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Don Luigi Sturzo—Christian Democrat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Malcolm Moos
Malcolm Moos
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University
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Extract

The future government of Italy portends a challenge of enormous magnitude for the Catholic Church. Subject as it has been to periodic attacks for reactionism, the Church has been hard pressed to throw off the stigma of its association with Franco in Spain and its willingness to deal with Mussolini's Fascist régime. In the light of these accusations, coupled with rather widespread doubt whether church orthodoxy is compatible with political democracy, it seems altogether appropriate to examine the political theories of one of the leading exponents of liberal Catholicism—Don Luigi Sturzo.

A little over twenty years ago, foreign correspondents, eagerly seeking a label for the “mystery man of Italian politics,” referred to him as a clerical socialist. If the term “clerical socialism” is synonymous with Christian socialism, such a characterization might be a proper one for this Sicilian priest. Certainly Sturzo was a champion of the Christian socialist movement which urged the correction of economic injustices but decried the materialism of the Marxists. He approved of the Guild of St. Mathew's sympathy for the unionism and socialism of the nineties and the Roman Catholic Social Guild. The latter found its incentive in the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum and the “scholastic traditions in restraint of usury and economic injustice.” Both of these organizations were associated with Christian socialism. But, although Christian socialism and clerical socialism have occasionally been placed in the same category, the latter is too ambiguous a term to permit a precise classification.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , April 1945 , pp. 269 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1945

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References

1 See “Clerical Socialist,” Living Age, Vol. 313, p. 374 (May 13, 1922).

2 Reckitt, Maurice B., “Christian Socialism,” in The Encyclopedia of Social Science, Vol. 3, p. 451.Google Scholar

3 The Non Expedit was issued as a protest against the occupation of Rome and interference with papal rights.

4 Sturze, Luigi, “My Political Vocation,” Commonweal, Vol. 34, p. 557 (Sept. 26, 1941).Google Scholar

5 The essence of the modernist movement in the Catholic Church has been defined as a “desire to reach a reconciliation of faith with ‘Science’ and Democracy.” Pareto, Vilfredo, The Mind and Society, Vol. 3, “Sentiment in Thinking [Theory of Deviations]” (New York, 1935), par. 1630.Google Scholar The modernists wished to divorce the Church from its association with oligarchies and aristocrats and merge it with democracy. See Rev. Fr.Tyrell, George, English translation in The Programme of Modernism (New York, 1908), pp. 127–129.Google Scholar

6 “Don Sturzo: The Mystery Man of Italian Politics,” Current Opinion, Vol. 72, p. 617 (May 1922).

7 Quoted in ibid., p. 616.

8 See Salvemini, Gaetano and Piana, George La, What to Do with Italy (New York, 1943), p. 171.Google Scholar

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10 The Socialist party, with 154 seats, formed the largest bloc.

11 Finer, Herman, Mussolini's Italy (New York, 1935), p. 135.Google Scholar

12 Salvemini and La Piana feel that the Popular party lost a unique opportunity because, outside of Sturzo, it had no capable leaders. What to Do with Italy, p. 172.

13 Sturzo, Luigi, “The Italian Popular Party,” Contemporary Review, Vol. 129, p. 732 (June, 1926).Google Scholar

14 Encyclopedia Italiana (Rome, 1937), Vol. 34, p. 500. See also Sturzo, Luigi, “The Church and Democracy and Salvemini-La Piana, America, Vol. 70, p. 118 (Nov. 6, 1943).Google Scholar For an account of Sturzo's willingness to collaborate with Turati, see Sforza, Carlo, Contemporary Italy (New York, 1944), p. 253.Google Scholar

15 Professor Salvemini defends Sturzo's assertion that bolshevism had been overcome two years before 1922 after the occupation of the factories. See Salvemini, Gaetano, The Fascist Dictatorship (London, 1928), p. 159.Google Scholar

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21 Salvemini, and La Piana, , What to Do with Italy, op. cit., pp. 170–171.Google Scholar

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25 Ibid.

