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Luigi Sturzo | |
|---|---|
 Undated photograph | |
| Member of theSenate of the Republic | |
| Life tenure 17 September 1952 – 8 August 1959 | |
| Appointed by | Luigi Einaudi |
| Vice-Mayor ofCaltagirone | |
| In office 1905–1920 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1871-11-26)26 November 1871 |
| Died | 8 August 1959(1959-08-08) (aged 87) |
| Political party | PPI (1919–1924) |
| Residence(s) | Rome, Italy |
| Alma mater | Pontifical Gregorian University |
| Profession | Politician,priest |
Luigi Sturzo (Italian pronunciation:[luˈiːdʒiˈsturtso]; 26 November 1871 – 8 August 1959) was an ItalianCatholic priest and prominent politician.[1] He was known in his lifetime as a formerChristian socialist turnedpopularist,[2] and is considered one of the fathers of theChristian democratic platform.[3] He was also the founder of theLuigi Sturzo Institute in 1951. Sturzo was one of the founders of theItalian People's Party (PPI) in 1919 but was forced into exile in 1924 with the rise ofItalian fascism. In exile inLondon and laterNew York City, he published over 400 articles (published after his death under the titleMiscellanea Londinese) critical offascism.[4][5] Sturzo's cause for canonization opened on 23 March 2002 and he is titled as aServant of God.[1]
Sturzo was born on 26 November 1871 inCaltagirone to Felice Sturzo and Caterina Boscarelli. His twin sister was Emanuela (also known as Nelina). One ancestor, Giuseppe Sturzo, served as the mayor of Caltagirone in 1864 until an unspecified time, and another ancestor was Croce Sturzo who wrote about theRoman Question. His two brothers Luigi and Franco Sturzo were well-knownJesuits. His elder brotherMario Sturzo (1 November 1861 – 11 November 1941) was a noted theologian andBishop of Piazza Armerina.[6][7] His two other sisters were Margherita and thenun Remigia (or Sister Giuseppina). From 1883 until 1886, he studied atAcireale and then inNoto. He commenced his studies for the ecclesial life in 1888. Sturzo received hisordination to thepriesthood on 19 May 1894 from theBishop of Caltagirone Saverio Gerbino at theChiesa del Santissimo Salvatore in Enna. Following his graduation, Sturzo served as a teacher of philosophical and theological studies in Caltagirone; he served as his town's Vice-Mayor from 1905 to 1920. In 1898, he received a doctorate in his philosophical studies from thePontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and he taught that subject in his hometown from 1898 to 1903.[5][4]
In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Sturzo came to knowGiacomo Radini-Tedeschi. In his spare time, he liked to collect antiqueceramic art; while serving as the Vice-Mayor, he opened a ceramicists' school in 1918. He also founded the newspaperLa Croce di Constantino in Caltagirone in 1897.[3][4] In 1900, at the same time as theBoxer Rebellion, Sturzo asked his bishop to serve in the missions in China despite the persecutions the Catholic Church was enduring there; he was denied this request on the account of his precarious state of health.[1] Since 1915, Sturzo was involved withAzione Cattolica. He was also close withRomolo Murri. Sturzo's political activism and collaboration with his colleagues preventedGiovanni Giolitti assuming power once again in 1922; this allowed forLuigi Facta to assume the prime ministership.[1]
Sturzo was among the founders of theItalian People's Party (PPI) on 19 January 1919. The formation of the PPI, with the permission ofPope Benedict XV, represented a tacit and reluctant reversal of the Vatican'sNon Expedit of non-participation in Italian politics, which was abolished before the1919 Italian general election in which the PPI won 20.6% of the vote and 100 seats in the legislature. The PPI was a colossal political force in the nation; between 1919 and 1922, no government could be formed and maintained without the support of the PPI. A coalition between theItalian Socialist Party (PSI) and the PPI was deemed unacceptable within the Vatican, despite the fact Giolitti had proposed it as prime minister in 1914, and something his progressive and powerless successors—Ivanoe Bonomi (1921–1922) andLuigi Facta (1922)—reimaged as the single possible coalition that excluded theItalian fascists.
