More Than a Theory by Mária Dominika Vanková

I. Positive Peace

The Salesians of Don Bosco is a religious order known for its remarkable work with youth across 133 countries around the globe, as well as its dedication to poverty alleviation and improvements in education. St. John Bosco’s Salesian Preventive System (SPS), centered around loving-kindness, religion, and reason, was particularly pioneering. The SPS began to look at matters of children’s education through a groundbreaking perspective in the 19th century: that punishment after misconduct was ineffective, a harsh response that came too late since the damage had already been done. Instead, the SPS suggested that motivating children and youth to live justly by following the SPS’s key points of loving-kindness, religion, and reason would lead to sin prevention. This was an idea ahead of its time. In the 1960s, the founder of peace studies, Johan Galtung (d. 2024), developed a negative and positive framework where “positive peace” was concerned with conflict prevention on a similar philosophical basis.

Throughout my graduate studies, I looked at the SPS from all the theoretical angles, and I didn’t expect much to surprise me. Nonetheless, once I traveled to Cambodia in 2023 and lived in a multi-religious Salesian community aiding children from slums and extreme poverty to help turn their lives around, I realized I had been missing something I didn’t even know existed. During one of our theological and philosophical discussions with Fr. Albeiro, a director priest from the Don Bosco community in Kep (Cambodia), he shared with me a thought-provoking idea. He suggested that the Salesian charism and SPS are still relevant because they were rooted in simplicity, and simplicity is flexible, so it can be picked up in every age and time while complex ideas tend to perish.

As somebody who has tendencies to overthink and overcomplicate things, this perspective struck me as inspiring. Thinking about it more, I realized that I might have looked at the SPS from all of the theoretical perspectives, yet I did not allow myself to experience it in real life. That was also why I did not clearly understand the importance of Salesian simplicity in the SPS. I asked Fr. Albeiro if he had any suggestions for me to immerse myself in the Salesian charisma and SPS, and he said it would come naturally if I opened my heart and mind to it in daily life. Since I was already in a new environment with Salesians, I had the best starting point. After all, the SPS ideas are not drastic, radical, or impossible to live. When they become more than a theory, they are a call for a fuller life that might require constant growth and transformation, but in a new, freeing way.

II. Loving-kindness

During my stay in Cambodia, I had an opportunity to travel to Vietnam. Being an adventurous soul excited about the trip, I decided to decline the lift from the Salesians and go by myself to Phnom Penh, so I could learn how to navigate the country better. On the way to the capital of Cambodia, I decided to book a seat next to the bus driver. I thought it was very cool that you could get such a seat on Cambodian buses and have a good view along the journey.

On the travel day, we were rushing forward, and my eyes were fixated on the people and happenings in the villages we were passing. Sometimes I looked up to witness the majestic palms dancing in the gentle wind from side to side. It was very cloudy, a bit atypical in Cambodia during the dry season when there are many sunny and warm days. I kept thinking about all the poor people in the small villages and our children from the Salesian missions. Then I imagined the poverty I encountered in my own country, and in the countries where I had studied or visited for vacations. Poverty is omnipresent, and yet somehow invisible. Immediately I started wondering what I could do, in my own life and through my academic aspirations, to help change this realistically.

I continued to be very deep in my thoughts until we stopped at a gas station where we had a short break to buy food and water and use the bathroom. As a proper night owl traveling early in the morning, I knew I needed to buy a coffee before a long day. However, because there were too many people in the bathroom, I had to rush back to the bus. Slightly agitated, I took my seat next to the driver. Unexpectedly, he turned to me and asked why I came back so sad. Startled by his attention to detail and empathy, I told him that it wasn’t really a big deal—as a night owl who has very low blood pressure in the mornings, I wanted to get a coffee, but I had no time. I wanted to add that it was fine because I could get one in Phnom Penh in two hours, and I was just sitting on the bus anyway, but he immediately stretched out his arm and handed me a closed cup of coffee still packed in a bag from the shop. “It is brand new. I just bought it, but you can take it,” he said.

I tried to protest, but there was no turning back, so I was holding a large, delicious iced coffee in my hand. Very grateful but also embarrassed, I managed to utter, “Thank you,” to which he replied that he also had sweets if it would help make me feel better! I kept thinking, “I am sitting here, deep in my theories on how to make the world better, while this bus driver jumps right into action and already made the world a little bit of a better place! He has to work at the moment and probably does not have much money, yet he didn’t hesitate for a second to give up his coffee for me.” I spent my remaining two hours traveling to Phnom Penh thinking of a more action-based approach for how to show my gratitude and repay him with an action of kindness. It made me realize how far John Bosco’s loving-kindness point in SPS is from a classroom type of situation, and how close to being an open engagement of simple goodness that can come from truly unexpected people making a difference.

