This fourth volume of the series Don Bosco: History and Spirit, focuses on the early Salesian constitutions as presented by Don Bosco for approval (1860-1874)-in the times of the Turin Archbishops-of Luigi Fransoni (in exile) and ensuing four-year vacancy, of Alessandro Riccardi di Netro (1867-1870) and ofLorenzo Gastaldi (1872-1874).
In introductory Chapters I and 2, the process of approval is set in the context of the historic events of the unification of Italy by the taking of Rome and the dispossession of the pope, at the time of the of the First Vatican Council and of the Franco-Prussian war. Out of these painful experiences, Don Bosco “prophetically” decries the hubris of the perpetrators of such injustices (France and Italy) and envisions God’s terrible chastisements in prophecies and letters of 1870-1873.
The constitutions are discussed from a double point of view: first, under the aspect of the historical process of approval and of the principles that brought Don Bosco in confrontation with his Archbishops and the Roman authorities (Cbs. 3-6); secondly, under the aspect of the novel religious outlook, profound insights and spirituality that Don Bosco sought to embody in the constitutions (Cbs. 7-10). To highlight this second aspect, selected articles from selected chapters are chosen for discussion.