Don Luigi Sturzo 1872–1959

Extract

With the passing of Don Luigi Sturzo, in the depth of the Roman summer, a presence and a power passed from among us and with its passing brought to a close an era in the history of the Christian spirit.

In memorializing a life so filled with achievement, it is a temptation to fix attention upon action and event. This would be a mistake. It is far more important to fix the image of the person, for it is from the person, as originative center, that the achievement flows. The sentiment which, before all others, the presence of Don Sturzo awakened was awe. Not the awe of invested power of rank and status, of resource and influence, though these he attained in a measure and in a measure spurned. Rather, it was awe of the living and almost limitless spiritual élan which the human person can enclose and a frail body incorporate. This spiritual power was in him a compressed flame, and an unsheathed sword. Inevitably, with time and continued acquaintance, this first sentiment was succeeded by another, which can only be called love. Again, however, not the love of man toward man, strong and ennobling as that might be, but the love which only the charity of Christ, having taken residence in a man, can inspire. For Don Sturzo lived by the charity of Christ alone. It was in him the oil which fed the flame and the hand which unsheathed the sword.