including by correcting his deviations and prejudices; to mould his heart; to form his conscience; to create the habit of being pious; to form his will, his judgement, his character; to inspire him to love, to work; to make whatever needs to be known available to the child; to maintain and develop a child’s physical strength; to provide a child with the means needed to develop who he is.³³⁷

According to the canons of current pedagogy, stress is placed on the need for education to be decisively life-oriented. As for catechetical instruction method, brevity and clarity are especially recommended.³³⁸

Some pages are particularly impressive — those dedicated to the celebration of the child as a being endowed with infinite potential, unlimited hope, worthy of the most delicate and religious respect, the “masterpiece issued from God’s hands”, “king of the universe”, “son of God”, “our brother”.³³⁹ Genuinely preventive ideas can be found later in two chapters dedicated to preventive and formative discipline based on an authority which is to be both paternal and moral and on supervision which is to be continuous, active and universal”.³⁴⁰ Consequently, the teacher-educator is held in very high esteem. His task is to act as a magistrate, father and apostle, as later on Dupanloup too would write.

A civil magistrate uses verdicts and assigns punishments, often without providing corrections; the teacher-educator is a father who is free and disinterested as he teaches and corrects and as he shares somehow the very spiritual fatherhood of God; the teacher-educator is an apostle, almost a priest, and ever present in the life of a child who, in turn, feels touched to the core of his spirit and heart, whenever there is reproach or praise, whenever there is shame or honour, real joy in learning and working and having a positive outcome”.³⁴¹

24. 4. Teresa Eustochio Verzeri and the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Teresa Eustochio Verzeri was a noble woman from Bergamo, foundress of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus dedicated to the instruction and education of girls of all classes of society. It was canonically approved in 1847.

This woman, endowed with keen intelligence, made an important theoretical contribution to education. She left us relevant writings, result of a remarkable cultural formation she had received at home; they were written during her first time at the monastery at age 16 and, later on, from 1821 to 1823, then 1828 to 1831. They were the result of her personal intensive reading.

We can easily detect the impact of the writings of St Ignatius of Loyola, St Theresa of Avila, and St Francis de Sales. Theresa Verzeri was also well acquainted with the classic by Etienne Binet: Quel est le mailer gouvernement: Le rigoureux ou le doux? (Which is the better form of government: strict or gentle?).³⁴²To fully understand Verzeri’s spiritual and educational orientation, one has to read her huge work divided into five parts: Dei doveri delle Figlie del Sacro Cuore e dello spirito della loro religosa istituzione (Concerning the duties of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart and the spirit of their religious Institute), and especially the chapter: Cura delle giovani e modo di educarle (The care of young girls and how to educate them).³⁴³

The refined pedagogical spirituality and explicit preventive arrangements in her experience have been rightly emphasised.³⁴⁴ Two central statements define their protective, constructive value.

Cultivate and safeguard the mind and heart of young girls well and attentively while they are still tender, so as to prevent evil’s influence as much as possible, for it is better to forewarn them with advice than to liberate them with corrections. Keep young girls away from anything which might spoil their mind and their hearts, even minimally corrupt their moral behaviour in any form. Make sure to achieve this zealously and effectively, using exquisite prudence, however, for this is delicate especially when we are dealing with young girls who, knowing what is evil, might find an incentive in that knowledge to desire it and get it for themselves. In this matter the greatest of caution and reserve should be used, and no one should ever fear that this caution and reserve are too much.³⁴⁵

The significant features of Verzeri’s education system centre on these principles. The religious element has primacy. “You should be extremely discrete in managing young girls. Keep the objective firmly in mind, namely to educate them to acquire virtue and to lead them to God. As for as the choice of means for successfully achieving this objective, you should be mindful of adapting yourself to their temperament, inclinations and to each one’s circumstances...Some may want to be treated seriously, others amiably, some rigidly and still others gently, some with reserve, others in an easy, confidential way”.³⁴⁶ “Instil the holy fear of God in your girls and a feeling of confidence in him. If your girls have the fear of God they will also fear of sin which is opposed to God’s holiness”.³⁴⁷ “Suggest only a few practices of piety to them, but good, substantial ones... Help the girls to develop a strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament in their heart... and nurture in them love and confidence in Mary Most Holy”.³⁴⁸

But everything should be done with much discretion and reasonableness, “in order not to pretend to be able to lead others along the path that you yourselves walk on”. Do not expect too much from your girls and do not hope to harvest immature fruits from them... Keep the following principle in mind: follow grace and try not to go ahead of it. Since the Lord is right and gentle, in much the same way you should be very gentle when you demand anything or invite the girls to do anything, and absolutely right in the exercise of authority and in asserting your position”.³⁴⁹

The methodological primacy of love is expressed both in human relationships and in achieving moral and religious formation. “Generally, employ gentleness, kindness, vigilance, discretion and zeal”;³⁵⁰ “do not present them with denial as sad and bitter, as it appears, but as reasonable, softened by delight and grace and rendered light by the hand of the Lord”.³⁵¹ “Be kind and gentle. With gentleness and a spirit of sacrifice you will obtain twice as much as you would by using severity and fear”.³⁵² “Show that you love them with tenderness: this will win over their love and you will have their esteem and a powerful access to their souls and thus a wide open room to persuade them to improve their conduct”.³⁵³

There is also sincere concern for keeping the girls away from idleness and warning them against dangers. “Keep the young girls away from idleness and have them love work... The young boarders should be forewarned and instructed about the future which awaits them but with extreme delicacy and prudence”.³⁵⁴ Remarkable consideration is given to the girls’ youthful age. “Give no weight to small things of no importance: some small defects which are offshoots of a bubbly youthful age, lively temperament and buoyant spirit should not be taken too seriously: allow nature to open up and display its tendencies and all this will turn out for the better”.³⁵⁵

Therefore assistance assumes a prominent and decisive role as it is directed to actively promoting balanced and wise self-knowledge and self-control in young girls. “Do not invent new sins: there are too many already. Rather do your best to decrease their number by forming a good conscience, right mind and pure heart in your young girls”.³⁵⁶ “Do not allow songs, shows, dances, readings and similar things which might somehow prove to be a stumbling block for your pupils’ virtue… The shows performed during carnival time or any other amusement of the kind should have as their main objective to instruct as well as to entertain: everything should help form the girls to achieve virtue and raise them to accepting God”.³⁵⁷

The right kind of physical development is also promoted and looked upon as the condition for a sound spiritual freedom. “Young girls need an outlet, a free outlet through their amusements. Let them choose the kind of amusements they want: free relief develops their physical character and disposes them to willingly accept the instructions provided for their spirit and the advice provided for their hearts and all with better results. Have no scruples in letting them jump around: girls long for this kind of relaxation which proves to be useful for their health and physical development”.³⁵⁸ “Always within the limits of authority and obedience, the girls should be allowed to enjoy holy freedom so they may come to know that the yoke of the Lord is gentle and that his servants are free”. Otherwise “in your way of doing things you make slaves out of your girls who act because of the stick and not as children of God going ahead in love”.³⁵⁹

25. 5. The Preventive System in infant schools

Ferrante Aporti (1791-1858) does not only think of education as prevention but explicitly uses the ‘Preventive System’ in his education. “The ability of an educator”, he declares, “does not consist so much in being able to prudently punish children’s mistakes as in being able to prevent them from happening. There is no comparison between the merit of an educator who knows only how to provide a remedy for the harm being done and the merit of one who knows how to prevent the harm from being done”.³⁶⁰

Angiolo Gambaro adds the following comment to the above:

In a few words, Aporti highlights the great superiority of the Preventive System over the repressive. This superiority is recognized by educators and pedagogues who are carefully concerned that love be the very foundation of education. These educators and pedagogues are concerned about creating a peaceful atmosphere, one of goodness, persuasive activity around the child, to naturally lead him to what is good and avoid everything that distances him or makes him a victim of some offence or rebellious or discourages him”. The practical development of the preventive method revealed its marvellous effectiveness in Don Bosco’s educational practice.³⁶¹

It is actually possible to discover the essential features of a complete Preventive System in Aporti’s educational and teaching method. In fact, “provided it is possible it is better to stay healthy than to allow oneself to get sick just to be healed. The reason is that health resulting from being healed always has the tendency to fall ill again”.³⁶² We find the well-known constitutive elements of education: assistance, affection, charity, and loving kindness, reasonableness, joy, singing, recreation, movement. Even for an intellectual education to be successful the recourse to strongly affective elements was needed. This was the first among the many maxims dedicated to teaching: “Win over the affection and trust of children first of all”.

There is no doubt that an objective is more easily and securely achieved by kindness. The educator, once he has the affection of his pupils, will succeed in having the pupils try their best to please him in attention and behaviour; they will not be bored or turned off, but will find satisfaction and delight in the learning process. However, the educator should be careful enough not to confuse gentleness, loving kindness, affability in dealing with children with the familiarity which might lower the value of authority. He should be a kind and loving father but still always graciously authoritative”.³⁶³ Elsewhere Aporti added “strong persuasion and affection”, ³⁶⁴ “loving kindness” and reasonable behaviour”.³⁶⁵

The lectures on method, given in Turin, are full of reference to affectivity.

