Fr. Bruno Ferrero
Don Bosco was a born communicator. Purebred, irrepressible. In communication, he modified himself, became more modern than his ideas, invented pedagogies. He showed that he understood well the industrial civilization, of which he was an enemy in principle. And like all great communicators, he attracted some and frightened others. 135 years after his death, that effect continues.
It all begins with a broadsheet with the unlikely title Bibliofilo Cattolico (Catholic Bibliophile); he changed it to Bolletino Salesiano. The word bulletin, according to the dictionary, means "an official publication of communications of a public nature. It had noble origins. It derived from "bull", imprint of the seal or stamp with which public writings and solemn documents were marked. Papal Bulls, for instance. And it is still used today for practical purposes: medical bulletins, war bulletins. It suits a practical, no-frills, managerial style. This is why Don Bosco liked it.
In what we can consider the editorial of its first issue, Don Bosco writes to the Salesian Cooperators, identified as the first recipients of the Bulletin, and presents them with the fundamental objectives and contents of the magazine:
In our Bylaws, Good and Deserving Cooperators, a monthly Bulletin is prescribed, which in due time would be published to give you an account of things done or to be done in order to obtain the end we have proposed. Let us now follow the common desire, so that each one may lend his work with unity of spirit and direct our solicitations unanimously to one point: The glory of God, the good of Civil Society. For this purpose, we judge to make use of the Bulletin, one which has been printed for some years now in our printing house in Turin and which for the future will be printed in the Hospice of St. Vincent in Sampierdarena. This bulletin of ours will expound:
1. The things that the members or their Directors judge to propose for the general and particular good of the members, which will be followed by the practical rules for Cooperators.
2. Exposition of facts that were fruitful to the members and that can serve as an example to others. Then the episodes that happened, heard, read: as long as they are connected with the good of humanity and religion; the news and letters of the Missionaries who work for the faith in Asia, Australia, and especially of the Salesians, who are scattered in South America in the vicinity of the tribes, is an appropriate subject for us.
3. Communications, announcements of different things, proposed works; books and maxims to be propagated, are the third part of the Bulletin."
Don Bosco never excluded anyone. That is why the Bulletin is addressed to all friends of Don Bosco and to those who, knowing him, could become friends of his. One might imagine a series of concentric circles rippling out from the centre, by the most effective means of dissemination: "word of mouth."
Fr. Pietro Stella wrote in one of his publications, "It can be said that the SB, the many circulars sent... determined the worldwide discovery of Don Bosco, an extraordinary man. Until 1874, the Salesians constituted a congregation with a regional radius. After that date, especially after 1880, the young men recommended to Don Bosco by clergy and laity became more frequent, the requests for houses in various cities and nations multiplied." (Stella, Don Bosco, 1968).
According to Don Bosco's intuition, the Salesian Bulletin is not a mere chronicle of events, but divulges the spirit of the Congregation through the narration of facts and works, rather than through dissemination of speculatively demonstrated ideas. It offers a reading of contemporary reality from the Salesian point of view and welcomes the provocations of the youth and ecclesial world in view of a more global educational and pastoral project.
