(New Rochelle, N.Y. –
December 8) – During his many years laboring over the English translation
of The Biographical Memoirs of St. John
Bosco, Fr. Diego Borgatello maintained his contact with the
young—counseling them, challenging them in chess, taking them on outings, and
praying with them. Since Fr. Diego’s death in April 1994, every December the
men—no longer young men—who counted themselves as his young friends gather in
New Rochelle to celebrate a memorial Mass for him and share their memories of
the good that he did to them when they were his altar boys at St. Joseph’s
Parish and/or students at Salesian High School. So on the evening of December
7, almost 40 of them, including some friends and family members, came together
for the 24th time in the chapel of Salesian High School. The gathering is so
large now that they can no longer use the chapel in the provincial residence.
Fr. John Serio, president of Salesian High School and a longtime
friend of “Diego’s Boys,” celebrated the Mass on the vigil of Mary Immaculate,
recalling Don Bosco’s meeting with Bartholomew Garelli on another feast of the
Immaculate Conception and comparing Fr. Diego’s ministry to the young to Don
Bosco’s.
After Mass Nick Trotta (Salesian ’77) fondly and reverently
recalled some of the life lessons that Fr. Diego instilled in him and his
friends, linking Fr. Diego to the just man praised by the Psalms.
Your humble blogger had the privilege of collaborating with
Fr. Diego on vols. 15-16 of The Biographical
Memoirs, completing the latter after Fr. Diego died.
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