Compiled by FERNANDO DO REGO fernandodor...@yahoo.com One of the most popular Catholic religious Orders in the world is the Salesians of Don Bosco. The Salesians of Don Bosco (or the Salesian Society, officially named the Society of St. Francis de Sales) is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded in the late nineteenth century by St. John Bosco to help poor children during the Industrial Revolution.
The Salesians' charter describes the society's mission as "the Christian perfection of its associates obtained by the exercise of spiritual and corporal works of charity towards the young, especially the poor, and the education of boys". The institute is named after Francis de Sales, an early-modern bishop from Geneva. Today worldwide, there are 15,298 Salesians (14,731 if you exclude novices and bishops). ARRIVAL IN GOA It was soon after World War II, around the year 1948, after a request of many Goan Catholics, which included my father Dr. Antonio Augusto do Rego, to the then Prelate of Goa, that the first Salesians arrived in Panjim. They were lead by Fr. Vincenzo Scuderi. With him were many more Italians who had been held in the Concentration Camps of the British India, being Italians, at that time enemies of England! Vincenzo Scuderi, born 30th May 1902 in Ramacca near Catania in Sicily, was a Catholic priest belonging Salesians of Don Bosco. One of the great members of this Society in India, he was a pioneer of the Salesian work in Goa, including Don Bosco, Panjim. He died on 22nd November 1982 at Catania, Sicily. Fr. Scuderi did his early schooling with the Salesians at St. Philip Neri School, Catania. He showed early promise as a student and leader. He joined the Salesian Congregation, and was ordained in 1926. He opted for the missions of India, and reached Shillong, the capital of what today is the North Eastern State of Meghalaya, at the end of December 1928. Within two years, in June 1931, he was named in-charge of the Assam plains, together with Fr. Archimedes Pianazzi and Antonio Alessi. In 1934 he was appointed Provincial, with jurisdiction over the regions now roughly forming Assam, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. A few months later, he was also appointed Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Krishnagar (in the central region of India's West Bengal state). His secretary was the young Fr. Giuseppe Moja. In June 1940, Msgr. Scuderi and other Italian Salesians were taken prisoners by the British, since Italy had entered World War II on the side of Germany. He spent time in several camps all over India: Fort William (Calcutta), Ahmednagar, Deolali, Dehradun, and finally Purandar. Interestingly, the Salesians in these camps even underwent a whole course of theology and received ordination. In Purandar, Scuderi began schools for children of the prisoners, of the servants, and of the sweepers. When the British made it clear he would have to go, he opted for the Portuguese territory of Goa, so as not to have to leave India. There, a new saga of six years, with a group of volunteers who followed him, began. He started with the Oratory and a Portuguese primary school, followed by a technical school and English high school; two other festive and daily oratories in town; a technical school in Valpoi. He even bought a plot in Panjim, the capital, and built a chapel that soon became a centre of devotion for hundreds. Fr. Scuderi is thus the founder of the Salesian work in Goa, which now includes foundations in Panjim, Odxel, Parra, Paliem, Tuem, Fatorda, Loutolim, Benaulim, besides other foundations in southern Maharashtra and coastal Karnataka. Msgr. Vincent Scuderi spent 24 years in India. He spent roughly 12 years in Assam and Bengal (1928-1940), six years as a prisoner (1940 to 1946) and the remaining six years in Goa. However, broken by two major hernia operations and a severe bout of typhoid, he was called back to Italy. His place in Goa was taken by Fr. Jose Luis Carreno, who can be called the second great Salesian pioneer of Goa. Fr Carreno worked in Caltanisetta, Gela and Riesi, before retiring to Catania. His volcanic dynamism marked his passage in all these places. Fr. Guiseppe Moja (20th December 1915, Orino, Lombardy -- 26th May 2009) was yet another prominent Salesian priest and missionary in India. He is part of the group of pioneers who began the Salesian work in Panjim, Goa, including the Don Bosco High School, Panjim. He also pioneered the Salesian work in Sulcorna, Goa, now to home to a substantial farm and the Don Bosco High School, Sulcorna. Fr. Moja had left Italy for India in 1932. He entered the Salesian novitiate at Shillong and made his first profession on 7th December 1933. He was soon appointed secretary to Fr. Vincenzo Scuderi, who was the Provincial as well as Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Krishnagar. He made his final profession at Sonada on 6th January 1941. As an Italian national, Moja too was interned by the British Government, first at Deoli and then at Dehradun. In the camp at Dehradun, together with other Salesians, he completed his theological studies and was ordained priest on 8th December 1941. Expelled from British India as an 'undesirable', Fr. Moja, together with others, chiefly Fr. Vincenzo Scuderi, came down