III. Religion

One of the things I didn’t know about Cambodia was that they also have a Valentine’s Day of Friendship. Unfortunately for me, I became ill during the celebrations. But maybe that even intensified the surprise that was sent to me: a gorgeous Cambodian handmade bracelet from one of our Buddhist students. The Salesian community, collaborating with Carmelites, Protestants, Buddhists, Muslims, and nonreligious people, was helping mainly Buddhist students irrespective of their religion. This Buddhist student appreciated that I came from a different religion and country to care about their education and future. I was very moved by it, and my mind immediately walked down the memory lane.

I am from a very religious Catholic family with a rich heritage, but because God was always seen as Love, I was allowed to study at my dream school, a Lutheran high school with a special English bilingual and international college prep program. It was the first time that I had witnessed the reality of the strained relationships, not only between different religions, but even between different Christian denominations. Although my close family, friends, and school were great, I heard strange and mean commentary from others. In particular, I never understood the comments that attending the Lutheran Church service with my school “doesn’t count,” so “I have to go to the church again, but the Catholic one.” I was so appalled by that and remember asking, “Why doesn’t it count, and who decides it?” I was sure it was not God, because it is written in the Bible that Jesus is present when there are “two or three in His name” (Matt 18:20, NIV). Besides, nobody could ever answer my questions, which confirmed my suspicions. I had to learn to turn unfortunate comments and situations into virtues and humor, so I would always reply: “Whenever there is a shared Christian occasion, I go to both churches, Catholic and Lutheran, and that will certainly show up in the rankings on my ‘Consideration for Admission to Heaven’ list! Maybe even three times, considering all the extra ecumenical points!” But at that moment, holding the bracelet from the Buddhist student, I was smiling and thinking, “I have always known that it counts! Friendship between religions always counts.” I was so happy I had one of my favorite Slovak handmade bracelets to give the student in return.

About a month later, we had a farewell party for one of our volunteer teachers. It was evening, and our diverse community of many religions and nationalities were gathered. It was a time full of joy. We were walking on the warm, golden sand, dancing to the music, watching the distant village lights across the shore, and counting the waves that were swinging back and forth. In an instant, two volunteer teachers started to run in their clothes and threw themselves into the shallow sea by the shore. Everybody was laughing and cheering them on. I was standing there experiencing how little we needed to achieve profound happiness. Religion, in its true sense as a force of friendship, peace, justice, mutual aid, and joy, can prevent violence and misfortune. Ultimately, it is only up to people to live faith authentically and thoroughly.

IV. The Salesian Moment

The sunshine was underlining the beauty of the ocean-blue skies, and my beloved palms were majestically stretching their leaves, almost aiming to hold hands with the sun. It was a gorgeous day. My colleague from the Salesian community and I were visiting the local butterfly garden. I am a huge lover of butterflies, so no wonder I was enjoying every moment of feeling so small in the presence of bewildering creatures. We stopped by an educational board. Reading about the various species, my colleague started to look around again. He had a genuine observation: “The butterflies have a beautiful life here—plenty of space, wonderful flowers, great care. But they remain captured after all. They are not free.” I immediately stopped reading and turned to him to reply: “Indeed, that is true. But in the garden, they can have a safe life from birth to death, while in the wild—complete freedom—many of them would become prey for spiders, lizards, frogs, birds, and other animals. Would that be worth the complete freedom?” Astounded by my answer, my colleague kept watching the butterflies happily flying around us. For a minute, I forgot about them. I had my proud Salesian moment of rationality through simplicity without overthinking. And I said to myself, “Sometimes it truly is very simple.” And I turned my face towards the afternoon sun penetrating majestic palms creating a protective roof over our heads. ♦

Mária Dominika Vanková is a writer from Slovakia. She has worked with peace-building and poverty alleviation initiatives in Southeast Asia, and is currently compiling archives of Fr. Richard McBrien’s syndicated columns on theology. She is the founder of the Club of Friendship Slovakia–Cambodia and a coordinator of humanitarian aid to Cambodia.

Image: Ta Keo (Hindu) Temple, one of the 72 major temples in the Siem Reap area, Cambodia, overlain with image of Saint John Bosco. Other images courtesy of Mária Dominika Vanková.