Easter Saint

Only a Pope could do for an old friend what Pius XI did last week. As he was borne into vast St. Peter's on Easter Sunday to take his place upon the great throne, the Holy Father's thoughts could hark back to the 1880's when he was a young priest in Milan named Achille Ambrogio Damiano Ratti. In nearby Turin an old priest named Giovanni Melchior Bosco was already famed for his good works among Italian youth. The two met, were friends until Don Bosco died in 1888.* Thereafter Achille Ratti rose in the Church as Vatican Librarian, Apostolic Visitor to Poland, Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal and Pope. And Don Bosco, whom he called "a man as great as the world," became a candidate for sainthood. His cause was well advanced by the time Pius XI donned the white soutane in 1922. The Pope exhibited elaborate impartiality in the case by once annulling a session of Cardinals, causing them to deliberate more carefully. But once it was settled and the time approached for public canonization ceremonies, Pius XI permitted himself a little more indulgence. Only pontiff of modern times to saint a friend, he became last week the first one ever to canonize on Easter Sunday. As if this were not sufficient glory for Don Bosco (henceforth to be called St. Giovanni Bosco), the Pope used the occasion to give his church the music of a new mass, first in modern style to be sung in St. Peter's.

Commissioned last December from Maestro Don Lorenzo Perosi, the mass was sung last week by the famed Sistine Choir which was increased to 100 voices. In the musical sections surrounding this great central act of Roman Catholic faith, such as the Kyrie Eleison, Gloria, Credo, and Agnus Dei, the choir divided, one part taking the melody, the other singing as if in orchestral accompaniment. To assist at this mass with Pius XI as celebrant, 70,000 people jampacked St. Peter's. Among them were the King & Queen of Siam, the Crown Prince of Italy, 20 other European princes, and delegations led by Alfred Ildefonse Cardinal Schuster of Milan and Augusto Cardinal Hlond of Poland. Rain pelted down during the canonization but the sun appeared afterward as the Holy Father mounted the balcony facing St. Peter's square, gave his blessing urbi et orbi to Rome and the world.

Born in poverty in 1815, Giovanni Bosco was a shepherd in his youth. To pay his way through seminary he was in turn a tailor, baker, metalworker and cafe waiter. Becoming interested in street urchins, he taught them, took them hiking, organized a brass band. As assistant chaplain of a charitable Rifugio in Turin, Don Bosco accumulated such a band of young vagabonds that he was harried about as a public nuisance. At length he obtained a decrepit shack and founded an Oratory which became the mother house of the Salesian Order. This Oratory now covers eight city blocks, containing workshops, schoolrooms and quarters for more than 1,000 resident boys. Salesian houses have grown from 250 at Don Bosco's death to 722 in 45 provinces (two U. S.) employing 11,000 teachers. For young girls 712 houses are run by an affiliated order of 8,500 nuns. Almost 500,000 laymen join in the work as "Co-operators." Like any progressive educator of today, Don Bosco believed in vocational guidance, play-teaching, musical training. His favorite maxim was that of St. Philip Neri: "Do as you wish, I do not care so long as you do not sin."

*In Italy a secular or parish priest is called "Don," as distinguished from a "Padre" or priest belonging to a religious order.

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