This article applies to the social dimension of the Salesian mission. Subject was, chronologically, included in the three points. The article begins with the presentation of the social aspect of the life of the Founder of the Salesians – St. John Bosco. Then it moves to the activity of Bl. Michael Rua and the contribution of other saints, the servants of God and candidates for sainthood from the Salesian Family. The last point indicates a variety of pro-social activities in the above mentioned areas in recent years. This article, of which the author is the Postulator for the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family, is a contribution to the celebration of 150th anniversary of the Salesian Congregation (1859 – 2009).
The process of beatification of the second group of World War II martyrs provided an opportunity to remember among those Servants of God eight Salesians who were prisoners at the Auschwitz camp. In 1999, Fr. Joseph Kowalski was already added to the group of those beatified. Between the years 1940-1945, at least 1, 300, 000 people were taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Among this number were 464 priests, monks, and seminarians and 35 nuns from Poland and other countries of occupied Europe. Most of them perished in Auschwitz or other camps to which they were transferred. Among those imprisoned in Auschwitz, there were 22 Salesians whose fate well illustrates the fate of all the clergy in the camp. Many of them (13) died in the camp, some very shortly after registration at the camp. Two more died after being transferred to Dachau, and one to Neuengamme. Only 6 survived the war out of the group of Salesians relocated to Dachau where clergy imprisoned in various camps were starting to be concentrated. This article recalls the circumstances of their arrest and fate in the camp. This historical research was based on preserved camp records as well as the testimonies of survivors who had been in contact with the Salesians during their stay in the camp.
The Catholic Church, as no other community, undertook decisive actions, in order to judge sexual abuses by clerics. The Church aims also to secure environments for raising and evangelization young people. The Society of St. Francis de Sales have also undertaken proper steps and strategies in recent years to purify its ranks, and to face the truth about minors sexual abuse. The important reference point in initial religious formation are records in the salesian Constitution upon consecrated chastity. It is also necessary to firmly apply rules included in Ratio formationis. The problem concerns proper recognition of vocation and human formation in an emotional and sexual space. Remaining in chastity requires also spiritual commitment and lifelong asceticism within the framework of so called permanent formation. However if a sexual abuse happen, it is necessary to face the problem i.e. to show compassion and help to the victims and to explain the whole truth about what had really happened. If a Salesian is guilty of a crime then, in the name of love and truth, it is necessary to apply canonical penalties. Crisis, which touched the Church and the Society of St. Francis de Sales, is an opportunity to thorough personal and communal purification. At the same time it is a reminder that only remaining in Jesus Christ- a Vine Bush can bear good fruit of apostolic service to the youth.
This article portrays the most important elements of the Salesian formation and education in the context of social life. It also points out the specifics of the community and its charism which set the foundations for this congregation. The conclusion is a reflection on the key elements of the Salesian mission in the present world.
Saint John Bosco founded The Society of Saint Francis de Sales in 1859 in Turin, whose Constitutions were finally accepted by The Holy See on 3rd April 1874. The first group of Salesian missionaries left for Argentine on 11th November 1875. For a start they began working among the Italian emigrants, and then initiated evangelization of the local inhabitants. After the first expedition, Salesians made their way to other countries of South and Middle America. The Vatican Congregation of Faith recommended Salesians to take over further work in some Apostolic Prefectures and vicarages. Due to lack of Salesian personnel, Salesian missions in India started in 1905, and the year after in China as well. During the first Salesian mission expedition to China, two Salesian priest were killed by bandits on 2nd March 1930: Bishop Aloysius Versiglia and Father Callistus Caravario; who were canonized on 1st October 2000. The first Salesians were sent to Australia in 1922. First Salesian establishments for educating the young in Africa were opened in the year 1891. In fact, they were meant for the European citizens but later also for the African people. After the pilgrimage of the pope John Paul II onto the African continent in 1980, Salesians went ahead with the project called „Project Africa”.