26 Encyclical: Rerum Novarum (Rome, 1891)Google Scholar, English translation in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, edited by Wynne, J. J. (3rd ed., New York, 1903), pp. 208–248.Google Scholar The principles of Rerum Novarum have been ably summarized by Henry De Man as placing “emphasis upon individual human personality, but rejection of the economic liberalism of the capitalist régime, which … sacrifices the welfare of the workers to the profits of a few; belief in the necessity of social classes, but denial of the Marxian conclusion that their existence entails class struggle; insistence that labor unionism should be non-socialistic, and a declaration of the universal need for associations and for harmonizing divergent interests according to Christian ethics.” See “Christian Labor Unions,” in Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 3, p. 444.

27 Sturzo, “My Political Vocation,” loc. cit., p. 537.

28 Sturzo, Luigi, “Possession and Power,” Catholic World, Vol. 148, p. 290 (December, 1938).Google Scholar

29 Sturzo, “Corporationism; Christian, Social, and Fascist,” p. 397.

30 In 1918, the Confederazione italiana dei Lavoratori was organized under the leadership of Don Sturzo. “This Confederation formed the so-called ‘triple white alliance, with coöperatives and the mutual insurance societies, thus forming a centrist syndicalism…” Schneider, Herbert W., The Fascist Government of Italy (New York, 1939), p. 28.Google Scholar

31 Quoted in Austin, F. B., “Black Shirt and Black Cassock,” Fortnightly Review, Vol. 119, p. 212 (Feb., 1923).Google Scholar

32 Luigi Sturzo, “The Italian Popular Party,” p. 732.

33 The Popular party had a large following in the south, where the Christian labor unions were strong; Sturzo reports that the membership of the unions totaled 1,200,000. See Sturzo, “The Church and Democracy and Salvemini-La Piana,” p. 118.

34 See Quinn, Patrick F., “Agrarianism and the Jeffersonian Philosophy,” Review of Politics, Vol. 4, p. 87 (Jan., 1942).Google Scholar

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37 Finer, Herman, “The Case for Local Self-Government,” Public Administration Review, Vol. 3, p. 58 (Winter 1943).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38 “Don Sturzo: The Mystery Man of Italian Politics,” p. 616.

39 Quoted in ibid., p. 617.

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42 Sturzo, “The Church and Democracy and Salvemini-La Piana,” p. 119.

43 Salvemini and La Piana state that “Don Sturzo made an honest effort to maintain the autonomy of his party, but he was forced to yield at times to ecclesi astical pressure…” (What to Do with Italy, p. 173). The author of the present article disagrees with this conclusion and submits that, on the contrary, Sturzo personally did not succumb to ecclesiastical pressure, even when his actions in curred the displeasure of the Vatican, as long as he headed the Popular party.

44 Collins, Joseph, “Don Sturzo, the New Savonarola,” New York Times, May 7, 1922, p. 9.Google Scholar

45 Marshall, Charles C., “An Open Letter to Governor Smith,” Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 139, pp. 540–549, Apr., 1927.Google Scholar

46 “Catholic and Patriot: Governor Smith Replies,” Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 139, p. 728 (May, 1937).

47 See Stone, Irving, They Also Ban (New York, 1943), p. 300.Google Scholar “But the public was more interested in Smith's personal statement; the fact that his cabinet at Albany consisted of two Catholics, thirteen Protestants, and one Jew, that his closest associate was ‘a Protestant, a Republican and a 32-degree Mason,’ that never in his eighteen years of office had any member of his Church attempted to influence his administration, or asked him to show special favor to Catholics or to discriminate against non-Catholics.”

48 Sturzo, “The Church and Democracy and Salvemini-La Piana,” p. 117.

49 Sturzo, “The Roman Question,” loc. cit., p. 502.

50 Ibid., p. 498.

51 Ibid., p. 503.

52 See Salvemini, Gaetano, “Pius XII and Fascism,” New Republic, Vol. 109, pp. 305–309 (Mar., 8 1943).Google Scholar

53 Sturzo, “The Church and Democracy and Salvemini-La Piana,” p. 120.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid.

56 Italics mine.

57 Sturzo, “The Roman Question,” p. 503.

58 Ibid., p. 504.

59 Compare Sturzo's attitude with the similar conclusion recently expressed by Sherman S. Hayden in Foreign Policy Reports. “Since, however, the Church does not attempt to regulate conduct outside certain defined spheres, and since most individuals rarely find themselves in conflict with the Church in those fields which it does claim for its own, it would seem possible, as a practical matter, for an individual to be both Catholic and democratic.” “Foreign Policy of the Vatican,” Vol. 19, p. 279 (Jan. 15, 1944).

60 Sturzo, Luigi, “The Right of Resistance to the State,” Contemporary Review, Vol. 134, p. 318 (Sept., 1928).Google Scholar

61 Ibid., p. 320.

62 Thus he did not approve of the armed revolt in Ireland from 1916 to 1921, even though “our sympathies as Catholics and free men supported their claims.” Sturzo, Luigi, “The Eight to Rebel,” Dublin Review, Vol. 201, p. 37 (July, 1937).Google Scholar

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65 Ibid., p. 167.

66 Ibid., p. 171.

67 For a fair and dispassionate analysis, see Hayden, “Foreign Policy of the Vatican,” loc. cit., p. 282. “A somewhat uncritical sympathy with the old régime in Spain, and a very genuine sorrow for the sufferings of the faithful combined with detestation of Communism to blind the Pope to any mitigating factors…. He appears to have convinced himself completely that here was a clear case of conflict between the Church and its enemies.”

68 Sturzo, , Church and State, p. 554.Google Scholar “A certain criticism is not unfounded,” he writes, “but it is too general….”

69 Ibid., p. 506.

70 Ibid., p. 555.

71 Sturzo, Luigi, “Authority and Democracy,” Dublin Review, Vol. 209–210, p. 163 (Apr., 1942).Google Scholar

72 Sturzo, Luigi, “Politique et Théologie Morale,” in Les Guerre Modernes et la Pensée Catholique (Montreal, 1942), pp. 132, 157.Google Scholar Reprinted from the Nouvelle Revue Théologique (Paris, Sept.-Oct., 1938).

73 Ibid., p. 160. Italics mine.

74 Sturzo, Luigi, “The Modern Conscience and the Right of War,” Hibbert Journal, Vol. 25, p. 587 (July, 1927).Google Scholar

75 Sturzo, Luigi, “Italy after Mussolini,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 21, p. 424 (Apr., 1943).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

76 Ibid.

77 Sturzo's good judgment in “dissecting” Italian problems in an article appearing in Foreign Affairs (Apr., 1943) is given extensive treatment by Salvemini and La Piana. See What to Do with Italy, pp. 218–220.

78 Sturzo, “Italy after Mussolini,” p. 424.

79 “If the monarchy had been with them [those opposed to Mussolini], Fascism would have fallen before the Matteotti crime…” writes Sturzo. “If he [Victor Emmanuel] had dared, three fourths of the nation, at least, would have been on his side.” Sturzo, Luigi, “Italian Problems in War and Peace,” Review of Politics, Jan., 1943, p. 68.Google Scholar

80 Sturzo, Luigi, “The Future Regime of Italy,” New Europe, Vol. 3, p. 25 (Sept., 1943).Google Scholar

81 Sturzo, “Italy after Mussolini,” p. 421. Currently he is urging the left wing of the reconstituted Christian Democratic party to take a republican position. See New York Times, July 15, 1944.

82 Sturzo, “The Future Régime of Italy,” loc. cit., p. 25.

83 Sturzo, “The Roman Question,” p. 505.

84 Sturzo, Luigi, “The Coming League,” Commonweal, Vol. 37, p. 488 (Mar. 5, 1943).Google Scholar

85 Sturzo, , “Politique et Théologie Morale,” in Les guerre modernes et la pensée Catholique, p. 163.Google Scholar

86 Sturzo, “The Coming League,” loc. cit., p. 488.

87 Ibid., p. 489.

88 Ibid., p. 490.

89 Quoted in Adamic, Louis, “Death in Front of the Church,” Harper's Magazine, Vol. 187, p. 375 (Sept., 1943).Google Scholar

90 See Maritain, Jacques, “Christian Humanism,” Fortune, Vol. 25, p. 168 (Apr., 1942).Google Scholar

91 See Camberlin, William Henry, “Canada Swings to the Left,” Harper's Magazine, Vol. 187 (Dec., 1943).Google Scholar “The recent decision of the Canadian Catholic hierarchy that there is no moral objection to Catholic support of the C.C.F. [Coöperative Commonwealth Federation] is of obvious benefit where more than forty per cent of the people belong to this faith.” See also report of Daniel De Luce, Associated Press correspondent, on the Coöperation of Catholic priests and Partisans in Yugoslavia, , Baltimore Sun, Oct. 8, 1943, p. 1.Google Scholar

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