# The Venerable Don Bosco, the Apostle of Youth/Chapter XXXIII

CHAPTER XXXIII
THE SALESIAN ORDER IN THE UNITED STATES. EULOGY OF DON BOSCO BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE APOSTOLIC DELEGATE
It was under the saintly Superior-General Don Rua that the first Salesian band of missionaries was organized for the United States. The late Archbishop Riordan had appealed to Don Rua for priests to minister to the needs of the constantly growing numbers of Italians in his archdiocese of San Francisco, California; and on March 11, 1897, the Society of St. Francis of Sales was introduced into the city of the Golden Gate by the Rev. R. M. Piperni and his associates, who received charge of the Church of SS. Peter and Paul. The next year an Irish Salesian, the Rev. B. C. Redahan, was sent to assist them in their increasing field of labor. The Archbishop soon realized that another church was necessary in the southern portion of San Francisco; accordingly the Church of Corpus Christi was erected and intrusted to the Sons of Don Bosco, the Rev. Father Cassini being its first rector. In 1902 His Grace, deeply appreciative of the good wrought by the Salesian Fathers, petitioned the Superior-General for another band. Accordingly, Don Rua placed the Reverend Fathers Bergeretti and Pavan at the disposal of the Archbishop, who gave them charge of St. Joseph's Church in the Portuguese ​Settlement at Oakland. A new and magnificent Church of SS. Peter and Paul is in course of erection in San Francisco, by the Salesian Fathers. The Golden Coast receives a monthly record of Salesian events in the Don Bosco Messenger published at their Institute.
Archbishop Corrigan, emulating the zeal of his brother prelate, sought help from the Society of St. Francis of Sales for his large Italian flock. In November, 1898, the Very Reverend Ernest Coppo, who is now provincial of the Society in the United States, with the Reverend Frederick Barni and others received charge of the Italians settled in and arcund St. Brigid's parish, New York. Later his Grace intrusted to the Salesians the Church of the Transfiguration, one of the oldest Catholic Churches in the United States, and the Church of Mary, Help of Christians. Both parishes have flourishing schools and Festive Oratories.
The first Salesian College was opened in our country in 1903 under the auspices of Archbishop, now Cardinal Farley, it's principal aim being to foster vocations to the holy priesthood. The Fathers found a temporary home for their students in. the old provincial seminary at Troy, N. Y.; but at a later period they were transferred to their present beautiful and healthy location at Hawthorne, in the outskirts of New York City, where flourishes also the Columbus Institute. At the present time, 1916, there are about thirty priests ​carrying on the labors of the ministry in different parts of the United States who made their studies either in Troy or Hawthorne with the Sons of Don Bosco.
In 1909 the Salesians opened a new parish church, St. Anthony, in the city of Paterson, N. J.; here the Salesian Sisters are also established. In 1912 the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary at Port Chester, N. Y., was intrusted to the Fathers, their congregation consisting mainly of Italians and Poles. On their arrival they found that one hundred and seventy-eight Italian families were separated from the church by a half-hour's distance, and few adults or children remained practical Catholics. The Methodists, discerning their advantage, had rented a house and were carrying on a propaganda with success among the children. The Fathers, after much thought and counsel with zealous members of the congregation, proposed the erection of a chapel, to be built in the midst of the half-hour-away colony. The pious thought soon became a beautiful little stone reality at a cost of five thousand dollars; and now the little edifice is overcrowded every Sunday with a fervent congregation, while the Methodist rooms bear a familiar sign: "To Let."
