CHAPTER XVII
FIRST FOREIGN MISSION. THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. DON CAGLIERO
It is pleasant to know that the venerable Don Bosco received one of the earliest and most pressing applications for his Salesian Fathers from our own Cardinal McCloskey, the learned, eloquent and saintly Archbishop of New York from 1864 to 1885. The Italians, yearly increasing by immigration, became a cause of grave concern to His Eminence, especially the youthful contingent, whom he saw in danger of losing the faith of their fathers; and the entrance of the Society of St. Francis of Sales into his diocese, he believed, would be the solution of his difficulties. But, ardently as Don Bosco desired the foundation, he could ill spare his priests as yet from his institutions in and near Turin. He could only beg the American Cardinal to wait.
Pius IX was fully aware of the pressing demands of the bishops in the various countries; for Don Bosco's devotion to the Vicar of Christ led him frequently to Rome to lay before his Holiness, like a docile child, his plans and inspirations, which were welcomed with the magnanimous heart of a father, considered at leisure, and finally, with added lights and counsels, sealed and put into operation with his sanction and blessing. The
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