Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 46, 14 March 1884, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD

Now, when the question of Education is so promitraching nently before the public, and the degree in which uhdke religion should be allowed to influence the secula T difficulties, training of children is being generally discussed' the following details concerning a great educational work done by an Italian ecclesiastic should be of particular interest. — No secularist even, who entertains any sincere desire for the elevation of the poorer masses, or who has at heart the good of his fellow-creatnres, can fail to sympathise with Don Bosco's labours, and the advocates of a Christian education will find in them a strong argument in support of the cause they approve of. ■In them, also, will be found the solution of such difficulties as those which are now afflicting the better classes in England, through the exposure made of the miserable and disgraceful condition of the poor of London. We take the details we summarise from an article by Lady Herbert of Lea in the Month for January. Don Bosco, then, who had already been impressed with the desire of saving outcast children because of the numbers and condition of those whom he found in the Turin prisons, which he visited in connection with, his missionary work — began his educational career by undertaking to teach a boy, whom the sacristan of a certain church had asked to serve his Mass, boxing the boy's ears on his refusal and thus attracting the attention of the priest to him. The boy was found, on being questioned, to be ignorant of even the first elements of Christianity, but, after a little time, he had been so won upon by his teacher's goodness that he begged leave to bring with him to share in his lessons a few of his companions, and before the year was out Don Bosco had upwards of a hundred of these neglected children who came to him every evening to be taught tke first principles of religion — he being joined in 1844 by the Abbe Borel, who became bis fellow-labourer. By this time, moreover, the number of his pupils had so increased that be was obliged to apply to the Archbishop for a place in which to receive them, and, on his Grace's recommendation, a pious lady gave him two rooms for the purpose, and he conferred upon his institution the name of " The Oratory of St. Francis de Sales," his co-labourers being called " Salesians " The rooms, however, were not left long in bis possession, and the lady who had given them, from some unexplained reason, revoked the gift, thus obliging him to remove his pupils to a church, an inconvenient place for the purpose, obtained again by the Archbishop's help. But there were now three hundred children; and when they were turned out to play in the small public square in front of the building the residents objected, and the Syndic compolled them to move away. The move was to another church where the children's playground was under the windows of the presbytery, and the old rector, the very next day, unable to endure the noise, appealed to the Municipality, who drove them away again, and for some time they were forced to hold their classes in the open airobtaining, at length, three rooms in a lodging house—where first Don Bosco was interfered with by Count Cavour, who pretended to discern a political motive in the matter, then, by the secular clergy, who were offended at their co-operation's not having been invited— and finally by the other tenants of the house, who complained to the landlord of the noise, and insisted on the expulsion of the scholars. "'Our good Godwill not treat His poor children worse than the little birds !' exclaimed poor Don Bosco ; and, failing to find a house, he hired a field, in which was a little hillock or grassy knell, which became his pulpit, his confessional, and all ! On the Sunday morning the boys flocked very early to this primitive oratory. Don Bosco on his grassy seat, with his arm passed tenderly round the neck of each child kneeling at his feet in turn, heard their confessions, then took them to the nearest church, and brought them back to the field where a merry breakfast followed, enlivened by droll stories from him, and then they all sat round him while he taught them their catechism, and gave them a simple instruction on the gospel of the day. ' But even in their field the unfortunate assemblage were not left at peace, and on a complaint by the owners that the children's