The two principles which create good method are: 1.Take into account the nature, character and development of the child’s faculties, 2. One’s own experience and the experiences of others, drawn from the implementation of pre-established rules... Among the principles drawn from consideration of the nature of the child and from experience, first place should be given to the importance of winning over the affection of children. We should bear in mind that the means most suitable for achieving kindness is kindness. Contempt breeds contempt. We love those who treat us with loving kindness, not those who treat us with contempt… To whom do children show affection? To the ones who welcome them, show that they love them and do well to them. Jesus Christ gives all of us a great example of this. The Apostles, not yet enlightened by the Holy Spirit, wanted to keep children away from Jesus and Jesus prevented them from doing this – to the contrary, he welcomed them with kind words…Now, realising that children love those who love them, the educator should be concerned about showing them kindness and showing them, at every opportunity, a sincere eagerness to care for their moral and physical good…This will be the end result: a child who recognises his teacher’s affection in order to please his teacher will be well behaved and will study. This did not ordinarily happen when severe punishments were used together with the stick, in place of human, conciliatory and kind means. The former method humiliated and hurt without correcting. While recommending that the teacher should win his pupils’ love and confidence through his ways of dealing with them we should also let the teacher know that he should not exaggerate to the point where affection and confidence may turn into familiarity. The teacher should welcome every child with kindness but never joke with them, never lower himself to their level, never place himself in a situation where the students might lack respect for him and he might lose authority over them.³⁶⁶

This is a new way of acting as a teacher. “And what should the teachers of such a tender age be like? To anyone who would like to take on such a very important and unenviable role, I say: let him be completely fatherly towards his pupils. If he does not do this, if he is unable to do it he will never succeed in educating them reasonably. The reason is that to be successful in such a noble undertaking, it is essential to have a father’s patience, become a child once again in order to meet them at the level of their intelligence, to provide lively and cheerful instruction, respond with kindness to all their questions, to caress them from time to time in order to soften the difficulties they have with their work. Summing up, an educator should live with them like a wise friend, like a counsellor and director and should love them as he loves his own children”³⁶⁷

The theme of love is considered so essential that Aporti stresses it even when he explains the method of teaching arithmetic:

Furthermore, what concerns me even more, according to my inner convictions, is that the teacher should try his best to also direct his teaching towards education of the heart. As long as a teacher restricts himself to giving knowledge and developing the intellectual faculties of his pupil, he will be admired for his precision, for all the life he has been able to put into his work, but I will be never be happy with him. I would also say that I feel sorry for him because I would have only found a teacher who can teach language or the ABC while I, society and religion expect and have the right to expect him to be an educator who is able to warm the hearts of his pupils by enlightening their minds and while sharing instruction is able to improve his pupils’ lives”.³⁶⁸

The Infant school thus becomes the school for children without a family or with an inept family. It becomes a “domestic” world where they feel enveloped by the light of knowledge and the warmth of love….”Since they have no family, which is a powerful means of doing good and restraining from evil, it is essential to create a family for them which, through wise guidance, fervent and sincere kindness, may arouse a moral sense in them and strengthen it. The purpose of this activity is to reconcile them and create strong ties with society using the sublime and generous principles of natural and religious charity”.³⁶⁹ Inserted into this dynamic is the intuitive, objective and demonstrative method which fosters “the gradual development of the powers of the mind and heart”.³⁷⁰ This development takes place within an educational context where “the studies are dealt with as though they were amusements and games”, where “occasional moderate movement”³⁷¹ is favoured and “where singing is promoted, also to train the vocal chords and the hearing ability of children, because children love to hum tunes”.³⁷²

Aporti describes the results of this method in a report which first came out on September 24, 1830. “Satisfaction increases when one considers that the children enrolled in this school are more cheerful, well-behaved, content and sociable: their schooling leads them to recognise an initial step to the practice of a kind way of behaving”.³⁷³

26. 6. Antonio Rosmini and his positive, preventive pedagogy

Antonio Rosmini (1797-1855), just like Don Bosco, Dupanloup and others, did not ignore the pedagogical language of the time related to education and its different stages. But his language differed from Don Bosco’s and Dupanloup’s in his understanding of the verb ‘prevent’. For Dupanloup, ‘prevent’ is only one of the three fundamental tasks of discipline-education. For Don Bosco, the entire educational activity can be understood and carried out as a kind of ‘preventing’. Rosmini instead, takes it simply as a condition which precedes educational activity. ‘Educating’ for Rosmini, is a much higher and more difficult kind of activity. Rosmini wrote to a priest from Rovereto (Trent, Italy) who had raised the following question³⁷⁴: “How can one make sure that the virtues of boarding school youngsters are lasting virtues?” In his response, Rosmini forewarned the priest about relying too heavily on ‘external’, preventive and preparatory means which have two objectives:1. To remove the occasions of evil; 2. To dispose the spirit to doing good. These means “prepare” the young man to be educated, to receive what is good but they do not convey what is good, namely, “virtue and grace”. By themselves, preventive means can cause a lot of harm since they might produce a kind of goodness which is only apparent, a sham which could be easily defined as ‘goodness of the boarding school kind’. This is a goodness which evaporates once the pupil is “no longer enclosed within the sacred walls”.

Pure and simple preparatory means may lead a pupil astray. Such means are the educator’s gentle manners, caresses, activity like imitation etc. These might create “misguided intention in the pupils”, and “intention is the eye of the soul giving light to the whole body, as the Divine Master says. Misguided direction does not produce real love of virtue for its own sake at the core of a young man’s spirit, virtue loved for its ineffable beauty and intrinsic justice”.³⁷⁵ These preventive and preparatory means are dangerous when they may lead one to believe that “everything depends on them”; “that they are the core of education or the main features of education or that education starts only by using them”.

But they are necessary and valuable and should be taken into great account “when they are considered only as preparatory steps or preludes to the great work needed to make a young man good”. This work starts, continues and ends only:

1. When the child’s mind is led to know how beneficial truth is if strengthened by grace;

2. When the child is led to contemplate the beauty of the truth he already knows;

3. When the child is led to fall in love with the beauty of the truth that he contemplates;

4. When one succeeds in having the child act in conformity with the beauty of that truth that he fell in love with”. To achieve all this, only one thing is needed, namely, to place right before the child’s intelligence a clear vision of what the moral truth that is we are talking about. After this, the “omnipotent light of this truth can only come from divine grace”. According to the great Christian educator this demands that moral truth be explained to the pupils with “simplicity and coherence” and not in devious or artificial ways”. Jesus Christ, “the great and only master”, is the “exemplar” to be followed and at the same time the source of grace without which the human commitment to education would come to nothing”.³⁷⁶

Notwithstanding the difference of both language and mentality, Don Bosco would have put his signature to all of the above.³⁷⁷

27. 7. Correctional education: somewhere between preventive and repressive

Don Bosco might have had an understanding of the antithesis between prevention and repression and also of the need that they be combined in an institution destined to provide correctional education, when he was in touch with the Generala, a prison for minors. Count Carlo Ilarione Petitti of Roreto had vigorously fought to have the young men detained there separated from the adults. He had done this in a work already cited: Della condizione attuale delle carceri e dei mezzi per migliorarla. This suggestion began to find fulfilment with R. Patenti when Charles Albert gave his approval, on February 9, 1839. According to the royal brief of April 12, 1845, modified activities in the prisons had their beginning.

The Brothers of the Congregation of St Peter in Chains, from Marseille, a Congregation founded by Canon Charles Fissiaux (1806-1867) for the apostolate among the juvenile offenders, were called upon to act as educators at the Generala. The chaplain of the Generala was a diocesan priest mostly in charge of the religious and moral education of the detainees.³⁷⁸

Don Bosco had definite contacts with the Generala, even though not all of them can be documented, as will be clearly indicated in Chapter 10 of this book. The Generala hosted young men condemned to correctional punishment because they had committed some thoughtless crime and also young men detained because they needed fatherly correction.³⁷⁹ The correctional method used with them was to get them to work together and in silence and at night they were segregated into cells. The system of correctional education called for the blending of different ways of dealing with the detainees: preventive, coercive and corrective. This was demonstrated not only in the practical activity of the Brothers, but also in theory formulated by their founder who was occasionally there with the local director.

Petitti of Roreto had figured this out ahead of time when he wrote of prisons for young rascals both “for detainees sent to prison at the request of their parents to be paternally corrected” and for “young people unwilling to work and vagabonds arrested by the police and condemned to prison by penal courts”. “The basic general principle”, Petitti wrote, “is to use a new, firm, severe educational method but with a touch of fatherly indulgence, especially for those detained at the request of their parents and needing correction. The educational method to be used on these young people should be more civil. The others instead need a more severe approach and they should also be directed towards learning a trade.”³⁸⁰

The ideas inspiring this approach can be drawn from the Rapport given by Fissiaux at the end of the first and second years of activity at the Generala. Especially relevant are those in the report on the first year of activity. “The house of correctional education” in regard to the young delinquents has the task of preparing them for a better future, saving them from shipwreck, punishing them, for sure, but also and above all correcting them”.³⁸¹

The beginnings were very difficult and, as the reporter confesses “against our will we had to use maximum severity and temporarily relinquish gentle approaches which were then interpreted as weakness.. But in the end we were able to use with our youngsters the correctional educational method followed by our Society in other correctional houses entrusted to our care”.³⁸²

After offering an idea of the system adopted by the Society of St Peter in Chains, Fissiaux dwells on the topic of ‘discipline’ with all its connotation of the repressive system. “The discipline of the establishment is severe and must be so. It is necessary that everything should remind the detainees that the place they are in is a place of punishment and correction. Starting from this principle, we let no fault go unpunished. At the same time, no virtuous act is left unrewarded”.³⁸³ However, also the typical positive educative elements peculiar to the Preventive System are highlighted: imitation, work, school, music, religious and moral potential.³⁸⁴

There are abundant tones of moderation and understanding in reference to youthful fragility. The young men to be corrected are referred to as “poor kids, more unfortunate than guilty. As human beings we are accustomed to thinking of them as incorrigible criminals. We have unjust prejudices about them and undeserved contempt for them as “kids who have become victims of the fragility of their age, and the misfortune of their birth”.³⁸⁵

In the second Rapport on the second year of activity we can spot the emergence of some elements which show how close the repressive system is to the Preventive System. The director, in fact, intends to show that “Our Society has already obtained, at least partially, the good results you have the right to expect from its zeal and dedication by giving true correctional education to those boys who need to be corrected but with gentleness rather than punishing them or through being harsh”. He also insists on the fact that the majority of the detainees are more unfortunate than guilty and that they have reacted positively to the educational system in use.³⁸⁶

28. 8. De La Salle’s preventive pedagogy

Don Bosco had several contacts with the Brothers of the Christian Schools, especially during the 1840’s. The Brothers, from 1829 on, were running the schools supported by the Mendacità Istruita (Poor Schools Program) and from 1833 the municipal schools.³⁸⁷

It might seem problematic that Don Bosco may have had direct knowledge of the pedagogical-spiritual writings of St John Baptist de La Salle (1651): La conduite des écoles chrétiennes and Meditations pour le temps de la retraite and Meditations sur toutes les dimances et les principal festes de l’année. ³⁸⁸ However, Don Bosco knew that these religious educators were dedicated, like “guardian angels”, to the care of children coming from the world of artisans and humble workers “constantly busy earning a livelihood for themselves and their children”, and therefore unable to follow them up during the course of the day”.³⁸⁹The Brothers were committed to “teaching them how to read and write and making good Christians and useful citizens for the state of them at the same time”.³⁹⁰

The Brothers’ pedagogical spirituality is often expressed in terms which Don Bosco would never cease to live by: vigilance, guidance, ardent zeal, warding-off evil, inspiring horror for impurity, exhorting and urging them to do good now and for eternity: “Give me souls and take away the rest”; “charity, love, correction, gentleness, patience, prudence, reasonableness”.³⁹¹ “The teacher, besides teaching ability, should also and first of all have the ability to “win over the hearts of his pupils”.³⁹²

The privileged references from an educational perspective, are those to St Anselm of Aosta and to St Francis de Sales. St Anselm “did his very best to lead his religious with so much gentleness and charity that he was able to win over their hearts”.³⁹³ Then, the meditation on the modern patron saint of gentleness and tenderness ends up with an examination of conscience as follows:

Do you have those feelings of charity and tenderness for the poor boys you are expected to educate? Do you take advantage of the affection they have for you to direct them towards God? If you have the firmness of a father with them to draw them back and keep them away from disorder, you should also have the tenderness of a mother to gather them together and do all the good to them which depends on you”.³⁹⁴

It is likewise probable that Don Bosco may have been led to read pamphlets by two De La Salle Brothers chronologically and geographically closer to him: Brother Agathon (1731-1798), Superior General of the Congregation up to the end of the 18^th century and author of a summary on Les douze vertus d’un bon Maître (Melun, 1785/87); and Brother Théoger who was working in Turin.

