austraLasia #3209
OUD-HEVERLEE (Belgium) 22 March 2013 -- It has been a long time in coming, at least in English, but we offer this 224 page study for the first time in English, in line with other items that have recently been translated into English and help us to better understand Don Bosco's pedagogy. Belgian-born Fr Rik Biesmans originally published this work as part of the Don Bosco Studies Series (no. 18) in Belgium, where there has been a lively scene of study and application of Salesian pedagogical insights for many years - especially in view of the extensive lay formation projects this province (BEN) has had in place now for some time. The original was in Dutch (or more correctly, probably Flemish).
All Salesians know about the 'Letter from Rome'. Some might be confused to hear that there were at least two 'letters', one for the boys at the Oratory and the other for the adults, and not everyone would know that there were a number of drafts of one or the other and that we have no evidence that Don Bosco ever wrote it/them. In all probability it was (they were) written by Fr Lemoyne - a view that Braido and now Biesmans, hold to firmly from all the evidence at hand. But this in no way detracts from the reality that the material faithfully reflects Don Bosco, his praxis and his theory and his particular mindset while in Rome at an elderly age and longing to return to Valdocco and the boys and Salesians there. In fact, the letter(s) certainly deserve the epithet of 'Magna Carta'. That is Biesman's view and hence the title of the work.
But there are questions that have always intrigued or even bothered those who have studied these letters to some extent. Why did the letter to the adults only surface around 1920? Was it in fact a circular letter that for one or other reasons never got printed? How much of Don Bosco actually shows up in the letter(s) and how much of Lemoyne, if in fact he was the one who wrote them?
The study is a detailed one and runs to two volumes. For now just the first volume, 224 pages of it, is in English.
Should anyone wish to be in touch with Fr Biesmans, he has no difficulty with English, French, Flemish, German, Italian, Dutch...
MAGNA CARTA of the Salesian Educational System
OUD-HEVERLEE (Belgium) 22 March 2013 -- It has been a long time in coming, at least in English, but we offer this 224 page study for the first time in English, in line with other items that have recently been translated into English and help us to better understand Don Bosco's pedagogy. Belgian-born Fr Rik Biesmans originally published this work as part of the Don Bosco Studies Series (no. 18) in Belgium, where there has been a lively scene of study and application of Salesian pedagogical insights for many years - especially in view of the extensive lay formation projects this province (BEN) has had in place now for some time. The original was in Dutch (or more correctly, probably Flemish).
All Salesians know about the 'Letter from Rome'. Some might be confused to hear that there were at least two 'letters', one for the boys at the Oratory and the other for the adults, and not everyone would know that there were a number of drafts of one or the other and that we have no evidence that Don Bosco ever wrote it/them. In all probability it was (they were) written by Fr Lemoyne - a view that Braido and now Biesmans, hold to firmly from all the evidence at hand. But this in no way detracts from the reality that the material faithfully reflects Don Bosco, his praxis and his theory and his particular mindset while in Rome at an elderly age and longing to return to Valdocco and the boys and Salesians there. In fact, the letter(s) certainly deserve the epithet of 'Magna Carta'. That is Biesman's view and hence the title of the work.
But there are questions that have always intrigued or even bothered those who have studied these letters to some extent. Why did the letter to the adults only surface around 1920? Was it in fact a circular letter that for one or other reasons never got printed? How much of Don Bosco actually shows up in the letter(s) and how much of Lemoyne, if in fact he was the one who wrote them?
The study is a detailed one and runs to two volumes. For now just the first volume, 224 pages of it, is in English.
Should anyone wish to be in touch with Fr Biesmans, he has no difficulty with English, French, Flemish, German, Italian, Dutch...
