austraLasia 1593
....The Pope and the Bishop!
ROME: 23rd June 2006 -- Now, you think this is going to be about Benedict and his Secretary of State to be, don't you. Other than the fact that yesterday's small hint came to reality a little more rapidly than expected (the pundits were saying 29th June), what follows is not, indeed, about this Pope and this Bishop, but about Don Bosco, His Pope and His Bishop, the title of the recently published work by Arthur Lenti SDB from Berkeley. The University Press from the UPS (known as LAS) has published the item this month.
Diligent readers of the Berkeley-based Journal of Salesian Studies will already have read the contents of the work, but will need a long memory, since it draws from articles published as far back as 1993. The real clue to the contents of this collection of previously published articles, edited to come together in an attractive 252 page volume as part of the Studi Storici Collana from LAS, comes in the subtitle only visible once one turns to the title page: The Trials of a Founder. The work covers two major periods in Don Bosco's life from 1858 until 1882. The second of these, the conflict with Gastaldi, is broken into two parts. In total, then, the book contains just three chapters.
The first period, 1858-1871, contains many letters of Don Bosco's to Pope Pius IX at a time when the Holy Father and the Church in Italy were undergoing many trials. They offer an insight into the relationship between Don Bosco and his Pope, as the former agonised over the religious situation of his own world and the Church. Each letter is placed in brief historical context then commented on. The author wants us to understand Don Bosco's political and religious attitudes and their significance for our understanding of our Founder in the context of the Church and his world. The great value for the English reader is obvious - he or she is able to read this material in fluent English! Lenti builds on the work of Francesco Motto, who retrieved these original texts, previously unpublished, from various archives. His comments, however, go beyond Motto. They are very much the classroom teacher at work, explaining in readily acceptable and balanced language, the intricacies of textual interpretation.
The second period, the 'Gastaldi' period, is handled a little differently, since it deals with the entire period and a range of clashes - over ordinations, over the Constitutions. Here Lenti establishes a framework for understanding the events. It is good at this stage to remember the title of the book: His Pope and His Bishop. Knowing by now the relationship Don Bosco had with 'His Pope', it is not hard to guess that he relied on this too, when it came to difficulties with 'His Bishop'. One picks up or is reminded of many interesting little facets of the scene - the fact that Gastaldi had been a religious for a short period (Rosminian), but was released from his vows; the partly devious ploy by Don Bosco of getting Rua ordained deacon by shifting him to another diocese, the fact that Don Bosco was taking in seminarians who had left or were dismissed from the diocesan seminary. Lenti helps us to understand that maybe both players in the conflict could play rough if they needed to!
In his preface, Arthur Lenti thanks two people who have been particularly significant in helping him get to the point of publication - his editor, Fr Ralph Murphy, and his good friend Fr Frank Moloney who provided the impetus and some of the connections to move to publication as soon as possible.
One final comment - it is to be hoped that further works by this author are in the pipeline. Is it not time to be thinking of one of the Creative Commons licenses to get these works moving and to ensure an even wider use amongst the people who need them most - you and I, the ordinary English language Salesian readers?
___________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm A separate service entirely is called F/OSSERVATORE to help us keep abreast of trends in the digital world.
....The Pope and the Bishop!
ROME: 23rd June 2006 -- Now, you think this is going to be about Benedict and his Secretary of State to be, don't you. Other than the fact that yesterday's small hint came to reality a little more rapidly than expected (the pundits were saying 29th June), what follows is not, indeed, about this Pope and this Bishop, but about Don Bosco, His Pope and His Bishop, the title of the recently published work by Arthur Lenti SDB from Berkeley. The University Press from the UPS (known as LAS) has published the item this month.
Diligent readers of the Berkeley-based Journal of Salesian Studies will already have read the contents of the work, but will need a long memory, since it draws from articles published as far back as 1993. The real clue to the contents of this collection of previously published articles, edited to come together in an attractive 252 page volume as part of the Studi Storici Collana from LAS, comes in the subtitle only visible once one turns to the title page: The Trials of a Founder. The work covers two major periods in Don Bosco's life from 1858 until 1882. The second of these, the conflict with Gastaldi, is broken into two parts. In total, then, the book contains just three chapters.
The first period, 1858-1871, contains many letters of Don Bosco's to Pope Pius IX at a time when the Holy Father and the Church in Italy were undergoing many trials. They offer an insight into the relationship between Don Bosco and his Pope, as the former agonised over the religious situation of his own world and the Church. Each letter is placed in brief historical context then commented on. The author wants us to understand Don Bosco's political and religious attitudes and their significance for our understanding of our Founder in the context of the Church and his world. The great value for the English reader is obvious - he or she is able to read this material in fluent English! Lenti builds on the work of Francesco Motto, who retrieved these original texts, previously unpublished, from various archives. His comments, however, go beyond Motto. They are very much the classroom teacher at work, explaining in readily acceptable and balanced language, the intricacies of textual interpretation.
The second period, the 'Gastaldi' period, is handled a little differently, since it deals with the entire period and a range of clashes - over ordinations, over the Constitutions. Here Lenti establishes a framework for understanding the events. It is good at this stage to remember the title of the book: His Pope and His Bishop. Knowing by now the relationship Don Bosco had with 'His Pope', it is not hard to guess that he relied on this too, when it came to difficulties with 'His Bishop'. One picks up or is reminded of many interesting little facets of the scene - the fact that Gastaldi had been a religious for a short period (Rosminian), but was released from his vows; the partly devious ploy by Don Bosco of getting Rua ordained deacon by shifting him to another diocese, the fact that Don Bosco was taking in seminarians who had left or were dismissed from the diocesan seminary. Lenti helps us to understand that maybe both players in the conflict could play rough if they needed to!
In his preface, Arthur Lenti thanks two people who have been particularly significant in helping him get to the point of publication - his editor, Fr Ralph Murphy, and his good friend Fr Frank Moloney who provided the impetus and some of the connections to move to publication as soon as possible.
One final comment - it is to be hoped that further works by this author are in the pipeline. Is it not time to be thinking of one of the Creative Commons licenses to get these works moving and to ensure an even wider use amongst the people who need them most - you and I, the ordinary English language Salesian readers?
___________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm A separate service entirely is called F/OSSERVATORE to help us keep abreast of trends in the digital world.
