ELLEDICI:
A PUBLISHER UNDER THE BANNER OF DON BOSCO AND FOLLOWING HIS DREAM

            In Italy and beyond, Elledici Publishing House is synonymous with catechetics. This aspect of its DNA has developed over 70 years with a passion for education and fidelity to the signs of the times, and with languages and approaches that are both intelligent and innovative for all ages. It has been accompanying the process of formation in the Salesian Congregation and the Church under the banner of Don Bosco but also following his dream – he was, after all, the first Salesian catechist!|

1. From the beginning – a powerful idea
At the end of the 1930s there were stirrings in the Congregation indicating a desire to relaunch the catechetical side of the charism. When preparing to celebrate the first centenary, which coincided with the “simple catchism lesson” Don Bosco gave to Bartholomew Garelli on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception 1841, in the summer of 1939 the Superiors founded the l’Ufficio Catechistico Centrale Salesiano (UCCS) in Turin. The idea of this Office was to sensitise ecclesial communities regarding problems of catechetics and religion teaching in schools (IRC as they called it). But also to prepare and update catechists through courses and congresses and develop tools to help catechists and others.
The same year Fr Ricaldone sent confreres a circular on the Oratorio festivo catechismo formazione religiosa (religious and catechetical education in the festive oratory). It was a kind of manifesto, a strong reminder of our work in catechetics. Then a “catechetics crusade” started with a national competition aimed at encouraging study of the catechism through meetings, conferences, exhibitions, competitions and prizes.
The UCCS activity soon became a publishing effort, publishing teaching materials and other aids for organisation of these events. One item stood out in particular, the Il re dei libri, a coloured catechism for primary classes considered as a true teaching and technical model, and published by the Società Editrice Internazionale (SEI).
Following the success of these initiatives in the catechetical field, Fr Peter Ricaldone had the idea of linking a publishing house to UCCS, as a way of spreading its ideas. That is how the “L.D.C” (Libreria Dottrina Cristiana or now Elledici) came about. It came into being as a solemn vote from the Rector Major and his Chapter members in Don Bosco's rooms on the morning of 8 December 1941. Fr Ricaldone had this to say:
“Gathered in filial piety around our beloved Father's bed we beg pardon for our failures and those of his sons throughout the world and in everyone's name we promise him to remain faithful to our Constitutions, regulations and Salesian traditions. With a view to perpetuating this important day, the 8 December 1841, the birth of our Society with the first lesson our Father gave to the young orphan Bartholomew Garelli, we promise:

• to found the Libreria della Dottrina Cristiana at the birthplace of Colle St John Bosco;

            2) to see that every province in the Society makes efforts to begin a new Orphanage for poor and abandoned youth.
            So the Bernardi Semeria Institute at Colle Don Bosco was the birthplace of Elledici. A graphics school was immediately set up, entrusted to young Brothers who were enthusiastic about catechetics due to Fr Ricaldone's charismatic efforts. From 1943, during the height of the Second World War, Elledici began its intense activity, to the point where the Holy See entrusted UCCS with organising the 1st International Catechetical Congress (1950) as well as running the associated exhibition.

2. Vatican II
Production initially was a mix of tradition and innovation. The Lux collection would be a good representation of the traditional aspect, a collection made up of smaller collections, small in size and number of pages as well, which according to Fr Ceria ran to six or seven million copies, leaving aside translations. Also significant, but more towards the more innovative side, was the pioneering production of hundreds of “Filmine Don Bosco” (filmstrips), which were very soon a great success in Italy and abroad.
The activities of the new Publishing House, which multiplied the possibilities of service to catechetics  inspired the Superiors to broaden the outreach of UCCS to the Italian Church. In the immediate postwar period this Office became the Centro Catechistico Salesiano (CCS, 1947) the inspirational basis (Centro Studi) for Elledici's publishing work.
The CCS planned, experimented, organised courses, study days and weeks throughout Italy, meeting priests catechists, leaders and leading to the establishment and organisation of many diocesan catechetical offices.
For its part, the Publisher printed and distributed many books, other materials and audiovisuals in very clear language and with solid content, but also began producing journals which were fundamental to its mission. Amongst these we could immediately mention Catechesi, for its theoretical contribution to catechetical reflection, and its methods and approaches. It was started in 1932 by the Bishop of Piacenza Bishop Enrico Montalberti, inspired by Cardinal Schuster. Fr Cojazzi was involved from the outset and it was printed by SEI. Alongside Catechesi, there was also the flourishing Teatro dei giovani, Teatro delle giovani, Voci bianche.
Catechesi was taken over byUCCS in 1941 and relaunched in the years immediately preceding Vatican II. It did this, for the most part, through national conventions like “Amici di Catechesi” with technical and logistic support from the Publishers in 1959, 1960, 1962 and 1966. It brought thousands together and had a threefold advantage: it disseminated innovative thinking about catechetics, as promoted by the international catechetical movement, throughout every diocese; it was an expression of the request for central organisation of catechetics in Italy (recognised in 1960 by the creation of a catechetical commission in CEI, and in 1961 with the setting up of the National Catechetics Office); and we finally said goodby to the by now outdated Catechism of Pius X (which happened immediately after the Council).
           