Saint John Bosco founded The Society of Saint Francis de Sales in 1859 in Turin, whose Constitutions were finally accepted by The Holy See on 3rd April 1874. The first group of Salesian missionaries left for Argentine on 11th November 1875. For a start they began working among the Italian emigrants, and then initiated evangelization of the local inhabitants. After the first expedition, Salesians made their way to other countries of South and Middle America. The Vatican Congregation of Faith recommended Salesians to take over further work in some Apostolic Prefectures and vicarages. Due to lack of Salesian personnel, Salesian missions in India started in 1905, and the year after in China as well. During the first Salesian mission expedition to China, two Salesian priest were killed by bandits on 2nd March 1930: Bishop Aloysius Versiglia and Father Callistus Caravario; who were canonized on 1st October 2000. The first Salesians were sent to Australia in 1922. First Salesian establishments for educating the young in Africa were opened in the year 1891. In fact, they were meant for the European citizens but later also for the African people. After the pilgrimage of the pope John Paul II onto the African continent in 1980, Salesians went ahead with the project called „Project Africa”.
The first parish priest who took the Holy Family and St. Jude Thaddeus parish in Słupsk on behalf of the Salesian Society was Fr. Franciszek Krajewski. By 2012 the parish had had altogether 11 Salesian parish priests. Their assistant staff consisted of 66 priests, 44 clerical students doing their pedagogical and pastoral practice, and 5 coadjutors. The parish brought forth 10 priestly vocations. Originally, the parish covered the whole of Zatorze district. In 1977, St. Maximilian Kolbe’s parish was separated from it. The subsequent parish priests converted the church buildings from 1920, which were only a makeshift place of worship, into a church attached to a parish hall. In the 1980s, when permission was obtained from the authorities, a new religious house and a spacious church were built, along with a chapel of Our Lady Help of Christians. The Salesians from Słupsk also took care of their parishioners’ spiritual life. In the years 1983 – 1989 they organized a walking pilgrimage from Słupsk to Częstochowa. From 1991, the parish magazine Holy Family was published. Apart from ordinary pastoral work, there were numerous prayer groups, movements, communities and organizations, such as the Living Rosary, Caritas, the Catholic Association of Polish Railmen, the Eucharistic Crusade, altar servers groups, the Home Church movement (Ruch Kościół Domowy), the Desert of Cities youth movement (Ruch Młodzieżowy Pustynia Miast), the Charismatic Renewal, the Light-Life Movement, the “Gift of Jesus” Alcoholics Anonymous Community, the Neocatechumenate, the Salesian Sports Organization of the Republic of Poland, the Association of Mamma Margaret, the Association of Mary Help of Christians, the Salesian Missionary Voluntary Service, and the Salesian Cooperators.
The first Salesian oratory was established in Poland in Przemyśl in 1907 as a typical form of education for young men. In 1936 another oratory was founded at the Salesian seminary in Kraków. Thanks to the good organizing skills and prudent leadership of Fr. Józef Nęcki it was soon fitted with rooms, playgrounds, playing fields, and sports facilities. The oratory provided young people with religious life, cultural and physical education, tuition, and material help. Religious life in the oratory was based on catechesis, liturgy, and prayer. An association of altar servers was founded, as well as the Catholic Association of Male Youth. Talks were given on good manners, and hygienic and esthetic issues; trips were frequently organized to movies and theaters. The oratory relied on material help in the form of gifts on the occasion of holidays and donations of food. The main source of income was the generosity of the Kraków population. The activities of the oratory were paralyzed by the outbreak of World War 2, after which its main purpose was charity and the distribution of extra meals. The cultural activity of the oratory in all its dimensions was based on Fr. Bosco’s pedagogy, and was appropriate for every age group.
The article presents the various activities of ‘the Salesians’ as teachers and educators during the Second World War, indicating also the social and political structures of the country. After the outbreak of the war, the educational efforts of the Salesians were stopped, but not eliminated from everyday life. However, on the basis of archival documents, the destiny of some religious was rediscovered, guided by the courageous and heroic acts of ‘teaching in secret’, creation of boarding schools, orphanages and pastoral care and demonstrating with their lives, a phenomenal dedication to youths’ education, risking of imprisonment, permanent enclosure in a concentration camp, and in many cases, death by martyrdom.
