Highlighting these traits is unavoidable for anyone who wants to understand and retrieve the main aspects of his experience as an educator, since this experience is inseparably bound up with and almost identical to his personality and lifestyle.
2.1 Tradition and modernity
One trait should probably not be considered the most important one, but it struck anyone looking at Don Bosco. This is his modernity.572 This trait is inseparable from his steadfast attachment to the past and its fundamental values: the moral and religious traditions which he assimilated within family and his Christian community and which formed his spiritual nourishment; habits of honesty, work spirit and sacrifice had been Don Bosco's constant companion. Summing up, then, it was his fidelity to the ideals and lifestyle proposed by Christianity, safeguarded and proclaimed within the Catholic Church, by Popes, Bishops and Priests, and supported by sincere and practicing baptised Catholics.
Modernity and Tradition call for two attitudes which, however distinct and distinguishing they are by comparison with Priests and Catholics of his own times, blend together most easily in Don Bosco. In fact, Don Bosco's reliance on the spiritual environment he came from, which at times was strongly conservative, was almost always tuned to a realism which led him to accept new situations and demands with a degree of daring: Don Bosco was traditional without being reactionary, mainly modern without joining ranks with any kind of Catholic liberalism.
To talk about Don Bosco being a forerunner or a trailblazer is neither pertinent nor exact. We have already seen, earlier, and will see later that pretty much all of Don Bosco’s works and thinking were the ongoing heritage of Catholic tradition. What led Don Bosco to this heritage, as we have already remarked, was his mentality, his formation, his acquaintances, his membership of whatever group, and his preferences. It was the environment of his district, family; school at Chieri, seminary, the Convitto Ecclesiastico, St Joseph Cafasso, and the spiritual powers which were prevalent in ecclesiastical circles Don Bosco had as reference; it was the Florentine and the Roman aristocrats; the benefactors with whom he had more friendly relationships and from whom he received outstanding help, benefactors like Archbishops, Cardinals and Popes.
The judgment Don Bosco passed on the events of his days was not, fundamentally, different from the one largely shared by the Catholic world. What makes Don Bosco's judgment different, at times, is his realistic way either of bearing with or confronting or correcting the events he faced, sometimes almost recklessly, but always substantially correctly. Don Bosco's stand vis-a-vis some particular events that occurred in 1848 is typical, in this regard. His theoretical judgment of these events was not favorable, for the most part. For instance, he justifies his refusal to have the Oratory participate in the celebrations for the Statute. "What am I supposed to do? A refusal would have meant that I was a declared enemy of Italy; an acceptance would have meant that I was accepting principles I considered full of fatal consequences".573
This judgment probably did not refer to fundamental theoretical principles (Democratic spirit, the rejection of Absolutism, etc.) but to the practical consequences he thought were deplorable such as the abuse of authority, libertarianism, reckless permissiveness of passions and the press, and a violent break-away from respectable traditions. At any rate, his judgment was not a positive one. But immediately we notice the presence of a will to act which overcomes the polemics. It becomes a
572 Cf. “Don Bosco e le sfide della modernità”. Contribution by M. Guasco, P. Scoopola, F. Traniello. (Turin: Centro Studi
“Carlo Trabucco”, 1988), 46 pages; P Scoppola, “Don Bosco e la modernità”, in M. Midali, ed., Don Bosco nella storia,
531-540; in the same work we find interesting pages by P. Stella, “Bilancio delle forme di conoscenza e degli studi su
don Bosco”, 34-36.
573 MO (1991), 198. The emphasis is ours. Further on, talking about a ‘patriot’ priest invited “to give a moral exhortation
to the poor youngsters”, he comments: “But on that occasion he was really immoral. Liberty, emancipation,
independence echoed throughout his talk” (MO 1991, 201).