feet injured the grass they were tnrned out — Don Bosco, at the same time losing the directorship .of a charitable institution which was almost his only means of .Vfd.ag. His friends, then, even including the Abbe Borel, advised k;gi to relinquish the attempt, as, they said, Divine Providence had e'jj&iently not called him to the work. '' ' Divine Providence," sai Don Bosco, with a sudden inspiration. 1 Listen to me. God has E>;nu me these poor children, and never will I desert one of them. I have a ' invincible certainty, that) He will give me inHisown good time that w ic!i is necessary ; and as no one will let me hire a house, I will build jtio with the assistance of Mary, Help of Christians. Yon shall see that I shall have some day a vast building with workshops and gardens, and a fine chapel, and many priests, who will devole themselves to the instruction of these poor bjys, and take special care of those who have a religious vocation.' " This declaration was altogether too much for the good people to. whom it was addressed and Don Bosco was pronounced mad, and an attempt made to confine him in a lunatic asylum. Two priests arrived one day with a carriage, which they invited him to enter, but he politely refused to take precedence of them. "Finding he would not yield, they got into the carriage, when Don Bosco, instead of following them, shut the door quickly, and in a loud voice called out to the coachman : ' Drive straight to the Asylum.' Now, the coachman bad been warned to start at the first signal, and so, flogging his horses, he started off instantly for the mad-house, in spite of the cries of the priests who were inside the carriage. The gates were open, the director and several warders were waiting at the door. No sooner did the two priests get out than they were Eeized, in spite of their fury and protestations, till the director exclaimed to the warders : ' They are both worse than I was led to expect, take them to their cells ; add, if necessary, apply a douche or a strait waistcoat.' These unworthy priests were only released through their lucky identification by the chaplain — but the lesson was enough, and no attempt was ever again made to shut up one whom the Turin people rightly called ' the father of the abandoned little ones.' " The old saying, however, is that when things come to the wor&t they must mend, and while Don Bosco and his children were holding ttieir last meeting in the field, a man came up and told the priest of a shed which he could hire. " Don Bosco followed him. It was a bare stable, rather than a shed, and so low in some parts that even a boy could not stand upright in it. He remarked this to Pancrazio, as the man was called, who forthwith answered : ' Is that your only objection ? It is easily removed. I will dig down into the soil as deep as you like, and put you a good plank floor, so that it will be quite dry. Then I have have a good voice, and will assist you in the singing ; and I have a lamp which. I can lend you for your chapel.' Don Boeco was touched by his zeal, and asked him if it could be done by the following Sunday. . The man joyfully assented ; the rent was fixed at 320 francs ; a lease was drawn up on the spot ; and Don Bosco returned to the field to communicate the good news to his children who all said the Rosary in thanksgiving." And thus was Valdocco, the present oratory, founded.

The anxieties and labour which he had undergone A well resulted in a severe illness for Don Bosco, and the dbsebved doctors had given him up, when the Abb 6 Borel S uccbss, said to him : " 'Don Bosco, ask for your recovery from God .' Don Bosco shook his> head and said, IWe must abandon ourselves to His holy will. 1 ' But your poor children,' exclaimed the Abbe Borel, ' how can you leave them 1 For their sakes, I implore you to ask for this grace from our Lord.' Then the dying priest looked up and murmured : ♦ You are right. If it be thy good pleasure, 0 merciful Lord restore me to health— non recuso laborem,' And, in fact, from that very moment be got better ; and the very next day was declared convalecent.'" He was sent, nevertheless, for change of air to his native place, and there his mother resolved to accompany him to Turin and share his labours. They set out on foot, meeting a priest on the road who subscribed towards their undertaking his only possession, that is a watch, which was immediately sold to procure necessaries for the new home. " There was the rent to pay ; one or two chairs and a table to be bought ; and then, the urgent needs of the children 1 One had no place and was literally starving ; another had no covering but what nature had

