Balsari VI Provost General of the Institute of Charity
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Father Bernardino Balsari VI Provost General of the Institute of Charity by Giuseppe Bozzetti (Translated by J. Anthony Dewhirst) A small boy is seated at the table in his father’s study. In front of him are his exercise books and school books. They been placed there so that he can concentrate more on his work. But the little lad has little inclination to do this. He is distracted, gathering up carefully the tobacco which his father has let fall from his large grasp on to the table cloth (his father is a great tobacco lover in the old sense of the word). And, chancing to look up, he is struck by the figure that looks out from the picture hanging on the wall, in the place of honour, above the table where he is sitting. It is an austere figure: a priest with a book in his hand, wholly intent on reading it. He is in profile. His nose, his forehead, and his chin accentuate, by their sharp lines, his concentration on his reading. The little boy lingers on it a little and feels himself reproved: ‘see how I study and you sit there wasting time’. There is no excuse. The priest is right. The little fellow leaves the small heap of smelly tobacco on the table cloth and takes hold of his books. This was the first meeting of Father Balsari with Antonio Rosmini, which he told me with a smile, many years after. Perhaps the remembrance of a little incident which was full of meaning was dear to him. Rosmini had become the Master and inspiration of his soul and that silent summons which came to him as a child from that portrait, honoured in his father’s study, was like the first ring of a pleasant, precious chain which would bind him ever more closely to the spirit and mind of the philosopher and saint. And another ring, after the admiration and reverence which his father expressed when speaking of Rosmini, was the relationship which he had from boyhood with a young priest Don Giambattista Pagani, who gave him some coaching in Latin and later had to introduce him to the study of Rosminian philosophy and ultimately preceded him in entering the Institute of Charity. Father Pagani was Provincial in this Institute for several years, and some of us who are still living knew him personally. And it is right that we should always remembering him as one of the Fathers who reflected our Institute more, through their gifts of mind and character. Although he had the same name as the second Father General, and was from the same region, Borgomanero, he was not even distantly related and had a very different character. The Balsari family, an ancient family, were natives of Oleggio, another large and flourishing town of Novara. Barnardino was the eldest of a large family of brothers and sisters who were reared very strictly. The children used the formal ‘Lei’ [you] to their parents according to custom which, after ’48, generally dropped out. This did not prevent family closeness in the home and the deep manifestations of affection which sprang from it. When Father Balsari was later called by God to religious life he seriously practised an evangelical detachment from his relations, but this did not lessen the sacrifice, even though he carried it out with total freedom. I have deliberately said ‘seriously’ What must be done must be done ‘seriously’, was a saying used by Father Balsari in everything which he did and planned. He felt intimately the sérieux of life, as Bossuet would say. And this spiritual habit, innate in him, and promoted by family environment, and later made fruitful by grace was always one of the more vivid and evident traits of his personality. Nothing gave him more annoyance than to see duties or the cause of truth and justice treated lightly. Nothing irritated him more than a superficial or sceptical manner in language or demeanour. Those who knew him in his maturity might have had the impression that he had a meek and mild disposition. But if a long struggle and assiduous internal discipline;inehad given this appearance in his habitual mode of speech and dealing with others, his natural tendencies were quite different. There was a fierceness and stubbornness in him and also an inclination to give way easily to impulses of anger; but not to rancour and bitterness. A generous and sensitive feeling which predominated caused him to love goodness and kindness and to put it into practice, and Christian humility impelled him to be affable and exquisitely respectful all sorts of people. Even his external appearance betrayed the contrast of these different mental qualities. His physiognomy was chiselled energetically but his glance and smile were gentle. His silvery white hair His silvery white hair which became grey early was like a spiritual halo round his face. The extant portraits of him do not do him justice, as usually happens with physiognomies which are very mobile in expression. His religious vocation was delayed. His father, a respected doctor, thought that his eldest son might join his profession, and he was gratified to see his son’s rapid progress in his studies up to then. The fact that his son, when scarcely 16 years old had passed his school leaving exam and entered University, was a great triumph for his paternal pride. But that such a young man should be exposed to the influence of wayward companions could only be dangerous for him. Father Balzari spoke of that time of his university life almost distressingly and somewhat severely. Without expressly accusing himself he let it be known that he was not happy with that period of his youth. But the crisis was only a passing one and his solid Christian family education soon prevailed. Having graduated at the age of 22 he returned to his native town and was now known as the ‘Dottorino Balsari’ to distinguish him from his father, Dottore Balsari. But he did not persist long in medical practice, two years and a few months. The Lord was calling him to the priestly life. On 1 June 1879 he was ordained priest and was immediately assigned to the spiitual direction of the students of the upper grammar school of the Seminary of San Carlo sopra Arona. The Bishop of Novara and his advisors could not have given the young priest of twenty seven a clearer sign of their esteem. The ten years he spent in this delicate job only confirmed this. Actually, Don Balsari was a pearl among the clergy of Novara, and his superiors, colleagues and young clerics all concurred in this opinion. The latter would always later remember him, in their future years of priesthood, with edification and loving respect. But in this pearl there was a little thread of scoria. Don Balsari was a Rosminian. This was deplored by those who wished the best for him. Those were the days when intransient secularism in politics and antirosminianism in philosophy prevailed among the Curia and ecclesiastics in general. But family tradition and the study of philosophy resumed under the guidance of Don Gambattista Pagani, had steered Don Balsari in another direction. Attentive reading and study of the Nuovo Saggio had deeply convinced him, and with a character like his it was not easy to separate him from that to which he consciously adhered. He was confirmed in his Rosminian convictions by seeing its complete agreement with the teachings of St Augustine and St Thomas. The study of these two great doctors in his years at Arona was one of his happiest memories. He used to love to carry a book with him when walking along the road between Arona and Borgomanero in the summer on his visits home. It is a pleasant road with only some slight climbs, in the middle of fertile country in a landscape which varied in its contours, and cultivation, in its green meadows guarded by fine plants either in long rows or sparse bushes, with the view near Borgomanero of the grand massif of Monte Rosa, or near Arona, the tranquil water of Lago Maggiore which begins to form a river in Ticino. It was an ideal road for a restful and meditative journey. In this environment Don Balsari said that he greatly enjoyed several pages of De Civitate Dei and the Summa Contra Gentes so much that he did not feel the fatigue of the journey which is a long one. Don Bernardino Balsari was, then, an avowed Rosminian and the war which he waged without quarter in the name of Rosmini only confirmed him in his attitude. All the more as he knew that round about him there were those who combatted Rosmini without knowing him at all, without having read a line. This offence against sincerity and justice made him bold in his fidelity to the persecuted priest. Not that he liked polemics. He belonged rather to that trend in the Rosminian camp which, at the time, before the open approval of Leo XIII for Rosmini’s adversaries, thought a very prudent attitude and candid deference to the Pope, who had instigated the study of St Thomas, was appropriate. This did not contradict the spirit of Rosminianism, which naturally springs from the philosophia perennis. Faced with the either unjust or excessive attacks of the anti - rosminians, he kept silence in the hope that a better day might appear, in conformity with that spirit of faith which Rosmini had taught so much. Even in politics Don Balasari’s honest, conciliating character was averse to excessive trust in the parties and liberal governments which dominated Italy at the time, and in keeping with truest Rosminian principles, rejected quite a lot of their religious politics.