Don Bosco may easily have read Brother Agathon’s booklet edited in Italian by Marietti of Turin in 1835. The twelve virtues of the good teacher as laid out by Brother De la Salle, Founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and Explained by Fr Agathon, Superior General of the Same Institute.

As for seriousness, the term with which the book opens, this is what it says of the teacher:

He has a kindly aspect, uses few words and a moderate tone; he does not use harsh words; he is not biting or haughty; he is not boorish; he is not ill mannered with anyone. Well persuaded and convinced that seriousness, modesty and moderation cannot exclude goodness or tender affection, he tries his best with all his kindly qualities to win over the loving kindness of his students…Far from trying to make himself only feared, his main task is to win his students’ confidence... Besides, he wants to be esteemed and respected by them”.³⁹⁵

The statements about humility are consistent with what was said above. “Humility is not ambitious”, “humility is not jealous”, “humility allows a good teacher to deal with his equals and subjects with the esteem, cordiality, friendship and kindness due to them”. “The humility of a good teacher is charitable. It makes lovable, obliging, courteous and easily approachable”. “Therefore, he never takes on an arrogant, distant or spiteful demeanour toward his students”.³⁹⁶The teacher is given some significant warnings in reference to self-restraint,(reserve, self-control), as far as his behaviour toward his young students is concerned. “He scrupulously shuns friendship, dangerous familiarity with them. Self-restraint forbids touching their face, caressing them, laughing with them, and receiving a hug from them. The teacher should often remember that among the children there may be some so full of malice that they might give a malicious interpretation to some words and actions which only a malicious and already corrupt heart detects as having the appearance of evil, even though in fact they are not so”.³⁹⁷

Meekness is a typical theme, namely the theme of gentleness³⁹⁸ and even St Francis de Sales is quoted accurately. Meekness is a virtue which inspires and produces “goodness, sensitivity, tenderness”. Brother Agathon writes:

It is a general principle that love is gained through love. A teacher therefore, first of all and most of all should have a father’s feeling for them and always think of himself as someone who takes the place of those who have entrusted them to him; namely, he should have heartfelt goodness and tenderness like their very fathers for them. Now these qualities will be inspired by his gentleness and gentleness in turn will provide for them the affection, sensitivity and kindness, the very same obliging and persuasive manners. Gentleness removes whatever seems harsh and painful from authority and smooths out all difficulties”.³⁹⁹

The problem of how to reconcile authority and freedom is practically solved by having recourse to gentleness:

This authority does not depend on age, height, stature, tone of voice, threats, but on the character which displays and features a steady spirit always firm, moderate, and with reason as its guide. A spirit which does not act on whim or impulse The same result can be obtained by blending gentleness with firmness and love with fear. Love must win over the hearts of children without making them effeminate, and fear must control them without frightening them off”.⁴⁰⁰

In the middle of the 19^th century, Brother Théoger wrote a short work in which he added to the twelve virtues. He added constancy, firmness, and good example.⁴⁰¹ The usual pointers are brought up and they all focus on charity: love, gentleness, benevolence, fatherliness, besides prevention and vigilance, which entail order, discipline and firmness. “Firmness in itself is nothing but the power and constancy used to oppose what is evil, to forestall and repress disorders. A teacher cannot operate without it. And the reason for this is that children are naturally inclined towards evil and it is quite appropriate to instill a reverential fear in them which may control them, without irritating them. “However, the teacher should be concerned about not having a wrong idea of firmness”.

“Firmness is not rigour or harshness or inflexibility, but a spiritual strength of reason in order to have children walk steadily on the path of what is good”. “Since its main objective is to incline the students to keep far away from what is evil out of fear, firmness cannot be truly useful if it is not accompanied by gentleness, which alone cannot succeed in having the students want what is good, out of love”.⁴⁰²

“Gentleness is the exterior guise of charity, goodness. But it should not be an end point: it is extremely valuable for the teacher to love his pupils and love them for supernatural reasons; it is valuable that the teacher’s ways of doing things, all his words, his vigilance, in a word, all his actions, be inspired by such love, otherwise the teacher will not be able to captivate his students’ affection and provide stability to his authority without which it would be impossible for a teacher to be a successful educator in their regard”.⁴⁰³

“Piety itself and, in particular the use of the sacraments, should be surrounded by gentleness and joy. One must do one’s very best to make sure the children find a certain delight in religious exercises. The piety which the students should be inspired by, should not be austere, under the spell of fear but a gentle piety, based mainly on love”.⁴⁰⁴

In an atmosphere of charity a vigilant presence is also justified. “The teacher’s steadfast attention to what the students are doing... produces very good results, not only because it represses the disorders which might show up and thus prevents their growing worse, but also and especially because it forestalls them”.⁴⁰⁵

Within this context the problem of punishments is also resolved. “Gentleness requires the teacher to follow these guidelines: 1. Punish rarely..; 2. Punish only out of charity… 5. Never strike children, never push them; never force them or treat them harshly... 15. The teacher should, as far as possible, make himself easily accessible and show kindness and warmth... 20. The teacher should win over the hearts of his students with moderation, since strictness irritates them and discourages them”.⁴⁰⁶

Finally, an appeal to reason is made: “Always speak rightly to your students, with reasonableness, no matter what age they are and make sure that they act the same way, whenever any opportunity is given them”.⁴⁰⁷

29. 9. The Barnabites’ preventive style

It is a well-known fact that the Barnabites, a Congregation which came into being during the first half of the 16th century, dedicated themselves to the care of colleges (boarding schools) at the beginning of the 17^th century. The Barnabites were always praised for their discipline. This is the reason why St Francis de Sales wanted them to be teachers in the boarding institutions in Annecy. St Francis de Sales thought of them as “excellent people”, “gentle and condescending”, “humble and kind”; as people of “solid piety, gentle and incomparably friendly”.⁴⁰⁸

The preventive aspect of their educational system seems to have been formulated more explicitly during the 19^th century. “We beg all those who take an active part in educating youth, in instructing youth, to be slow to punish, to try with all possible means suggested by charity to prevent the onset of evil rather than having to correct it”.⁴⁰⁹ “The supervision of younger boarders should be as constant and diligent as it is gentle and fatherly. It is better to prevent defects from showing up than to have the sad task of punishing them. Punishment should be used rarely and only as a medicine”.⁴¹⁰ “If the rule is not kept, then it is dead. For this reason the superiors should do their utmost to keep the rule alive and able to produce salutary effects in the young. Should gentleness and persuasion be good enough to keep the rule alive, then that would be the most desirable way to follow, because it is more along the lines of the human heart, and produces more secure and lasting effects”.⁴¹¹

But the best summary is in a work entitled: Avvertimenti agli educatori ecclesiastici della gioventù (Advice for ecclesiastical youth educators) written by Fr Alexander Teppa (1806-1871, the former rector of the Royal College of Moncalieri near Turin (1856-1867) and finally, Superior General of the Order from 1867 until his death. Don Bosco read it and had his collaborators read it too. Don Bosco found ideas in it that he shared, put into practice⁴¹² and, later on, transferred into the pages of his ‘Preventive System’. Father Teppa wrote:

Education has two main tasks or essential roles: one is positive and consists in providing young people with the most effective means for the natural and free development of their faculties; the other is negative and is called on to help the first. It consists in removing the obstacles which might obstruct or spoil that very development. In short, this is the twofold task of education: to promote what is good, to prevent what is evil, backing up nature in whatever good point it possesses and correcting whatever may be bad. This twofold task must be carried out either directly with the right use of authority or indirectly by means of good example”.⁴¹³

The solidness of the content of prevention is not ignored. Without doubt “to prevent” means “to safeguard from.. to correct.. to keep far away from.. to put the brakes on.. to protect from present dangers and to forewarn them against future dangers”. However, at the same time, “to prevent” means “to provide foundations to strengthen the young with the truths of Christian faith”. It means “to guide them along the way of virtue, to help them achieve their eternal salvation”.⁴¹⁴ Individual and social human and Christian objectives must be well attended to, namely: to gradually form men who are truly wise, upright, virtuous, and good Christians and also good citizens”.⁴¹⁵

To achieve such objectives two things are essential: the knowledge of every individual’s inclinations and a correct use of authority. ⁴¹⁶ Material Authority which is “acquired by firmness of will and severity of manners, makes us feared and obeyed at all costs”. But this kind of authority is not enough, even though it can be useful, “when the voice of reason is not listened to and even necessary to keep discipline among the pupils, especially when a lot of youngsters are gathered together”. “Material Authority may have external force but it will never conquer or govern the minds of youth who surrender only to the voice of persuasion and allow themselves to be governed only by moral authority”.