given him ; and so on at every turn. Don- Bosco determined to sell a few bits of ground and a vineyard, which were his sole patrimony ; and bis mother not to be outdone in generosity, sent for her linen and trinkets-— marriage presents which she had treasured all her life — and without hesitation sold one half for the children, and devoted the rest to adorning the altar of the Blessed Virgin." Other noble women also after a time gave their aid, and rendered invaluable services, and the institution was improved,— Don Bosco creating " students " who were the most promising of his scholars, and to whom h« gave special instructions on condition that they in turn should teach others. "To teach oneself is one of the best ways to learn and bis plan succeeded so, well that his students became a nuraefy of future professors and priests, vocations developing among them in proportion as their interest in the children incieased. The night-classes also flourished to a surprising degree. But this again gave umbrage to the authorities ; and the Marquis de Cavour would certainly have closed the oratory had it not been for the interference of the King himself, who sent Count Coflegno, an old Minister of State and a Privy Councillor, to tell thefjjfome Minister that 'he would not have Don Bosco interfered with.' He also sent 300 francs to him on New Year's Day, writing on it with bis own hand : • For Don Bosco's little rogues.' " Don Bosco, however, was still troubled by the fact that so many of his boys had no homed, and were obliged to spend the nights at haphazard wherever they could stow themselves away, and at last one evening when a poor lad came soaked to the skin and half dead with hunger to his door a beginning was made of taking boarders in, and soon, while a crowd of 800 day scholars made it necessary to open another oratory — there were fifteen of these ) while fifty boys were fed daily. " All this gave an enormous increase of work to Margaret (Don Bosco's mother), but she never complained. After her arduous labours in the kitchen, she found time to mend and make their clothes ; while Don Bosco himself pumped the water, cut the wood, swept the floors, lit the fire, pealed the potatoes, and even on some occasions himself cooked the polenta. He learned also tailoring and shoemaking, and if his trousers were not of the most fashionable cut, at any rat 9 they were strong and well sown." As to the manner of life led by the priest and his pupils it was the simplest possible ; their meals were taken out of wooden bowls, each pupil keeping his spoon in his pocket, and they sat here and there a 8 they could find a place, Don Bosco, who fared as all. the rest, telling some amusing stories the while. Of the actual condition of the institution thus founded we arc given the following account. "Of the workshops, we will only speak of the printing-press, which has already furnished many hundred works of education, morals, and piety, and many written by Don Bosco himself. There is, likewise, a foundry for the letters, an elaborate machine for glazing the paper> a bookbinding establishment and another for photography and phototypes — in fact, everything that is required for the production of books, and even of fine editions. All other trades have likewise their distinct workshops, masters, and apprentices. Foundations of the same kind have been made throughout Italy, where there are already seventeen houses, there are also four in France, three in Spain, and twelve in South America. More than a hundred thousand children are now gathered in these homes, and upwards of six thousand priests are labouring amongst them. Besides this, thousands of savages have been baptised, and a Congregation of Sisters (also founded by Don Bosco) are teaching the Patagonian children and helping to evange. lize the nations who know not God." The especial attention, more, over, given to the instruction of the boys in music has produced many organists and musical 'professors.

In our last issue we quoted from an American THE newspaper an amusing dialogue which pretended PANAMA CANAL, to represent that carried on between a " sensational " preacher and a deacon of his Church as to what popular subject the parson could choose for the text of his next Sunday's Bermon, Many subjects were mentioned by the puzzled divine, who had found that his congregation were no longer to be edified, or sinners reached, by the expounding of Holy Scrip, ture, — and among them was the "Panama Canal question." We ourselves, of course, have no pretensions to decide as to what subject might be suited to the needs of a sensational preacher, and still less, if possible, to judge as to tbe tastes of a sensationalized congregation, or the distance from truth of a sinner's mind, but so much, at least, we may say that the question of the Panama canal could be discussed in a very interesting manner, and in one, perhaps that would as well have seme remote bearing on morality — if not on religion. The Panama canal, meantime, is not of a similar nature with that of the Jordan Valley for whose construction the Sultan is reported to have granted a firman the other day, and which is admirably calculated, as we have indeed seen, to form a topic upon which all the prophets j may display their eloquence — teaching as usual those old Hebrew ones of the Bible what they meant to say— or what they ought to I have meant to say if they did not. We can, however, fancy that a sensational preacher might utter a very pretty denunciation of the fact, for example, that bo glorious and scrlpturally established a

