Hajja Salesjana April-June 2021

31 H AJJA S ALESJANA A Guiding Presence becomes an Article of Faith Even before Pope Pius IX’s 1854 Bull Ineffabilis Deus defined the Immaculate Conception as an article of faith, the Immaculata was already a constant, guiding presence in Don Bosco’s life and ministry. The Chieri seminary chapel was dedicated to Mary Immaculate; her statue stood behind the main altar, and her image was venerated in a side chapel. Don Bosco received all his sacred orders, including priestly ordination, in Immaculate Conception Church attached to the Archbishop’s palace in Turin. The launching of the oratory occurred on the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1841, in the famed encounter of Don Bosco with Bartholomew Garelli. The Oratory of St. Aloysius was dedicated on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. As early as 1842, Don Bosco had begun a tradition of preaching a December 8 conference to recall and invoke the protection of Mary Immaculate on the work of the Oratory. Domenic Savio arrived at the Oratory some five weeks before the 1854 proclamation of the Dogma; straight away, he learned from Don Bosco to invoke Mary as the Immaculata , which culminated in his founding of the Company of the Immaculate Conception. Starting in 1847, prayers at the Oratory were regularly offered for the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Don Bosco’s Month of May in Honor of Mary Immaculate , published in 1858 in the Catholic Readings, helped to spread devotion to Mary, and to honour her particularly as the Immaculate Conception. Drawing Parallels As we recall Don Bosco’s devotion to the Immaculate Conception in his historical context, we can draw parallels with our own social and political realities. Navigating a pandemic in the midst of social and political change was also part of Don Bosco’s experience; in the process, Mary Immaculate offered perspective and guidance to our founder, and she can do the same for us. Don Bosco’s Turin in the 1850’s was facing epochal transformation on all fronts. Where liberals saw progress, conservatives saw demise. Where conservatives saw goodness, liberals saw evil. The liberal political revolution (1848) had turned the Kingdom of Sardinia into a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The Mazzinian Roman Republic drove Pope Pius IX into a yearlong exile (1849-50). An unprecedented secularization of society was curbing the power of the Church. A lay school system was introduced for the first time, wrenching authority from historically ecclesial authority (1848). The Siccardi Bill (1850) abolished many of the Church’s ancient privileges and pursuant to the Cavour- Rattazzi Bill (1855), religious congregations were disbanded and Church property was confiscated. It was a perfect storm between “conservative” and “liberal” forces. Add this to the mix: in 1854, the cholera pandemic was ravaging Turin and taking a toll on the Oratory. In this turbulent context, Pope Pius IX turned to Mary Immaculate. On August 1, 1854, months before proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, he proclaimed a