PHILIP RINALDI SALESIAN PRIEST, BLESSED

“The word that did me the most good was when I told him that I was afraid some days I would make one of my own by running away”. And he answered me: “I would come and get you”. This immediate and affectionate reply from Fr. Paolo Albera, Rector of the Salesian house in Genova Sampierdarena, to the young 21-year-old Philip Rinaldi, who was there at boarding school discerning his vocation, encapsulates a real strategy (the same one used by Don Bosco) in a spiritual situation that could be defined as follows: not feeling called on one side and continuing to be called on the other.

Born in Lu Monferrato (Alessandria) on 28th May 1856, eighth of nine children, Philip met Don Bosco for the first time at the age of five, during one of the many walks the holy priest took with his youngsters. His youthful temperament was not what one might properly expect from a saint, but Don Bosco was able to see in him the makings of a good educator. At the age of ten, he was taken to the Salesian house in Mirabello for his studies. He saw Don Bosco there twice and immediately felt him to be his friend. Following a mistreatment he suffered, he returned to his family, where, however, he received letters from the Saint of Youth inviting him to return: “The houses of Don Bosco are always open to you”. He later confided: “I had no intention of becoming a priest”. But Don Bosco thought otherwise. He went to visit him in 1876. Philip was then in his twenties and with a marriage proposal. Don Bosco definitely won him over to his cause. Fr. Rinaldi later confessed: “My choice fell on Don Bosco.... He had answered all my questions”. He lingered in the family for another year, preoccupied, for school purposes, with a headache and a diseased left eye. “Come!” - was Don Bosco's last patient invitation - “Your headache will pass and you will have enough sight to study”.

Thinking back on all the resistance he had put up with, he would one day exclaim: “May the Lord and Our Lady see to it that, after having resisted grace so much in the past, I will no longer abuse it in the future”. At the age of twenty-one, Philip Rinaldi embarked on the path to adult vocations in Sampierdarena. In 1880, after his novitiate, he took his perpetual vows in the hands of Don Bosco himself. When on 23rd December 1882, the day of his priestly ordination, he heard himself asked by Don Bosco, almost at the end of the long period of vocational discernment: “And now are you happy?” He replied with filial emotion: “Yes, if you keep me with you!”.

Of his 49 years of priesthood, the first twenty saw him successively Rector at Mathi Torinese, a college for adult vocations, then at Turin's ‘San Giovanni Evangelista’, then at Barcelona-Sarriá in Spain. A few days before Don Bosco's death, Fr. Rinaldi wanted to go to confession to him and the latter, before absolving him, by now without strength, said only one word to him: “Meditation”. In 1889, Fr. Michael Rua, Don Bosco's first successor, appointed him Rector at Sarriá, near Barcelona in Spain, telling him: “You will have to take care of very delicate things”. In three years, with prayer, meekness and a paternal and animating presence among the young people and in the Salesian community, he revived the work. He was then appointed Provincial of Spain and Portugal, contributing in a surprising way to the development of the Salesian Family on Iberian soil. In just nine years, also thanks to the financial help given by the venerable noblewoman Dorotea Chopitea, Fr. Rinaldi founded sixteen new houses. Fr. Rua, after a visit, was impressed and later appointed him Prefect General of the Congregation in 1901. In his new ministry, Fr. Rinaldi continued to work zealously, never giving up his priestly ministry. He performed his governing task with prudence, charity and intelligence for twenty years. After the death of Blessed Fr. Rua in 1910, Filippo Rinaldi was re-elected Prefect and vicar of Fr. Paul Albera, the new Rector Major. In an apparently bureaucratic role, he did things to leave his mark. Above all, he became an expert director of the spirit: he would get up very early in the morning and, after celebrating Holy Mass, begin his two-hour confessional at five o'clock.

The last nine years saw him at the supreme leadership of the Congregation: he succeeded Fr. Paul Albera on 24th April 1922. When he was first elected Rector, he wrote to Fr. Giulio Barberis: “Me, Rector! But don't they know that it's ruining the poor young people? I am amazed to think of it”. Elected Rector Major he would say: “I assure you it is a great mortification for me; pray to the Lord that we may not spoil what Don Bosco and his successors have done”. He adapted Don Bosco's spirit to the new times, and in the role of Rector Major he showed more of his fatherly qualities and his wealth of initiatives: caring for vocations, forming centres of spiritual and social assistance for young workers, guiding and supporting the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians at a particular time in their history. He gave great impetus to the Salesian Cooperators; he established the World Federations of Past Pupils of Don Bosco and Past Pupils of Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, giving a strong organisational boost. “Past pupils,” he said, “are the fruit of our labours. We in our homes do not work to make young people good only while they are with us, but to make them good Christians. Therefore the work of the past pupils is a work of perseverance. We have sacrificed ourselves for them and our sacrifice must not be lost”. Working among the devotees of Mary Help of Christians, he intuited and travelled a path that led to the implementation of a new form of consecrated life in the world, which would later flourish as the secular Institute of the ‘Volunteers of Don Bosco’.

His leadership as Rector Major was as fruitful as ever. The Salesian Congregation grew prodigiously: from 4,788 members in 404 houses, to 8,836 in 644 houses, in an atmosphere where ‘one breathed more the affection of the father than the authority of the Superior’. The impetus he gave to the Salesian missions was enormous: he founded missionary institutes, magazines and associations, and during his term more than 1,800 Salesians left as missionaries to different parts of the whole world, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Don Bosco from whom, having asked as a new priest to go on mission, he heard the answer: “You will stay here. You will send others on mission”. He made numerous journeys in Italy and other parts of Europe. He displayed admirable zeal and paternity, emphasising that the true physiognomy of the Salesian Work lies not so much in external successes, but in the profound, serene and calm intimate life. He translated his dynamic concept of spirituality and work into a socially effective form, working with Pope Pius XI to have the indulgence of sanctified work granted. A master of spiritual life, he revitalised the interior life of the Salesians by always showing absolute trust in God and unlimited confidence in Mary Help of Christians.

“It is true,” testified Fr. Peter Ricaldone, his successor, “that he often had poor health, but he managed to achieve extraordinary good. He devoted himself with enthusiasm to the training of personnel with meetings, visits, writings that made him appreciated and loved by all”. He was a tireless worker. In many ways and throughout his life, sparing no effort, he endeavoured to increase among working men and women of every category those forms of association and those saving organisations that always ended in the growth of Christian trade unionism and welfare works. To all Salesians, he particularly recommended service to emigrants without distinction of nationality, emphasising maximum universalism in charity.

Among the faces of Salesian saints, what characterises Fr. Rinaldi's is the note of paternity. As director, at the age of 33, he proposed: “Charity and meekness with the brothers, putting up with whatever may come my way”. As provincial, he would say: “I will be a father. I will avoid harsh ways. When they come to speak to me, I will not let them see that I am tired or in a hurry”. Of Fr. Rinaldi, Fr. Francesia, a first-generation Salesian, will say: “He only lacks Don Bosco's voice. Everything else he has”. Before he died, the event that filled him with extraordinary joy was Don Bosco's beatification on 2nd June 1929. He led a crowd of 15,000 people to Rome. He was about to begin the 50th year of his priesthood when he passed away peacefully on 5th December 1931. His remains rest in the crypt of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin.

Prayer

God, our infinitely good Father,

You have called Blessed Philip Rinaldi, third Successor of St. John Bosco, to inherit his spirit and mission and to initiate various charismatic initiatives in the Salesian Family. Obtain for us the grace to imitate his goodness, his apostolic resourcefulness, tireless creativity, sanctified by union with God.

Grant us the graces we are in need of through his intercession.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.