August

VALDOCCO : A PEDAGOGICAL LABORATORY

“The Salesian Oratory: a perfect machine in which every means of communication, from games to music, from the stage to the printing press, is made use of with the minimum of fuss, and re-cycled and modified when the communication comes from outside … The genius of the Oratory is that it prescribes for those who attend a moral and religious code of conduct, but then accepts even the one who don’t follow it. With this approach Don Bosco’s project made its impact throughout society in the period of the industrial revolution”¹.

It is interesting that when Signor Pancrazio Soave was dealing with Don Bosco, on behalf of Giuseppe Pinardi, he turned up offering him a piece of land for a ‘laboratory’. Don Bosco explained that he was looking for an ‘oratory’, but he stayed on in that field with its lean-to-shed, and he was to make Valdocco a veritable laboratory where he invented, tested, modified and put into practice his educational ideas, his Preventive System.

The Oratory totally filled the life of Don Bosco. It had its first expressions/origins in the games and in the meetings on Sundays in the Becchi fields and in the ‘Cheerful Society.’ It then developed during the first years of his priesthood. In Valdocco the Oratory flourished with a multiplicity of educational and pastoral initiatives and activities.

Reading over again in the light of faith the pastoral path Don Bosco followed, the “Memoirs of the Oratory of Saint Francis of Sales”, one sees that in the meetings with the youngsters of the Oratory, the foundations were being laid of a project, enterprises took off and a whole style matured.²

For this reason, at the beginning Don Bosco’s schemes were called ‘The Work of the Oratories’, and even after a series of transformations the Salesian Mother House kept the name of the ‘Valdocco Oratory.’ But in what do the typical features of this oratorian experience consist? The 21st General Chapter of the Salesians gives this reply: the personal rapport of ‘friendship’ between the Salesian and the youngster and the brotherly ‘presence’ of the educator among the boys; the creating of an environment to facilitate such a meeting; varied activities to fill leisure time; an ‘open door’ missionary approach to all the lads who want to come in; a welcome for everyone, but with a proper attention to individuals and groups; a gradual formation of the whole youthful community through a festive educational approach; systematic vocational catechesis, involvement in solidarity, group activities, and all this with the intention of forming a strong human and Christian personality .³

Don Bosco is profoundly convinced of being called by God to the ministry of being a pastor of the young; he therefore feels inspired and guided by Him. At the same time he is acutely aware of what the times urgently required and attentive to the practical situation in which his youngsters found themselves. Therefore in the Oratory, we find Don Bosco, rather that the brilliant manager, the creative genius who knows how to read situations and respond to them, moved by pastoral charity. The gradual historical evolution of the Valdocco Oratory in its wide and manifold forms bears outstanding witness to this.

The typical way of life of Don Bosco and his boys in Valdocco is then proposed as the abiding model for the future and the fundamental criterion for discernment and renewal, for dynamic fidelity in all Salesian activities and works. Obviously it is not a question of reproducing this sort of experience just as it was - the geographical, historical and cultural circumstances are not the same – but rather of considering it as the matrix, the synthesis, the sum total of all the genial educative and apostolic creations of the holy Founder, the mature fruit of all his efforts.⁴

How well the latest film on Don Bosco captures this creative atmosphere of the first Oratory!⁵ From among his boys come the first Salesian Priests, the first Salesian Brothers, the first Salesian missionaries, the first Salesian Bishop and Cardinal, his successor, the first young saint. With fruits like these can you perhaps imagine a better ‘pedagogical and pastoral laboratory’?

Even today we need to take our cue from the Oratory, giving this word its full significance, with the fascination of the early years. The Oratory in fact is the paradigm for every work that wants to be, at one and the same time: a home that welcomes, and a family, especially for those who don’t have one; a parish that evangelises and presents Jesus to us as the Way, the Truth and the Life, who relies on us and who is able to fill our life with purpose; a school that prepares for life and is available to the one who would find difficulties elsewhere; a playground in which to meet one’s friends and enjoy oneself as a healthy young person⁶. These terms are very significant for Salesians, for whom they provide evocative memories of sensitivities, attitudes, convictions, programmes, ways of being present.

Modern day culture needs the Salesian charism; the mission has its demands; the field of action is great and the world of youth immense. The challenges are pressing and a response cannot be lacking. But certainly, creativity cannot be exercised at all costs and in any way. An intelligent discernment process is needed to weigh up the situations, and a courageous heart required in order to remain faithful to this ‘oratorian criterion’, since we are convinced that it was in Valdocco that Don Bosco realized his passion for the salvation of youth. “Indeed we can say that Don Bosco was clearly aware that in the Oratory he was giving a full response to God’s call, and realizing in it the purpose of his life.”⁷