Our Mission and History

We tend to think of saints as inaccessible idealists from times long gone. It some cases that is a fair assessment, but the philosophy and work of Don Bosco is perhaps more relevant and accessible now than ever before. His uncommon drive to help young people earned him the title Father and Teacher Of Youth and a brief synopsis of his life sums up the mission of Don Bosco Teenage Care to this day.

Although he was born into the difficult suroundings of early nineteenth century rural northern Italy, John Bosco had a childhood filled with plenty of happiness. That said, his father died when he was just two, but his mother was a resilient and supportive character who figured prominently throughout his career. As a child he was fascinated by the magicians, jugglers and acrobats that would regularly pass through his village, so much so that he was inspired to put on his own weekly shows which the locals could enjoy for the princely sum of a prayer. This knack of entertaining was a string to his bow that he maintained throughout his life.

Shortly after graduating from the seminary, Don Bosco arrived in Turin, the main population centre of the region and a powerhouse city leading Italy towards industrialisation. As factories, building sites and mills sprouted up around the city, it was a natural beacon for youths of the province who come in their droves in search of employment and a better life. Whilst the employment part of their aspirations was seldom a problem, it was no guarantee of a better life. Many of the immigrants from the countryside lived in slums and had trouble providing for their families. Crime and disease dominated these neighbourhoods with an equally relentless grip.

Concerned by the sheer volume of youths finding themselves in the prisons of the city, Don Bosco began working with the youngsters in the hope of turning them away from lives of delinquency. He established an “oratory” which understandably had a clear religious connotations, but was in reality an early form of youth club where the youngsters could relax and form friendships. However, there was more to this venture than distracting young people from their problems before they had to go back out into the real world and face the harsh reality of their lives once and most importantly, it was a place where they got the feeling that they were loved and their lives meant something. Providing for the most basic human need of affection was a vital step in instilling a sense of self-esteem and self-worth in the youths and in turn providing the motivation to make their lives amount to more than a series of crimes and misery.

Don Bosco saw education as being the key component in breaking the cycle of poverty-crime-poverty. Espousing a notion that to this day is undeniably accurate, he viewed schooling as the path to personal betterment with the knock on benefits for wider society. He called this “the Preventative System of Education.”

Outside of his work in Italy, Don Bosco had a nagging awareness of young people in need throughout the world. He could help the youths who he encountered locally, but beyond that there were millions of youngsters who he would never get the chance to help. He undertook several missions in other countries but even for a man of such boundless energy, it was always going to be a battle he could never hope to win.

He died in 1888 at the age of 72 and thousands paid their respects to this man of uncommon energy, devotion and determination. In the immediate aftermath of his death, there was a strong movement calling for his canonisation. There were fears that his unorthodox way of doing things and the very people he was trying to help upset some of the more conservative members of the church’s hierarchy but eventually, on Easter Sunday 1934, he was canonized by Pope Pius XI.

As you’d expect for a man with seemingly relentless drive, that’s not the end of the story. In keeping with the perspective of a man looking to improve the future by giving hope in the present, he ensured his good work would continue by founding the Salesians Society. To this day they maintain his commitment to education and caring for deprived youth throughout the world. It’s that same outlook that drives our work two centuries on and although we can never hope to recapture the innovation and vigour of Don Bosco, if we come anywhere close, we’ll have at least done.