Prevention, not repression
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- 4. At the Convitto Ecclesiastico
3. Seminary life in ChieriThe 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 19th 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.
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