No less disappointing is the solution Don Bosco offers for a teenager's cris of faith. The one who relates it is trustworthy - Blessed Michael Rua.
He records the event in his all-too brief diary. When requested by a working boy if he could join the academic students, Don Bosco had consented. The boy must have been intelligent and, on his own, was in search of something. Probably there was no one at the time that he could confide in.
After a few months of study, the young man was suddenly attacked by temptations, started
to doubt God's existence, paradise and hell etc. He did not feel satisfied keeping this way of
thinking to himself and sobegan to make his doubts known to his classmates. This certainly
could not but be dangerous for those who listened to him. Don Bosco came to know about
it and then, soon enough, found a remedy to dissipate the doubts. The young man's
benefactor called on Don Bosco to arrange the young man's transfer from the working boys
to the academic section. Don Bosco suggested, in the presence of the young man, that for
the time being it might be better not to come to any definite decision since it looked like the
young man's head might not handle the studies and that he was as yet uncertain. That is
when the young man realised the wrong steps that he had taken. He acknowledged the harm
he had caused by yielding to the doubts in his mind and much more the harm that he had
caused by repeating these doubts to his classmates. He straightened himself up and from
that time on led a fervent life.1023
What strik es us in reference to this real teenager is not so much the talk about protecting the
community from a troublesome element but that no constructive intervention is alluded to. This might
have been a 'lacuna' affecting a mindset but also the whole setting. This would seem to be confirmed by some letters of an educational nature mostly addressed to young men of a higher social and cultural
class. In these letters we find the indications ordinarily given to the Oratory boys without any age
distinction. And eve n in these letters, what stands out is the protective side: flight from, caution,
submission to….much more than a concern to understand, explain or build up in a positive way. When requested to express his judgment of certain books, Don Bosco answered:
The books are not to on the 'Index'. There are, however, certain things that are dangerous
for a young person's morality, so, while you may read them, you should also be careful, and
if you find that they cause harm to your heart, stop reading them or at least skip the
passages which may be relatively dangerous for you.1024
Later on, Don Bosco would propose the following solution to the same young man.
Keep an eye on bad companions and avoid them; look for good companions and imitate
them. God's grace is the gre atest of treasures: the fear of God is the first among all
riches.
1025
To another young upper -class lad Don Bosco gave three fundamental reminders, the three F's: Flight from idleness; Flight from companions who indulge in bad talk or give bad advice: Frequen
Confession and fervent, fruitful Communion.
1026
On another occasion, Don Bosco congratulated a Baroness for having chosen the right boarding school, Mondragone.
t
1023 M. Rua, Cronache, p. 6.
1024 Letter to 19 year-old nobleman Ottavio Bosco di Ruffino, 11 August 1859, Em I 381-382.
1025 Letter to the same person, 9 January 1861, Em I 433-434.
1026 Letter to Gregorio dei Baroni Garofali, a 14 year-old in the Jesuit college at Mongré (Southern France) 1 June
1966, Em II 252.