Hajja Salesjana October - December 2018

10 Don Bosco’s Writings on Child Holiness and his Impact on the Church Reference has already been made to the assessments made by Boriello and Gellel of the Catholic Church and its historically narrow outlook on the issue of child holiness. This view has driven me to delve deeper and establish how many children have in fact been proclaimed servants of God, venerable, blessed and saints over the centuries. My research has led me to the following conclusions: out of approximately three hundred names of children (0-13 years), adolescents and youth (14-24 years), forty-eight of these were aged under thirteen. Seventy-seven of the rest have been proclaimed servants of God, twenty have been named venerable, and fifty-five have been proclaimed blessed. Thirty three have been proclaimed saints. Furthermore, another one-hundred and sixteen died with the fame of holiness. [Fabio Arduino, “Santi Bambini e Giovani,” in Santi Beati e Testimoni . The number Thirty-three considers the Holy Innocents as one.] One would feel that this is quite a substantial list of names considering the narrow perspective regarding the child’s capability which seems to have persisted within the Catholic Church. One also observes that more than two thirds of these beatification and canonisation processes (over 200) occurred during the century which followed Don Bosco’s life-time. This number indicates a significant increase in recognised saintly children within a 150-year period compared to the centuries which preceded Don Bosco. Furthermore, one observes that most of the children, adolescents and youth proclaimed blessed and saints over the centuries prior to Don Bosco’s life time died as heroes of chastity and martyrs. Martyrdom and heroics of chastity seem to have been for a long time the only criteria which permitted child canonisation. Comparatively, in the last century one notes that a significant number of youth (not martyrs or heroes of chastity) have been and are in the process of being recognised for their capability of living a holy life and raised for veneration. This perplexity surrounding the capability of children to become holy is affirmed by these numbers and confirms Gellel’s assertions: Many hold the prejudiced idea that children are not able to grasp spiritual and religious meanings. This was one of the reasons why for centuries the Church did not declare non- martyred children as saints. [Gellel, “Saintly Children: Roman Catholicism and the Nurture of Children,” 84.] Within this background, one cannot help notice that in contrast with this prejudiced mentality, Don Bosco during the 1800s was already seeing child sainthood a very tangible possibility with some of his boys at the Valdocco Oratory. Pietro Braido remarks on how Don Bosco himself distinguished between three categories of boys at his Oratory. He categorised them as: (1) the good boys (buoni) (2) the frivolous boys (dissipati) and (3) the unruly boys (discoli). The latter group consisted of unruly boys who had been in and out of prison. Don Bosco acknowledges that very little could be done with these boys. Keeping them away from prison was considered for Don Bosco to be a great success in itself. The second category consisted of frivolous boys. Don Bosco believed that through accompaniment these boys could become “Good Christians and Honest Citizens.” Then there was that first group of boys who according to Don Bosco were “good.” Don Bosco not only perceived their goodness but also saw their real potential to become holy. While adapting his methods to the various categories of youth, Don Bosco never stopped proposing paths to holiness which were adequate to each child. Don Bosco’s