austraLasia

By Our Own Correspondent

RMG, 15 January 2018 -- The formal process of Beatification of the Servant of God, Fr. Charles Braga (1889-1971) is going on at diocesan level still collecting the testimonials and with the work of the historical commission. Many Salesians, Salesian Family members and related people from the Philippines, China and Italy contributed already. Also the recently published semi-critical edition of the 'Selected Letters' of Fr. Charles Braga helps to understand the lifestory and spiritual profile of the Servant of God.

The book 'Don Carlo Braga - Lettere Scelte' published by the LAS - ROMA publications, thanks to the patient work of Fr. Remo Bracchi (Professor at the UPS-Rome) is a fresh inside in the heart, spirit and life happenings of the second superior of China Province (1930-1952), founder of many works in China, Vietnam and Philippines.From the 499 letters collected of the Servant of God this book contains 367 of them in the chronological order from May 1919 until January 1971. Most of the letters are addressed to the Salesian Superiors in Turin, his relatives or different ecclesial or civil authorities.

The 1030 pages large book contains not only the letters of Fr. Braga (about 850 pages), but many useful tables and instruments to understand the history background of his life, spirit and work: Biographical profile of Fr. Charles Braga and his life-line (Pier Luigi Cameroni), special notes about his family background (Lodovica Maria Zanet), historical background (Carlo Socol) as well the complete list of his letters and glosarry about the main destinataries of these letters.

The 'Selected Letters' proper are divided according the three main periods in the life of the Servant of God: (1) Italy, (2) China and (3) Philippines period of his life. Included is also the 'Memoirs of Don Carlo Braga' and some articles published or sent to the Editor of the (Italian) Salesian Bulletin. Also the testimonials about Venerable Fr. Vincent Cimatti (1883-1965, formator of Fr. Carlo) by Fr. Braga are included in this volume.

We wish, that some more significant letters or parts of this book will be soon accessible also in English. In this way the Salesians of the respected provinces - China, Philippines South, Philippines North and Vietnam - can get know better this giant of Salesian Missions in East Asia and learn from his spiritual and missionary life journey.