that love into the parents and the educators cannot but be clothed in something of the affection shown by parents: this is the second love created by God…Should the contrary take place, then, the school will be cold, sad, alienated, like a prison. It entails a total involvement in the life of the pupils and this involvement is summed up in this single expression: We Love them. In fact, from the moment God became incarnate among us, the care of souls, which was already so great, has become a love which is far superior to any other love and a fatherliness which has no rivals. The skilled teacher is no more a skilled teacher but a father. The scholar is no more a scholar but a priest. Therefore it is not difficult to love the pupils. It is enough to believe in their souls, in God, who created them and redeemed them, in their origin and in their destiny”.258
Religion and affection are the two columns of the educative structure.
Lacordaire does not fail to mention the third element. “It is essential for justice to have a stern demeanour. Affection without justice is weakness and without justice even religion would veil the more harmful, the more outstanding corruption of the heart. By rewarding the good and by striking the evil done, human society can be safeguarded”.Without this element, “the child who has not yet come to know what it is and in a way suited to his weakness, will inevitably have neither the fear of what is evil nor the understanding of what life is. One needs to experience the weight of justice to learn how to bend one's will to accept the laws of duty: one must taste the joy of a reward well-deserved to acquire a feeling for honor”. “Here, on the very threshold of the school, a child finds justice. But he does not find it alone, separated from religion and affection; he will find it by getting accustomed to the law of the world in which he is going to live, according to which any crime calls for atonement, every fault calls for a reprimand, every failure calls for being ashamed of it, and every weakness calls for dishonor”.259
The text published in the Galantuomo referred only to the sections which dealt with religion and love. It remains improbable, as it has been pointed out, for the article to have been penned by Don Bosco himself: it is not his style. However, the fact that many of Don Bosco's ideas coincide with
Lacordaire's and that some of these are related to ideas of religion and affection widely diffused in the world of Catholic education before and after the Restoration, does not permit us to speak abou t Don Bosco's dependence on Lacordaire's.
That religion is the basis of all moral and social life and therefore of every educational action, is a conviction which Don Bosco made abundantly evident throughout his priestly ministry. The same may be said for the method of charity expressed in affection, loving kindness practised, proclaimed and recognised from the outset of his commitment to caring for young people. 260
7. Antoine Monfat, educator and pedagogue (1820-1898)
With exceptional educators and animators like Poullet and Magne, the St. Vincent de Senlis College enjoyed a prosperous development followed by years of decline during which the number of students decreased considerably. The school was handed over to the Fathers of the Society of Mary. Its first director was Antoine Monfat (1820-l898), Provincial, from Lyons, and a man of great culture and prestige. Monfat was open to the ideas of the school. He had come to know and understand its methods during the years 1857-1867 at the Minor Seminary of Maximieux where he taught Latin and rhetoric
258 Ibid., 323-326.
259 H.-D. Lacordaire, Discours prononcé, pp. 326-327.
260 Conclusions drawn by F- Desramaut, Don Bosco en on temps (1815-1888), (Turin: SEI 1996), 656-658, seem at least a
bit loose. Don Bosco had no need to take not of the “seductive formulae of Lacordaire” to know what had been for
decades the pillars of his activity and beliefs as an educator, religion and affection. (696): cf Braido, “Il sistema
preventivo di Don Bosco alle origini (1841-1862). Il cammino del ‘preventivo’ nella realtà e nei documenti”, RSS
14(1995): 255-320.