At the desire of the zealous Archbishop Prendergast of Philadelphia, the Salesian Fathers opened a "Don Bosco Institute" in that city on August 15th, 1914. This house, composed of three brick buildings of three stories each, was ​formerly the "Drexmor"; but the owners, the Honorable and Mrs. Edward Morrell, prominent in the Catholic life of Philadelphia for their charities, generously bestowed it upon the Salesian Fathers for their social work, in which they follow the broad lines so wisely laid down by Don Bosco for winning and training the young. A printing school has been in progress for over a year and from its presses The Don Bosco Messenger is issued monthly, a chronicle of events of interest in the Salesian world and many others of import in the larger world, at the small sum of fifty cents a year, a delightful charitable offering, since it helps to feed and clothe the poor little ones of Christ. The Rev. Peter Cattori, formerly identified with the Don Bosco Institute in Italy, and later director of Columbus Institute, Hawthorne, N. Y., is the guiding spirit of the Salesian works in Philadelphia. Early in 1915 another Don Bosco Institute was inaugurated at Ramsey, N. J., for Polish boys; a high school also has been established especially for those desiring to study for the priesthood.
The Salesian Missions in the United States have advanced with the years through the indefatigable labors of the Fathers, hampered though they have been in their zealous efforts to carry out to the full the noble projects of Don Bosco, by the lack of pecuniary resources. Our people have not yet learned the advantages, spiritual and temporal, to be derived from union with the Society of St. ​Francis of Sales as Co-operators, or we should not see these religious priests, destined for such extensive, boy-saving enterprises, scattered, as they are, in a few parishes, without even a novitiate to shelter aspirants to the Saint-forming rule of Don Bosco: without a House of Studies, where their youthful clerics may pursue amid the quiet scenes of nature their final course of philosophy and theology, urged on daily more and more to the attainment of heroic virtue by the holy examples of their predecessors.
This is "a consummation devoutly to be wished!" Can we not compass it for the glory of God and for the coming generation? so shall the Sons of Don Bosco train their thousands of "Knights of Christ" and upright citizens of our great Republic.
Many earnest applications are made to the Salesian Fathers for foundations in the United States and if the personnel were not wanting, few of our large cities would be without a Don Bosco Institute. My readers will appreciate a personal letter which speaks with a power of which I am incapable:
"Continue, therefore, in your apostolic task, spread might and main, the knowledge of Don Bosco's life; let the American public open their eyes to this wonderful pedagogue, writer, preacher, missioner, statesman, miracle-worker of the nineteenth century. Let the people living in these irreligious days, see what a poor, helpless priest accomplished with the help of the Most High, and ​of Mary, Help of Christians. Would to God there were a Don Bosco in every large city throughout the world at the present time! What an amazing transformation we should then see! Would to God we could quickly get the means to have a good Novitiate here in the United States. We need help from the public in every possible way; but if we could launch out an appeal, we would appeal just for missionaries. Men, men, men! Behold the need, behold the solution of the problem: 'How shall we save the children, how shall we restore the families to Christian principles and practice?' Let us daily implore Almighty God to send laborers into His immense vineyard."
And now I close this imperfect study of a great apostle with the words of his Excellency, our Apostolic Delegate, to the Very Rev. Ernest Coppo on the occasion of the Centenary of the Venerable Don Bosco:
"Since four continents have felt the good effects of the beneficent influence of Don Bosco, it is perfectly right that his memory should be solemnly recorded in all places and languages. The confines of his native Piedmont and Italy were too narrow for the full play of his activity, and hence his ardent and suave zeal urged him to seek the salvation of souls beyond the mountains and across the seas. Legions of priests and sisters, his spiritual sons and daughters, animated by his zeal and example, have spread out over the world multiplying his miracles of charity ​in villages as well as in cities, in Africa and Patagonia no less than in civilized countries. Churches, colleges, agricultural and industrial schools, homes for the poor and missions for the conversion of the pagans have constituted their wide field of labor. It would be next to impossible to recount all the works of charity wrought by the Venerable Don Bosco and his spiritual children. Indeed, they cannot be explained unless we recognize in them the hand of God and a singular protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was his cherished patroness under the title of Mary, Help of Christians.
"Both Church and State are indebted to him beyond measure, while history should engrave on his memory that famous epitaph,. 'No eulogy is equal to his name.'"
Venerable JOHN BOSCO