The Troubled Origins of the Italian Catholic Labor Movement, 1878-1914

The Troubled Origins of the Italian Catholic Labor Movement, 1878–1914 The Troubled Origins.indd 1 07/03/17 2:48 am The Troubled Origins.indd 2 07/03/17 2:48 am The Troubled Origins of the Italian Catholic Labor Movement, 1878–1914 Sándor Agócs Wayne State University Press Detroit 1988 The Troubled Origins.indd 3 07/03/17 2:48 am Copyright © 1988 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48202. All material in this work, except as identified below, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/. All material not licensed under a Creative Commons license is all rights reserved. Permission must be obtained from the copyright owner to use this material. The publication of this volume in a freely accessible digital format has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation through their Humanities Open Book Program. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Agócs, Sándor, 1932- The troubled origins of the Italian Catholic labor movement, 1878–1914 / Sándor Agócs. p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 978–0–8143–4330–2 (alk. paper); 978–0–8143–4331–9 (ebook) I. Trade-unions, Catholic—Italy—History. 2. Church and social problems—Italy—Catholic Church—History. 3. Church and labor— Italy—History. 4. Catholic Church—Doctrines—History. I. Title. HD6481.2.18A38 1988 33 1.88’0945-dc19 87–31961 CIP Exhaustive efforts were made to obtain permission for use material in this text. Any missed permissions resulted from a lack of information about the material, copright holder, or both. if you are a copyright holder of such material, please contact WSUP at [email protected]. http://wsupress.wayne.edu/ Contents Acknowledgments 8 Introduction 10 Chapter 1 Philosophy by Decree: Leo XIII and the Thomistic Revival 17 Chapter 2 The Right to Property Sanctioned by Natural Law The Defense of Private Property 22 The Social Functions of Property 25 The Tutelage Extended to Working People by the Upper Classes 29 Chapter 3 Inequality of Rights and Power Proceeds from the Very Author of Nature The Hierarchical Ordering of Society 34 The Rejection of the Principle of Equality 39 The Permanence of Classes on the Social Landscape and the Paradoxical Objection to Conflict among Classes 45 Chapter 4 Fraternity and Angelic Charity Catholic Corporative Doctrine 50 Italian Catholic Congresses and the Mixed Union 55 Foreign Models and the Italians’ Choice 57 The State as Moderator of the Affairs of Society 62 5 The Troubled Origins.indd 5 07/03/17 2:48 am 6 Contents Chapter 5 The Spirit of Revolutionary Change The Encyclical Rerum Novarum and the Appearance of the Concept of the Simple Union 68 The Fasci Movement in Sicily and the Social Activism of the Clergy 76 Class Conflict as a Fact of Life 81 The 1901 Wave of Strikes and the Reaction of Leo XIII 84 Toniolo and the Ascendancy of the Simple Union 88 Chapter 6 To Restore All Things in Christ The Reorganization of Catholic Action under Pius X and the Suppression of Democratic Tendencies 95 The Ban on the Social Activism of the Clergy 99 Doctrinal Adjustments 110 Neutrality in Labor Conflict 113 The Alliance between Wealth and the Altar 119 Chapter 7 Aversion to the Higher Classes Is Contrary to the True Spirit of Christian Charity Catholics Confront Socialism 126 Catholic Labor in the Industrial Sector 131 Rural to Urban Migration 134 Pastoral Work among the Migrants 135 The Aversion to the Industrial Working Class 138 Chapter 8 He Who Is a Saint Cannot Disagree with the Pope The Vatican Attempts to Reintroduce the Mixed Union 141 The Activists’ Refusal 147 Chapter 9 Religion, the Best Custodian of Justice The Landless Peasants and the Catholic Labor Movement 153 The Activists Press for Land Reform 160 Nonunion Economic Institutions 163 The Troubled Origins.indd 6 07/03/17 2:48 am Contents 7 Chapter 10 The Pope Will Remain Silent The Religious Nature of Catholic Organizations and the Issues of Lay Autonomy 165 The Reinforcement of Clerical Control over Catholic Action 173 The Encyclical Singulari quadam and the Last Battle of the Papacy of Pius X 175 Conclusions 186 Notes 200 References 233 Index 246 The Troubled Origins.indd 7 07/03/17 2:48 am Acknowledgments For building up the source base of this study, I am indebted to several Italian research libraries. They complied with my requests for years, and located, copied, and sent information in what must have seemed to them an unending stream. My heartfelt thanks go to the directors and staffs of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Biblioteca Nazi- onale in Rome and Florence, the Biblioteca Universitaria Alessan- drina and the Biblioteca di Storia Moderna in Rome, and the Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence, as well as the Interlibrary Loan Department of Wayne State University Libraries in Detroit. I would also like to thank my good friend Professor Melvin Small, who