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Christian Democracy and Social Modernism in Italy during the Papacy of Pius X

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Sandor Agócs
Sandor Agócs
Affiliation:
Assistant professor of history in Wayne State University
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Extract

Historians of Italian Christian Democracy have traditionally paid rather scant attention to the period 1903–1914, the years of the papacy of Pius X. Their lack of interest in this era cannot fully be explained by the scarcity of available official documents. The archives of the Vatican also keep under lock and key the documents pertaining to Leo XIII, the predecessor of Pius X. Yet volume after recently published volume has dealt with the Leonine period of Italian history. Interest in the papacy of Leo XIII is understandable in view of the fact that intellectual ferment in that era produced many of the sustaining ideas of Italian Christian Democracy. The Leonine period also saw in action for the first time some of the future leaders of Italian Christian Democracy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 1973 , pp. 73 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1973

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References

1. Aquinas, , De Regimine (Turin, 1928), 1Google Scholar, passim: Pius, X, encyclical Il Fermo Proposito, in Giordani, Igino, ed., Le encicliche sociali dei papi (Rome, 1956), 250–51Google Scholar; Malagola, Achille, Le teorie politiche di San Tommaso d' Aquino (Bologna, 1912), 89 and passim.Google Scholar

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3. Recent works on the history of Italian Christian Democracy include De Rosa, Gabriele, Storia del movimento cattolico in Italia dalla Restaurazione all'età giolittiana (Bari, 1966), 331–88, 419–62Google Scholar; Suardo, Dino Secco, Da Leone City XIII a Pio X (Rome, 1967), passim.Google Scholar; see also Toniolo, Giuseppe, Lettere (Vatican City, 1953), 3: 42 ff.Google Scholar

4. Il Fermo Proposito, in Giordani, , ed., Le encicliche sociali dei papi, 241–56.Google Scholar

5. Bedeschi, Lorenzo, I pioneri della D.C. (Milan, 1966), 579Google Scholar, seems to be contradicting De Rosa, Gabriele, Filippo Meda e l'età liberale (Florence, 1959), 70 ffGoogle Scholar., about Sturzo's refusal to join the Unione Popolare.

6. Sturzo, as quoted in De Rosa, , Filippo Meda, 50Google Scholar. The Christian Democrats' reverence for the pope prevented them from turning their anger directly upon him. While Sturzo blamed the pope's lack of information, Grosoli pointed to the bad advice from his chief adviser and Secretary of State, Cardinal Merry del Val. According to Grosoli, the cardinal, being a foreigner, “was not familiar with the social situation in Italy”. (Quoted in Aubert, Roger, “Documents relatifs an mouvement catholique italien sous le pontificat de S. Pie X,” Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia, 12 (1958), 225–26.)Google Scholar

7. Secco Suardo, in his Da Leone XIII, using new archival evidence untapped by other historians, shows that Pius X, who studied the situation very carefully, was not unaware of the conditions of Italian Catholic Action, as Sturzo suggested.

8. For one variety of the political activism of the Christian Democrats see Meda, , “I cattolici italiani nella vita pubblica,” a speech delivered in December 1904 and reprinted in Civitas, new ser. 10 (1959), 11–18Google Scholar; and Il programma politica della Democrazia Cristiana (Bergamo, 1906)Google Scholar. For the official Roman Catholic criticism of Meda's arguments see L'Osservatore Romano, 46; Nov. 22, 1906, Nov. 28, 1906; Dec. 11, 1908; 49: Feb. 19, 1909.

9. Murri was especially emphatic in pointing to the need for an Italian Catholic political program and party in view of the “collapse” of the Non Expedit, and his Lega Democratica Nazionale was an attempt to fill this need. See, for instance, his arguments dated 1905, in Giovannini, Claudio, Politica e religione nel pensiero della Lega Democratica Nazionale (1905–1915) (Rome, 1968), 54 ff.Google Scholar

10. For a description of the conflict between Neo-Thomistic Catholic social ideals and the realities of Italian society see my forthcoming “The Road of Charity Leads to the Picket Lines: The Neo-Thomistic Revival and the Italian Catholic Labor Movement.”

