Ian Doulton sdb MATUNGA, FEBRUARY 12, 2009: Naples is the gateway to Italy but high up in the Adriatic Sea lies Venice, dreamy Venice, immortalized by Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth and called by Ruskin the ‘Paradise of cities. Near Venice lies the province of Treviso and here in the valley of the Po, on the slopes of the Dolomite Alps, hedged between two small rivers Bremia and Piave and 50 km from Venice shrouded in idyllic surroundings lies the village of Vazzola. That was where Aurelius Maschio was born
on February 12, 1909, a hundred years ago! His father Giuseppe was a firm, hardworking and kind man. His business kept him busy all the time but his devotional insistence kept his family well knit with regular family prayer. Orsolina Dalla Cia his wife was thrifty and kept her home as a good mother would, mending, cooking, tending to the children. The parents of twelve children, nine brothers and three sisters, they were a happy lot. The teacher of the elementary school where he spent his first years said: “He is an intelligent and diligent pupil endowed with strong good will. It will be a pity not to help him continue his studies.” And so the time came for Aurelius to be admitted to school and his parents chose Genoa, a long way from home. Treviso is on the East coast while Genoa is on the West. One had to travel a good two hundred miles over the plains of Lombardy to reach the Salesian school at Sampierdarena. On his long journey back for his annual holidays he eagerly looked forward to being reunited with his family as much as they yearned to have him home. Then one day he revealed to them his desire to become a priest and so his parents agreed to send him to a ‘minor seminary.’ So when the time came for him to leave school, his superiors at the school had followed him closely till then, agreed that he had the qualities necessary to make a good son of Don Bosco. If he really wanted it, they would send him to the Apostolic School at Penango in Piedmont. “There” he was told, “you will be able to continue your studies and, at the same time, find out clearly whether God is truly calling you.” The decision hurt his mother deeply but she exclaimed: ‘If God calls we cannot but say ‘yes.’” A short time later, on Sunday October 5, 1924 at a grand and moving ceremony in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, Aurelius received the missionary Cross along with other 18 Salesians who were being sent to the missions that year. The people who filled the church that day watched with keen interested and commented: “Look, at that one, but he’s just a little boy!” pointing to young Aurelius. They were right, Aurelius was the youngest in the group, not yet sixteen, yet he had a clear vision of what he wanted and that left no room for hesitation at all. It was precisely this clear vision and strong determination that made Fr. Aurelius Maschio one of the most outstanding and best known Salesians in India, especially in the city Bombay which was the scene of his greatest and most fruitful labours. He was a man who thought ahead and in many directions. He transformed a barren marshy wasteland into the imposing complex of buildings that is today Don Bosco High School, Matunga, Provincial House, Shrine Office and the grand richly-decorated Shrine in honour of Mary, Help of Christians. He thought of giving school dropouts a place to learn a trade and St. Joseph’s Technical Institute was born. Then for orphans and boys from unstable homes he opened Dominic Savio Boys Home at Andheri…and many other institutions. The institutions that he brought about serve the various scopes that constitute the sum total of Salesian activity in and around the city. It is with difficulty that we refrain from defining such activity as the ‘Magic’ of Fr. Maschio’s foresight! Today, in this twenty first century, we Salesians are almost breathless trying to keep pace with the momentum that Fr. Maschio set. Undoubtedly, he will always remain a model par excellence of how we should respond to the challenges that the world of youth throws at us.