150 Y EARS OF H ISTORY the tomb of Don Bosco: their gift for the year 1889. On the evening of the 24th the academy in honor and memory of Don Bosco had an impressive outcome thanks to the deferential behavior with which the ad-hoc compositions were listened as much from the interiors as from the numerous external intervened“.
Oratory of Leghorn and about his life as a boarding pupil in Florence, he continued: «It was then that in my soul was planted a seed that only after would give fruit»: And that fruit was twofold: the resurgence to the Faith and the strength to endure the great adversity.
He, then, recalled: «If I ask myself from which depths certain voices have climbed back to me, it seems to me to listen again to the cries and the singings of when we played and prayed with the same innocence, with the same happiness. At that school I learned the truths that that had to be forgotten but not erased by the violence of the youth».
So it arose, little by little local Associations which then gathered and formed national Associations till they coordinate and ended to constitute the big international Association: an immense army, as we said, ready to get going, if only a watchword had been pronounced from the center (International President was initially Mr. Masera, a lawyer, Alumnus from Fossano; his successor was Mr. Poesio, a lawyer, Alumnus of the Oratory at the time of Don Bosco). We admired the compactness of them, their agility during the triumphant years of Don Bosco’s Beatification and Canonization. In that moment we saw illustrious Alumni who, despite having known Don Bosco only through his sons, stood up everywhere in the world to celebrate the Saint of Youth Education. One of them was Carlo Delcroix, the great War Maimed, member of the Italian Parliament, President of the National Association of Disabled Servicemen. He lost, by fighting, both the eyes and both the forearms; but the intelligence is vivid and the spirit is very high. In Milan, in the presence of the major authorities, he glorified the Saint with an affection which vibrated from all his body and with a persuasion force which fascinated the public present and the radio listeners. His quality of Alumnus inspired him a magnificent debut. «My debut – he started –wants to be, first of all, an act of gratitude». And after having told about his long attendance in the
Not many Alumni have the gift of knowing how to dress their thinking with such elected forms, but the thought is in many, indeed in many.
Carlo Delcroix Silver Military Valor Medal
It is not, therefore, rethorical exaggeration saying that the Association of Alumni is naturally included in the history of Salesian Society; but if today’s Association reigns, as we see it, this happens thanks to the virtue of the seed sprouted in the climate of the Oratory and under the caress of the vivifying heat which came from and come from Don Bosco.
- (SAC. GIOVANNI BATTISTA LEMOYNE, Life of the Venerable Servant of God Giovanni Bosco, Vol. Second, chap. VII For the Church and for the Pope 1870-1871, Turin 24 May 1930). - (SAC. EUGENIO CERIA, Annals of the Salesian Society, from the origins to the death of St. John Bosco 1841-1888, Chap. XV pp. 162-163, Cap. LXVI pp. 712-719, International Publishing Company, reprint November 1961). - (SAC. EUGENIO CERIA, Annals of the Salesian Society, vol. Second, The Rectorate of Don Michele Rua, part I from 1888 to 1898, Chap. III pp. 22-24, International Publishing Company, reprint April 1965). www.exallievi.org
EX ALLIEVI Newsflash - 24 june 2020
17