Last year Fr Nesty Impelido from FIN provided a rough translation of one fascianting chapter from said tome: "Fr Braga's Memoirs". It needed some further close attention to bring it up to speed, but that has now been done and in fact is attached to this copy of austraLasia, along with a brochure which you could easily print off which summarises his life and provides the wherewithall for a Novena. Feel free to disseminate this material.
Diocesan Tribunal: Informative Process
The Diocesan and initial stage of the Cause for betification and canonisation is already underway. During this first phase the Postulation established by the diocese, or religious institute, to promote the Cause must gather testimony about the life and virtues of the Servant of God. Also, the public and private writings must be collected and examined. This documentary phase of the process can take many years and concludes with the judgment of the diocesan tribunal, and the ultimate decision of the bishop, that the heroic virtues of the Servant of God have or have not been demonstrated. The results, along with the bound volumes of documentation, or Acta (Acts), are communicated to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.
In the light of this, and given that Fr Braga died only in 1971, it means that there are a good number of Salesians who will still remember him in person. Tha Tassinari volume, only in Italian, will have limnited readership in our Region, hence the initial and now completed work of translation of a small part of that book makes useful - and one has to say, very interesting reading. Here are a few excerpts:
"...It was my saintly mother, whom I loved but never got to know, who first sowed the seeds of a vocation. She nurtured this through constant prayer and had already offered me to Our Lady at the age of two saved, though somewhat scorched, by a fire." These, by the way, are the only lines in his Memoirs that give any hint to his very early existence. Hagiography tends to diminish some of the tougher realities - that his father had abandoned the family and fled to Argentina, and that his mother was under psychiatric care - and that he himself, at two years of age, ended up in the family fireplace at one stage!
"As well as the five hours of school each day I was in charge of the St Aloysius festive oratory under the supervision of Fr Cimatti". One can see that already as a practical trainee, he was destined by Providence for missionary work in the East!
"Though a soldier, I continued to live as a Salesian, helping everyone, happily giving out permissions, helping miscreants avoid punishment. I was happy to have saved one from the firing squad, a certain Pietro Ponzio of Turin, who had assaulted the lieutenant with his bayonet while he was inspecting them". Fr Braga was a sergeant and for all practical purposes, though never officially, a military chaplain on the Front in World War I. This part makes fascinating reading. "I arrived in China on 29 September 1919, at 9 in the morning. There were nine of us missionaries. Fr Louis Versiglia, Salesian superior and future proto-martyr, came to fetch us from the boat and greet us. After a warm embrace, he announced that the first Salesian in China, Father Ludovico Olive, had just died of cholera. He had earlier been miraculously cured by Don Bosco and was the son of the great benefactor Olive of Marseilles.This was not encouraging news, since we had arrived full of life only to receive the news of the death of who one who worked for the mission". He spent a further 34 years in China, establishing Salesian presence from north to south, and extending into Indochina (Hanoi...). "I was asked by the bishops to visit the provinces of Shenxi and Hunan, to found works at Changsha and Hang Haw. The zealous Franciscans requested our help at Tzing Tao, China's Sorrento. The Apostolic Nuncio resident at Nangking, and Archbishop Paolo Yu Pin asked us several times to open works at Kon Moon, Kuei Lin and Nan Ning. Everyone wanted us to open technical schools. This stupendous and promising expansion of our works in China was cut short by the advent of the new direction brought on by Mao Tze Tung". All this promising work (and his description of life under the Japanese, then under Chiang Kai Shek makes riveting reading, was cut short by the advent of Communism. "In 1952, I was relieved of the weight of the China Province. In 1953, I was sent to the Philippines. It was a very painful detachment. In the Philippines too, I found much work and a truly enticing future: a situation which invited work and presented a great future. It was the work especially of his Excellency Archbishop Piani, Apostolic Delegate for 26 years, who made the names of Mary Help of Christians and Don Bosco so loved, known and invoked. Eight houses were founded over a period of eight years. Within this period, land was obtained for a further three works. We are here in a Catholic country, with an enormous lack of clergy and in a young republic that wants to industrialize. This requires maximum effort to find vocations and put up technical schools". The final phase of his life. He starts all over again in the Philippines.
