The journal includes three essay, in the STUDIES section of this issue:
The first contribution is by Sister Eliane Anschau Petri, FMA: Mother Caterina Daghero successor of Saint Mary Domenica Mazzarello. A legacy in the dialectic of creative fidelity. The article explores the legacy that Mother Caterina Daghero (1856 - 1924), received from Saint Mary Domenica Mazzarello, Founder of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, examining how in the 43 years following the leadership of the Institute, Daghero had the ability to develop the charism in a perspective of "creative" and "dynamic" fidelity, expanding the FMA presences on four continents. There is no shortage of insights into the relationship between the two nuns, with particular attention to the personality traits of Mother Mazzarello emerging from the testimonies of Mother Daghero.
This is followed by research by scholar Fr Francesco Motto, SDB: "I find it difficult to write, my days are fast coming to an end". Don Bosco's correspondence in the last year of his life. The research focuses on the 173 letters sent to dozens of Italian and foreign correspondents in 1887, and brings out the image of a man who the more he lost physical strength, the more he highlighted the suffering witness of faith and love for the Congregation. The article offers a cross-sectional reading of the letters edited in volume 10 of the critical edition of the Epistolary, the last in the series, which also contains the total indexes of all the volumes and the 85 letters recovered after their publication.
The third article, by Fr Hendry Selvaraj Dominic, SDB, is entitled The audacious hope: the apostolic initiatives of Bishop Louis Mathias SDB in India before independence (1935-1937). The article carefully analyes the initiatives undertaken by Bishop Mathias in a period marked by a significant development of the Archdiocese of Madras. The various pastoral initiatives adopted by the Salesian prelate are highlighted and Bishop Mathias's Memoirs are used to describe his administrative skills, while documenting the social, economic and cultural disparities of the time. The research is an important contribution to academic debate and encourages further study.
The fourth contribution is by Sister Grazia Loparco, FMA: The colleges of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Italy involving both continuity and change. It is the second part of the study on the colleges of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (the first part is contained in the previous issue of the magazine - RSS [2024] 82, 35-63) and focuses on the sources that indicated the specific Salesian style that had to be maintained and cultivated in the numerous colleges that contributed to the education and dissemination of female education in Italy between the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The development of schooling and cultural content are examined, as well as the relational climate – between the educators, and among them – and the organisation of spaces in the colleges. Finally, some social aspects that led to the end of the colleges are mentioned and a list of the FMA colleges with their length of service is attached.
This sector ends with the research by Paolo Pieraccini: Fr Antonio Belloni and the orphans of Palestine (1863-1890). A work of charity too long ignored, preparatory to the arrival of the Salesians in the Holy Land (15 June 1891) ". The Holy Family Work, founded by Fr Belloni in Bethlehem in 1864 on behalf of poor and abandoned children, developed rapidly, thanks to large donations from Europe and the American continent. But after, in the eighties of the nineteenth century, these donations became insufficient, also in consideration of the shortage of personnel, in 1890 Fr Belloni decided to gift his institution to the Salesian Society (1890), which in this way could begin its missionary work also in the Holy Land.
An original text is presented in the SOURCES section: Salesian scholar Aldo Giraudo has critically dealt with the text Letters of Pius Edgardo Mortara to Don Bosco and Fr Lemoyne. The Central Salesian Archive preserves some letters from Father Pio Maria, aka Edgardo Mortara (1851-1940), who as a child was the key player in a famous "case" that aroused bitter international controversy, because the little boy had been taken from the Jewish family by the inquisitor of Bologna, when it became known that years earlier he had been baptised clandestinely by a maid. Immediately transferred to Rome, he was educated in Catholic environments under the direct care of Pius IX. Later he became a Lateran Regular Canon and priest. He was a tireless preacher and apologist of Catholicism. From the letters his convinced adherence to the Christian faith and religious vocation emerge, together with his deep gratitude to Pius IX and his veneration for Don Bosco. The letters are preceded by a historical setting of the "Mortara case" and the controversies that accompanied it.
An essay by Maria Stella Calicchia is presented in the PROFILES sector. Fr Alfiero Michelangelo (1909-2003) among the young people on the battlefields.
The NOTE section has an article by Giorgio Rossi: Fr Paul Albera and the title of "Minor Basilica" for the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome.
In the REVIEWS section, publications have been reviewed on topics related to Salesian personalities and activity.
And finally the REPORTS section presents Jože Potrpin (edited by), Ludvik Pernišek. Misijonar med Indijanci [Ludvik Pernišek. Missionary among the Indians]. d.o.o. Ljubljana, Svibno -Župnijski urad 2023.
By Fr Stanisław Zimniak, SDB
editor in chief of RSS
