An extract from the book titled Don Bosco Up Close, by Teresia Bosco (English translation) 2023 edition, p. 122. The following is a testimony shared by Fr Francis Dalmazzo, during the process of Don Bosco's canonization and who had the fortune of being one of Don Bosco's boys at the oratory.
When he (Don Bosco) came to Rome once, when the Salesians were still living in Via degli Specchi, he found very poor lodgings, so poor that I (Francesco Dalmazzo) was obliged to give up my bed and sleep on the sofa, and when he looked at the table in the middle, made of ubleached wood, covered with a miserable spread, he was consoled and said to me: "Oh, this is what I like: here is a real Salesian house!" And he laughed heartily.
As I read this passage for our spiritual reading, I could not but think if anyone today would have the courage to say such a thing at any of our Salesian houses. First of all, there would be the totally opposite scenario: lavish dining hall, exquisite furniture, posh flooring, special cots and mattresses, costly electronic gadgets and a lavish spread at the table.
Don Bosco grew up poor and knew the value and necessity of poverty for our apostolate. He could have very well continued being a diocesan if he wished to become rich. Working for the POOR and abandoned youth, and being materially rich are incompatible!
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