The parish in Kryniczno was handed to the Salesians of Środa Śląska on February 1, 1951 and remained in their possession until February 15, 1993, when the administration of the parish passed into the hands of the diocesan clergy. Parishioners took part in daily masses and worship. Parish choirs, altar boy communities and rosary circles were founded. Pilgrimages for youth to Częstochowa and trips to World Youth Day were organized. During their stay in the parish of Kryniczno, Salesians carried on renovations of sacred objects, commercial objects, and other inventory. They conducted the restoration of the rectory and the church; restored statues of saints and other equipment, and purchased necessary furnishings. The pastoral activity of the Salesian priests in Kryniczno concluded in 1993.
This article deals with the educator teacher and his work in the Salesian schools since the beginning of the school year to 1939. The daily pedagogical work of teachers was associated with in shaping the intellect, character and religiousness live of the students. Many examples taken from the history of the Salesian schools indicate that the Salesian activity brought good educational results during the Partitions, as well as during World War I or the inter-war period. The social context in which the Poles lived indicated the necessity of raising the culture of the Polish society. This activity was carried out by the Salesian priests and Salesian brothers. Co workers were also invited to cooperate. The necessity of education and training allowed for the openings of schools, but also other institutions, the dormitories, educational institutions, oratories or parishes. There were always children and young people as subjects of the work the Salesians. In education, teachers used the „Pedagogical triad”, based on reason, religion, and love-flowing from the preventive system left by St. John Bosco. It was precisely the „triad” that became the syncretism of the values and strategies proposed learners in the educative process.
In the years 1950 – 2010 there were 11 parish priests managing the parish in Główczyce on behalf of the Salesian Order. In 1952 a new pastoral institution in Stowiecin was separated, and then in 1959 still a new pastoral institution in Cecenów was created out of it. Due to anticlerical policies of the state, the formal establishment of a separate parish in Stowięcin was not created until 25 Jan 1968, and in Cecenowie until 2 Oct 1973. First as independent vicars, and then, after creating parishes, 6 Salesians priests managed Stowięcino and 9 Cecenowo as parish priests. As the support staff there were 35 Salesian priests in Główczyce, 7 in Stowięcino, and 2 in Cecenowo. Then, there were 16 seminarians in Główczyce, 17 in Stowięcin and 1 in Cecenowo caring out their pedagogical pastoral practice. Additionally, 5 coadjutors to Główczyce and 1 to Cecenowo were sent to assist the pastors. So far, the Salesians have only worked in Główczyce, while the parishes Stowięcino and Cecenowo were transferred to the Diocese of Pelplin in 1998. In all three parishes taking care of groups of Living Rosary. Without neglecting the mission to the youth, they organized altar boys groups, choirs, or youth groups, then they also gathered children and the youth in oratorios. What is more, in Główczyce the Movement Light of Life developed rapidly.
Wanda Mamertyna Jasieńska from Tudorów (poviat Równe in Volhynia) died of cancer 22 January 1935 in Warsaw. Three months before her death she bequeathed her landed estate of over 200 hectares in Tudorów to the Salesians of St Jacek Province, whose provincial superior was the Rev. Tomasz Kopa. In return, the Salesians were supposed to organise an educational institution which could run gardening courses for young people. Wanda lived with her mother in Żytomierz. When she was 16 - in 1886, she married Władysław Konstanty Wincenty Jasieński, the landowner from Tudorów, whose land estate she inherited after his death and after paying off the incurred debts. They had no children. After the death of her mother Alina in 1914 in Żytomierz, Wanda did not divide her mother’s inheritance to give one part of it to her sister Wieńczysława Regina, who repeatedly claimed her part of the property. At that time Józef Bronikowski from Równe started visiting Wanda. He became her and her husband’s confidant. In 1926 Wanda endowed his family with a land of about 20 hectares along with a house and outbuildings, and when her husband Władysław died in 1929, Bronikowski took control of Wanda’s landed estate in Tudorów. During Wanda’s incurable disease, Bronikowski isolated her on purpose and he not only managed the property, but also decided about Wanda’s treatment excluding her family or anybody whom she knew. Finally, a few months before she died, he influenced sick Wanda, whose sanity was doubtful, to make a will. According to Wanda’s family, Bronikowski terrorised the sick woman in the last months of her life. He did not let anyone visit her and he controlled her private correspondence for his own purposes. The departed Wanda Jesieńska was buried in her land in Tudorów, where according to her wish, a chapel for Salesian pastoral work was to have been built. The Salesians could take over the land that was given to them by Wanda only after