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The Pope, Labour, and the Tango: Work, Rest, and Play in the Thought and Action of Benedict XV (1914-22)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

John F. Pollard*
Affiliation:
Anglia Polytechnic University

Extract

Ever since Leo XIII promulgated his encyclical Rerum novarum, ‘On the Conditions of the Working Classes’, in 1891, successive popes have added to the corpus of Catholic teaching on social/ labour questions. Pius X, for example, published an encyclical specifically addressing the vexed question of ‘interconfessional’ Christian trade unions in Germany, and Pius XI published no fewer than three encyclicals on social questions in the space of twelve months – Quadragesimo anno of May 1931, Nova impendet of October 1931, and Cantate Christi compulsi of May 1932. Recent popes, John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II, have been equally prolific in their commentaries on the labour question.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2002

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References

1 For the texts of all these encyclicals see Carlen, C., IHM, ed., The Papal Encyclicals, 6 vols (Raleigh, NC, 1990), 34.Google Scholar

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3 As quoted ibid., pp. 6–7.

4 For the text, see Carlen, Papal Encyclicals, 3: 241–61.

5 For the early history of Italian Catholic economic and social organizations, see Misner, P., Social Catholicism in Europe: From the Onset of the Industrial Revolution to the First World War (London, 1991), ch. 13Google Scholar; Pollard, J. F., ‘Religion and the formation of the Italian working class’, in Halpern, R. and Morris, J., eds, American Exceptionalism: US Working Class Formation in an International Context (Basingstoke, 1997), pp. 16970.Google Scholar

6 As quoted ibid., p. 169.

7 Ibid., pp. 163, 169.

8 As quoted in Rumi, G., ‘Un epistolario inedito’, Civitas, 2 (1991), pp. 383 Google Scholar, letter of 8 July 1897.

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14 Ibid., p. 582 (Vedrara).

15 Ibid., p. 295 (Calderara di Reno).

16 Rome, Archivio della Famiglia della Chiesa [Della Chiesa Family Archive, hereafter AFDC], Lettere e scritti di S.E.R. Msgr Giacomo della Chiesa, letter to Cardinal Merry del Val, 24 May 1910.

17 See, for example, Bolletino diocesano di Bologna, 2/iv (Jan. 1912), p. 116, ‘Caso morale’; 4/ iv (Jan. 1914), p. 113, ‘Caso morale’.

18 AFDC, S.E.R. Msgr Giacomo Della Chiesa, Lettere e scritti varie: Lettera Pastorale, 1908, p. 12.

19 L. Bedeschi, Il modernismo e Romolo Murri in Emilia-Romagna (Parma, 1967), p. 158.

20 Misner, Social Catholicism, p. 286.

21 Vatican City, Affari Ecclesiastici Straordinari [Archives of the Council of the Public Affairs of the Church, hereafter Vatican, AAEESS], 953–4, Italia 1918–1921 file, 348, ‘Mons. Pottier sulla questions del movimento democratico ed il ruolo della Chiesa’.

22 Misner, Social Catholicism, pp. 259–60.

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33 Misner, Social Catholicism, pp. 286–7.

34 Carlen, Papal Encyclicals, 4: 146.

35 Ibid., pp. 144–5.

36 See AFDC, file on ‘Visite’, 34, ‘Discorso ai rappresentanti del Sindacat Catholique des ouvriers des Chemins de Fer Nederlandais’, May 1921, and La civiltà cattolica, 72 (1921), 4, p. 387.

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45 Ibid., p. 101.

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48 See Kelikian, A., ‘Convitti operai cattolici e forza lavoro femminile’, in Gigli Marchetti, A., ed., Donna Lombarda (Milan, 1992), pp. 1806.Google Scholar

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52 As quoted in La civiltà cattolica, 71 (1920), 3, pp. 290–1.

53 Il corriere della sera, 23 Jan. 1922, p. 2.

54 Bollettino diocesano di Bologna, 4/v (Feb. 1914), p. 116, ‘avvertimenti ai Sacerdoti per Carnevale’; AFDC, Documenti, dispense ecc. del Msgr Giacomo Della Chiesa durante sua permanenza nell’Arcivescovado di Bologna, ‘Fervorino per funzione di riparazione al Sacro cuore di Gesul’ (no date).

55 Traniello and Campanini, Dizionario storico, i/i: 304.

56 Pollard, ‘Religion and the formation of the Italian working class’, p. 167.

57 As quoted ibid., p. 165.

58 Traniello and Campanini, Dizionario storico, 1/i: 176–7.

59 Howard Bell, D., Sesto San Giovanni: Workers, Culture and Politics in an Italian Town 1880–1922 (New Brunswick, NJ, 1986), p. 60.Google Scholar

60 It is significant that Benedict’s reign witnessed the formation of the Catholic boy scout movement in Italy, affiliated to Catholic Action and the Italian Catholic Sports Association: see Traniello and Campanini, Dizionario storico, i/ii, pp. 373–4.

61 Pollard, Vatican and Italian Fascism, pp. 107–8.

62 Vatican, AAEESS, 953–4, Italia, 1918–1921, ‘Mons. Pottier sulla question del movimento democratico e la Chiesa’: letter from Pottier to Gasparri, 15 Feb. 1920.

63 Ibid.

64 Ibid.