Message from UPS theologians for Fr Lenti

The following message was received from the Theology Faculty of the UPS for Fr Arthur Lenti's doctorate honoris causa. The text was read at the presentation last night.

To the Rev. Arthur J. Lenti
Salesian of Don Bosco
from the Faculty of the School of Theology
of the
Salesian Pontifical University in Rome
on the occasion of the launching of the seven-volume series:
Don Bosco, History and Spirit.

We warmly congratulate you on the publishing of your monumental work on Don Bosco’s life and work and, at the same time, wish to publicly and gratefully acknowledge your more than 26 years of painstaking research, dedicated teaching and meticulous writing in the field of Salesian Studies for the English-speaking world.

We further wish to acknowledge the fact that your scholarly leadership was instrumental in the establishment of Institute of Salesian Spirituality in 1984, and your continued efforts have been significant in making Don Bosco Hall, affiliated with the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, a significant center for study and reflection on Don Bosco’s charism for the Salesian Society world-wide, and for the Salesian Family and admirers of Don Bosco in the Bay Area, throughout California and across the United States.

We recognize that, through your many years of hard work and joyful sharing of your scholarship, you have made Don Bosco’s life and works known at a deeper level than ever before possible in the English idiom.

Therefore, with deep gratitude and high esteem, the Faculty of the School of Theology warmly congratulates you on the launching of your significant series, Don Bosco, History and Spirit. It is our intention that, at a later date, we will be able to call attention to your contribution in a more significant way as a means of alerting the many associated with our School and University of the wealth of scholarly and practical resources that you have made available to the Salesian world.

Rome, 11 January 2008