Prayer for the BIOGRAPHY - GIUSEPPE TONIOLO of blessèd Giuseppe Toniolo ( 7th March 1845 – 7th October 1918)

Lord Jesus, He graduated in law at in 1867, where he we thank you for having given us stayed on at the same University, as an assistant blessèd Giuseppe Toniolo, lecturer until 1872. He then moved to and exemplary husband and father, and finally to Pisa, where he lectured in learned youth educator political Economy until his death. as a university professor. In 1878 he married Maria Schiratti and had seven He dedicated his life children. His family was a true example of ten- entirely to your Kingdom, derness and prayer where the Word of God had a by giving testimony to your Gospel central place. as the source of salvation He started taking an active interest in the Opera for culture and society. dei Congressi. In the cultural climate which pre- May his example vailed, he committed himself to ensure that inspire us to love you Catholics made their presence felt in civil society as he loved you. through a net-work of associations of an eco- May his intercession nomic and social nature. sustain and help us On 29 June 1867, the Società della Gioventù Cat- in all our needs. tolica Italiana (Society of Italian Catholic Youth) Grant that the Church, which was the first nucleus of the Italian Catholic which he loved and served, Action, was set up. After a short break, due to the may be able to honour him as a beside you, conquest of in 1870, in September 1875, on your altars, during the Second General Congress of Italian as a witness of lay sanctity Catholics, it was decided that the Opera dei Con- for the greater glory of the Blessèd Trinity. gressi and the Comitati Cattolici should be pro- Amen moted as an established organization. The first president was Giovanni Acquaderni, founder, movements. In 1906, he was nominated president with Count Mario Fani of the Società della of the Unione Popolare (Popular Union) whose Gioventù Cattolica. aim was the general coordination of activities in Following on these same lines, on the 29th De- Catholic spheres. On his initiative, in 1907, Social cember, the Catholic Union for Social Studies Study Weeks started being organized. He served was set up in Padua. The president and founder the Church with great loyalty and was greatly es- of this Union was precisely Giuseppe Toniolo, teemed by the of his time. who, in 1893, started publishing the “Rivista in- Preoccupied by the war which was in progress, ternazionale di scienze sociali e discipline ausil- he wrote an International Law of Peace Statute iare” (International journal of social sciences and which he gave to the . auxiliary disciplines“. He died on the day dedicated to Our Lady of the Toniolo developed a sociological theory, which Rosary, whom he used to invoke every day. His affirmed that ethics and the Christian spirit should remains were laid to rest in the Church of S. prevail on economic laws. In his numerous writ- Maria Assunta in Pieve di Soligo. ings, he proposed a range of innovations: the Sun- In Pisa, his house is still intact and it bears the day rest, limitation of working hours, the defense marks of his holy and hard-working life. He of small property, the protection of working lived mostly in and Tuscany, but, as in women and children. very few cases, one could say that he belonged He supported the idea that Catholics should be to all Catholic Italy. He was declared Venerable more active in the social field and in 1894, he be- on the 14th June 1971. On the 4th January 2011, came one of the promoters of the Christian demo- His Holiness Benedict XVI authorized the cratic movement. In the educational field, he promulgation of the decree of the miracle at- worked to reconcile faith and science. In 1908, he tributed to the intercession of published the “Trattato di economia sociale” . He was beatified by Cardinal (Treaty on social economy). After the suspension De Giorgi on the 29th April, 2012 in Rome in of the Opera dei Congressi, Toniolo was entrusted the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the with the drawing up of the new statutes of Catholic Walls.