Fr. Aloysius Ferrari

Fr. Aloysius Ferrari S.D.B
Orders
Ordination	January 29, 1943
Personal details
Born	August 27, 1908 Italy
Died	November 23, 1990 (Aged 82) Rome
Nationality	Italian
Denomination	Roman Catholic Church

Rev. Fr. Luigi (Aloysius) Ferrari, S.D.B. (27 August 1908 – 23 November 1990) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and member of the Salesians of Don Bosco (S.D.B.). He was a significant figure in the expansion of the Salesian missionary presence across Asia, most notably as a pioneer of the Salesian mission in the Philippines. He served as delegate of the Provincial of the China Province for the Philippines (1952–1955), as the first rector of Don Bosco Technical College in Mandaluyong, and later as Provincial Superior of the Philippines(1965–1975).

Ferrari was ordained a priest on 29 January 1943 and spent the formative decades of his priestly ministry as a Salesian missionary in Asia, first in China and then in the Philippines. He is credited with helping lay the institutional groundwork of the Salesian educational apostolate in the Philippine archipelago, including the early negotiation of land and school properties in the Manila area.

Early life and formation

Luigi Ferrari was born on 27 August 1908 in Verona, in northern Italy, then part of the Kingdom of Italy. He entered the Salesian Society (Salesians of Don Bosco)and underwent his religious and priestly formation within the congregation. He was ordained to the priesthood on 29 January 1943, dedicating himself entirely to the Salesian missionary apostolate. He would go on to spend 64 years as a Salesianand 47 years as a priest.^[1]

Mission in China

Following his ordination, Fr. Ferrari was assigned to the Salesian China Province, where he served as a missionary for several years. The Salesians had been present in China since 1910, operating schools and youth centers across the country.^[2] However, with the Communist takeover of mainland China in the late 1940s, religious communities faced increasing pressure, confiscation of their institutions, and eventual expulsion.

Fr. Ferrari was among the Salesians expelled from China in 1952 following the communist suppression of Catholic missionary activity on the mainland. Rather than returning to Europe, he was redirected to continue his missionary work in Asia— specifically in the newly opened Salesian mission in the Philippines.^[3]

Mission in the Philippines

The Salesians formally established their presence in the Philippines in July 1951, through the efforts of Fr. Carlo Braga and at the insistence of the Apostolic Nuncio. The mission grew rapidly in its first years, taking on schools, parishes, and houses of formation across the archipelago — from Luzon to the Visayas.^[4]

Provincial Delegate for the Philippines (1952–1955)

Upon his expulsion from China, Fr. Ferrari first travelled to England to study English— a practical necessity given the predominantly English-speaking educational environment in the Philippines — before proceeding to the archipelago to take up his assignment.^[5] He was appointed delegate of the provincial of the ChinaProvince for the Philippines, a position he held from 1952 to 1955. In this capacity, he coordinated and supervised the growing number of Salesian works in the country on behalf of the provincial superior based in Hong Kong.

In late 1953, Fr. Ferrari accepted the offer of Archbishop Rufino Santos of Manilafor the Salesians to take over the former archdiocesan seminary — the Seminario Conciliar of Manila — located in Mandaluyong, in order to establish what would become a major technical-academic complex.^[6] Writing to the Salesian superiors in Turin in November 1953, he reported on the state of the developing Salesian work in Manila.^[7]

Makati land acquisition

One of Fr. Ferrari's notable contributions during his time as delegate was his role in securing the land that would become the site of Don Bosco Technical Institute, Makati. According to the Salesian historian Fr. Nestor Impelido, S.D.B.:

"Early the next year on 26 January 1954, Fr. Luigi Ferrari, delegate of Fr. Acquistapace to the Philippines, asked permission from Mr. Alonso Zobel de Ayala 'to occupy and fence the parcel of land located at the corner of Pasay-McKinley Road and the proposed Pasong Tamo Extension', as well as the 'adjoining portion between the parcel of 5,211 square meters and the National Power Corporation's right of way.'"^[8]

This correspondence with the Zobel de Ayala family — prominent Catholicbenefactors who donated the land — was instrumental in the eventual establishment of the Salesian vocational school in Makati, which grew into one of the most significant Salesian technical institutions in the Philippines.

First Rector of Don Bosco Mandaluyong

Fr. Ferrari is recognized as the first rector of Don Bosco Technical College in Mandaluyong, which began as a youth center and developed into a complex school with elementary, high school, vocational, and out-of-school youth programs. Under his leadership and subsequent rectors, the school enrolled more than 1,100 students within its first five years and became one of the most respected technical-academic institutions in the Philippine capital, even attracting a visit from the President of the Philippines.^[9]

Provincial Superior of the Philippines (1965–1975)

After more than a decade of continued involvement with the Salesian mission in the Philippines, Fr. Ferrari was appointed Provincial Superior of the Philippines, a position he held from 1965 to 1975. His term as provincial coincided with a critical period of growth and consolidation for the Philippine Province, which had only been formally elevated from a Vice-Province in 1963.

During this period, the Philippine Province worked to increase its Filipino Salesianmembership, establish its own theological formation center, and consolidate the various educational and pastoral works across the archipelago. The first FilipinoSalesian priests were ordained during this era: Fr. Genaro Gegantoni was ordained on 8 December 1973, and Frs. Celestino Lingad Jr. and Aguedo Palomo were ordained on 31 January 1974.^[10]

Fr. Ferrari ended his term as provincial in April 1975 and was succeeded by Fr. José Carbonell Llopis. He later returned to Rome, where he died on 23 November 1990, at the age of 82, having spent 64 years as a Salesian and 47 years as a priest.^[11]

Legacy

Fr. Luigi Ferrari is remembered as one of the pioneering Salesians who helped transform the fledgling Philippine mission into a mature and self-sustaining Province. He was among the former China missionaries who, having been displaced by the communist revolution, channelled their apostolic energies into the Philippines and built its educational and formational institutions essentially from the ground up.

His tenure as provincial delegate and later as provincial encompassed the most formative two decades of the Philippine Salesian Province — from the acceptance of the first schools and parishes to the ordination of the first Filipino Salesians. The Salesian works in Mandaluyong and Makati, both of which he helped establish, continue to operate as major Don Bosco educational institutions in Metro Manila.

The Salesian historian Fr. Nestor Impelido, S.D.B., describes the Province that Ferrari and his generation built as one "where our work was born already adult" — a tribute to the extraordinary pace at which the Salesian mission in the Philippinesexpanded, and to the mature, experienced missionaries like Ferrari who made it possible.^[12]

Notes and trivia

• The name Aloysius is the Latinized form of Luigi, both names referring to the same person. The name Aloysius is commonly used in ecclesiastical Latincontexts for those named Luigi or Louis.
• Fr. Ferrari was among the Salesians who first arrived in the Philippines not directly from China but via a period of study in England, to prepare for work in an English-medium educational environment.
• The Mandaluyong school he helped found on the grounds of the former Seminario Conciliar was considered the prospective "casa madre" (mother house) of the Salesians of the Philippines by Fr. Mario Acquistapace, the then-provincial of the China Province.^[13]
• The land in Makati that Ferrari helped negotiate with the Zobel de Ayala familysits near what is today one of the most commercially valuable corridors in the Philippines — the Makati Central Business District.

References

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