【慈幼通訊社 ─
2009年7月22日意大利
Romano
Canavese 訊】
─教廷國務卿貝爾托內樞機說：「獻身修道的聖召，始於我在華道角唸書，與慈幼會士一起的時候。當年我十四歲，原定計劃完成第五班後，繼續升讀第六班，主修現代語言。前路似乎非常明朗。」
上星期日，貝爾托內樞機在回應等候教宗本篤十六世到訪其家鄉 Romano Canavese 的記者時，講述了他童年及聖召的故事。來自 La Stampa 日報的 Giacomo Galeazzi，在報導教宗到訪活動後，亦敍述了這位國務卿一些生平及聖召的事蹟。
慈幼會士 Alessandro Ghisolfi 神父，向年輕的貝爾托內提議獻身修道的生活：「你願意像這些慈幼會士一樣，獻身服務青少年嗎？你現在感到快樂嗎？」接著便進行為期三日的聖召面談。樞機憶述說：「我們討論了有關司鐸聖召及鮑思高的事；我很喜歡這個提議，回家告訴父母說：我願意進慈幼會初學。那天是一九四九年五月三日，正是一架載著都靈足球隊員的飛機，墜毀於 Superga 山崗後的一天。」我的父母說：「如果上主願意你走這道路，便去吧！」我們含著淚，然而選擇已經作出。
「我於一九四九年八月十六日進入修院。然而過了幾個月，便被告知要延長初學期，直至十六歲，我當時感到疑惑。這對我造成相當的壓力。我寫信回家，表示我要離開，然而他們沒有來接我去，因此我致電回家。」他的母親對這孩子初次的抉擇，依然懷有信心，對他說：「是你選擇進入初學，你應堅持到底。完成初學後，才決定繼續留下與否，然而半途而廢並不妥當。」
貝爾托內樞機在總結時說：「今天我能夠說，這是正確的決定。」他正如記者Galeazzi所觀察，時常在簽名下附上“SDB”（鮑思高慈幼會會士）的字眼。
Galeazzi 文章的意大利文版本，已上載於 La Stampa 日報的網頁中。
“Would you like to be like these Salesians?”
(ANS – Italy - Romano Canavese, 22 Jul 2009 ) – “The vocation to consecrated life,” - Cardinal Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State says , “came about when I was in school at Valdocco, with the Salesians. I was fourteen and I was thinking about starting Sixth Form studies. The path seemed clear. Having finished Fifth Year studies I would go into the Sixth Form and then specialise in modern languages.”
Replying to journalists waiting for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI last Sunday to Romano Canavese, his home town, Cardinal Bertone told the story of his childhood and of his vocation. Giacomo Galeazzi, from the daily “La Stampa”, after giving an outline of the events of the visit, gives a short account of the life and vocation of the Secretary of State.
It was the Salesian Fr Alessandro Ghisolfi who suggested to the young Tarcisio the idea of consecrating his life: “Would you like to be like these Salesians who devote their lives to the young? Haven’t you been happy here?” A three-day vocational meeting followed. “We spoke about the vocation to the priesthood, about Don Bosco,” the Cardinal recalls, “and I liked the idea. I went back home to tell my parents: that I wanted to go to the Salesian novitiate. It was the evening of 3 May 1949, the day after the plane with the Turin football team crashed into the hill of Superga”. “If the Lord wants you to take this path, then go,” – my parents said. We were all in tears, but the choice was now made.”
“I began on 16 August 1949. But after a few months when I got to know that I would have to prolong the novitiate until I reached sixteen, I wasn’t so sure. It seemed to me a rather oppressive atmosphere. I wrote home saying I wanted to leave but they didn’t come to collect me, so I phoned.” It was his mother who kept faith in the boy’s first decision telling him: “It was you who wanted to enter the novitiate and you should stay there until the end. Once the year is over decide whether you want to stay or not, but it’s not right for you to leave half way.”
“Today I can say that it was the right decision,” concluded Cardinal Bertone who, as the journalist Galeazzi observes, has always put after his signature “SDB”, Salesian of Don Bosco.
Galeazzi’s article is available in Italian on the site of the newspaper La Stampa.