power as England should have inherited a colouy in the neighbour- . hood of the canal from a mere buccaneer— that it, from Wallace whose name may be found corrupted into that of Belize. It mighty moreover, enter into the discussion as to how far a country that is the great pattern to the world of the power to be acquired by an unbiassed exercise of the right of private interpretation, and a rigid adherence to the principles adopted from a constant study of the Bible— and an understanding of it not conferred upon the ungodly , should, in spite of various treaties, retain its hold upon one or two points commanding the entrances to the canal-r-consideiing that the obligations of treaties so made are very strict and may not be broken without due cause. In violation of more than one treaty made with Spain, nevertheless, England holds the island of Ruatan, and in disregard of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty she lays claim to certam naval stations. As we have said, however, it is not within onr province to choose a fit subject for a sensational sermon, and even much less are we qualified to compose a sermon to be delivered on such a subject so as to " reach sinners," and therefore it is impossible for us to make any attempt at conjecturing how the sensational preacher would deal with the matter although, doubtless, he would make it like anything else, the grounds of deep and edifying teaching. To the ordinary mind there, nevertheless, appears to be a good deal in the state of affairs alluded to that may require consideration and that , perhaps, is destined at no distant day to come very prominently before the world— that is destined to be of particular interest to these colonies, which will be influenced in no unimportant extent by the construction of the Panama canal and much concerned to have it left a free highway, or one at least in the possession of friendly hands. — That a war, meantime, should arise between England and America with respect to the command of this canal, as thiugs are at present, seems very unlikely. America in the present condition of her navy would enter upon such a war on too unequal terms — and unless she could secure tne alliance of France, whose fleet united to hers, according to competent English authority, would be a match for that of England, she would have but a poor chance of success. Nor is there much probability that within the century the American fleet will make a very formidable figure on the seas, for, although the President's message has recommended its improvement, and we shall, no doubt, witness some effort made in that direction ere long, the resources of the country are against the accomplishment of anything of a very marked importance. Competent seamen are wanting, in fact, to the Republic, and not only that, but the school wherein they may be trained is not at hand, for, whatever may otherwise be the opinion as to the benefits conferred, or the losses entailed upon the States by the protective system in vogue there, it cannot be denied that one of its results has been to destroy the country's merchant navy, and American boys, as a rule, have been obliged to turn their energies to some other outlet. An efficient American fleet, then, lies in the far future— if even the future may contain its potentiality, and there doas not arise that fierce contest between capital and labour, and all the fuiious turmoil that Lord Macaulay predicted for the twentieth century in the country alluded to, and which must mar and destroy its civilisation. The English Government, therefore, are probably acting with their eyes open in retaining their hold upon desirable positions at the entrance of tbe Panama canal, or securing new positions there as the case may be, at the risk of incurring the anger of the States. And even if a seneational preacher, especially an American, might find in the breach of treaties something to declaim against, have we not long since recognised that in everything relating to the policy of the State— to the govern- • ment of dependencies, or the welfare of the country, the end justifies the means— the motto is, as we know, only detestable when placed by evangelist or atheist in the mouths of Jesuit teachers. At any rate, whatever preachers might find to condemn, it will be agreeable to these colonies of ours to have the full assurance that the m p tb ® r country exercises, and will maintain, a full control over both the canals by which thase Southern seas are connected with those of the Northern hemisphere.

Of the manner in which Don Bosco manages his A boys the evidence given to Lord Palmerston speaks kemahkable conclusively.— The English statesman called at man. Valdocco, without being known, and having inspected the institution, asked the priest how he managed a thousand boys without punishment " Don Bosco smiled and said, ;« Stay with us till evening, and you will see.' Lord Palmerston stayed, and went into the chapel, where, after the evening recreation, the boys had all assembled, and then he heard Don Bosco speak to them. He witnessed their simple and voluntary confession of the faults of the day, and Don Bosco's little words of counsel and loving encouragement to each, and when he came out he wrung Don Bosco's hand, and said, ' Now I understand. You hate won all their hearts, and so can mould them as you please.' Then he gave his name, and said that, ' for the first time he had realised what love could do with those untaught,! rough natures." Of these boys upwards of twenty-five thousand leave the schools yearly,