Not even purely juridical or legal authority is enough to achieve the objectives of education. What is needed is moral authority which we cannot possess unless we earn it; and “it is not earned except by making ourselves esteemed, respected and loved” ⁴¹⁷. In other words, moral authority is based on reason and love. “Whoever wants to be esteemed by the young should first of all show that he esteems them. Therefore he should never speak scornfully of anyone”. ⁴¹⁸ “Whoever wants to be respected by his pupils should always be calm, self-controlled and show that he is guided by reason alone in dealing with them”.⁴¹⁹ “But should anyone want to hold sway over the hearts of the young he should most of all make himself loved. Whoever is loved is also willingly listened to and obeyed. There is no other manner by which to make oneself loved than to love. ‘Si vis amari, ama’. ⁴²⁰ “And so, whoever wants to make himself loved by his pupils should be the first one to love them with a sincere heart and with the affection of a father and friend. Let this be his main concern, to care for all that they may need and be of advantage to them both spiritually and physically. For honour, let him try to please them and satisfy their honest wishes as much as possible, let him share their pleasures and their and displeasures”.⁴²¹

According to Teppa the exercise of authority should be commensurate with the different temperaments and dispositions of the young: “The simple voice of reason for the young who are docile and submissive, the authority of the command for the young who are hard-headed and stubborn”.⁴²² But at the same time, it is pointed out, every one without discrimination should never lose sight of the objective: “a sincere and lasting love of virtue, sense of duty, desire for what is truly good; and the method to be used – the way of gentleness and persuasion”. “There is no doubt that this is the way most suited to human nature and consequently the way which produces more lasting results, even though at times they are less readily available and visible. Let this way be always regarded as the main tool for education”.⁴²³

This kind of authority will suggest all the main ways required of educational intervention: “when we have to command, instruct and exhort;⁴²⁴ when we have to warn, correct and reproach;⁴²⁵ when we have to punish,⁴²⁶ praise and reward”.⁴²⁷ “Orders should be used in moderation and always be issued with dignity, gently, seriously and firmly”.⁴²⁸ “Instruction and exhortation are to be preferred, and they should neither be too long nor inappropriate”.⁴²⁹ “Instruction and exhortation should later be followed up with warnings and kindly corrections because the young are naturally unstable, inconsiderate and absent-minded, so it is necessary to remind them with brief, kind words about their duties, their resolutions, the promises they have made so that they may not be found at fault through forgetfulness or absent-mindedness or instability”.⁴³⁰

“The teacher should be convinced that the more he does this, the less need will there be for him to have recourse to punishments. This is why the teacher should always be attentive and vigilant and be imbued at the same time with much zeal and charity”.⁴³¹ “If simple warnings are not enough, then the teacher should use admonitions, being careful however to be ready to speak with the loving kindness and effective reasoning good enough to persuade and move the minds of the pupils”.⁴³² “But when the teacher gives a reprimand or an admonition he should make sure not to offend or do anything which might discourage the guilty one. Instead he should let him know that he will not stop loving him and esteeming him as a person even though he corrects him and that he does this precisely because he loves him and esteems him and really wants what is good for him”.⁴³³ The reprimand comes to the fore “when it can be clearly seen that warnings and kindly corrections prove useless”.⁴³⁴ Finally, once the desired results are obtained, as occasion demands, the severity of the corrections should be softened, urging the young man to correct himself”.⁴³⁵

Teppa devotes a longer chapter to the subject of punishments, ⁴³⁶ but not because they are considered the most important part of education. He holds the opinion rather that their frequency is due to the carelessness or inexperience of the educator. Punishments “should be given only out of necessity and as a medicine. The necessity and usefulness of punishment should also be the norm for determining the quality and quantity of punishments and the way of using them”. ⁴³⁷ As for the way to use punishments, love is presented as the basic way to be followed:

First of all, the best kind of punishment given by a teacher who is truly loved and respected by his pupils will be by showing how sorry he is about the fault committed, either by reprimanding them openly but seriously, or with a quieter, more serious and reserved approach, and not giving them signs of kindness and familiarity he normally has given them in the past. But the teacher must make sure that the humiliation is not of such a nature as to discourage the person⁴³⁸ …Let a punishment be given with dignity and at the same time with loving kindness. As much as possible, the culprit should be persuaded that the punishment was just and necessary, and that his fault was being punished because we love him as a person”.⁴³⁹

Besides using punishments, the author adds, it is also just and proper that at the right time and place the teacher should bestow the praise due to the pupil who acts the way he should and encourage him with rewards”.⁴⁴⁰

The last two chapters deal with the educator as a whole. What is emphasised is individual good example and harmony in the community of those educating.⁴⁴¹ “Let them be compassionate and bear with one another with holy charity and, whenever it may be needed, let there be mutual correction”.⁴⁴² Finally the charity which St Paul writes to the Corinthians about is taken and formulated as the supreme principle of any educational activity.⁴⁴³

With some degree of emphasis and not without reason, a priest from the Fermo diocese wrote the following in 1886:

Don Bosco has already been sacrificing his life for the education and instruction of the young for fifty years. The results of his work are so gratifying and so widespread that Don Bosco has become the most famous educator of his times, both in the old and in the new world. What has contributed to his fame is his Preventive System.⁴⁴⁴

It makes no sense to indulge in rhetoric, but the fact is obvious enough that Don Bosco appeared to many of his contemporaries and even later, as an exceptional educator, the emerging representative of the Preventive System in the education of youth. However, this does not mean ignoring the fine and original contributions of past educators and those of his time as well.⁴⁴⁵

C. Danna had a keen intuition, from the outset, of the originality of Don Bosco’s educational experience. A professor of literature at the University of Turin, Danna, already in 1849, had written two passionate pages on the Oratory, on Don Bosco’s Sunday school. Those two pages underlined the religious and civic nature as well as the holistic educational and cheerful features of the Oratory.

On Sundays and feast days Don Bosco gathers some four or five hundred youngsters over the age of 8 in an out-of-the-way compound, to keep them from danger and just hanging around, and to teach them the principles of Christian morality. He does this by entertaining them with delightful and honest amusements after they have attended pious and religious practices. He also teaches them social and ecclesiastical history, catechism and the principles of arithmetic. He trains them to use the metric system and those who do not know how to are taught how to read and write. All this is done to provide the youngsters with a moral and civic education. But he does not fail to provide them with a physical education as well: a fenced-off playground next to the Oratory allows the young to get involved in gymnastics, play with stilts, swings, skittles or quoits. And this is done to help them grow and strengthen their physical capacities. Besides prizes of some holy pictures, lotteries and at times a light breakfast, the bait used to draw the huge crowd of youngsters is Don Bosco’s own calm approach, always vigilant over the young souls, ready to shed the light of truth on them and show them how to love one another. Thinking about the harm he avoids, the vices forestalled, the seeds of virtue sown, the good which is so fruitful, it seems incredible that Don Bosco’s work might have met with obstacles and even opposition. But what most of all grants Don Bosco the right to the gratitude of all citizens is the home next to the Oratory which is open to the most needy and destitute children. When Don Bosco knows of or meets some child who is a victim of poverty, squalid conditions, he never loses sight of him, takes him into his home, restores him, asks him to take off his filthy clothes and gives him new ones to put on. He provides food for him day and night until he finds some employment and some work for him to do, so he may earn a decent livelihood in the future and can take better care of educating his mind and heart.⁴⁴⁶

On the day of the celebration of Don Bosco’s month ‘s mind, the Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Cajetan Alimonda, gave considerable room to Don Bosco’s educational system in his eulogy on that occasion. “Education”, he said, was “the first area where Don Bosco brought the divine to the 19^th century”, as well as his “concern for the working class” and “for work”, the spirit of association, civilisation of underdeveloped peoples. “Don Bosco did not put aside anything which might be useful in educational discoveries but went one better. He did not have a problem with the method, because he had solutions stemming from principles. He introduced the religious dimension as a guide to natural affection, in the science of charity. This is why Don Bosco gives pedagogy a divine touch”.⁴⁴⁷ Don Bosco’s pedagogy is “intensely religious and therefore not gloomy”. “Everything happened in an atmosphere of freedom and cheerfulness”.⁴⁴⁸ “All this came together with involvement and clever initiatives in an atmosphere of peace, dignity and trust”.⁴⁴⁹

The general style characterising his various undertakings was the Preventive System. For Don Bosco the Preventive System was the absolute, well-defined rule compared with the repressive method, often linked inevitably with civil strife. “The best and most miraculous power required for control, according to Don Bosco’s recommendations, was moral power. Don Bosco knew and understood that unless we win over the pupils’ affection, we are building on sand, educating bodies and not spirits”.⁴⁵⁰

We can easily recognise the influence of a number of significant life experiences in the educational synthesis developed by Don Bosco. This synthesis is linked, to a great extent, to the same kind of general formation, both personal and cultural, during the early part of his life. The schooling provided by his family and the Church was evident during his infancy-childhood period. His work: in the fields and early schooling formed him during his adolescent period. The Latin school at Chieri, the Seminary and the Convitto Ecclesiastico were the significant factors during his mature youth period, up to the priesthood and beyond.

Don Bosco’s future personality, as a priest, a friend of the young, a pastor and as an educator is clearly rooted in these essential features. In fact, the nucleus of Don Bosco’s educative vocation is born and develops with the growing and maturing of his Catholic and priestly formation.⁴⁷⁸

Don Bosco’s mentality will also have been formed by contact with a network of significant personalities in the Catholic world of his time. There were the saints who were renowned for their works of charity, theologians, people involved in social work, and of course the books he read and his experience of life. All of this would improve and enrich Don Bosco’s personality, already extraordinarily gifted with exceptional emotional, intellectual and moral qualities.

Don Bosco’s first regular elementary education took place at Castelnuovo: from Christmas 1830 to the summer of 1831, and at Chieri, where he attended the classes of grammar, of the humanities and of rhetoric, from 1831 to 1835.

As a preparation for his future, this period is important. The young farmer met the new and exhilarating world of Latin culture in the context of a classical education. The effect of this on Don Bosco was to open his mind to an appreciation of culture, which will prove invaluable in his future work as an educator and as a promoter of vocations.

