Social Sciences and Missions 32 (2019) 311–341 Social Sciences and Missions Sciences sociales et missions brill.com/ssm Catholic Missionaries of the ‘Holy Land’ and the Nahda The Case of the Salesian Society (1904–1920) Paolo Pieraccini Università di Firenze
[email protected] Abstract At the beginning of the twentieth century, some Palestinian and Lebanese Salesians, influenced by the Arab Renaissance movement, began to claim the right to oppose the ‘directorships’ of the institutes of the Don Bosco Society in Bethlehem and the sur- rounding area. They also began to request better recognition of their native language, in schools and within the religious community. They clashed with their superiors who, in the meantime, had signed an agreement with the Salesian government in Rome, committing them to developing the Italian language in their teaching institutes. The struggle became particularly fierce after the Holy See rebuked the Palestinian religious congregations for teaching the catechism and explaining the Sunday Gospel to people in a foreign language and urged them to do so in Arabic. The clash caused a serious dis- turbance within the Salesian community. Finally, after the First World War, the most turbulent Arab religious were removed from the Society of Don Bosco. All converged in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, where they continued forcefully (but in vain) to put forward their national demands. This article is based on several unpublished sources. Résumé Au début du XXe siècle, des salésiens palestiniens et libanais, influencés par le mouve- ment de la Renaissance arabe, revendiquent le droit de s’opposer à leur direction, celle des instituts de la Société de Don Bosco à Bethléem et dans les environs.