Memorial of Saint John Bosco, Priest
John Bosco (1815-1888) is one of the great saints of modern Catholicism. He grew up in Turin, Italy a city that embraced the industrial revolution and suffered all the consequences of that choice. He found that the church needed to reach the factory worker and particularly the children who lacked education as a support for their faith. He wisely saw education as a preventive to social ills and established the Salesian method especially for children of the lower classes. John Bosco and his subsequent labors stand as just one of the many examples within the Catholic tradition of how dedicated men and women saw the need for the care of youth and quickly realized that education was one of the best means for lifting the person, both in mind and spirit. His feast today should encourage and remind us that constant vigilance and care is needed in the education of our youth. And, like Don Bosco, we need to recall that academic training outside of morality and virtue will do no one any good.