to Goa, where he went on to become one of the pioneers of the Salesian work in Goa. WORK IN PANJIM The Salesians began their work at Panjim, where Fr. Scuderi began an 'oratory' (a sort of youth centre), a Portuguese medium school, an English medium high school and a technical school, all in 1946. This was practically in the year he arrived. Soon there were four 'oratories' -- Panjim, Campal, Fontainhas and Calangute. Fr. Moja was also the first headmaster of the English school, which began with a little over 200 students. The English school was granted recognition by the University of Bombay in June 1948. Fr. Moja worked in Panjim from 1946 to 1962, when he was transferred to Sulcorna, to begin the Salesian work in this remote outback of what then was seen as the southern Goa jungles. Here, among other things, he cleared part of the forest to establish a farm growing sugarcane, cashew, and other cash crops. He also began the production of the Goan country liquor called cashew feni (distilled from the cashew apple) which is still being produced and has a reputation in Goa for its strength and taste. Today Don Bosco Sulcorna, situated on some 200 acres (0.81 km2) of lush land, is a complex comprising a farm, a school and social work activities in the surrounding villages. In 1977, Fr. Moja was transferred out of Goa, after a period of 31 long years. He was assigned to Don Bosco Lonavala as confessor to the boys, and then, after some years, to Don Bosco Youth Centre, Koregaon Park, Pune, as administrator. In 1985 he was appointed assistant parish priest at St. Dominic Savio Church, Wadala East, Mumbai. In 1988 he was assigned to the Salesian Provincial House, Matunga, Mumbai, where he remained for about 20 years. Here he took over as Editor of *Don Bosco's Madonna*, the magazine started by Fr. Aurelius Maschio that is perhaps the Christian magazine with the largest circulation in India, now reaching almost 1,00,000 subscribers. Moja was honoured by the Italian Government with the title Cavaliere della Repubblica for his services in India. In 2007 Moja returned to his native Italy, for reasons of health, having spent some 71 years in India. After some months in his native village of Orino, he was admitted to the Casa Don Quadrio, the infirmary of the Salesian Province of Lombardo-Emilia at Arese. He died here at the age of 93, and was buried at Orino on 28 May 2009. JUNGLE, FARM, AGRI COLLEGE Bernard Britto, secretary to the provincial and close friend, called Fr. Moja "an artist, poet, musician, preacher, linguist, writer, editor, physician, technician". It is this famous Salesian who started the Sulcorna Farm in a jungle. Due to this, Goa can be proud to have its first college of agriculture, already recognized by the Goa University. In the past, Goans had to go to Portugal for their degrees in agriculture, and study at The Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA). It had its roots going back to way back in 1852, with the creation of the Instituto AgrÃcola e Escola Regional de Lisboa, during the reign of Queen Maria II, and the period of the Regeneration, which was directed by the Portuguese statesman, politician and engineer Fontes Pereira de Melo. In 1907, the College of Agriculture was started in Pune (then Poona) and dozens of Goan went there. Later more colleges were started in places like Dharwar (Dharwad), Bangalore etc. Now, the unique achievement of having a college of agriculture in Sulcorna started by the Salesians shows to the world and to India in particular, that the missionaries did not come to India and Goa with the sole purpose gaining converts to Christianity. The many mistakes which did exist have to be forgotten as they took place not only in Goa but in the whole world. I take this opportunity to pay my tribute to that unique Salesian, Fr. Moja, who was known to my family, which he visited on many occasions, even at my home When I was serving the Department of Agriculture, more than once, I went to Sulcorna, still a jungle area at time. He, when working in the field, was never in his white cassocks but in short pants digging the sacred soil of Goa, for the benefit of the local farmers. Many times, at his invitations, I had my lunch with him. On the table were none of the many varieties of Italian pastas, but a genuine Goan xit-koddy (rice-and-curry), with vegetables cultivated in the farm. In our many chats, he never mentioned that he was dreaming of a college of agriculture, but this dedicated service for the Goans farmers led his successors to materialise this and they do deserve our congratulations. I am happy to know that a photo of Fr. Giuseppe Moja already decorates the hall of the college. The College of Agriculture in Sulcorna (Sulkarn), inaugurated by chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, of the BJP and probably of the RSS too, speaks the truth about the church in India: it is open to all cultures, cooperates with all political parties, paves the way to give Goa and the rest of India boys and girls trained in agriculture for the benefit of all in our motherland. -- Some details in this article are incorporated from: http://www.spiritualdirection.org/Sulcorna.htm http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=16251&boxid=63734560&uid=&dat=10/19/2015