read and critiqued a draft of this essay, and to express an old indebtedness to A. William Salomone, who years ago did his best to turn me into a good historian, directing my first research efforts with unfailing patience, pointed suggestions, and always valid criticisms. I hope that, after he reads this study, Professor Salo- mone will still allow me to call him maestro, my teacher, as was my habit when as a graduate student I conversed with him in Italian. I also wish to acknowledge the help I received from my wife in both conceptualizing and styling this study. This was so substantial that I am tempted to suggest she is responsible for some of the errors and omissions that I am sure remain in this volume. But I assume responsibility for all of them, knowing that those who are familiar with the scholarship of Professor Carol Agócs would not believe me otherwise. My two children, Kati and Peter, also deserve an acknowl- edgment for their patience in putting up with the preoccupations and work involved in producing this volume that severely limited my availability to them for quite a long time. 8 The Troubled Origins.indd 8 07/03/17 2:48 am Acknowledgments 9 My thanks are also due to Ms. Joanne Lemon, who typed the manuscript. Because of her uncanny ability to decipher my utterly illegible handwriting, she saved me barrels of time. Ms. Yvonne Reineke and Ms. Judy Wedeles read parts of the manuscript and suggested stylistic improvements. Surrounded by such a talented and workaholic matriarchate, it was all so easy! The Troubled Origins.indd 9 07/03/17 2:48 am Introduction In a series of articles published during the 1970s,1 I pointed to the Neo-Thomistic intellectual current as the source of some of the most important ideas and paradigms of Italian Catholic social philosophy at the turn of the nineteenth century. In applying this thesis to the history of the Italian Catholic labor movement during its formative years, I have expanded the methodological scope of my previous works. Whereas those were essentially exercises in the history of ideas, in this study I have attempted to produce a hybrid of intellectual and social history by anchoring ideas in reality, by relating social ideas to social institutions, notably, the particular organizational forms and activities of the Catholic labor movement. Monographic studies that have dealt, often marginally, with the early history of the Italian Catholic labor movement are now obso- lete, having been published during the 1960s. Thus a book-length treatment integrating the research evidence that has emerged during the last two decades is overdue. A synthesis, which this volume represents, is also timely because it will help orient research on this subject as the relevant materials in the Vatican Archives are about to become available. The evidence that forms the basis of this study comes mostly from those who occupied positions of leadership: the Vatican hier- archy, the episcopate, and the laymen who headed the central organizations of Italian Catholic Action. Intellectual history presenting the motivations and intentions of leaders is an indispensable part of historiography, for it is the first step toward the discovery of ever-pres- ent tensions between ideas and reality, between the custodians of ideals motivating social movements and the activists charged with 10 The Troubled Origins.indd 10 07/03/17 2:48 am Introduction 11 putting these ideals into practice. A study of the intentions and directives of leaders is especially relevant in connection with religious hierarchies such as the leadership of the Catholic church, for in such institutions directives from above have an unusual salience. In such cases the tensions between leaders and followers also become especially dramatic because of the particular form of legitimacy with which the leadership is endowed, an authority derived from God. I approach history from a perspective that places social ideas and action, rather than political developments, at the center of the stage. Italian historiography, until recently, had a one-sided political orientation and tended to focus on political ideas, trends, and events as central in the historical process. Because of this political empha- sis, the tools, the basic concepts found in the works that cover my historical period, were of limited use, if not misleading, for the study of social ideas—especially if one’s aim was to examine these concepts as they related to social action. Italian historians describe Catholic political attitudes, for instance, as ranging between the extreme positions of “conservative” and “moderate.” Conservativism implies an uncompromising, rig- idly intransigent adherence to the Vatican’s position in connection with the Roman Question, a confrontation between the church and the Italian state that resulted from the incorporation of the Papal States into united Italy.

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