austraLasia #3209
MAGNA CARTA of the Salesian
Educational System
OUD-HEVERLEE (Belgium) 22 March
2013
-- It has been a long time in coming, at least in
English, but we
offer this 224 page study for the first time in English, in
line with
other items that have recently been translated into English
and help us
to better understand Don Bosco's pedagogy. Belgian-born Fr Rik
Biesmans
originally published this work as part of the Don Bosco
Studies Series
(no. 18) in Belgium, where there has been a lively scene of
study and
application of Salesian pedagogical insights for many years -
especially in view of the extensive lay formation projects
this
province (BEN) has had in place now for some time. The
original was in
Dutch (or more correctly, probably Flemish).
All
Salesians know about the 'Letter from Rome'. Some might be
confused to
hear that there were at least two 'letters', one for the boys
at the
Oratory and the other for the adults, and not everyone would
know that
there were a number of drafts of one or the other and that we
have no
evidence that Don Bosco ever wrote it/them. In all probability
it was
(they were) written by Fr Lemoyne - a view that Braido and now
Biesmans, hold to firmly from all the evidence at hand. But
this in no
way detracts from the reality that the material faithfully
reflects Don
Bosco, his praxis and his theory and his particular mindset
while in
Rome at an elderly age and longing to return to Valdocco and
the boys
and Salesians there. In fact, the letter(s) certainly deserve
the
epithet of 'Magna Carta'. That is Biesman's view and hence the
title of
the work.
But there are questions that have always intrigued or even
bothered
those who have studied these letters to some extent. Why did
the letter
to the adults only surface around 1920? Was it in fact a
circular
letter that for one or other reasons never got printed? How
much of Don
Bosco actually shows up in the letter(s) and how much of
Lemoyne, if in
fact he was the one who wrote them?
The study is a detailed one and runs to two volumes. For now
just the first volume, 224 pages of it, is in English.
Should anyone wish to be in touch with Fr
Biesmans, he has no difficulty with English, French,
Flemish, German, Italian, Dutch...