Padre Agostino Gemelli and the Crusade to Rechristianize Italy, 1878–1959: Part One
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2010 Padre Agostino Gemelli and the crusade to rechristianize Italy, 1878–1959: Part one J. Casey Hammond Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the European History Commons, and the History of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Hammond, J. Casey, "Padre Agostino Gemelli and the crusade to rechristianize Italy, 1878–1959: Part one" (2010). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3684. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3684 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3684 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Padre Agostino Gemelli and the crusade to rechristianize Italy, 1878–1959: Part one Abstract Padre Agostino Gemelli (1878-1959) was an outstanding figure in Catholic culture and a shrewd operator on many levels in Italy, especially during the Fascist period. Yet he remains little examined or understood. Scholars tend to judge him solely in light of the Fascist regime and mark him as the archetypical clerical fascist. Gemelli founded the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan in 1921, the year before Mussolini came to power, in order to form a new leadership class for a future Catholic state. This religiously motivated political goal was intended to supersede the anticlerical Liberal state established by the unifiers of modern Italy in 1860. After Mussolini signed the Lateran Pacts with the Vatican in 1929, Catholicism became the officialeligion r of Italy and Gemelli’s university, under the patronage of Pope Pius XI (1922-1939), became a laboratory for Catholic social policies by means of which the church might bring the Fascist state in line with canon law and papal teachings. Despite Gemelli’s accommodations to the state, he maintained relative autonomy for his university. This allowed the leftwing of postwar Christian Democracy to form at the Università Cattolica during Mussolini’s peak years. Thus, the story of Gemelli is more complex than previous scholars have appreciated. My work attempts to give it the meaningful approximation it deserves. By examining Gemelli’s ties to the Risorgimento, the Italian Catholic movement, and the culture and society of his native Milan, I reveal him as a man of consequence even before the onset of Fascism. I also lay out conditions of possibility for his ascendancy among Catholics after Mussolini came to power. Reducing the complexity of Gemelli’s activity to a manifestation of clerical fascism obscures the fact that he, like many Italian Catholics who formed a consensus of sorts with the Fascist state, retained a cultural, social, and political vision that looked beyond Fascism. The story of Padre Gemelli sheds light on the totalizing worldview of Catholicism that predates political totalitarianism and made it difficulto t separate religion entirely from politics in Fascist Italy. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Jonathan Steinberg Keywords Biographies, Religious history, European history, Political science Subject Categories European History | History | History of Religion This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3684 PADRE AGOSTINO GEMELLI AND THE CRUSADE TO RECHRISTIANIZE ITALY, 1878-1959: PART ONE J. Casey Hammond A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Supervisor of Dissertation ______________________________ Jonathan Steinberg, Professor of History Graduate Group Chairperson ______________________________ Antonio Feros, Associate Professor of History Dissertation Committee Thomas Childers, Professor of History Fabio Finotti, Professor of Italian Studies UMI Number: 3447482 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3447482 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 Padre Agostino Gemelli and the Crusade to Rechristianize Italy, 1878-1959: Part One © 2010 James Casey Hammond iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation could not have been written without the constant support and wise guidance of my supervisor, Prof. Jonathan Steinberg, who from the start has shared my intellectual curiosities and patiently fostered my pursuit of them. I am additionally obliged to Profs. Thomas Childers and Fabbio Finotti, who brought their profound erudition and literary sensibilities to the reading of my work. Further valuable support came from the Center for Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the form of two Salvatori Research Prizes awarded in 2007 and 2010. Other debts of gratitude are due to the unfailingly helpful staff of Van Pelt Library at the University of Pennsylvania. These include Andrea Loigman, Lori Rowland and Paul Farber, who provided a comfortable working place, and members of the Interlibrary Loan staff, especially Mr. David Cohen, who made unstinting efforts to obtain hundreds of texts on my behalf. Additional help came from Prof. Maria Bocci and Dr. Valentina Oppici of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore during the summer of 2007. Three of Padre Gemelli’s former students, Prof. Leonardo Ancona of Rome, Prof. Enzo Spaltro of Bologna and Prof. Giancarlo Trentini of Milan, graciously spoke to me about their former teacher (and extended an honorary membership in the Associazione Goliardica Milanese). Fr. Daniel Pietrzak, O.F.M. generously shared his thoughts about Gemelli, subject of the dissertation in Psychology he wrote at Fordham University thirty years ago. Many ideas about my dissertation became clearer through ongoing conversations with friends and colleagues, above all Dr. D’Maris Coffman and Mr. Nicola Gentili. To all these persons and many more whose valued help came in indirect, but highly important, ways I remain deeply grateful. iv ABSTRACT PADRE AGOSTINO GEMELLI AND THE CRUSADE TO RECHRISTIANIZE ITALY, 1878-1959: PART ONE J. Casey Hammond Jonathan Steinberg Padre Agostino Gemelli (1878-1959) was an outstanding figure in Catholic culture and a shrewd operator on many levels in Italy, especially during the Fascist period. Yet he remains little examined or understood. Scholars tend to judge him solely in light of the Fascist regime and mark him as the archetypical clerical fascist. Gemelli founded the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan in 1921, the year before Mussolini came to power, in order to form a new leadership class for a future Catholic state. This religiously motivated political goal was intended to supersede the anticlerical Liberal state established by the unifiers of modern Italy in 1860. After Mussolini signed the Lateran Pacts with the Vatican in 1929, Catholicism became the official religion of Italy and Gemelli’s university, under the patronage of Pope Pius XI (1922-1939), became a laboratory for Catholic social policies by means of which the church might bring the Fascist state in line with canon law and papal teachings. Despite Gemelli’s accommodations to the state, he maintained relative autonomy for his university. This allowed the leftwing of postwar Christian Democracy to form at the Università Cattolica during Mussolini’s peak years. Thus, the story of Gemelli is more complex than previous scholars have appreciated. My work attempts to give it the meaningful approximation it deserves. By examining Gemelli’s ties to the Risorgimento, the Italian Catholic movement, and the culture and v society of his native Milan, I reveal him as a man of consequence even before the onset of Fascism. I also lay out conditions of possibility for his ascendancy among Catholics after Mussolini came to power. Reducing the complexity of Gemelli’s activity to a manifestation of clerical fascism obscures the fact that he, like many Italian Catholics who formed a consensus of sorts with the Fascist state, retained a cultural, social, and political vision that looked beyond Fascism. The story of Padre Gemelli sheds light on the totalizing worldview of Catholicism that predates political totalitarianism and made it difficult to separate religion entirely from politics in Fascist Italy. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments iii Abstract iv Table of Contents vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Gemelli in History 31 Chapter 2: Piazza del Duomo 61 Chapter 3: Gemelli, Bertani, Necchi 87 Chapter 4: Piazza Sant’Ambrogio – The Saint 137 Chapter 5: Piazza Sant’Ambrogio – The Place 202 Chapter 6: A Catholic Nation, State and Politics 243 Epilogue 320 Bibliography 330 vii But, I ask you, sir, is one lying when, in spite of men determined to exile God from the world, one uses the resources, the delicacy, even the subtlety of one’s mind to maintain the rule here below of Him who is the way, the truth and the life – Ego sum via, veritas et vita. – Ferdinand Fabre, The Abbé Tigrane (1873) 1 INTRODUCTION The new governing class of men who formed the Italian state between 1860 and 1870 made perhaps its greatest political