11. For Leo's concept of Christian Democracy see his encyclical Graves de Communi, Giordani, , ed., Le encicliche sociali dei papi, 223–34Google Scholar. The position of Pius X is in his motu proprio “Fin dalla prima,” Civiltà Cattolica, 55 (1904), 1: 3–8.Google Scholar

12. Murri's position is outlined in his “Preface” to Cantono, Alessandro, Le Universitd popolari e la democrazia (Rome, 1902)Google Scholar. Some of Murri's other writings were reprinted in Bedeschi, I pioneri della D.C. Of particular interest are two of his articles: “L'essenza della democrazia” (435–48) and “La democrazia cristiana Italiana” (460–82). For Murri's social outlook see Mancini, Arturo, “Il pensiero sociale di Romolo Murri,” Idea, 8 (1952), 652–54Google Scholar. As long as the papers of both Pius X and Murri remain unavailable, an exhaustive study of the conflict between Murri and the pope remains impossible. Yet recent studies have accumulated enough evidence to show clearly that the pope's opposition to democratic ideas was a factor in the issues involving Murri and the Lega Democratica Nazionale. For some of the most recent treatments of the subject see Scoppola, Pietro, “Il modernismo politico in Italia: La Lega Democratica Nazionale,” Rivista Storica Italiana, 69 (1957), 61–109Google Scholar; Scoppola, Pietro, Dal neoguelfismo alla Democrazia Cristiana (Rome, 1957)Google Scholar; Manzotti, Fernando, “I ‘plebei’ cattolici fra integralismo e modernismo sociale,” Convivium, 26 (1958), 423–45Google Scholar; Bedesehe, Lorenzo, I cattolici disubbidienti (Rome, 1959)Google Scholar; Cappelli, Giampiero, Romolo Murri: contributo per una biografia (Rome, 1965)Google Scholar; Bedesehi, Lorenzo, Il modernismo e Romolo Murri in Emilia e Romagna (Parima, 1967)Google Scholar; Zoppi, Sergio, Romolo Murri e la prima Democrazia Christiana (Florence, 1968)Google Scholar; Giovannini, Politica e religione.

13. See Sturzo, Luigi, “Per un partito nazionale dei cattolici in Italia,” Cultura Sociale, (a review edited by Murri) 9 (1906), 02. 1, 41–43Google Scholar. Sturzo confesses to be “an old and convinced democrat” and says that he considers it necessary to give a “democratic content” to the program of the Italian Catholic political party. In I pioneri della D.C. Bedeschi reprints a selection from the writings of Christian Democrats relevant to the problems discussed here. Aside from the essays of Murri and Sturzo, those of Gennaro Avolio, Domenico Conti, Pio Molajoni, Igino Petrone, Ignazio Terragrossa and Giovanni Battista Valente carry direct information.

14. In the diocesan archives of Faenza, Bedeschi found many letters written by parish priests who expressed their dislike of the aims and methods of the Unione Popolare and identified themselves with the goals of the Lega (Bedeschi, , Il modernismo, 7).Google Scholar

15. This seems to be the conclusion of Alessandrini, Federico, “Un Pontificato” Studium, 50 (1954), 373–80Google Scholar; and of Scoppola, , Dal neoguelfismo, 115.Google Scholar

16. Writings on Italian Christian Democracy under Pius X and the Lega reflect these conditions: they usually examine the histories of local organizations and are based on diocesan and private archives that, unlike the Vatican's, make documents from the era of Pius X available.

17. Notre Charge Apostolique, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 2 (1910), 2:607–33Google Scholar. See also L'Osservatore Romano, 50: Jan. 11, 1910, Aug. 31, 1910, Sept. 1, 1910; and Mitchell, Hary, Pie X et la France (Paris, 1954), 197 ffGoogle Scholar. At the meetings of the Lega the Sillon was often mentioned, most frequently to justify the program of the legisti. For example see Bedeschi, , I cattolici disubbidienti, 120 and 147Google Scholar; Guasco, Maurilio, Romolo Murri e il modernismo (Rome, 1968), 123Google Scholar; Giovannini, , Politica e religione, 126 and 148Google Scholar. Thus Notre Charge Apostolique reminds one of the Hungarian proverb: “I tell my daughter so that my daughter-in-law will understand”.