But the most influential feature in the life of Don Bosco, as he was growing up, was the reality of finding himself deeply immersed into a holistic, formative structure, which is at the same time cultural, ethical and religious. We referred earlier to Don Bosco’s preventive repressive kind of soul: it left a deep mark on Don Bosco’s mentality. Evidently, this mentality was compensated for by later experiences, which in turn leave indelible marks in the organisation of his future educational undertakings for students and especially within schools and boarding institutions. ⁴⁸⁶ This becomes evident not only from the analysis of the text, but also from the clear recollections of his religious experiences as recorded in the Memoirs of the Oratory.⁴⁸⁷

Don Bosco reflects these same religious and moral foundations in his Preventive System. They can be identified in the value he placed on religious instruction and the practice of religion: the concern he showed for order, discipline and morality, a responsibility he enshrined in the post of the Prefect of Studies and supported by the concept of assistance and the constant reference to an inner formation to be nurtured by the Congregation through spiritual direction and Sacramental praxis.

To everything we have mentioned above we should also add that Don Bosco had a keen interest in literature which gave him, as he himself says, an insatiable thirst for classical authors, both Latin and Italian. He almost became infatuated with them.⁴⁸⁸

Several years later, Don Bosco makes reference to this period by referring to two of his teachers, two priests, as models to be imitated. The first one he singles out with some emphasis is Father Peter Banaudi, whom he describes as a model teacher, one who had successfully made himself feared and loved by all his pupils, without ever using punishments. He loved his pupils as though they were his children and they in turn loved him as a tender father. ⁴⁸⁹ Don Bosco also considered himself as blessed to have chosen, as his regular confessor a theologian, Father Maloria. This thirty-year-old priest welcomed him with great kindness. He remained Don Bosco’s confessor during the entire course of his theological studies. ⁴⁹⁰

The studies in philosophy and theology at the seminary in Chieri (1835-1841) do not seem to have had a great impact on Don Bosco’s culture and mentality, since by temperament he was not inclined to indulge in theoretical speculations. At any rate, these studies anchored him to the basic dogmatic and moral theology of those times. They were not as significant as the Neo-Thomism that followed.

After having spoken positively about the discovery of the Imitation of Christ, the following is what Don Bosco wrote, without much enthusiasm, about the study of theology at Chieri:

We only study speculative dogmatic theology in our Seminary. As for moral theology, we only consider issues of controversy. ⁴⁹¹

It seems that Don Bosco was not influenced in any permanent way by the probabiliorists’ teachings, from anti-infallibility theses, the widespread rigourist approach to pastoral ministry, Gallican-sympathising ideas which characterised the theology taught in the seminaries in the Turin Diocese during the first decade of the 19^th century. However the disciplinary and spiritual set-up of the seminary seems, with some reservations, to have had a remarkably positive influence on Don Bosco. ⁴⁹²

This seminary regime provided a firm basis for his basic spiritual and moral principles, and provided him with a clear framework to support the structure of his teaching on duty, love and joy. He was later to stress exactness in the performance of one’s duties, such as the following: morning prayers, with Mass and meditation, the rosary, reading during the meals (Don Bosco quoted specifically Bercastel’s Church history), and Confession, every fortnight, Holy Communion on feast days, the study of philosophical and theological treatises, while offering options in other disciplines but with a clear preference for historical and apologetic studies. It was to be these latter studies, which would give Don Bosco his impetus to popularise whatever had to do with history and Catechesis. ⁴⁹³

Don Bosco received a scientific and university type of formation at Chieri. The culture he warmed to was not so pretentious; it was free of speculation and theological dogmatic disputations. Together with the emphasis given to moral and applied theology, especially at the Convitto Ecclesiastico in Turin, this kind of culture would not fail to give Don Bosco his fundamental orientation towards the creation of a pedagogy which would be religious and moral, essential and practical. On the other hand, the religious and pastoral spirituality of two saints, St Philip Neri and St Francis de Sales were to have a deep influence on his preventive educative style. In this way the cleric Bosco, probably at the seminary, rounded up his own theological formation.

We will deal with these two saints later when we write about the years which followed Don Bosco’s three-year stay at the Convitto Ecclesiastico in Turin and we will also add Don Bosco’s encounter with another saint, St Vincent de Paul, whose life he may have glimpsed in his seminary days.

Don Bosco’s culture was not only nurtured by what was on offer in the seminary regime. He owed much to his own taste in reading; books on sacred and church history, on apologetics, and certain formative authors.⁴⁹⁴ It is probably true to say that Don Bosco made no distinction between the authors and books he read in later years and those read during his days at the Convitto Ecclesiastico, and during the period when he wrote on religious history, on apologetics and on the type of piety suited for young people.

However, it is evident that Don Bosco preferred authors, like Bossuet, who interpreted history in a theological, providential, hagiographical and moralistic way and were loyal to the Church. Don Bosco would never depart from the road followed by Berault-Bercastel:

This is my intention, to make people recognize the unfailing protection of God over his people, the sanctity as well as the infallibility of the church, its beauty and its splendour even during the times of the greatest darkness.⁴⁹⁵

This intention resounds throughout Don Bosco’s education system. He himself stresses this very point in The Memoirs of the Oratory when the features of the Preventive System which he put into practice during a thirty year period, were already defined. The seminary education system had been evidently modelled on the institutiones ad universum seminarii regimen pertinentes (The educational system to be used by seminaries) issued by Charles Borromeo, and with objectives and methods definitely leaning towards austerity.⁴⁹⁶ On the whole it was a repressive system.

The rector and the other superiors came to see us when we got back from our vacation and when we were leaving for our vacation. No one ever went to speak with them, except in cases when someone had to be reprimanded. The superiors took turns, each week in supervising us in the dining room and during the walks. And that was all.

How often I would have liked to talk to them, to ask them for their advice or for the solution of some problem, and I could not. Besides, whenever a superior happened to pass by through the seminary, without knowing why everyone would hurry away as if they were avoiding a black cat.⁴⁹⁷

Several times when Don Bosco referred to the Convitto Ecclesiastico, the residential college for seminarians from the Diocese of Turin, he also stressed its friendly, practical, pastoral character, in harmony with the mission of a priest, understood as the art of dealing with souls, (ars animarum), a pedagogy of spirituality.⁴⁹⁸

In his Memoirs of the Oratory, Don Bosco presents the Convitto as an institution founded:

So that young priests, after their seminary courses, might learn the practical side of their sacred ministry. These were the things to which we had to give all our attention: meditation, reading, two walks a day, lessons on preaching, a retreat kind of life, devoting all our time to study and reading good authors. This was a marvellous time of preparation, providing so much that was good for the Church; it especially helped to root out some Jansenistic tendencies still latent among us.⁴⁹⁹

This is how Don Bosco remembered an institution to which he was constantly, even emotionally, so attached, particularly during the time when Fr Louis Guala and Fr Joseph Cafasso were teaching there.

The Regolamento or Rules issued by the Convitto’s founder, Fr Louis Guala, contained this advice:

Study-time should be divided up so that some of it will be devoted to practical moral theology; the rest shall be devoted to the practical teaching of sacred preaching and liturgy, according to the manner prescribed.⁵⁰⁰

The guidance contained in the original manuscript written by Fr Guala, referring to the subject matter of sermons, was more detailed and accurate:

The starting point will be the writing of meditations for retreats. This subject matter is to be preferred, because it is more natural, more useful to the one who writes it. It can also be used in any sermon delivered from the pulpit. Besides, it is particularly useful in the Confessional. Later on, after the written meditations, comes the writing of sermons on the Gospels, and sermons for instructional purposes.⁵⁰¹

Actually, we still have a dozen such compositions written by Don Bosco when he was studying at the Convitto. They all stress the themes of meditations and instructions which ordinarily, as a century-old tradition, were delivered to the faithful in parish missions or spiritual retreats.

Fr Joseph Cafasso, besides being a guide in the study of moral theology, also taught Don Bosco spirituality and life. It was Fr Joseph Cafasso who encouraged Don Bosco to follow an educational activity such as priestly ministry among prisoners and Lenten catechism classes with particular concern for the young who had migrated from the countryside into Turin. ⁵⁰² Don Bosco, in later years, would often go to Fr Cafasso, his benefactor and confessor, both for advice and help. ⁵⁰³

At the school of Fr Cafasso, Don Bosco strengthened and refined his spirituality: Christian hope; preference given to trusting God rather than to the fear of God; the sense of duty as a coherent Christian lifestyle; the fundamental importance to be given to the practice of the sacraments, an effective pastoral ministry; loyalty towards the Church and the Pope; the apostolic orientation towards abandoned youth; the meditation on the’ last things’ and the exercise for a happy death.⁵⁰⁴

As far as moral direction was concerned, which would have such a great role to play in Don Bosco’s educative and pastoral practice, the Convitto was the ideal preparation. It was the Convitto which passed on to Don Bosco the essential aspects of St Alphonsus Liguori’s theological and spiritual vision of both of whom Frs. Guala and Cafasso considered to be the ideal authors capable of mediating between the rigidity of a radical Jansenism and a superficial, easy-going reaction to it.⁵⁰⁵ Don Bosco would later have recourse to St Alphonsus Liguori, when as a founder he would have to come to terms with the basic tenets of religious life: vocation, vows, community life, observance and fidelity.

The priests at the Oratory kept the spiritual tradition of St Philip Neri alive, both in Turin and in Piedmont. He was widely known through a biography written during the 17^th century by one of his confreres, Pier Giacomo Bacci (1575 circa-1856): The life of St Philip Neri, the apostle of Rome and the founder of the Congregation of the Oratory⁵⁰⁶ and by a collection of Thoughts for Youth.

In the seminary in Chieri, the feast of St Philip Neri was one of three great feasts of the year: The Immaculate Conception, which the Rules considered to be the greatest of all solemnities of the seminary,⁵⁰⁷ the feast days of St Francis de Sales and St Aloysius Gonzaga. The seminary chapel was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception; two chapels in the public church nearby were dedicated to St Francis de Sales and to St Philip Neri. May 26, the feast of St Philip, was celebrated solemnly with a Mass, sermon and, in the evening, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.⁵⁰⁸

Don Bosco, the student-seminarian, became familiar with the Founder of the Oratory and his special pastoral ministry involving cheerful piety, serene chastity and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, all to be shared with young people. Don Bosco made it so clearly evident in a well-known sermon, delivered at Alba on May 26, 1868⁵⁰⁹ and in the pages on the Preventive System in 1877. In a pamphlet written in 1858, A Vade Mecum for Christians, Don Bosco included a short series of words of advice for youth written by St Philip Neri.⁵¹⁰ In his Church History, Don Bosco clearly indicated many similarities between his own preventive style and the one used by another Piedmontese, a member of the Oratory of St Philip, Blessed Sebastian Valfrè: “It is hard to express the extent of the zeal that he showed for the salvation of souls.⁵¹¹ In his Practical guide for Christians Don Bosco also introduced Bl. Valfrè’s General Advice for a Father of a Family by Bl. Valfrè, and Advice Given by Bl. Sebastian Valfrè in Two Letters to Two Mothers.⁵¹²

The other saint Don Bosco came to know during his days at the seminary was St Francis de Sales from Savoy. (1567-1622). He came into contact with this saint, once again, through the influence of the Marchioness di Barolo and at the beginning of the Oratory. In Piedmont there was a biography of the Bishop of Savoy which was widely circulated. It had been written by the chaplain to the Monastery of the Visitation in Turin, Father Piergiacinto Gallizia, and it was published in Venice in 1720 and reprinted several times.

