"to practice charity towards one's companions"

by Fr. Steve Whelan

n 1847 Don Bosco began to accept boarders into his Oratory, which, up to that time, gathered youth in their teens and early twenties on Sundays and holydays. At first, there were only a handful of boarders, but as their numbers grew, changes in organization, facilities, staffing and finances were of the essence.

Don Bosco had recourse to a method, well established, of gathering youth into Companies (from the Italian compagnia). These companies were to use peer ministry for the members’ spiritual benefit. Besides the customary prayers, serious emphasis was placed on promoting the practice of the Christian life and the apostolate among the boys’ companions. Today, we would call it peer-to-peer ministry, or a youth ministry that was youth-to-youth.

In the beginning, Don Bosco worked with a number of apos-tolically driven clergy and nobility. As specially gifted youth began to be fired up by Don Bosco’s vision and love, he used them as a leaven in the mass of the Oratory and school. Peer pressure is a tremendous force for good or evil (see Editorial). So Don Bosco formed these companies, or associations, of the better students—a company dedicated to the spiritual better-ment of its members. His first company was named in honor of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, then Patron of Youth. (Today, the patron is St. Dominic Savio, one of Don Bosco’s own students, and founder of the Company of the Immaculate Conception.)

This "belonging" to a group appealed to the boys, as much as "belonging" does to the youth of today. Any boy who showed special aptitude, especially a possible vocation to the Church, could join if willing to abide by the rules.

Among the rules for this company were the following: to imitate St. Aloysius as a model of conduct, purity, prayer, and devotion to duty, religious and scholastic; to frequent the sacra-ments, especially confession and Communion; to avoid bad companions; to obey parents and superiors; to pray for sick members; to practice charity towards one’s companions.

It was "to practice charity towards one’s companions" that became an outreach, a peer-to-peer ministry. During the cholera epidemic in Turin in 1854, many members went out of the Ora-tory to minister to the sick—a dangerous prospect. In less dra-matic moments, they would involve their companions in games, tutor and encourage in studies, correct their language and beha-vior. Members would seek out homesick boys and engage them in conversation, befriend them, and evoke a smile with stories and jokes. They told the new-comers what a wonderful friend Don Bosco was and how much he loved them all.

Don Bosco carefully nurtured these companies, which grew as the student body grew. In addition, he founded the Mutual Benefit Society, which had dues that were applied to members when they became unemployed or sick. Don Bosco used this society to counter some local unscrupulous adult societies.

Perhaps the most interesting organization was the Adjunct Conference of St. Vincent de Paul. During the 1854 cholera epidemic, mentioned above, some of the Company of St. Aloysius joined with local St. Vincent de Paul conferences in searching out and nursing the victims. Out of this experience of charitable service Don Bosco did something unprecedented—he founded a Conference of St. Vincent de Paul for young people, made up of the older boys of the Oratory and school, and in 1856 received official recognition from the Higher Conference of Turin, Italy.

Thus Don Bosco utilized "youth power" to help him uphold the spirit of the Oratory and school, and provide wholesome guidance to impressionable, sometimes rebellious, youth. His method of the "Preventive System" formed countless "good Christians and honest citizens," putting them on the path to eternal happiness and even to the honors of the altar. Anyone, today, can participate in this tradition by conversing with young people, learning their likes and dislikes, suggesting alternative thinking and behaving, being faithful to principles, and, above all, witnessing to the Faith.