while as many are received. « And these boys become good and honoured citizens, with the fear of God before their eyes; whether they fill humble or high positions, they never forget the borne which has sheltered them in their childhood." But Don Bosco is not a man easily to be forgotten. There are many things connected with him to mark him out from the general run of men— and his natural qualities are remarkable, as well as what seem to be his supernatural gifts and graces. " His memory is astonishing. He never forgets a face or a person ; and there is not one of his priests or children in his houses whom he does not know thoroughly, and remember every detail concerning them. In the seminary, 1 and during his theological studies he never required to read or hear anything more than once, for he always remembered every word. And to this hour he can repeat whole cantoß of Virgil or Dante by heart. This astonishing facility explains bow after being simply a shepherd (like St. Vincent de Paul) till he was fifteen, he was enabled to acquire such solid and profound knowledge, and pass such brilliant examinations." But as to the circumstances connected with his career that seem to be supernatural, we may reckon among them the confidence with which while he was penniless he has undertaken important works, and found himself able to complete them. He undertook, for example, to purchase the ground at Valdocco for 30,000 francs, and immediately the money reached him from unexpected sources, and his resolution to build a beautiful chuich in honour of St. Francis de Sales upon the site in question was backed up in a similar mannner. '« On January 20, 1862, the church was consecrated, and those around him remembered his words five years before, when they were digging out the shed, and the boy were running up and down the heaps of earth : •My children, on c day, on this very spot where we stand, a beautiful altar will be erected in a fine church, and you will come here to kneel and receive the Holy Communion, and sing the praises of God.' " On another occasion when he wanted money, the Marquis S— , a relation of the writer's called on him accidentally— having missed a train— and carrying in his pocket a sum of money that had been paid to him a few minutes before. " Don Bosco met him with the words, ' I was expecting you. I want you to give me the money you have in your breast pocket,' mentioning the exact sum. The Marquis exclaimed, * How on earth conld you know this ? I received it most j unexpectedly, not ten minutes ago. Do you know young Count B— 1 ' ♦No,' replied JDon Bosco, but I know you have the very sum 1 want to pay my workmen. You shall have it back in a week.' Too amazed to reply, the Marquis handed him the money, for which Don Bosco gave him a receipt j and that very day week the exact sum he had lent ;was returned to him." Last year, again, at Rome, it happened one day that be was in want of £400 to pay some workmen, when an American lady, who was a perfect stranger to him, came in and presented him with a sealed packet containing the precise amount needed. An English youth, moraover, lately sent to prosecute his studies under Don Bosco's care, and whom the writer accredits with a thorough John Bull spirit of incredulity has written as follows :—" You know bow unwilling I was to believe in any of the strange things I was told when I first came here. But, seeing is believing,' and the extraordinary miracles worked by Don Bosco almost daily are such that a man must be blind and a fool not to feel that he is in presence of one who, if not a saint, is most singularly favoured by God ; for he obtains all he piays for, whether it be for temporal means to carry on his great works, or the cure of , physical and moral diseases." A direct instance given by the writer of super, natural power, attributed by Don Bosco himself altogether to the intercession of " Mary, Help of Christians," is that in which a man of J«gn rank, in passing ihroagh Turin, saw the complete and permanent cure of a little child who had been deaf and dumb fiom her birth and who had been among the crowd of poor, sick, and crippled people, waiting around the door at Valdccco for the appearance of the priest. The effect on the gentleman in question was very great. And this was to him the hour of God's grace, for what he saw changed hia whole future life ; and from a lover of the world and of Pleasure, he became one of the most fervent of Don Bosco's labourers in the great field be has co emphatically made his own.' lhe manner also in which the priest has been defended from attacks on his life, f.equently made by members of the secret societies, and in which he has been able to save himself from them is very extraordinary—more especially with regard to his dog, Grigto, believed by some of the boys to be his guardian angel in disguise, and which has not only rescued him from assassins, but even warned him of intended attacks. On the whole, then, as we said, Don Bosco is not a man who may easily be forgotten.

Thr meeting held in Dunedin on Monday evening RAThkr a under the auspices of the Trades and Labour FAlixbe. Council for the purptse of expressing an opinion on the alleged dummyism at Waikouaiti, although largely attended, and unanimously agreed, cannot, on the whole, be regarded as a marked euccess. The speaking, for the most part, or perhaps entirely, was mild, and rather desultory, and although the

modesty of several of the speakers was very creditable to them as men, and as speakers places them beyond the reach of criticism, it is to be regretted that something more of a spirited, and determined nature was not uttered by them. As it is we have derived from the report merely the disagreeable impression that the workingmen of Dunedin are, for the time at least, likely to be the tools of whatever man possessed of a bold face and a glib tongue it ia that may find it of interest to him to obtain their support, and that they are destined to continue in the future, as Mr. Thorn said they had been in the past, — that is coming forward at election time to exercise their power ia the affairs of the State, but at other times neither moving nor being interested in the matter ; and under such circumstances they must, as a matter of course, form the mere unintelligent mob that shall obey the apparent interests of the hour. Men who had thought well over the matter they had adopted for consideration, and who had come to a rational and settled resolution with respect to it need hardly have come forward, for example, with any apology in their mouths because they presumed to appear in the place of "men of good positions " who held aloof. Such an apology betrays a doubt as to the position occupied by those who utter it, and does much to discredit the object they assemble to forward. Prominent men; moreover, or men of good position wbo owe their prominence and their position to the support of tbe workingman might very well be ' given to understand that on their attitude towards the popular cause depends the support necessary to their condition. But, on the Whole, there was nothing in this meeting to disturb the land monopolists in any very great degree. There was a little feeble advocacy of the nationalisation of thel and and a profession of faith in the liberal intentions of the Hon. Mr. Rolleston, who seems likely to occupy a place in the history of the Colony similar, comparing small things with great, to that occupied in the history of the world by certain eminent men, who, although under their sway or guidance lamentable' occurrences took place, are held guiltless by certain parties oE all' connection with them. There was nothing, however, to instruct or encourage the people generally in forming a resolute determination as to the honest disposal of the public estates, or to warn monopolists that their days are numbered.

