(ANS - Rome) - A book-interview with a difference: Don Bosco Today was launched last week by the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, in Madrid and in Rome.
by Fr Gian Luigi Pussino, SDB
There is always the risk that an interview may prove tedious and less than compelling. However, the Rector Major says this book is "not for specialists. It tells the story in a way that reaches out to those who are far away from the religious world and the Salesian world. (...) Dialoguing with a journalist allows him to talk a bit about everything that is relevant, with an eye at the same time on us who are educators in the Salesian family. In that sense, yes, I think there is a connection between us and Don Bosco, because the question is always: 'What would Don Bosco do today?' "
At the launch in Rome, Roberto Rusconi (Professor of the History of Christianity at the Roma Tre University) commented that the twelve chapters of the book contain "what we have today and what we can see, which is just the latest stage in a journey that began on a yesterday not too far away in time, and, more importantly, precedes the stages that will be present tomorrow, that some of us will have the privilege to see."
He went on to say that Don Bosco was one of the "priests who played a leading role in the Catholic social action of those decades (...). He did not have to wait for the exhortations of Pope Francis to go out to the marginalized areas." Those marginalized areas included the places that the Salesians have been going to since 1875: "They embarked like so many others and shared the difficult and tiring life of migrants. And they pushed further south, among the native population."
He said that Chapter 11 of the interview on Don Bosco the communicator, shows that "for Don Bosco the press was a mission, another mission, and he wanted it to be considered as such”. Professor Rusconi also noted that in the study of the Catholic press of the 19th Century Don Bosco emerges as a figure of great importance.
Professor Rusconi concluded his talk with a quote from the Rector Major: "Like Don Bosco, we as educators need to focus on boys and girls, adolescents and young people, the most valuable part of society as Don Bosco himself was convinced. Therefore, the decisions we make must always be in their favour."
Published 27/04/2015