St Francis de Sales was better known in the urban areas than in the countryside and mainly through his book The Introduction to the Devout Life and The Treatise on the Love of God. Don Bosco probably read the first of these books at some time in his life; it is unlikely that he read the latter one. During the 19^th century in Piedmont, Don Bosco, and before him Lanteri, the Marchioness di Barolo, Father J. Cafasso, knew the saint from Savoy as a “model of gentleness and pastoral zeal”; more so for Don Bosco, for those who worked for young people and for the poor.⁵¹³ This, was the most likely impression that St Francis de Sales had made on Don Bosco during his seminary studies.

The following was the schedule for the feast of St Francis de Sales:

In the morning, at a convenient hour, there will be a solemn Mass; a panegyric delivered by the vice rector of the chapel; the day will then go on as usual, with study and tutorial review lessons.⁵¹⁴

During the 1870s, while writing his Memoirs of the Oratory, Don Bosco justified the dedication of the first small chapel, the Pinardi shed, to St Francis de Sales, for these reasons:

1. Because the Marchioness di Barolo had the intention of founding a Congregation of priests under that title, and because of that she commissioned a painting of St Francis de Sales.

2. Since our pastoral ministry demands calmness and meekness we had to place ourselves under the protection of this saint, that he might obtain for us from God the grace to be able to imitate him in his extraordinary meekness and in his zeal for souls.

3. The third reason was that of placing ourselves under the protection of this saint, so that from heaven he might help us imitate him in his fight against the errors leveled at our religion, especially Protestantism which tries to infiltrate our towns and especially the city of Turin.⁵¹⁵

During the same period Don Bosco was able to acquire a particular knowledge of St Vincent de Paul (1581-1660). The Vincentians and the Sisters of Charity were well known in Piedmont. The former were known especially because of the Parish Missions they preached, for their retreats and for the formation of the clergy, The latter were known for the care they had for the poor, for the sick and for the soldiers located in military hospitals.

The House of Divine Providence had been founded by Father John Baptist Cottolengo, under the protection of St Vincent de Paul and was inspired by St Paul’s words: Caritas Christi urgent nos (The Love of God urges us on.) His message, according to a scholar who had studied his life, could be summed up in this formula: The spirit and mystery of charity.⁵¹⁶ Don Bosco made his retreat, prior to his priestly ordination, in the house of the Priests of the Mission in Turin, from March 26 to July 4, 1841.⁵¹⁷ Here is what Don Bosco wrote about St Vincent de Paul in his Church History:

Animated by a true spirit of Charity there was no calamity of any kind that he did not attend to. Everyone felt the effects of St Vincent’s fatherly Charity. ⁵¹⁸

The proof for the existence of the perfect harmony between Don Bosco and the saint of the effective and affective love, is given in the book, The Christian Guided toward Virtue and Civility According to the Spirit of St Vincent de Paul. This book was prepared by Don Bosco himself and edited by the French Benedictine Joseph Ansart (1723-1790).⁵¹⁹

The basis of Don Bosco’s entire formation as a priest was pastoral priestly ministry and purpose. This purpose reflected the spirit which animated the reform of seminary studies undertaken by Archbishop Colombano Chiaverotti.

The seminary studies were directed toward the formation of the priest, who would be spiritually and culturally well equipped to act as a teacher and as a guide of his people, as a shepherd, as a Victim of Charity entirely dedicated to promoting the glory of God and the salvation of souls. He would be a priest entirely dedicated to liturgical worship, preaching, teaching catechism, the administration of the sacraments. This priest, so Aldo Giraudo writes, seems to be the accepted model of the priest who, during the second half of the 19^th century become a priest committed to social ministry.⁵²⁰

At the Convitto Ecclesiastico the pastoral qualifications of a priest were to be enriched by other charitable and social dimensions, thanks to his encounter with the poverty of those who lived on the margins of society, a poverty which afflicted especially the young who had come to Turin from the countryside as well as from the mountainside. St Joseph Cafasso in particular had the intention of forming newly ordained priests as men who would seek the salvation of the poor as their ultimate responsibility in life.⁵²¹ The priest, as shepherd and catechist, was expected to be a person intent on doing good: this is how Cafasso, in his meditations and instructions given to the clergy, had consistently described the priest.⁵²²

For Don Bosco this came as second nature. His involvement with the spiritual and material needs of the young, especially those separated from their families, of young people who seemed lost in a city they did not know, ⁵²³ was evidently a priority. He did have someone who was, somehow, a trailblazer and a model in this: it was Fr John Cocchi, a curate at the Assumption Church who, in 1840, had founded the Oratory of the Guardian Angels in a suburban area, poor and somewhat notorious, called Moschino, in the Vanchiglia district of Turin.⁵²⁴

From this complex spiritual and cultural formation, as well as from the significant experiences he had with the young and with the clergy, Don Bosco moved on toward his own creation: The Oratory. Don Bosco’s Oratory took various forms: oratory for boarders and day boys, open and comprehensive institutions in missionary enterprises of all kinds, within Italy and abroad.

By doing this, Don Bosco was playing the role of one who ideally continued the initiatives connected with the Catholic Reformation of the 16^th century and, in particular, with Charles Borromeo and the Sodality of Christian Doctrine. It is evident, however, that the effective experience of Don Bosco predates any kind of evident literary dependence. The Regulations are only an expression of experience and an already formed mind-set. The very same thing can be said for the knowledge of constitutions and rules that preceded him. And, besides, even in cases of an evident dependence, what makes the difference is Don Bosco’s understanding, Don Bosco’s language and style.⁵²⁵

“The primary school teacher” was a magazine with a group of educators and pedagogues as editors. Later the title was changed to The Educator. It was aimed primarily at helping teachers involved in primary and secondary schools.⁵²⁶

Don Bosco was surprisingly in sympathy with this group of teachers, psychologically, mentally and practically. What all of them had in common was a passionate interest in the education of the masses in all its forms: from basic instruction given in evening schools and technical schools, to more sophisticated works associated with popular publications (Readings, Libraries etc.) in an atmosphere of solidarity, affectionate and family-like participation.⁵²⁷

A certain connection at a literary level between Don Bosco and “The Educator” from which Don Bosco draws some intuition or which support some of his intuitions, can be easily documented. The first important books written by Don Bosco, are: Church History (1845), Bible History) (1847). “The Educator” reviews these works quite positively. The first book was reviewed by a Fr Ramello, and defined as “a new and very useful book” written by “a learned and good priest” who was convinced of the need to have, as a great educative principle, the enlightening of the mind in order to make good the heart.⁵²⁸ M.G, a priest (Michael Garelli of Mondovi?) offers a more in-depth review of the second book in an article entitled: “School Teacher’s Letter on Bible History Written for Schools by Don Bosco”. He speaks of:

the experiential origin of the book, its moral objectives, the conversational but clear Italian employed and the spirit which gently moves and leans towards what is good.⁵²⁹

An echo of the review of the first book is clearly heard in Don Bosco’s preface to the Bible History book. Don Bosco quotes almost verbatim the positive expressions used by the reviewer:

In every page I had clearly in mind this principle: to enlighten the mind to render the heart good.⁵³⁰

On the same page, Don Bosco draws from the first number of The Primary School Teacher the idea of “popularising knowledge”⁵³¹ and from a contribution by Vincent Garelli Aporti’s idea of the usefulness of images in teaching Bible History.⁵³² It is hard to define more exactly the connection Don Bosco might have had, in terms of ideals, methods and organization.⁵³³

Even though Don Bosco had cordial and friendly relationships with some contemporary theorists in pedagogy like Antonio Rosmini, Gian Antonio Rayneri, Giuseppe Allievo (the last two held the chair of science at the University of Turin during the years 1847-1867 and 1868-1911 respectively), he never had or at least it cannot be proved that he had, an obvious involvement in pedagogical science of the official and academic kind.⁵³⁴

While studying the sources of the successful religious handbook Don Bosco wrote, The Companion of Youth, 1847, Pietro Stella discovered a distinctive style of writing for the Christian education of young people. This literature carries the distinctive marks of what would become Don Bosco’s formation program, practical, accompanied by rules and proposed by him both verbally and in writing. There is no doubt that the book was inspired and enriched by this literature and that it had no small impact on the Christian formation of not a few generations.⁵³⁵

An outstanding figure in the field of spiritual guidance for youth is Charles Gobinet (1613-1690): a priest from Paris; he was the author of a popular book l’instruction de la jeunesse en la pieté chretienne, tirée de le écriture sainte et de Ss. Péres, Divisée en cinq parties. (The instruction of youth in Christian piety, drawn from Sacred Scripture and from the Fathers of the Church divided into five parts).⁵³⁶ Many others who offer similar educational schemes, usually spiritual in content and all exclusively directed to the youth of a certain social and cultural level, follow Gobinet.

The following are worth mentioning: Francesco Avondo’s Theotimus, namely, family-like instruction on the Christian duties of young people and especially young students. A booklet suited to all classes of people.⁵³⁷ Cardinal De La Luzerne’s A Booklet on the duties of the young⁵³⁸; Claudio Arvisenet’s An Address to Youth;⁵³⁹ A bouquet of flowers for boys and girls, namely a Christian antidote in defence of innocence.⁵⁴⁰

The basic themes are found more explicitly expressed in the model described by Charles Gobinet in The Instruction of Youth.⁵⁴¹ The first volume describes, in five parts, the fundamental aspects of youth, a help towards their Christian salvation and the journey leading to the attainment of virtue, that is holiness:

l) On the reasons and motives which justify a man’s duty to pursue virtue from his early years.