It is & cheering thing to find that, although we well fought, ourselves have for some weeks refrained in a certain degree from our protest, in which, nevertheless, we shall persist, come weal come woe, to the end, against the secular system, able champions of the Catholic cause have been signalising themselves in the good fight. Our own reason for a season of comparative calm, as we stated indeed in a recent issue, was that, while the whole Pres3 of the Colony was more or less ringing with an exposure of the nefarious system, we thought that, without suffering the matter to grow cold, we might take breathing time, and be all the fresher to renew the struggle so so m as a period of indifference should again threaten to set in. Party encroachments in the North,' the bailiffs in the West, insolvency elsewhere, and insupportable expenditure everywhere, were sufficient of themselves to keep the question of the godless schools before the public, and, if anything could do so, they might be expected to cause a distrust and dislike of the system to arise. But, meantime, an able controversy has been maintained in Christehurcb, and it must have resulted in making some converts, as it certainly has in discrediting whatever arguments secularists in the town in question ,ipay put forward in the future — for such arguments can only be the repetition of those that have now been so fully exposed and answered. — And, in fact, those arguments themselves were but a repetition, for the reasoning ia favour of godleßsuesa has from the first been very shallow, and now may fairly be described as the Pall Mall Gazette, the other day, described Mr Henry George's project to be,- that is— dishonesty plus cant. The controversy we allude to began by an article in the Press, which appears to have been a reohavffe of the ditto and ditto repeated, that f orml the strength of the party, and which, with tbe best inclinations in tbe world to think as well as we can of our neighbours generally) ' we cannot receive as the sincere convictions of the writers, — for, indeed, to do so would be for us to accuse then^ ipso Jacto of being men of very little wit. But, the matter having been Bet going in this way, a tribe of correspondents came to the fore, and each bad his say according to the measure of wjs.daa* { that nature had conferred upon him — in some iustances apparently) 3 a very small measure, indeed. .The .principle features, jof the'^n^'" troversy, however, are very happi^- described by a correspondent," signing himself " A Catholic Laynifin," and who Bhowed a complete understanding of the situation, when in opening the defence he spoke as follows :— " The worst of the controversy on education, for us Catholic; , is that our opponents can never be cont nt withjiirejej; a^dv simply straightforward reasoning. (I use the phi ase with no offensive/ meaning.) Such articles as yours the other day, and many otkers in public journals ; such letters as that of your correspondent ' New Zealander, and many others are excessively difficulfcatx*) ansimp, uotfl because of their intrinsic force, but because they iiilrMidce a multiplicity of side iesueß, vague and irrelevant assertions, roundabout and

timid phraseology." — This paragraph describes, the matter thoroughly and shows how, like a good, general, the writer had surveyed with keenness, and justly appraised the forces of the enemy before he entered upon the combat. That the combat so taken up was well fought and victoriously concluded we needhardly say, and if it were possible to convince unreasoning prejudice, or to overcome inveterate bigotry, the cause of Catholic education must have come out of the controversy with an acknowledged triumph. Mr. M. Nolan, also, with whose name our readers are familiar, did good service in the cause, and laid before the public soms figures and facts that should prove very convincing. It is evident, then, that Catholis interests will not be allowed to suffer - f rom want of able and willing defenders, and, while there are such men ready to return an answer to every charge brought or objection made, it is clear that the public cannot be ignorant of thp gross oppression that is practised towards us.