Dear TIA editor,

Thank you for the very good service and information that your website is providing.

I have one small suggestion, could you please include dates that identify when certain articles and letters were written. For example, I am hoping to know whether the exchange on this page [on a polemic between Bishop Fellay and Mr. Guimaraes] occurred before or after the sermon on this page [of Fr. Basilio Meramo reacting against the compromise of SSPX leaders].

     Thank you!

     C.A.



The Editor responds:

Dear C.A.,

Thank you for your amiable words and suggestion.

The dates on those two postings were included. You may refresh those pages and they will appear.

We have been putting the dates on the pages we post for three years now. However, we need more people to update the old pages (more than 3,000) of the TIA website. I believe that this task alone would be a full-time job for one person for more than one year.

TIA at this moment has neither the person to do this job nor enough funds to hire him/her. Our staff is fully busy just with keeping up with our daily web updates and publication/promotion of books.

If you know someone who could pay the salary of a worker, please send him/her to us. If you don't, we ask your prayers to find a good sponsor for that.

     Cordially,

     A.S. Guimarães

Dear TIA,

Could you please send this message to Mr. Shaara?

Thank you,

L.M.


Mr. Joseph Shaara,

I want to let you know how grateful we are for your letter to the Pope. You said what so many of us are thinking and would like to be able to put into words.

It took great courage for you to write this admirable missive.

     THANK YOU!

     L.M.

Note from the Editor: Last week we committed a mistake when answering a reader about the body of St. John Bosco. Based on a quick search on the Internet, we affirmed that his body remains uncorrupt (you may check here). This is not exact. His body decayed.

When the exhumation was made in 1929, the only thing that remained uncorrupted was the Carmelite Scapular he was wearing. The bones and some tissues of his arm were placed into a wax arm and added to the wax simulacrum of his body, which was placed in a urn; the urn with the relic has been visiting several countries since 2009.

We apologize for the mistaken information and the inconvenience it may have caused our readers. We also thank our reader N.C. from India for providing us with the correct data, which we reproduce below. - A.S.G.

Dear TIA,

Please find attached the information on St. John Bosco body, taken from two websites of the Salesians: here and here.

Best wishes,

     N.R., India



About the Relic

In the tradition of pilgrimage, the relics of St. John Bosco are being carried into the towns and villages, neighborhoods and centers where the Gospel is announced among the young and the poor today. This pilgrim journey through 130 nations began on January 31, 2009, the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Salesian Congregation. It prepares us for the 2015 celebration of the 200th Anniversary of Don Bosco's birth near Turin, Italy on August 16, 1815.

The relics of Don Bosco have been recomposed from the urn that contained his remains since 1929 when the body was exhumed for his beatification and canonization. The bones and tissues of the right hand and arm have been taken and placed within a wax replica of St. John Bosco's body, which in turn is enclosed in a large urn.

The urn was constructed specially for this pilgrimage. It is composed of a large glass box in which the wax replica is placed, and easily viewed. The box is mounted atop a large wood and metal cart. Among the urn's decorations are the words, "Da mihi animas, ceatera tolle," which translates to, "Give me souls, take away the rest," one of Don Bosco's many quotes that guided his ministry from its earliest stages through today. Images of young faces also surround the urn, as well as maps showing where the Salesian Family is present today. Finally, the years 1815 and 2015 are placed near the base, serving as a reminder of the purpose of this Relic Pilgrimage: in 2015, the Salesian Family, and the Church as a whole, will celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Don Bosco's birth in 1815.

The urn weighs 820 kilograms (over 1,800 pounds!). The glass box, containing the relic, is 253 centimeters long (almost 100 inches), 108.3 centimeters wide (over 40 inches), and 132 centimeters tall (over 50 inches). The full urn is tranported via two specially designed and built trucks....

A relic is an object of religious veneration. It can be anything from the bones of a saint to an object which touched a martyr. In the Acts of the Apostles, the importance of relics is emphasized: "Meanwhile, God worked extraordinary miracles at the hands of Paul. When handkerchiefs or cloths that had touched him were applied to the sick, their diseases were cured and evil spirits departed them." Relics to not contain magical powers but they symbolize how God works through the saints even after they have died. During their lives, saints helped draw people closer to God, and after they ceased, the relics continued to inspire individuals to become more devoted to God.

The Church honors God through the relics of the bodies of the saints, the things they used, and the lives they touched. The relic of Don Bosco is being brought to the world so Christians may honor him as a Servant of God, as well as view him as a source of inspiration for those still living.

Dear TIA,

This link says that Don Bosco's body decayed.

I had read some years ago that only his scapular remained intact in the grave. But now, as per the Don Bosco Relic Tour going worldwide (and presently in India) it seems that some of his right arm was recovered at the exhumation of his body. I have already sent you the item from the official website.

     Best wishes & God bless,

     N.C.

Follow us

  Open Letter to Benedict XVI

  St. John Bosco

  The Sniper and the Novissima

  Extraordinary Facts about the Carmelite Scapular

  The Scapular that Saved Two Lives

  The Incorrupt Pope and the Pharaohs