18. Pius, X, encyclical Notre Charge Apostolique, passim., particularly 613 and 618–19Google Scholar. As an example of the pope's earlier stand, see his motu proprio “Fin dalla prima” (Civiltà Cattolica, 55 (1904), 1: 3–8)Google Scholar which stated that God in his infinite wisdom had created society “composed of unequal elements, as the members of the human body are unequal. To make them equal would be impossible, and would amount to the destruction of society itself [ … ] It is the wish of God that there be princes and subjects, capitalists and proletarians, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, nobles and plebeians”.

19. For example see Breunig, Charles, “The Condemnation of the Sillon: An Episode in the History of Christian Democracy in France,” Church History, 26 (1957), 227–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Camp, Richard L., The Papal Ideology of Social Reform: A Study in Historical Development, 1878–1967 (Leyden, 1968)Google Scholar, passim. For a detailed history of the Sillon see Caron, Jeanme, Le Sillon et la Démocratie Chrétienne, 1894–1910 (Paris, 1967).Google Scholar

20. Sangnier, as quoted in Barbier, Emmanuel, Les erreurs du Sillon, Histoire documentaire (Poitiers, n.d.), 184.Google Scholar

21. Sangnier, Mare, L'ésprit démocratiquc (Paris, 1905), 110, 149, 154, 167, 173 ff.Google Scholar; Bedeschi, , I cattolici disubbidienti, 114, 126, 140 ff., 199 ff.Google Scholar; Giovannini, , Politica e religione, 126, 177, 181, 221 ff.Google Scholar

22. Sangnier, , L'ésprit démocratique, 156, 166–68Google Scholar; also Sangnier, as quoted in Barbier, , Les Erreurs du Sillon, 108 and 140Google Scholar. Although the legisti at first rejected suggestions of a commitment to Christian Socialism, a criticism of private property was almost inevitably voiced by some speakers at the meetings of the Lega. Eventually the 1908 congress of the Lega unanimously approved a proposal to do away with the system of capitalistic property. (Bedeschi, , I cattolici disubbidienti, 144, 160 ff.Google Scholar; Giovannini, , Politica e religione, 175 ff.)Google Scholar For an exposition of the Marxian position see Lenin, V. I., What Is To Be Donei, written in 1902, (New York, 1943)Google Scholar; and Lukács, Georg, Histoire et conscience de classe: essais de dialectique marxiste (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar. The similarities of Lukács' arguments to those of Sangnier are particularly striking.

23. Pius, X, Encyclical Notre Charge Apostolique, 614–15.Google Scholar

24. Aquinas, , Summa, II–II. q. 66Google Scholar; also Talamo, Salvatore, La questione sociale e i cattolioi (Rome, 1896), 38Google Scholar; Monetti, Giulio, Problemi varii di sociologia generale (Bergamo, 1913), 1.47Google Scholar. Talamo was one of the leading Thomists of the era and Monetti's work was read and found by Pius X to be “doctrinally sound and of indispensable utility”. Such an interpretation as theirs, which was unequivocally supported by Pius X, was to be questioned later by John A. Ryan, who argued that Aquinas did not declare private ownership “absolutely necessary”. According to Ryan, Aquinas' preference for private property was in fact valid only in “certain social conditions” (Ryan, John A., “The Economic Philosophy of St. Thomas,” in Brennan, Robert E., ed., Essays in Thomism (New York, 1942), 239–60).Google Scholar

25. Sarto, , Prima lettera pastorale (Treviso, 1885), 11–13Google Scholar; Albani, Medolago, Le classi dirigenti nella società (Bergamo, 1883), 8Google Scholar; Pico, Boggiano, L'importanza degli studi economici nella cultura e nell'azione del clero (Rome, 1901), 16Google Scholar; Murri is quoted in Cappelli, , Romolo Murri, 6.Google Scholar

26. Pius, X, encyclical Notre Charge Apostolique, passim., particularly 608 and 629 ff.Google Scholar; also Camp, , The Papal Ideology of Social Reform, 34 ff.Google Scholar

27. Barbier, , Les Erreurs du Sillon, 47.Google Scholar

28. Pius, X, encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (Rome, 1928), passim., particularly 143 and 163ff.Google Scholar; Prezzolini, Giuseppe, Cos'è il modersismo? (Milan, 1908), passim., particularly 7 ff. and 19Google Scholar; Giordani, Igino, Pio X, un prete di campagna (Turin, 1951), 191.Google Scholar