2) On the means needed to acquire virtue during youth.

3) On the obstacles which turn the young away from virtue.

4) On the virtues needed by the young.

5) On choosing one vocation in life.⁵⁴²

The crowning point is provided by a Treatise on meditation, namely, on mental prayer regarded as possible and necessary for the young also.⁵⁴³ The second volume, a bit less bulky, is entirely dedicated to the two sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist: Instruction on Penance and on the Means Needed to Return to God Through Real Conversion⁵⁴⁴ and Instruction on Holy Communion. ⁵⁴⁵ There is an initial exhortation to true conversion and to correcting of one’s life;⁵⁴⁶ it is followed by a treatise on the fundamental elements of the Sacrament of Penance, namely, sorrow, confession, and firm purpose of amendment. The concluding part of this section is a detailed introduction to an examination of one’s sins, condensed into three sections: the Commandments, the theological virtues together with the virtue of religion, examined in reference to the first commandment, and the seven deadly sins.⁵⁴⁷

The volume’s second section is dedicated to Holy Communion and divided into two parts: On the doctrine, namely, on truths we ought to know about the Sacrament of the Holy Communion⁵⁴⁸ and On the practice of going to Communion and on what is needed for a good Communion. This section constitutes a real plan designed for a Christian life, harmoniously modelled on the basic virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity.⁵⁴⁹

The affinity which exists with not only The Companion of Youth but also with the entire framework of Don Bosco’s Christian educational system shows how much he owed to all of the above-mentioned authors or at least how much connection there is between praxis and pedagogical reflection and solid tradition, seriously committed to offering youth a solid, specific Christian spirituality.⁵⁵⁰

There is no doubt that Don Bosco, as a founder, had to learn everything involved in the juridical and spiritual structure of the religious institutions that he founded. He also had to learn things about the many publications, narrative, catechetical and apologetic, he was gradually issuing. The same went for his educational experience, especially when he had to express it in writing. We have already mentioned in previous chapters, and earlier in this chapter, the names of educators and pedagogues Don Bosco might have known, to some degree.

A detailed analysis of his more significant pedagogical writings may eventually discover some probable sources Don Bosco may have relied on and drawn from. Don Bosco addressed a letter to Father Rua, at the end of October 1863, one which later became known as the Confidential Reminders for Rectors. In this letter we find the classical formula: make yourself loved before you make yourself feared, a formula which later was slightly modified. Instead of the word before, the words if you want, and, rather than. Don Bosco may have taken this formula from the monastic Rule of St Augustine or of St Benedict, but most probably from reading books which dealt with Greek and Roman history. The document as a whole may have drawn some kind of inspiration from a booklet written by the Jesuit father Binet, Quel est le meillieur gouvernement: le rigoureux ou le doux? (What is the best way to rule: strictly or with gentleness?). Don Bosco might have had the chance to read this booklet in its Italian edition provided by Jesuit Father Anthony Bresciani (1798-1862), who was director of the boarding school Of Mount Carmel and who later on became provincial, near the Convitto Ecclesiastico. The text which, had as title The art of leadership, was preceded by a note written by the translator, in which he displayed rather conservative ideas aimed at forewarning people against modern permissive and populist tendencies, and possibly or actually affecting family, society and even the world of politics.⁵⁵¹

There appeared to be numerous suggestions and confirming proofs related to this overall pedagogical viewpoint which surfaced in the basic but significant pages of Don Bosco’s The Preventive System in the Education of Youth.⁵⁵² Those pages contained many ideas which were the result of Don Bosco’s own experience, which in turn reflected reasons familiar to the Catholic pedagogical tradition: above all the evangelical method of love, gentleness, reasonableness, understanding, previously championed by Fenelon and Rollin and solidly boosted by Don Bosco’s encounter with the Brothers of the Christian Schools and perfectly in tune with the personalities and writings of the 19^th century which were accessible to him.⁵⁵³

The most immediate and important source was probably a booklet by the Superior General of the Barnabites, Fr Alexander Teppa: Advice for Catholic educators of youth, a book we have already referred to.

Don Bosco may have become aware of the two words preventive and repressive from his contacts with the judiciary, from people involved in prisons, from people involved in juridical and penal matters, and from correctional institutions. We have mentioned earlier, in particular the correctional institution called La Generala. A similar idea may have also come from knowing, at least in summary, the more demanding pedagogical work written by Bishop Felix Dupanloup On Education, again already mentioned.

The reference to Don Bosco’s various pedagogical documents, and also the reference to their similarity to other books, lead us to an in-depth reflection on those who had an immediate impact on the formation of the mentality and style of Don Bosco the educator.

Don Bosco might have had some sort of dependence on other people both in culture and literature. But beyond all this, those who had most impact on Don Bosco’s formation were the young and his fellow workers coming, as they did, from the most diverse backgrounds. Don Bosco’s formation from his actual experience must be seen as the starting point. Of particular importance was his encounter with the youth of Turin during the years he spent at the Convitto Ecclesiastico, in the prisons, on the streets and in catechism classes. That was an entirely new experience. Most certainly what prepared Don Bosco for such an experience was not the rural world in which he had lived, and certainly not the Latin school of Chieri and not, at least from a practical point of view, the theological knowledge acquired at the seminary. His real school was the school of personal experience, and that school changed as the times and situations changed. Don Bosco was obliged to constantly restructure his perception of reality as his experience changed. On the other hand, with a realistically open-minded temperament and an ability to read situations, Don Bosco always showed particular sensitivity to those he met and with whom he lived. We should not be surprised if his rigorous fidelity to ideals and his determination to achieve great plans may have not prevented him from understanding and responding to requests, to the needs, to the characters of those he cared for. He was particularly sensitive to the changing needs of young people, something which varied considerably throughout his long life of educational activity from 1841-1888, even though he lived in different historical, social and cultural conditions. There are many examples to prove this. Above all we see it in Don Bosco’s daily and intensively personalised contact with his boys: in the playground, in his office, in the Good Night talks, in the confessional, in his letters, in his various initiatives as a writer, as an organiser and as a director or administrator.

This contact is expressly documented in the Memoirs of the Oratory of St Francis de Sales which in its very pages and general inspiration could be considered as the reflective expression of an authentic pedagogy, from his first rural Oratorian experience to his experience of working in the city of Turin.

Further proof is found in the various biographies written by Don Bosco, biographies that show us quite clearly how he related to the young men in his care, being with them, talking to them according to their ability to understand. In these biographies we see the way he stressed the significant qualities of his educational method, duty, study, cheerfulness, and the sacraments. The Power of a Good Education (1855); The Life of Dominic Savio (1859); A Biographical Sketch of Michael Magone (1861); The Little Shepherd from the Alps (1864). All of these biographies are like so many expressions of educational experience; they are stories which express a systematic pedagogy.

Finally, we should not forget the documents which Don Bosco produced throughout his life and which give voice to his understanding of education in the minute detail of everyday experience: namely his many letters to authorities and benefactors; letters to friends and collaborators; and especially letters to educators and groups of young people. These letters are the expression of the way he shared his continual educative presence.

Many more elements will mentioned in the following chapters. Don Bosco’s dream visions themselves could offer an indication of the growing awareness he had for the needs of young people. More than esoteric nightly fantasies, those dreams help us appreciate a deeper understanding of Don Bosco’s Preventive System. The dreams should be considered as the outward expressions of feelings of anxiety, visions which express his concern: the present and eternal happiness of the young, the dangers which threaten their happiness, the initiatives he needed to discover in order to further that happiness. In essence, the dreams reveal the deep meaning of Don Bosco’s life and the meaning of his mission as an educator.

We cannot separate the elements of experience summed up in the Preventive System from Don Bosco’s personality or from the typical shape of the institutions where he and his co-helpers worked.

It follows naturally then that the fundamental features of the preventive experience to be analysed in the following chapters can be understood only if strictly connected with Don Bosco’s life, temperament and personality traits. This is what the present chapter aims to recall at least in summary fashion.⁵⁵⁴

In Memoirs of the Oratory Don Bosco refers to the initial steps of his activity on behalf of the young as going back to December 8, 1841, and to his chance encounter with a 17 year old young man called Bartholomew Garelli.⁵⁵⁵ In the Historical Outline and Historical Outlines reference is made to Don Bosco’s activity, but without singling out anyone in particular.⁵⁵⁶ At any rate, even though the initial aim seems to have been almost exclusively to teach catechism, Don Bosco’s attention reaches broader horizons as it relates to the primary needs of the young.

In a letter to the Marquis Michael Benso di Cavour, the city’s vice governor, and dated March 13, 1846, Don Bosco writes: “The aim of these catechism classes is that of gathering those youngsters on festive days who, left to themselves, never go to any church for catechetical instruction. This is done by using kind words, promises, gifts and similar devices. The teaching is precisely concentrated on: 1) love for work; 2) frequent reception of the holy sacraments; 3) respect for authority; 4) avoiding bad companions”.⁵⁵⁷

A little later, the desire to give shelter to the most needy youngsters led Don Bosco to create a modest home, “the annex, next to the Oratory”, which increased the demands and urgent need for help.⁵⁵⁸ For this reason, Don Bosco wrote about the matter to Count Clemente Solaro Della Margherita, the conservative Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, from 1835 to 1847:

Without even looking at other expenses, the Baker’s bill alone for the past three months is more than 1600 francs (approx.5 million lire or $2,500), and I do not know yet where I can find a cent. At any rate, they have to eat. And if I do not provide a piece of bread for these youngsters, who are ‘at risk’ and also ‘dangerous’ I am seriously exposing them to harm in soul and body. This is not a question of giving a hand-out to a particular individual but of offering a piece of bread to young men who are driven by their hunger to seriously risk the loss of morality and religion.⁵⁵⁹

This is the reason behind all of Don Bosco’s undertakings and behind the popular aspect they took on: works for the masses, undertakings which aimed at reaching out and embracing the greatest number of individuals and responding to all their needs.