the death of the land agent, Józef Bronikowski, who was to manage it at his own discretion without any intervention from both the family and the Salesians who were inheritors. He was not even obliged to submit any reports and accounts of the property management It is interesting that the departed Wanda did not bequeath anything to her only sister, Wieńczysława. She made a small bequest to her sister’s children, servants in the manor house, charitable purposes and the National Museum in Krakow. A privileged position of Bronikowski and humiliating position of the inheritors who did not have the right to make use of the property bequeathed to them during Bronikowski’s life indicates that the will was made to bring advantages to Bronikowski whose property management made a substantial contribution to his income. When Wanda’s will became legally binding, the family took measures to invalidate it. The case was first examined in Równem, then in the Court Appeal in Lublin and finally in the Supreme Court in Warsaw. The Salesians in the person of provincial superior from Krakow, who were endowed with a doubtful bequest, did not support the family’s endeavours. The Second World War prevented Wanda’s family from pursuing further claims concerning the inheritance. Also, Brokikowski was deprived of the right to the property income when Volhynia became a part of the Soviet Union after the Second World War.
The intervention intends to analyze how the Salesian works have joined fi delity to the Salesian charism with the need to respect the different political frameworks in which they find themselves, documenting how the educational mission has never lacked loyalty towards those States in which they exist or those into which it intended to expand. The historical survey suggested here, is limited to the Old Continent and more precisely to the Central European basin, for various reasons. The issue set is not becoming the subject of a monographic study. Through the analysis of some facts they will try to present the attitude and conduct of the Rector Major of the Salesian Congregation, Fr Michele Rua, and of the Salesians and in this respect, focusing attention primarily on external evaluations of their apostolate. This setting attempts to answer basic questions: Can a religious institution, although driven by determination to remain faithful to the charism and despite its declared apolitical attitude, operate without being involved in the political dimension? Doesn’t it seem utopian to think that a religious congregation, all the more so with the size of the Salesians, can avoid being perceived in terms of its political signifi cance?
A priest Franciszek Krajewski was the first Silesian to take up as a Vicar Apostolic Administrator the service of the priesthood institution in Kobylnica. He was a Rector of the Parish of St Family and St Juda Tadeusz in Słupsk. He fulfilled his ministration from 1st April 1950 till 26th May 1951. As result of his requests this institution was taken charge by a priest Lucjan Koźlik as a Rector and 1st June 1951 the Parish of the Holiest Heart of Jesus was founded in Kobylnica. In 1958 an independent priesthood institution in Kwakowo was separated from the area of the Kobylnica Parish and 12 out of 17 places from Kobylnica Parish which were located in the southern part were included in the pariesthood institution in Kwakowo. A formal foundation of the Parish of St Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kwakowo due to the anti-church policy of the authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland took place only on 25th January 1974. In 1989 a priest Franciszek Maziarz assigend this parish to the Diocese of Koszalin – Kołobrzeg. In the years 1951 – 2009 the Parish of the Holiest Heart of Jesus in Kobylnica was managed by 10 Salesians acting as rectors, 7 out of them fulfilled the role of directors of a monastic order. A presthood service was also fulfilled by 31 priests of the auxliary staff. However the priesthood institution in Kwakowo was managed by 3 Salesians acting as in dependent Vicar Apostolics and two as rectors but in the years 1966 – 1989 the rectors were supported by 12 priests of auxiliary staff Furthermore 20 clergymen assistants worked in Kobylnica in the years 1952 – 1991 and one coadiutor in the years 2004 – 2006 but in Kwakowo four assistants attended pedagogical and priesthood training in the years 1959 – 1965. Salesians from Kobylnica served a local Parish Church and a Branch Church in Sierakowo and since January 1991 also the Chapel of St God’s Mother Faithful Support in Łosino, and since 1993 Sunday masses were also celebrated in a common room in Bolesławice. However Salesians from Kwakowo celebrated holy masses in the Churches in Kwakowo and Kuleszewo, since 1974 in Objezierze and in newly built churches: since 1983 in Lubuń, since 1987 in Suchorze, and since 1988 in the Chapel in Płaszewo that was adapted for sacred purposes. In the Kobylnica Parish there always was a large group of altar boys, the liturgy was from time to time accompanied by the performances of “schole” or teenage bands, there was also the Living Rosary, the Association of Salesians, Co-workers and Parish Council. There also with some breaks functioned Light – Life Movement and Revival in Holy Ghorst Movement.