3. Leumann
In 1963, Elledici and CCS left the Mother House at Valdocco (where they had been since 1959) for a more organised effort together at the new and larger building in Leumann in Turin. These were years of considerable expansion for the Publishers and of notable influence on the catechetical ministry of the Italian Church, and beyond. Two documents confirm this: La scoperta del Regno di Dio (Discovering the Kingdom of God and Il nuovo catechismo olandese (Dutch catechism).
The first, a three volume work for teaching religion in Italian middle school (11/14 year olds) presented the Christian message in a strongly biblical and liturgical way following the direction of the proposed kerygmatic approach by Jungmann and his circle. The choice made by CCS and Elledici marked a point of no return with its success over similar texts but of a doctrinal-theological kind based on the Catechism of Pius X. It outlined Christian doctrine along the following lines: dogma (“The Creed”, first volume), morals (“Commandments”, second vol.), Grace (Sacraments and prayer, volume three).
The second “publishing novelty” exploded in 1962. The New Dutch Catechism which was a complete change compared to the traditional catechisms. In the exciting climate of the early post-conciliar period, Elledici succeeded in publishing this famous and much debated catechism with its “supplement” as requested by Rome. It did so not without much effort and determination: that is, despite opposition from certain members of the hierarchy and strong competition from the secular publishing world, very interested in a publishing opportunity that seemed to have easily predictable success lying before it.
Amidst these two outstanding publishing efforts, Elledici was doing its best to spread ideas from Vatican II through its Collana Magistero conciliare, 16 substantial volumes offering the genesis, editing process, structure of and systematic comments on each text from the Council. It was particularly active in liturgical reform in every sense, including sacred music. It was regularly producing missals, materials for liturgy generally, sacramental celebration, Liturgy of the Hours, singing the Psalms.
All this liturgical production was given theoretical support from reflection in the authoritative Rivista Liturgica published by Elledici, along with theological and pastoral volumes studying all kinds of expressions of worship.
Elledici has given particular attention to liturgical and recreational music, continuing Don Bosco's tradition, for whom “an oratory without music is a body without a soul”. This is why it published the Il canto dell’assemblea and Armonia di voci journals and still does so today; they are amongst the best known collection of such music. Also La famiglia cristiana nella casa del Padre (since 1969) and the new Repertorio nazionale dei canti, in collaboration with the liturgical office of the CEI.

