THE APOSTLE OF YOUTH
holy Pontiff had, indeed, a special, Christ-like love for children; and the privations and sorrows of the young had entered into his earliest priestly experience as director of the orphan asylum, Tata Giovanni, in Rome; who, then, could wonder at his affectionate support of Don Bosco in his enterprises for youth?
The first Salesian house outside of Italy was opened at Nice in 1875. This foundation had been revealed to Don Bosco; so that when, on a visit three years after to the new Oratory, the children were brought to welcome him at the entrance to the grounds, he said to the rector, Don Perrot: "I recognize this place which I have seen in a dream; and even the voice of the child singing is the same I heard in my dream. Praise to Our Lady, Help of Christians!"
But now there was question of a wider Salesian separation—the urgent entreaties from overseas must be heeded. Africa, Australia, India, America—which should it be? Pius IX decided. As a young priest, Pope Leo XII in 1823 had appointed him auditor of the Apostolic Delegate, Msgr. Muzi, to Chili; and there El Padre Giovanni Mastai, the loving and beloved, had left a portion of his great heart. He had traveled through broad areas inhabited only by savage tribes; he had witnessed the ignorance and great decay of morality caused by revolutions and civil wars among the civilized Christian peoples; and he had lamented the probable loss of souls through the dearth
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