At the end of the 19th century, Reverend Jan Siemiec initiated caretaking and didactic activities among the children and the youth in the Warsaw borough of Powiśle. In a previously purchased square, he erected a building housing a school, a dormitory, workshops and a Holy Family rectoral church. In 1919, the board management of the Foundation was taken over by Salesians. They enlarged the facility in which they placed the province management, the Salesian Publishing House and the Central Office of Salesian Assistants, previously seated in Oświęcim. In 1923, they also started the Graphic Section at the Salesian Craft School. Printing and bookbinding workshops at the same time fulfilled the tasks of a Salesian printing house.
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Pod koniec XIX wieku ks. Jan Siemiec rozpoczął działalność opiekuńczo-dydaktyczną wśród dzieci i młodzieży na Powiślu w Warszawie. Na zakupionym placu zbudował gmach mieszczący szkołę, internat, warsztaty i kościół rektoralny pod wezwaniem Świętej Rodziny. W 1919 roku zarząd Fundacji przejęli salezjanie, którzy rozbudowali zakład, przenieśli zarząd inspektorii z Oświęcimia, Wydawnictwo Salezjańskie i Centralne Biuro Pomocników Salezjańskich. Od 1923 roku w Salezjańskiej Szkole Rzemieślniczej wprowadzili Dział Graficzny. Warsztaty drukarskie i introligatorskie pełniły jednocześnie zadania drukarni salezjańskiej.
Between the years 1952 – 1988 the Parish in Palow was served by 7 parish priests on behalf of the Salesian Society. The assistant staff consisted of 33 priests and 24 clerical students undergoing pastoral training. The area of the Parish was very vast and almost reached from Słupsk to Sławno. A pastoral post in Słonowice was separated from this Parish in 1963. Formal foundation of a separate Parish Słonowice dod not take place until 3 May 1976. Earlier between the years 1962 – 1963 priest Jan Romanowicz had created basis for foundation of a new pastoral post which at first functioned as an independent curacy, later 4 Salesians managed this post but the third of them priest Zdzisław Serwa first managed it as an independent curate. After the Parish had been established Zdzisław Serwa was nominated a parish priest, however his successor priest Andrzej Pastwa transferred the Parish to the Koszalińsko – Kołobrzeska Diocese in 1991. In the last two years priest Pastwa was additionally helped by one clergyman and between the years 1988 – 1989 one assistant. After building a new church and a presbyter in Sycewice by the parish priest from Pałow – Wiesław Dąbrowski St. Jan Bosko Parish was erected on 8 December 1988 and the church in Pałow moved to Sycewice in additionto this the church in Pałow became a filiar church. The post of a parish priest was performed altogether by three Salesians and a builder of the Church in the parish in Sycewice because in 1998 the last of then priest Jan Terlikowski also transferred this Parish to the Koszalińsko – Kołobrzeska Diocese. Pastoral work of parish priests in Sycewice was supported by 8 clergymen. Between the years 1973 – 1982 priest Władysław Odziemczyk worked as a rector of the Church in Sławsko, he also created framework or a Parish erected there later. In the Parishes of Pałowo, Słonowice and Sycewice in the period of managing them by the Salesians existed roses of the Living Rosary, priests managed altar server groups – oratory for teenagers functioned then in a possible but modest way and furthermore in Sycewice priest Czesław Nenikowski founded the Scouting Association of the Republic of Poland.
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