4. Basic document: milestone from the 1970s
In the seventies Elledici gave support to the Italian Catechetical Project, involving some Salesians from  CCS first hand in drawing up a Basic Documentfor the Project (1970) and for various official catechisms that followed at the time. As a service for this entire project, Elledici saw to the most complete and authoritative commentary on the Basic Documentand “guides” for the official catechisms for various age groups, also providing further material on them. All of this was then made known throughout most of the Italian dioceses by CCS experts who went the length and breadth of the Peninsula to spread the new CEI and National Catechetics Office proposals.
During this 'high season' of Italian catechetical renewal, CCS and Elledici set up meetings and courses for new pastoral workers and catechists who were fully formed in the spirit of the Council. Thus the Bienni for pastoral and catechetical formation came into being to prepare leaders in the catechetical field, and directors for diocesan catechetics offices. These were also replicated outside Turin, and offered an effective contribution to renewal of Italian pastoral catechesis and, aching people from many regions, also helped make Elledici and CCS better known.
The result of these Bienni and collaboration with the Catechetical Institute at theUPS was also a first series of handbooks (Quaderni)on catechetics that tackled various aspects of catechetics from a theoretical point of view. The collection, which was continued and updated continues today under the title of  Studi e ricerche di catechetica. Nuova serie.
Still in the catechetical and religious field, we could indicate another important publishing initiative of Elledici that demonstrates its attention to the area of culture. In the context of post-conciliar catechetics, which pays attention to the dimensions of anthropology and experience, works and kerygmatic approaches like La scoperta del Regno di Dio began to show their limitations and were less usable in an increasingly secular and pluralist school setting. Halfway through the Seventies, then, Elledici published Progetto Uomo, one of the early texts to take up the anthropological perspective in school religious education. It was an immediate publishing success and became a point of reference for similar works published by others.
Continuing along this line, the Catechesi journal issued a series of binder products for a number of years, Catechesi Fotoproblemi. Each was a collection of photos on a particular issue, not strictly religious but of catechetical interest, supported by a guide which the catechist could use. At the same time Elledici supported more traditional catechesis with a series it developed on cartelloni catechistici, which could be used in classrooms.
A Publisher which aims to support the Church's ministry also needs to be interest in the Bible. Using experts from within or outside of CCS, Il messaggio della salvezza came into being, a several volume introduction to biblical texts. Often updated and reprinted, these handbooks, under the title Logos, were a flagship item for Elledici. Then came the success of the Enciclopedia delle Bibbia, in six huge volumes published in the seventies.
To inform and form a broad public in 1971 the bimonthly Parole di vita was launched, belonging to the Italian Biblical Association (ABI) and in 1990 Il Mondo della Bibbia, a translation and adaptation of the journal by the same name in French.
Still aiming at a higher level of culture, Bibbia Tob, one of the most up-to-date and complete biblical commentaries was published with introductions, and notes and comments from the Traduction Oecumenique de la Bible. An edition of the Bibbia in lingua corrente (TILC) was both original and of high quality, put together by Catholic and Protestant specialists under the auspices of the Universal Biblical Alliance (ABU) and CCS-Elledici.
The seventies were also the years when individual religious families were involved in seriously rethinking their charisms and identity in the light of the Council. Elledici did not forget its Salesian foundations and saw to a special collection of studies aimed at helping Salesians to live their founder's charism effectively today. In this area there was a strong and successful effort to present Don Bosco to a broader public by publishing new biographies and texts concerning him. They were disseminated outside of Italy through various translations.
The Salesian 'stamp' was also observable in the attention Elledici gave to youth ministry and education in general. Amongst the outstanding efforts here privileged place needs to be accorded to Note di pastorale giovanile, Mondo Erre and Dimensioni nuove. These periodicals reach thousands of readers and help them with human and Christian formation, alongside other productions aimed at leisure time like theatrical texts,  recitals, youth songs, games and summer holiday material. The journal Teatro dei giovani was dedicated to theatre, and then came Espressione giovani.

5. School
New encouragement for publishing activity came from the choice of CEI to draw up official new Italian catechisms, initially published only “for consultation and experiment”. The Bishops' decision encouraged Elledici to formulate new and more adequate texts around the structures for catechetical ministry that had already been prepared in the earlier decade. Here we note the success of Dossier catechista, probably with the widest dissemination in the world, running to 75,000 copies. Along with Dossier catechista came two other journals for religion teaching in school: L’Ora di religione, for the primary school, and Insegnare religione for middle and upper secondary. This because, following the revised Concordat between the Holy See and the Italian State (1984), the role of religion teaching in the public school was given a new shape.  Elledici got involved in helping teachers assimilate the new approach to discipline through its two journals, and with handbooks and specific texts which, amongst other things, made known in Italy some of the problems that were also bothering other European countries in this regard.
Elledici also gave special and substantial attention to the world of communication and its new tools. Slides substituted the glorious filmstrips and as a more modern medium helped offer hundreds of catechetical topics: biblical (old and new testament), history of the Church, hagiography, morals, liturgy, sacraments, sacred art etc. More 'profane' topics were not ignored either, but in each case they had educational value: blood donation for example. Symbolic of this period was Diagroup which was made up of a collection of slides in each edition illustrating a particular topic. The collection was accompanied by a printed booklet with useful material explaining the images, and an audiocassette.
Noting the development in the mass media area, Elledici then got involved in massive production of cassettes, initially, then DVDs, all of which helped pastoral workers to benefit from the large television productions like Gesù di Nazareth by Franco Zeffirelli, Mosé by Gianfranco De Bosioand the Atti degli Apostoli by Roberto Rossellini.
Similarly it went ahead with forming pastoral workers at various levels. Thus the publishing catalogue was enriched with data and indications emerging from broad sociological research involving thousands of Italian catechists, which took place between the eighties and the nineties. The same catalogue offered a complete series of handbooks of theology offering the possibility for serious and up-to-date theological formation for people tackling theological studies. Particularly appreciated were the dictionaries published with the help of the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome: Dizionario di Catechetica, Dizionario di Pastorale Giovanile, Dizionario di Scienze dell’educazione, Dizionario della comunicazione, Dizionario di Omiletica, Enciclopedia di bioetica e sessuologia (along with the Society for biology and sexuality) and l’Enciclopedia delle Religioni, which came out at this time in a renewed edition.