29. Loisy is quoted in Dal-Gal, Girolamo, Il Papa santo: Pio X, vita ufficiale della Postulazione per la causa di canonisazione (Padua, 1954), 173Google Scholar; Tyrrell's arguments are presented in Vercesi, Ernesto, Il pontificato di Pio X (Milan, 1935), 123Google Scholar; for Schell's views see Labanca, Baldasare, I cattolici moáernisti e i cattolici tradizionalisti; il nuovo sillabo e l'ultima enciclica di Pio X (Rome, 1907), 13Google Scholar; Murri's views are discussed in Cappelli, , Romolo Murri, passim., particularly 107–08Google Scholar; Guasco, , Romolo Murri, 27 ff., 198 ff., 301Google Scholar; Giovannini, , Politica e religione, 45 ff.Google Scholar

30. Rivière, Jean, Le modernisme dans l'Eglise. Etude d'histoire religieuse contemporain (Paris, 1929)Google Scholar, passim., particularly 88–99, 214–19, 274–87, 402–15 and 464–83. Also Perrini, Matteo, “La crisi modernista e il rinnovamento, cattolico in Italia,” Humanitas, new ser, 17 (1962), 806–12Google Scholar; Salomone, A. William, “Modernism,” in Dunner, Joseph, ed., Handbook of World History (New York, 1967), 576 ff.Google Scholar; Poulat, Emile, Histoire, dogme et critique dans la crise moderniste (Paris, 1962)Google Scholar, passim. Emile Poulat's recent volume, Integrisme et Catholicisme integral (Paris, 1969)Google Scholar, sheds new light on a somewhat mysterious episode in the history of the papacy under Pius X and discusses the secret anti-modernist organization, the Sodalitium Pianum, led by Mgr. Umberto Benigni. The documentary evidence provided by Poulat counters arguments that the saintly but somewhat naive Pius X, who remained at heart a village priest, was led and often misled by devious curial prelates like Benigni and Merry del Val. In connection with the Sodalitium, as in the case of the decisions concerning Christian Democracy, the pope appears to have been quite well informed. The policy of the church during the papacy of Pius X evidently did reflect the conseious decision of the pope.

31. Acts Apostolicae Sedis, 6 (1914), 336–41 and 383–86Google Scholar. The Acta prints several other papal documents that stress the importance of Thomistic philosophy: motu proprio “Sacrum Antiatitum,” 2 (1910), 665–80Google Scholar; papal letters to the Archbishop of Los Angeles, 2( 1910), 176; to Mgr. Dubois, 4 (1912), 45; to Joseph Gredt, 4 (1912), 564–65; to P. E. Hugon, 5 (1913) 487; and motu proprio “Preclara-Inter,” 6 (1914), 333–35Google Scholar

32. Sangnier took a similar position; so did some of the publications of the Lega (Cappelli, , Romolo Murri, 105Google Scholar; Bedesehi, , I cattolici disubbidienti, 91, 120, 147Google Scholar; Giovannini, , Polica e religione, 39 ff., 60 ff., 164 ff.Google Scholar; Guasco, , Romolo Murri, 79ff., 181–82).Google Scholar

33. Notre Charge Apostolique, passim., particularly 609 and 621; also Camp, , The Papal Ideology of Social Reform, 119 ff.Google Scholar

34. Labanca, , I cattolici modernisti, 7 ffGoogle Scholar; Pius X is quoted in Dal-Gal, , Il Papa santo, 233–34Google Scholar; see also Giovannini, , Politica e religlone, passim., particularly 70 ff., 100–102, 119 ff., 126 ff. and 171Google Scholar; Guasco, , Romolo Murri, 38, 89–90, 122 ff.Google Scholar; Bedeschi, , I cattolici disubbidienti, 117, 181 ff.Google Scholar

35. Bedeschi, , I cattolict disubbidienti, passisn., particularly 116, 125, 137 ff.Google Scholar; Giovannini, , Politica e religione, 122 ff., 171 ff.Google Scholar; Guaaco, , Romolo Murri, 368 ff.Google Scholar

36. Jemolo, , Chiesa e Stato in Italia negli ultimi cento anni (Turin, 1955), 515Google Scholar; Scoppola, , Dal neo-guelfismo, 90–91Google Scholar. For the official church position see Pius, X, encyclicals Pascendi, Pieni l'animo in Civiltd Cattolica, 57 (1906), 3: 392Google Scholar; Rivière, , Le modernisme, 256 ff.Google Scholar; Barbier, Les erreurs du Sillon, passim.; Fontaine, Julien, Le modernisme sociologique: décadence ou régeneration? (Paris, 1909)Google Scholar, passim. Fontaine's volume, like Barbier's, also an apology for the pope, was read and highly approved of by Pius X.

