Salesian Bulletin


The Salesian Bulletin is an official publication of the Salesians that was founded in August 1877 by Don Bosco. It has been published without interruption since then. The proliferation of the educational works of Don Bosco all over the world, is the first responsible of the survival of the Salesian Bulletin. As for 2010, the Bulletin was published in 56 different editions and 29 languages for 135 countries.

Purpose

The purpose of the Salesian Bulletin was established by Don Bosco. It is linked initially with the foundation of the Association of Salesian Cooperators and the first Salesian missionaries in the Americas. Don Bosco intended that the Bulletin, as the official publication of the Salesian Congregation, ''will link Salesians and cooperators.

History

The Salesian Bulletin comes from a former experience that Don Bosco did in having his own publication. Although the researchers never found a copy, it traced a second issue by August 1875 named Bibliofilo Cattolico that was printed in the Oratory Press of Don Bosco. The Catholic Booklover was dedicated to late vocations. The first editions were published in Italian, but it will be soon not just translated by edited in several languages between the 19th and 20th century.

Expansion

In August 1877, Don Bosco did a transformation of the Bibliofilo Cattolico to Monthly Salesian Bulletin. The fact that Don Bosco numbered it as 5 and volume 3, proved the continuity with the Bibliofilo.
The first language was French, followed by Spanish in 1886. Don Bosco died early 1888 and the continuity of the publication passed to his successors.
Year country and language of the expansion of the Salesian Bulletin:
CountryLanguageYearNotes
ItalyItalian1877Founded directly by Don Bosco in Turin.
FranceFrench1879
SpainSpanish1886The Bulletin was distributed also in Latin America.
EnglandEnglish1892-
GermanyGerman1895
PolandPolish1897
PortugalPortuguese1902
HungaryHungarian1903
SloveniaSlovenian1907
LithuaniaLithuanian1927

1878 controversy with Archbishop Gastaldi

A moment of the controversy between Don Bosco and the Archbishop of Turin, Lawrence Gastaldi, was when the Archbishop prohibited a campaign to gather funds for the construction of Saint John the Evangelist church that was made by the Salesian Bulletin in May 1878. The Archbishop saw the project of Don Bosco as opposed to the construction of other church dedicated to late Pope Pius IX. The Salesian Bulletin published an article on April, The Salesian Cooperators to the Everlasting Memory of the Great Pius IX, appealing to the charity of the Salesian cooperators to support the project.
In a letter signed by Cardinal Alexander Franchi, the Archbishop communicated to Don Bosco that he was going to build a church in honor of the deceased Pope and, therefore, "a dual appeal to Christian charity for one and the same purpose seems inadvisable".
Don Bosco answered to the Cardinal that the appeal was not for the faithful but for the Salesian cooperators and that it was published in Sampierdarena and not in Turin, being, therefore, under the authority of the Archbishop of Genoa. The answer of Don Bosco was contested by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars where he was prohibited to continue with the project of the new church.