Church at a loss to explain theft of Don Bosco’s brain fragment
THIEVES have made off with a fragment of the brain of Saint John Bosco, popularly known as Don Bosco, the founder of the Salesian order of Roman Catholic priests.
The cerebral relic was stolen from behind the main altar in the basilica at Castelnuovo Don Bosco, a small town in Italy’s Asti region which is named after Giovanni Bosco, who was born there in 1815 and died in Turin in 1888.
The Carabinieri are investigating the sacrilegious heist and told reporters that they would exclude no motive in their hunt for the thieves, including a possible ransom, an attack by Satanists or the chance that the robbers may merely wish to sell the silver urn containing the relic, which had been housed in a small chapel built on the exact spot where the saint was born.
Police threw up road blocks in the area, famed for the its sparkling white wine, and a nationwide hunt has now been launched. The last people to see the urn were a group of pilgrims from Lombardy who visited the church around 7pm on Friday. The Salesian fathers only noticed the theft later as they began closing the basilica and they immediately alerted police.
The thief evidently climbed over a gate in front of the shrine where the relic was housed and removed the flask from a small cupboard.
The flask was small enough to be slipped into a pocket, the newspaper Il Messaggero said.
The rector of the Basilica of Colle Don Bosco, Father Ezio Orsini said “one hopes that this is just a laddish prank”.
“We trust that Don Bosco can touch the heart of whoever carried this [robbery] out to make them retrace their steps just as he was capable of transforming the lives of young people who he met,” Father Orsini told the staterun RAI television.
“It may be possible to steal a relic but one can’t steal Don Bosco from us and the many pilgrims who visit this place every day.”
The Archbishop of Turin, Monsignor Cesare Nosiglia, concurred. “This is one of those news items that you never want to hear,” he said, “it makes one think of deep moral poverty”.
It is the second time a relic of Don Bosco has been stolen. In 2011, a small bone reputedly from one of the saint’s hands was stolen from a church in the town of Alassio.
Don Bosco was canonised in 1934 under Pope Pius XI for his work in educating street children. The Salesians now run schools and other organisations in as many as 90 countries.