The Political Theory of Don Sturzo

Extract

To many Catholics the condemnation of the Action

Franfaise by the Holy See has brought a sharp awakening, firstly to the dangers of dependence on a movement of alien spirit, and secondly to the need for a political theory giving full and adequate expression to the Catholic ideal.

In view of this a study of the work of Don Luigi Sturzo is of especial interest, a work of which the informing principle, constant and invariable, has been the effort to permeate the political and social life of his country with the religious, moral and social elements of Christianity.

If as a theorist this distinguished Sicilian priest ranks among the foremost political thinkers of the day, it is impossible to dissociate his theory and his practice, for he has invariably translated his ideas into action.

His early education was classical and literary, with aesthetic tendencies, giving a large place to scholastic philosophy. Having completed his theological studies with the Jesuits of the Gregorian University of Rome he became professor of philosophy and political economy in the seminary of his native Caltagirone. Rerum Novarum was then four years old and the Christian Democratic movement in the ardour of its first youth. Under its influence his free hours were given to work among the peasants and workers whom he organised in co-operative, agricultural banking associations and trade unions, helping them in their fight against usury and exploitation.

These activities, the charitable institutions and municipal bodies of which he was administrator, his work for afforestation, his position as Mayor for fifteen years of a city of 50,000 inhabitants, as General Vice-President of the Association of Italian Municipalities, as Secretary General of Catholic Action, as founder of the National Foundation for War Orphans, of the National Emigration Association, and institutions of kindred nature, make him appear more the man of action than the student.