6. From 2000 until today
For the early years of the new century we can register two important publishing initiatives by Elledici. Serving those who were working with the official catechisms of CEI, the Progetto Magnificat was developedto help catechists organise their catechetics by using all the elements in their texts: biblical, liturgical and anthropological.
The whole question of catechetics, however, was rapidly developing and the Italian Church between the end of the nineties and the first few years after 2000 made the choice of offering catechetics from the point of view of “Christian initiation”, or the catechumenate. Aware of this development, Elledici, as well as spreading and commenting on the new direction, printed Progetto Emmaus on this basis. Another successful product, reprinted in its thousands, and particularly innovative from a teaching point of view, was the La Buona Notizia project. These are small hypertext collections, an approach that “digital natives”, used to chatting, multitasking and constant web connection, find easy to work with.
Throughout its history, Elledci has always had the valuable backing of CCS, which was renewed in 1999 and given a new name: Centro Evangelizzazione e Catechesi don Bosco and supported by a large Salesian community. In the eighties there were as many as 53 priest and brother confreres working, thinking, planning and praying together, and greatly adding to the catalogue of Elledici with some 3,000 titles and 200 new items per year.
There are around a hundred lay people working with the Salesians, between the central location and bookstores in twelve cities.
But a gradual reduction in the number of confreres working with us led, in 2011, to the closure of that community and an overall reshaping of the Publishing House. On the vigil of the Feast of the Immaculate in 2012, the main offices transferred, in close connection with the Centro Catechistico, to a new and more functional building. The Publishing House has abandoned its imposing five-storey red-brick building, with dozens of windows, and taken on a more agile and functional garb, more in line with the times.
The distance between the old address at Rivoli, the House of Savoy summer residence overlooking the Alps, and the new, close to Turin city centre, is not much. But there are kilometres of written words, mountains of printed books, quintals of ink that separate them! Also an infinite series of filmstrips, slides, drawings, images and musical notes. A precious treasure today condensed into the three thousand titles of the catalogue and two hundred new items per year.
But one of the things that does tie the past to the present is the priceless human heritage represented by hundreds of Salesian writers, artists and musicians, authors and collaborators who have accompanied the formation of generations of children, youth and adults with the same passion for education that Don Bosco had.
The new offices are certainly a milestone which we have been waiting for and have worked for,  coming after years of reflection, discussion and planning. But it has also been a courageous choice because it has been carried out at a time when the publishing industry is going through an enormous crisis.
           
7. Seen through God's eyes
On the day the new building was opened, 30 January 2013, Fr Pascual Chavez said in his passionate address that “this new place is a point of departure, not arrival, for publishing house that has written golden pages in Italy's cultural history. It is a time of crisis but as Don Bosco taught us, we also need to look at the positive side, thinking of the opportunities offered rather than the difficulties. This is especially true if we consider that our first thought must always be for the young people who need words of hope and encoueragement”.
In line with the Rector Major's reflection, two important places still remain next to the historical location, run by young people and thought up by them: the bookstore and the EllediciLab, a research centre made up of a study group from the Publishing House, by Ellediciscuola (with the AIMC, the Associazione Italiana Maestri Cattolici or Italian Catholic Teachers' Association as partner) and the Elledici Edu.c.a.r.e (Communication, Animation, Relations, Education) working together with the Animagiovane cooperative, experts in animation and formation). It is a real workshop or laboratory “where ideas and people meet” in in a constant give and take between the Publishers and the different educational circumstances around the nation. A new entry thought through and planned to respond to new challenges and questions coming out of social and ecclesial situations.
Leaders and teachers/educators who work with young people in parish groups and oratories revolve around this group of well-prepared professionals. Future publishing and multimedia products emerge from this exchange, in first place materials for summer activities, an intelligent mix of stories, activities, videos, songs, games, prayers.
Also knowing that “ideas and people meet”, to continue what Fr Chavez said, in “virtual playgrounds”, Elledici has invested enormous resources and energies in online material, with a fully renewed site, enabled for e-commerce and social networking. The dialogue with the new generations and their formators and proclamation of the Good News no longer pases just through the pages of a book but also through sites that make up the virtual world in which Don Bosco would also be present today, chatting with youngsters and communicating through Youtube, faithful to his “love what the young love if you want the young to love what you love”.
And it is the young people who are the fundamental point of reference for this Publisher's mission. Fr Chàvez made reference to this: “I have one thing at heart: your books, magazines, dvds and new media must help us look at the world through God's eyes, see God in everything and see everything through his eyes”.
Behind this concern is a bitter awareness: “In today's world” Fr Pascual went on, “there is a tremendous dose of pessimism. This pessimism regards the young in particular. Young people are not the future, they are the present and they need opportunity. As Don Bosco used say: we need to enlighten their minds, strengthen their identity, help them to grow in freedom and responsibility”.
It is this which the new Elledici is committed to doing with renewed optimism and enthusiasm, and with a great future.... behind it! Under the banner of Don Bosco and following his dream.