Chronologically, the first undertaking Don Bosco worked on was the Oratory, the Sunday location for “young people “abandoned” to their own devices: far away from their families or neglected by them; resident or immigrant workers without any fixed point of reference; young people just out of a correctional institution, apprentices looking for work; students who, because of the abrogation law issued by Charles Felix’s Regolamenti saw the so-called ‘congregations’ (Religious gatherings)⁵⁶⁰ as falling out of favour. In connection with the Oratory we should also remember the various kinds of undertakings Don Bosco initiated: such as schools accessible to the general public, which gradually took on a consistency of their own within the complex area of Don Bosco’s undertakings: schools for music and singing, schools for basic literacy, schools for general culture, evening and Sunday schools, which were only a prelude to the Day schools, hostels etc.

Don Bosco wrote later on in the Memoirs of the Oratory of singing and music: “Ever since then I came to realise that without the circulation of the song books, books to relax with, the weekend gatherings would have been like a body without the spirit.⁵⁶¹ During the winter of 1846-4 and 7, our schools gained excellent results: we had an average 300 students every evening. What gave life to our classes, besides science, was the plain-chant and our vocal music which were fostered among us at all times”.⁵⁶²

When, after 1848, Don Bosco saw that the “dangers to which the youngsters were exposed, as far as morality and religion were concerned, demanded greater efforts to defend them”, he thought it best “to add classes vocal music classes to those for piano and organ, with the instruments themselves, to the day and evening classes: a kind of nascent Philharmonic Society with Don Bosco himself as the Maestro, but always with the help of competent people.⁵⁶³ He responded to similar urgent needs several decades later, in 1871-1872 to be exact, when he organised the first elementary day schools at Valdocco. “These schools were primarily for boys”, as he explained to the mayor of Turin when he appealed to him for financial aid, “who were roaming the streets all day long due to their parents neglect or because they were poorly dressed, or were just living in laziness. They were a harm to themselves and a disturbance to the authorities in charge of public security”.⁵⁶⁴

The Associations and sodalities of various types, set up according to age and according to the different types of youngsters and various objectives, hold a relevant place in Don Bosco’s activity for youth. His natural genius created La Società dell’allegria (The Happy Company). Don Bosco’s religious tradition created the Sodalities. The need to oppose modern forms of coming together inspired Don Bosco to create the Mutual Aid Society. He profited from similar tendencies to group together with what he thought would respond to the needs of the times, by encouraging the Conferences of St Vincent de Paul, among the young.⁵⁶⁵

But the institution which is the other major work amongst Don Bosco’s best efforts along with the Oratory, is the home, which later widened its horizons to becoming a boarding school for youngsters taking on advanced studies and professional formation.⁵⁶⁶ The home would in time become a self-sufficient institution with its own workshops, schools; and a comprehensive centre providing material aid, religious and moral assistance, instruction, recreation, in short, a true centre for complete formation of the young. In certain areas the home would become the most widely spread work of the Congregation founded by Don Bosco. The relationship between home and Oratory would be reversed in a certain sense: initially, the home was an annex to the Oratory; later the Oratory was to be an institution joined to the home.⁵⁶⁷ Don Bosco identified the origins of the home in these words:

While the means to provide the youngsters with religious and literary instruction were easily organised, another much greater need appeared, needing an urgent response. Many youngsters from the city of Turin and from outside the city had the best of intentions of leading a good moral life and a life of work. But when they were asked to begin, they usually said that they had neither bread nor clothes nor place to find shelter, at least for a time... When I came to realise that any work on behalf of these youngsters would be useless if they had not been provided with shelter, then I took pains to quickly rent more and more rooms at high prices.⁵⁶⁸

Don Bosco gave a reason for the colleges or boarding schools which would be developed during the 1860s, connected with Valdocco:

The burning desire of many youngsters to have regular learning forced me to make some exceptions as far as the acceptance procedures into the home were concerned. We also accepted young men who were not really abandoned or utterly poor but willing to study, provided they showed good moral conduct and an aptitude for studies that would leave no doubt for well-founded hope of an honourable and Christian success in pursuing a scientific career.⁵⁶⁹

Then beginning from the 1860s on, various colleges and boarding Institutions were accepted by Don Bosco following regular agreements with municipalities eager to offer secondary studies to young men, from local good families. These institutions began in the city of Turin and then rapidly spread throughout Italy and beyond, in Europe and overseas, in an unending, rapid and uninterrupted chain of events: Mirabello Monferrato, Lanzo Torinese, Borgo San Martino, Cherasco, Alassio, Varazze, Marassi, Sampierdarena, Turin-Valsalice;⁵⁷⁰ then from 1875, Bordighera-Vallecrosia, Nice, Almagro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Marseille, Magliano Sabina, Albano Laziale, Ariccia, Lucca, San Benigno Canavese, Este, La Spezia, Cremona, Florence, Utrera in Spain, Paris, Rome, etc.

One of the initiatives perhaps less known and yet among Don Bosco’s most cherished and one which was to guarantee not only the continuity of his work but also the possibility of extending his Christian and educational efforts, was the promotion and formation of people ready to consecrate their lives to Christian and educational activity in the priesthood and religious life. This was Don Bosco’s interest in ecclesiastical and religious vocations.

The occasion was provided by the particular circumstances of the seminary in Turin,⁵⁷¹ but Don Bosco’s concern for vocations remained constant and even increased with the expansion of his work and wider perspectives on the needs of the young. To achieve his goal, Don Bosco founded colleges organised along the lines of minor seminaries, and at times he accepted the administration of diocesan seminaries when some bishops entrusted them to him.

For this undertaking, Don Bosco promoted charitable endowments and support; he made sacrifices to obtain hard-won exemptions from military service and from other economic burdens. As a way of supporting this initiative, he founded the Work of Mary Help of Christians for vocations to the ecclesiastical state, mostly for young-adults. This was an offshoot of the generous missionary drive which animated his religious society in 1875.⁵⁷²

Another wide-open field particularly suited to Don Bosco’s gifted approach and understanding was publishing, editorial work and book shops. Don Bosco’s written was prodigious, especially in the catechetical, religious, devotional, apologetic and hagiographical fields. But he soon widened the possibilities of spreading his publications by creating printing presses, book stores and publishing houses of ever growing proportions.⁵⁷³

Don Bosco never overlooked his concern for the schools, as proven by his publication on The metrical-decimal system (1849) nor his concern for the entertainment field, as proven by the production of short stories and even by drama: The House of fortune (1865). He also began a newspaper, short-lived, entitled The friend of youth (1848-1849).

Along with the above, Don Bosco set up the structures required for periodicals and book series. These were successful in the field of popular culture and with Catholic schools. This is shown by: the Catholic readings which began in 1853,⁵⁷⁴ the Library for Italian Youth, (1869-1885, 204 small volumes), Selected readings taken from Latin writers and for the use of schools (from 1866)⁵⁷⁵, The Salesian Bulletin (from 1877), A short collection of dramatic readings for educational institutions and families (from 1885).

This literary activity was joined by a rich production of books and booklets of a controversial nature for “the defence the Catholic faith against the proselytising of reformed churches, and against the anticlerical press”. These books and booklets were widely distributed and at a very root of pastoral and educational initiatives such as the foundation of oratories, homes and churches. The main objective was always the salvation of the young and the ordinary folk: “To wrest the souls of poor youngsters from the jaws of heresy”.⁵⁷⁶

In addition to the above, Don Bosco was also a generous and courageous builder of churches and chapels, and centres for pastoral ministry among the people. We are dealing with something which finds its humble roots in the tiny chapel made from the Pinardi Shed in 1846, followed, years later, by the Church of St Francis de Sales and, a few years later still, by the Church of Mary Help of Christians. The larger churches, such as the Church of St John the Evangelist in Turin, and the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome, kept Don Bosco busy for more than 10 years of worries and hardships. Everywhere you go you see that church, oratory, school, home are Don Bosco’s inseparable institutions, in Turin as in Rome, at Vallecrosia as in Nice, Buenos Aires, Marseille, and La Spezia.⁵⁷⁷

Reference to Don Bosco’s activity with sacred buildings brings us back to the constant and often secret work he carried out, from the first to the last day of his priestly life, namely the work of building morally upright and religiously fervent consciences. He did this for the most varied types and people who were looked down on most. A treatise on Don Bosco the confessor, spiritual director, guide of souls, would be equal in size to any reconstruction of his activity as an educator. It would cover his relationship with individuals, his preaching to the masses, his specialised talks given during Retreats. At any rate, this activity penetrates and pervades his activity as an educator, shifting it from the human level to moments and reflections of a clearly Christian character.

Don Bosco also carried out enormous and constant activity, for some 30 years, as the founder of the Society of St Francis de Sales, made up of priests and brothers, and of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary help of Christians, with work similar to that of the Salesians, for girls, and The Pious Union of the Salesian Cooperators. These foundations followed several clear stages: their setting up, the juridical stage, canonical recognition, the formation and animation of their members and finally, their consolidation and expansion.

This work was carried out at the same time and in close interaction with the development, direction, administration of all the other educational and pastoral institutions. It was accompanied by a frenetic search for the necessary charitable support, with consequent letters written in all directions and personal relationships with benefactors, private and public, and finally with ecclesiastics and lay people.

By comparison with these main activities Don Bosco’s sporadic negotiations between political and ecclesiastical authorities were marginal but not irrelevant. These occurred in order to work out solutions to some difficult situation juridical and pastoral problems in Italy.⁵⁷⁸

And finally, we should not forget his daring action carried out from a distance on behalf of migrants and the Missions. From 1875 onwards, missionary activity gave a wider breath of Catholicity to a work with universal potential but still enclosed within national boundaries. Don Bosco lived this missionary experience with exceptional enthusiasm. It gave him, during the time of his advanced maturity, almost a tinge of a second youth. But in truth, Don Bosco went back to the same refrain: “The only desire we have is to work in pastoral ministry, especially on behalf of poor and neglected youth. Catechism classes, schools, sermons, festive recreational parks, homes, boarding schools and institutions...all these make up our main harvest...⁵⁷⁹

What deeply motivated Don Bosco’s activity was charity: the love of God and neighbour, coherently anchored to a Catholic Faith and a priestly vocation almost native to him. There are some personality traits however, which gave Don Bosco’s consecration and charitable action some typical signs and elements, to the point where they became part of the Preventive System he adopted.

Highlighting these traits is unavoidable for anyone who wants to understand and retrieve the main aspects of his experience as an educator, since this experience is inseparably bound up with and almost identical to his personality and lifestyle.