It has been more than a century and a half that the society of St. Francis de Sales serving the world. The number of salesians worked for the betterment of the world is numerous in many fields of apostolate. Yet, one of the fields in which we, the sons of Don Bosco, have not shown much interest is the intellectual realm. For instance, there are various religious orders having prominent people in the field of philosophy. And so a simple question that came to my mind in this regard: Why there are no salesian philosophers? (I mean well-known philosophers). I received lot of ready-made answers for this simple question like: “that’s not our charism”, “basically we are youth workers”, “Don Bosco never wanted us to be walking encyclopaedias”, “we are not contemplatives to sit and reflect”. In addition, once a priest questioned about a salesian who is prominent in the realm philosophy all over the world: what is the youth work he does except taking class? It was also said jokingly that whenever there is a religious gathering for any purpose salesians are called neither for presenting papers nor prayers services but for family circles. It is also my opinion (which came to my mind during my masters in philosophy) that we hide ourselves in the name of family spirit from serious intellectual works.
Is the identity of Salesians just having the guitar or a football at hand? Is serious study not our cup of tea? Of course, the guitar and football typical instruments that attract the youth. In fact, Don Bosco attracted so many youth with his music and games. However, it should be remembered that he was also a prolific writer. He has authored some books and prepared so many booklets and was also editor of the magazine 'the companion of youth'.
Now, how does the intellectual commitment also become our religious commitment or how do intellectual activities also become part of youth work too? I thank Fr. Sahaya Gnanaselvem SDB for giving the answer for this question. Our intellectual achievements can have a hold in the welfare of the youth especially to the problems of the youth. For example, the problems of gay marriage or abortion have been legally approved in some countries like the different states of USA. How is the government approval processed? Such proposals are discussed in the political forum and to validate their view they look for strong arguments from the intellectuals of the country. It is no wonder that the some states of the USA have approved gay marriage since most of the continental philosophers are non-believers and critical towards the religious norms. This can be applicable to India too in different cases. The legalized moral evils have roots in the intellectual works. It is kind of a fight or a game between the good and evil. Thus it is the duty of the youth works to eradicate these moral evils through our intellectual activities. We need to prepare ourselves to meet the challenges by updating ourselves intellectually; if not, we will be outdated in our arguments.
Philosophers, according to Plato, should have a strong hand in political and legal arena. It is true even today as explained above. Why don’t we, youth works, take this task for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls?