75th and 25th Anniversary

Today is the 75th anniversary of the canonization of St John Bosco. Yes, that's right! 75 years ago today, on Easter Sunday, 1 April 1934, Pope Pius XI ended the Jubilee of the Resurrection with the solemn rite of canonization of St John Bosco. It was the only time in history that a canonization was held on Easter, but then, Pius XI wanted as big a gathering of bishops and dignitaries as possible for the day that he raised his own friend Don Bosco to the honors of the altar.

Don Bosco's beatification, on 2 June 1929, had been the first to take place after the reconciliation between Italy and the Holy See (Lateran Pacts: 11 February 1929). Pope Pius XI (Achille Ratti) was celebrating his golden jubilee of priesthood that year, and opened the celebration on 2 June with the beatification of the man who had saved his own vocation when, as a young priest, he was filled with fervor and doubt. As pope, Pius XI Ratti presented his friend Don Bosco as the icon of the priest who was active in promoting good citizenship, but who remained loyal to the pope and to the church.

The apostle of youth was to become a symbol for a new style of Catholic Action for young and old, for laity and the ordained, and so Pius XI timed his canonization for the conclusion of the special Jubilee Year of the Redemption (from Ash Wednesday 1933 to Easter Sunday 1934). A priest like Don Bosco, who was the father and teacher of young people… who was a son of the common people that rose to leadership in the Church and Society… offered the Church a strong example of the meaning of truth and freedom against the claims of the totalitarian regimes then gaining power. The Jubilee Year, in fact, concluded with Don Bosco's canonization: he was held up as the icon to seminarians and priests, for a new, apostolic style of priesthood.

That was Rome, 1 April 1934. But we are in Berkeley on 1 April 2009. We are not in the public eye, even though life here is not less complicated.

At Don Bosco Hall we proceed one step at a time, but it dawned on me during mass this morning that Autumn 2009 will be the 25th anniversary of the ISS. During breakfast I told Gael and Marc that we need to think about having a celebration. No, I don't mean a party. I mean a relaunch, an outreach, a fundraiser… in short, all those things that are part of such celebrations. And the fact of the matter is that we are expecting some very big changes as John Roche and Gael Sullivan and Marc Rougeau work as the new team and develop new programs, courses, concepts.

Yes, a 25th anniversary will be important.

Meetings, meetings and more meetings

Summer has not finished (and I have been so busy that it seems like it has not started) but we are already having meetings for the new academic year. Our team met this morning at 9.00 and stayed hard at it until past noon.

Perhaps I have not blogged it, but there is a great novelty at Don Bosco Hall (DBH) and the Institute of Salesian Spirituality (ISS) at Berkeley: a new director and new team for Hall and Institute!

Gael Sullivan is director; Marc Rougeau takes finances and plant manager; John Roche is on the teaching team. The great thing is that all three of them are enthusiastic about joining the community at Berkeley. This is certainly encouraging to Mary Greenan, John Rasor, Arthur Lenti and me, who remain from the old and ancient DBH team.

This is not to say that we do not face some real issues of viability for the ISS, for theology in Berkeley for Salesians, and for the work of ongoing formation for the province. The challenges are tremendous.There will be very few doing the ISS this year, and Thien Nguyen will be our only theology student after Tho Bui leaves following his ordination on 29 December.

New approaches need to be developed for DBH. Gael, Marc and John have good ideas and much enthusiasm, so it is a hope-filled time for those at 1831 Arch Street.