From the “Don Belloni Work” to the Arrival of the Salesians
“The arrival of the sons and daughters of Don Bosco – the note continues – took place in response to the invitation of the patriarchal canon Fr Antonio Belloni (1831–1903), who thirty years earlier had founded a first Catholic orphanage in Bethlehem and later the houses of Beit Jimal, Cremisan, and Nazareth. Over the years, his educational and charitable work developed to such an extent that it became almost impossible for him to manage it properly, as he lacked adequate financial and personnel resources. Desiring the continuation of institutions of great benefit for the Diocese of Jerusalem, he considered it necessary to entrust them to a single Congregation that pursued the same aims, namely the Salesian Congregation.”
An Initiative to Highlight Historical Commitment
The initiative, organized by the Salesian Historical Institute (ISS), the Association of Salesian History Scholars (ACSSA), the Salesians of Don Bosco, and the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS), aimed to enhance research intended to recover “the forty-year commitment of the Ligurian priest Fr Antonio Belloni (1831–1903) on behalf of poor and abandoned youth in the Holy Land,” as stated in the Author’s Introduction, as well as “the history of the sons of Don Bosco in Palestine,” in order to show how, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the “Don Belloni Work” was “closely connected to the arrival of the Salesian Society” in the region (1891) and to the development that the latter was able to bring to the houses and schools it inherited, navigating political, diplomatic, economic, social, and religious difficulties of every kind.
The Contributions of the Speakers
After the introductory greeting by Fr Francesco Marcoccio, Director of the Community of the Salesian Central Headquarters, and the video message of Fr Simon Zakerian, SDB, Superior of the “Jesus the Adolescent” Province of the Middle East (MOR), moderated by Prof. Angelo Giuseppe Dibisceglia, Professor of Church History at the Pontifical Salesian University, three speakers took the floor.
Prof. Nicola Neri, Professor of the History of International Relations at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro,” while leafing through the pages of the volume, carefully and meticulously reconstructed the historical, cultural, and social context between the old and the new century, the chronological setting in which the story of Fr Belloni—who preceded the arrival of the Salesians in the Holy Land—took place.
Prof. Davide Meli, priest of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and lecturer in Sacred Theology and Church History in theological institutes affiliated with the Pontifical Lateran University, underlined Fr Belloni’s courage in facing numerous obstacles in order to care for young people, and acknowledged the Author’s merit in demonstrating that the house founded in Cremisan constituted the formative and governing center for the entire Salesian Province in the Middle East, where Christian culture and the style of Don Bosco were brought among the sons of the Arab world largely thanks to that seed.
Finally, Paolo Cometto, Vice President of the National Association to Assist Italian Missionaries (ANSMI), recalling the aims and purposes of the association, retraced—also in light of the statutory contents—its history and the commitment carried out between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as also emerges from the pages of Pieraccini’s volume. Before the conclusion, the Author’s intervention recalled the “modernity” of Fr Belloni, a priest capable of reading the “signs of the times” and intervening effectively to alleviate some of the existential peripheries of his own era. The event concluded with final greetings and thanks offered by Prof. Fr Stanisław Zimniak, Coordination Secretary of the ISS.
