Whenever new youth establishments were undertaken, either near or far away, the same reasons were brought up and made publicly known: "At Genoa-Sampierdarena”, Don Bosco writes, “a single Parish has about 20,000 people and a small number of priests, nothing in comparison with the needs. The needs are felt by all the citizens but more especially by poor youths who are loitering through the streets and squares of the city, abandoned to the risk of perversion, due to their youthful
inexperience”.594 Similar words are found and even more forcefully, for a rapidly growing city, La Spezia.
La Spezia is certainly one of the cities with the greatest number of abandoned boys. The
Arsenal employs most of the inhabitants and they cannot take care of their young. While
the city has grown from five thousand to twenty seven thousand people, no provisions
could have been made to have badly needed institutions opened for them”.595 “The
religious education of the young has become a need felt by all honest people, but the poor
children of the working classes, those who lack the means of sustenance and their parents
assistance, deserve particular attention. Without moral instruction, without a skill or
employment ability, these youngsters run the most serious risk of becoming a public
scourge and therefore ready to crowd our prisons. This need is serious everywhere, but
more particularly so in the city of La Spezia. This city with a population which grew from
4000 to 30,000 in a matter of few years, has absolutely no churches, no schools and no
hospices.596
Rome, which had effectively become the capital of Italy, had to deal with serious problems. “This dear city of ours” Don Bosco explained to the Pope “had been abundantly provided for during normal times with educational institutions of all kinds for citizens. Now with the abnormal predicament we are in, with the extraordinary increase in population, with the many youngsters coming from far away places and all in search of either employment or shelter, it is essential that some steps be taken on behalf of the lower classes. The need to take steps is sadly made evident by the great number of young vagabonds running through the streets and squares of the city and who, most of the time, end up crowding the prisons. These poor boys, more than being wicked, are neglected children and it would certainly be very beneficial to them if an institution were opened for them”. 597
These are references have wider intent, as they include a great variety of works including schools for study of the classics, as he did at the time he was developing the colleges, making a secondary education “accessible for not too well-to-do youngsters, but ones commendable for talent and virtue, and also for poor youngsters gifted with talent and good morals but almost entirely deprived of financial means. The aim is to help them develop the talents Divine Providence has gifted them with”.
2.3 Wisdom and firmness
A typical note of moderation which is really wisdom, also characterises Don Bosco’s moving with the times and with the historical situations he lived in. Certainly he did not champion as a principle the idea that “the best is the enemy of the good” but he also knew how to let go of “the best” in order to achieve his goal, however limited and imperfect, rather than end up with nothing. "I perfectly agree with you”, Don Bosco wrote to one of his collaborators, in a particular circumstance,"what we look for is the optime, the best, but sadly enough we have to content ourselves with what is less good, in the midst of so much evil. Such are the times we live in. Despite this the results we have had are satisfactory”.598
594 Circular in summer 1872, E II 220; cf. another circular in Autumn 1872, with a similar description, E II 241-242. 595 Letter to the Minister for the Navy, Benedetto Brin, 16 January 1877, E III 273.
596 Circular 11 Oct. 1880, E III 627.
597 Petition to Leo XIII, March 1878, E III 317.
598 Letter to Fr Giovanni Bonetti, 6 June 1870, E II 96. “The good had to be done the right way”, Fr Cafasso had already