In addition to the service offered in the trenches and in the hospitals, the even more important achievement of the religious was certainly that all their works that were not requisitioned for military and sanitary purposes were kept open, with reduced staff, for the benefit of young people, including war orphans and displaced persons.
The conference is being organized by the Salesian Historical Institute (ISS), the Don Giuseppe Polo Group of Historical Research at Astori (GRSA), and the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences of Auxilium. It will be moderated by Dr Luciano Tumburus (GRSA).
The opening lecture by Professor Giancarlo Rocca, SSP, will be a wide-ranging overview on the work of Religious in Italy during World War II. It will be followed by talks by Professor Francesco Motto SDB, on the involvement of the Salesians; Professor Grazia Loparco, FMA, on the charitable action of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians; and Dr Giuseppe Del Todesco Frisian, GRSA, on the situation of Mogliano Veneto and the Salesian College "Astori" during the Great War.
The venue of the conference was not chosen at random. In Mogliano Veneto during the Great War there were a major hospital dedicated to the care of the wounded, the command headquarters of the Italian Army III and the preparation of the trench newspaper "La tradotta", the most popular on the Italian front in the final years of the war.
