Mentor to Don Bosco
by Richard Demeter
| Among the
contemporaries who had a major influence on the young John Bosco and his choice of
ministry was Fr. Joseph Cafasso. When the two first met in 1830 in Chieri, Italy, Joseph
Cafasso was a seminarian there and John Bosco was a teenager struggling with poverty and
attending school in the same city. As John Bosco anguished over a decision about his vocation, Fr. Cafasso, himself newly ordained, helped the younger man choose the seminary and continued to support him during the trials that accompanied his further studies. Following his ordination in 1841, Don Bosco enrolled in the Pastoral Institute in Turin, where Fr. Cafasso had earned a reputation as the spiritual guide for many young priests. Fr. Cafasso invested much time, energy and money in ministries that met urgent needs arising out of the migratory movement into the city and incipient industrialization, and as a result, Don Bosco began to take an active interest in young people at risk from the harmful effects of this social upheaval that was becoming a feature of life in Turin. The young Don Bosco became involved in the catechetical program which his mentor conducted for youth in Turin, and it was from this experience that Don Bosco began to gather the group of youngsters that became his "oratory." |
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| Statue of St. Joseph Cafass
consoling a condemned prisoner. This statue was erected in 1960, on the occasion of the
centenary of the death of the saint, on the execution site of the city of Turin. It was
funded by the donations of prisoners throughout Italy in honor of their special patron. It
is about 500 yards from the Oratory of Don Bosco and the Basilica of Mary Help of
Christians. |
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| Richard Demeter is a former teacher and public relations officer at Don Bosco Technical Institute in Rosemead, Calif. He is currently a member of the editorial board of the Salesian Bulletin. |
Fr. Cafasso was known as "the chaplain of the hanged." The penal code at the time prescribed the death penalty for certain crimes; and there was always someone waiting on death row. Fr. Cafasso took special care of these unfortunate individuals from sentencing to execution. He visited them, comforted them, accompanied them on the tumbrel to execution, which in those days was a public spectacle. It is recorded that he assisted 57 convicts at their execution in Turin, 7 in other cities and 4 whom he prepared but could not accompany — a total of 68.
Fr. Cafasso involved Don Bosco in this apostolate on behalf of prison inmates and convicts awaiting execution. But the young protégé soon learned that he lacked the necessary "intestinal fortitude" for such work. He was horrified by the conditions under which youthful prisoners lived. The first time he attended an execution he collapsed in a dead faint. In the end, Don Bosco rejected prison ministry in favor of an educational ministry, one that sought to shield youngsters from unwholesome influences in their lives and thus to prevent them from committing acts that would lead them to the gallows.
Fr. Cafasso was also recognized and sought as a spiritual director and counselor by many people, both ecclesiastical and lay. But priests involved in special ministries and works of charity, many of whom were connected with the Pastoral Institute, were his special beneficiaries.
Until his death on June 23, 1860 at 49 years of age, Fr. Cafasso continued to be Don Bosco’s strongest supporter. He frequently provided the Salesian founder with financial support to lease and buy property, to construct buildings, and to feed orphans. His last will and testament contained a clause in favor of Don Bosco and his Oratory: "I leave to Father John Bosco...the land and building I own adjacent to the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales at Valdocco, in this city, and the sum of 5,000 lire." He canceled a debt owed him by Don Bosco and remembered his dear inmates of Turin’s prisons as well.
The extent of Fr. Cafasso’s influence on the success of the early Salesians is evident in the testimony given in his beatification and canonization process. Participants in that process described Fr. Cafasso as "the co-founder, father and first collaborator of the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales" and stated that without Fr. Cafasso Don Bosco’s work "could not have come into being."
In 1960 the city of Turin dedicated a monument to St. Joseph Cafasso in recognition of his ministry as the "Chaplain of the Hanged." The memorial statue is located near the old site of the city’s scaffold, not far from the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales. Fr. Cafasso was canonized by Pius XII in 1947.
Today Inspired by the example of St. Joseph Cafasso and the preventive system of St. John Bosco, Fr. Peter Bui, SDB, in addition to his other duties, has taken on a prison ministry to Vietnamese youngsters in the custody of the California Youth Authority. Fr. Bui’s ministry typically involves saying Mass for young people at the CYA facility in Whittier, Calif., before meeting with small groups of Vietnamese detainees there.
"I also interview them individually and help them keep in touch with their parents," Fr. Bui explained. "It’s very important to lay the groundwork for a reconciliation between the parents and their children when the teenagers or young adults are allowed to go home." While developing this relationship with parents, Fr. Bui has been surprised that some of the Buddhist parents have either sent him money for Masses for their sons or asked to let their sons stay with him after they are released from custody. Many of the Vietnamese young people he visits spent considerable time in Juvenile Hall and CYA camps before being incarcerated in the Whittier facility, in most cases for serious crimes like murder and robbery. "I think the Salesians should be involved in this kind of work," Fr. Bui said. "Don Bosco wants us to work with the most desperate youth. I’m lucky because I really enjoy working with these young people. They’re generally friendly, and I can make friends with them easily, although I don’t want to minimize their crimes." From his experience with Vietnamese youngsters in prison, Fr. Bui has tentatively concluded that most of them fit a common profile. They have been in the United States less than 10 years, they lack proficiency in English, and they were neglected by parents who were preoccupied with making a living and adjusting to American society. "As a result, many of them fell in with bad companions and ended up in serious trouble," he pointed out. "One prescription for avoiding this kind of trap would be more recreational activities for these young people." In contrast, he added, the more successful Vietnamese youth arrived in the United States more than a decade ago and grew up in families that were better established in their new country and had become generally self-sufficient. by Richard Demeter |
| Fr. Peter Bui, who emigrated from Vietnam in 1973, is working on a Ph.D. in clinical psychology through the Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif. He is also doing research with a professor at Cal State Los Angeles on the high school experience of Vietnamese, Armenian, Mexican, and Afro- and Euro-American students and parents in California. |