37. Pius, X, eneyclicals Pascendi, 85Google Scholar, and Notre Charge Apostolique, 611, 613, 615–17,621–22: Breunig, , “The Condemnation of the Sillon,” 228ff.Google Scholar

38. Pius, X, encyclical Notre Charge Apostolique, 623.Google Scholar

39. See Pius X, motu proprio “Fin della prima, passim; encyclical; Notre Charge Apostolique, passim.; Fontaine, , Le modernisme sociologique, 64, 244 ff., 455 ff.Google Scholar; Monetti, Problemi varii, 2:68 ff., 97 ff.Google Scholar

40. For an example of Thomistic arguments in favor of democracy see Trevik, Wilbur F., The Political Theory of the Papacy as Expressed in the Encyclicals of the Last Hundred Years: The Papacy and Democracy (Rome, 1955)Google Scholar, passim. Will the real Thomas Aquinas please stand up?

41. Barbier, , Les erreurs du Sillon. 89.Google Scholar

42. Semcria, Giovanni, I miei quattro papi (Milan, 1930), 197Google Scholar. For the first time I understood the measure of change in the social and political doctrines of the church when during the summer of 1968 I heard on Saint Peter's Square Pope Paul VI laud the “beautiful ideas of democracy and equality”. But the Roman Catholic world did not have to wait until 1968 for the acceptance of the concept of democracy. In December 1944 Pope Pius XII expressed warm praise for democratic ideals while in a radio message he attempted to “trace the road toward a better, more secure and more dignified future for mankind” (Giordani, ed., Le encicliche sociali dei papi. 800–15).Google Scholar

43. Sangnier, . L'ésprit démocratiaue, 144–45Google Scholar. Pins X is quoted in Mitchell, Pie X et la France, 199, as saying: “La Démocratie sera Chrétienne on ne sera pas”.

44. Northern European Catholics were probably more successful than the Italians in shaking off the burdens of the intellectual traditions of De Maistre and other reactionary early Thomists, who used Thomism as a refuge from the world created by the Revolution of 1789. Negativism and sterile opposition to the realities of modern life were abandoned especially quickly by Belgian and German Thomists, who were much more creative than their Italian colleagues in their use of Thomistic principles. They were much less likely to fit modern society into a straight jacket of dogmatic Thomistic “theses”. Probably their distance from the conservativism prevailing in the Roman Curia had to do with the relative success of northern European Catholics, like Bishop Emmanuel Ketteler, in developing Thomism into a tool of realistic social analysis.

45. Reports on the various Roman Catholic “protests” frequently covered a good part of the first page of L'Osservatore Romano during the papacy of Pius X. Even if they did not involve a challenge to papal authority, but ranged over the difficulties experienced by the church in various countries, such as the “persecution” of French Catholics, or some anticlerical legislative proposals in the Italian Parliament, the reports on the “protests” inevitably tailed off into expressions like the “unlimited subjection” of Catholics to the “supreme doctrinal and practical directives of the Holy See”. Roman Catholic meetings would rarely end without a telegram being sent to Pius X, the “August Father” and “Supreme Leader authorized by God”, reassuring him of his followers' “unconditional obedience”, “filial attachment” and “affection”. And the recurring theme of the papal responses to these messages was the “consolation” felt by Pius X. These expressions, typical in reports on Catholic Action, were found in the following sources: L'Osservatore Romano, 45; Aug. 8, 1905, Oct. 10, 1905; 49; Apr. 29, 1909; 50: Sept. 25, 1910, Dec. 11, 1910; 52: Sept. 5, 1912; Azione Sociale, 1: March 1907, 206; 2: Aug. 1908, 480; 8: July 1914, 130. In considering this flow of rhetoric one cannot ignore the special Italian traditions of absolute loyalty and unquestioned obedience demanded by the church. The Vatican's need for loyalty was aggravated by the events of Italian unification, when millions of people in nominally all-Catholic Italy simply ignored the anathema hurled by the church against the new Italian state.