in an ideal natural family, that is, between parents and their children, brothers and sisters.1109 For this reason the Rector is recognised by everyone as the head of the family, a true Paterfamilias who wields undisputed authority over all the activities of his collaborators and pupils.
The Rector, as a father, makes sure that his children are provided with material bread, physical care, intellectual nourishment and with moral and religious support.1110 He is not a 'father - master' nor even just a superior, governor, but a real father -mother, firm and loving with full responsibility at all levels:
physical, intellectual, scientific, moral and religious. The classic document on the Rector is the Ricordi confidenziali or Confidential Memo for Rectors, written in 1863 but gradually, later on, expanded, re- touched. They were employed throughout the rest of Don Bosco's lifetime. We know that their origin goes back to 1863, at the end of October. It was a personal letter sent to Fr Michael Rua, newly appointed Rector of the first collegio or boarding school outside of Turin, Mirabello Monferrato. As new schools of the kind were built Don Bosco, in 1870, thought it best to give the text a much broader application. He would continue to re-touch the original text over the following years, up until 1886. From 1870, the Ricordi were given to every Rector. They had been collected together in a booklet entitled Confidential Memo for Rectors. They have continued through to our own time as a significant expression of Don Bosco’s spirit.
The Rector is the mind, heart, and centre of the activities of the entire house. The house is, at the same time, a religious house, an educational institution, and the communities of educators and pupils are present to one other. The paragraphs which make up the document address a Rector who is a 'consecrated person', the superior of a community of consecrated people who, in turn, are educators and live together with the young to be educated. The Rector is, furthermore, the one responsible for, and the representative of the community vis-a-vis secular and ecclesiastical authorities; he is the representative of an institution which operates in two areas, the civil and the religious.
The titles in the document give us an exact idea of the plurality of functions assigned to the Rector: how the Rector should deal with himself, the teachers, the assistants and dormitory heads, with the Coadjutors and the service people, with the young pupils, the day students, the members of the Society, when giving orders.1111
There is a host of varied tasks assigned to the Rector but they are all linked with the classic principle:
strive to make yourself loved rather than feared. The adverb 'rather' was preceded by some var iants, such as "before..." and "if you want".
1112
There is a recurrent insistence on certain recommendations: “Be concerned”, “speak”, “get together”, take account of, check, prevent, to hear the opinion of. Particularly addressed is the presence that the Rector must have among his young pupils.
In practice and theory, and later codified in the Rules for day students, the Rector stands for the core of Don Bosco's pedagogy of community. It is true that theoretically and practically it is the educative environment in its entirety which should first of all be cared for. But it is also self-evident that the environment is created by the entire 'family' of educators and young people.
However, the one called to give to this collective work shape, a unified and systematic orientation and
1109 For sociological types of the family, which would embrace most of Don Bosco's large educational communities,
especially the boarding schools, cf. P. Melograni(ed.), La famiglia italiana dall'Ottocento ad oggi. Bari, Laterza 1985,
XVIII-712 p: differentiates between farming, working, middle class families; M. Barbagli, Sotto lo stesso tetto.
Mutamenti della famiglia in Italia dal XV al XX secolo, Bologna, Il Mulino 1984, 557 p; M. Marbagli and D.I. Kertzer
(Eds), Storia della famiglia salesiana 1750-1950. Bologna, Il Mulino 1992, 367 p.
1110 The terms “figli”, “figliuoli” can sometimes seem to be simply an Italian translation of the Piedmentese term
“fieuj”, that in certain contexts simply means “ragazzi”. In Don Bosco's familiar language applied to each Rector there
is a more specific connotation of a paternal spiritual and educational relationship with the boys.
1111 Cf. F. Motto, I «Ricordi confidenziali ai direttori»..., p. 1\51.
1112 F. Motto, I «Ricordi confidenziali ai direttori»..., p. 151.