Sturzo was a committedanti-fascist who discussed the ways in which Catholicism andfascism were incompatible in such works asCoscienza cristiana and criticized what he perceived to beclerical fascist elements within the Vatican. Sturzo also wrote about the thought ofSaint Augustine of Hippo andGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, as well asGiambattista Vico andMaurice Blondel. He did this in order to elaborate on what he called the "dialectic of the concrete" and opposed this dialectic as a veer towardsabsolute idealism and scholastic realism.[5]
The leadership of Sturzo was increasingly challenged within the party in 1923. The Party Congress in Turin of April 1923 reaffirmed the constitutional, centrist character of the party, taking an anti-fascist position that was supported amongst the party's rank-and-file. Turin Congress and its conclusions were met with hostility from Mussolini, who expelled PPI ministers from his government. According to Richard A. Webster, "The Blackshirt campaign of lawlessness and violence against Catholic organizations was redoubled, and Don Sturzo became the target of a vulgar Fascist press campaign of vilification." Once Mussolini started threatening reprisals against the whole clergy for the political opposition of Sturzo's party, Sturzo resigned as the party leader on 10 July 1923, following a consultation with the Holy See.[8]
The stance of Pope Pius XI was ambiguous - according to Richard A. Webster, "there is no evidence that the Pontiff yielded so openly to Fascist coercion." Sturzo himself leaned towards resignation, aware that his position in the party was vulnerable - as a priest, he was forbidden from sitting in the parliament, and his political power was limited because of his priesthood. It was, therefore, arranged that a secular Catholic,Alcide De Gasperi, take over the leadership of the party. Sturzo remained active in the party until 1924 when Cardinal Gasparri himself arranged for his emigration to London after fascist pressures and physical threats against Sturzo escalated further.[9]
Sturzo was exiled from 1924 to 1946 first in London (1924–1940) and then in the United States (1940–1946). Sturzo left Rome for London on 25 October 1924. Sturzo was consigned to a three-month educational trip in London; the choice of London was perhaps intended to isolate Sturzo because he did not speak the language and it did not contain a large population of like-minded Catholics. He moved to the residence of the Oblates of Saint Charles inBayswater and then in January 1925 to theServites at their priory of Saint Mary inFulham Road where he was asked to leave in 1926 because the Servites'motherhouse in Rome was being denied funds as long as Sturzo was their guest.
In 1926, Sturzo refused an offer from the Vatican that was communicated through CardinalFrancis Bourne to serve as a chaplain in aconvent inChiswick and lodging for his twin sister Nelina in exchange for ending his journalistic activism and issuing a "spontaneous declaration" that he was retired from politics in full. In November 1926, he moved into a flat at 213bGloucester Terrace in Bayswater with his sister where the pair lived as lodgers until 1933. After the signing of theLateran Treaty in 1929, he was offered an appointment as aCanon ofSaint Peter's Basilica in Rome again in exchange for his permanent renunciation of politics.
On 22 September 1940, Sturzo boarded theSamaria inLiverpool bound forNew York hoping for an academic appointment and arrived there on 3 October 1940. He was instead sent to Saint Vincent's Hospital inJacksonville, Florida, which was filled with priests who were ill and about to die.[3] Beginning in 1941, he cooperated with agents from the British Security Co-Ordination, as well as theOffice of Strategic Services and theOffice of War Information, providing them with his assessments of the political forces with theItalian resistance movement and radio broadcasts to the Italian peninsula. Sturzo returned toBrooklyn in April 1944 but his return to his homeland received a Vatican andAlcide De Gasperi veto in October 1945 and May 1946.
Sturzo set off to return to his homeland on theVulcania on 27 August 1946 (after the1946 Italian institutional referendum had abolished the need for a monarch) but did not have a dominant role in Italian politics after his arrival on 6 September 1946 inNaples. He instead retired to the outskirts of Rome after landing in Naples. In 1951, he founded theLuigi Sturzo Institute, which was designed to endorse research in historical science, as well as in economics and politics. He was made a member of theSenate of the Republic on 17 December 1952 andsenator for life in 1953 at the behest of the then Italian presidentLuigi Einaudi and he obtained a dispensation fromPope Pius XII in order to accept the title.[4][3][1]
On 23 July 1959, Sturzo celebratedMass. When he came to the consecration of theEucharist, he looked down and slumped. He was carried to his bed still in his vestments and his health took a sharp decline until his death. Sturzo died in Rome in the afternoon of 8 August 1959 at the general house of theCanossians; his remains were interred in the church ofSan Lorenzo al Verano but were transferred in 1962 to the church of Santissimo Salvatore in Caltagirone.[1]
The beatification process for Sturzo opened underPope John Paul II on 23 March 2002 after theCongregation for the Causes of Saints issued the officialnihil obstat decree and titled the priest as aServant of God. CardinalCamillo Ruini inaugurated the diocesan process of investigation on 3 May 2002; the postulator for this cause is the lawyer Carlo Fusco The diocesan process concluded on 24 November 2017 in theLateran Palace.[10]
Sturzo was the author of several works in relation to philosophical and political thought. This included:
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