Monsignor Lorenzo Gastaldi (1815 – 1883)

Monsignor Lorenzo Gastaldi (1815 – 1883) by Domenico Mariani (Translated by J.Anthony Dewhirst) The second Rosminian Bishop, a contemporary and fellow participant with Monsignor Cardozo Ayres in the first Vatican Council, was Monsignor Lorenzo Gastaldi, firstly bishop of Saluzzo (1867–1871), then archbishop of Turin (1871–1883). He was born at Turin on 18 March 1815, a year after the return of king Victor Emmanuel I from his exile in Sardinia and a little before the conclusion of the Congress of Vienna (9 June 1815). His family were of Chierese extraction. His father Bartolomeo was a notable advocate, his mother Margherita Volpato was a housewife. It was a big family of thirteen children, (eight boys and five girls) of which Lorenzo was the eldest. Giuseppe Tuninetti, who is my guide, writes, ‘That it was a middle class, cultured, affluent family, with a markedly legal tradition’. (L.Gastaldi, Ed.Piemme, p.15). Lorenzo began his classical studies as an external scholar ‘in the College of the Carmine (or of the Nobles), run by the Jesuits. The cultural, moral and religious formation ‘was characterised by the serious and rigid method of the Jesuit colleges’ (Tunetti, ibid. p. 17). He felt his vocation to the priesthood when he was 14. At first his father was annoyed but later listened to him and on 30 September 1839 he would receive the clerical habit in his parish of the Madonna del Carmine. But he did not enter the seminary. He enrolled at University as an external student (a common occurrence at that time), and many factors favoured the best possible outcome. In 1831 he obtained his diploma of Master of Philosophy and Liberal Arts, in 1836 he obtained his degree in Theology (cum laude) and was enrolled in the theological college of the University During these years when Gastaldi went to University he absorbed, together with the local culture, ‘rosminianism’, a philosophical and theological current of thought which would play a major part in the Piedmontese culture of the 19th century. Gastaldi enthusiastically accepted this. ‘Rosminianism’ represented a third alternative to the revolutionary ideologies and the remaining Piedmontese Jansenists both in the political and in the philosophical and theological field, satisfying the aspirations of many people. The first Rosminian that he encountered at University in 1833 was Giuseppe Andrea Sciolla, professor of Moral Theology, converted to rosminianism by Gioberti himself. Also in 1836 the chair of Logic and Metaphysics passed to a Rosminian, Don Pier Antonio Corte; and Pier Alessandro Paravia, a friend and fellow student of Rosmini at Padua, held the chair of Italian oratory in the Faculty of Humanities at the end of 1832. Other intellectuals and proponents would live in Turin at that time. It is sufficient to mention Michele Tarditi, Paolo Barone, Gustavo di Cavour, and later Giuseppe Buroni. On 23 September 1837, Gastaldi and 21 other clerics were ordained priest at the College of Chieri by Archbishop Luigi dei Marchesi Fransoni and Gastaldi was appointed to teach. During his teaching of moral theology the first sign of immediate Rosminian influence was the writing, in 1841, of the response to Eusebio Cristiano, who had violently attacked Rosmini. In this writing a distinction was made between sin and fault, so characteristic of the Rosminian idea of original sin. The violent polemic persisted throughout 1842–1843. The first letter of Gastaldi to Rosmini, asking for enlightenment is dated 20 December 1842. This is the beginning of a correspondence which would go on till 1851 and beyond. Meanwhile Gastaldi was made a Canon of the Most Holy Trinity of the College of San Lorenzo. He always lived at home, even if his thoughts began to turn to religious life. A first indirect hint of this is in a letter to Rosmini of 27 November 1844. ‘I am unfortunately, even reluctantly, in the midst of the world’. On 10 July 1846 he notified Rosmini that he had obtained the Rules of the Institute, published by Marietti. On the 6 July he had clearly expressed his intention but also his difficulties, ‘…I am the eldest brother, and my father, when he was dying (1843), entrusted the care of my mother and all the family to me’. Rosmini replied on 7 July (the speed of the post at that time!) encouraging him to take his ‘magnanimous decision’ and at the same time recommending prudence regarding the form of religious lifei (Gastaldi had written about his uncertainty in choosing between the Jesuits, Vincentians and Rosminians). He left him completely free to choose, but invited him to ‘spend some days at Stresa’. When king Carlo Alberto, following the example of Pius IX, decided to dissolve the ancient regime and to promise reform and liberty of the press, Turin was awash with liberal and Catholic journals. Among these Il Conciliatore Torinese was begun on 15 July 1848, on Gastaldi’s own initiative. It was 1 first a fortnightly issue, then a three weekly, which had as its aim ‘to reconcile religion and society’. Editors and contributors were priests, Giobertian, Rosminian and others. Their articles dealt with politics, culture, the clergy and social problems. In his pages Gastaldi also would comment on Rosmini’s The Five Wounds (the last article appeared on 13 August 1849, the very day on which Rosmini received news that it had been put on the Index, Gastaldi naturally being totally in the dark about this). Having heard the news about the condemnation of the book and of the subsequent submission of Rosmini, Gastaldi wrote an article of high praise for the Roveretan philosopher and on 24 September 1849 he also made his assent to the decree of condemnation public. On 28 September 1849 Il Conciliatore closed down, a sign of a more conservative change in the Catholic world. It was a bitter disappointment to Gastaldi, and caused him to disassociate himself somewhat from the political scene. He threw himself with greater determination into scholarly work and published four volumes of Compendio di Teologica morale of Alasia which was to be his major work. On 23 September 1850 Gastaldi told Rosmini of his definite decision to become a religious, and on 24 January 1851, overcoming doubt and pressure to the contrary, he entered the novitiate of the Institute of Charity at Stresa. However he kept a very close connection with his family, and with men of learning and politics by letter. He followed the development of ecclesiastical events, but chiefly he was happy to be close to his teacher and father, whose esteem he enjoyed and with whom he exchanged ideas and plans. At the end of May 1853, Gastaldi left as a missionary for England where the Rosminians had worked for years among the Catholic immigrants, in an Anglican environment, and in colleges. In 1833 the Oxford Movement had begun and this had carried great weight in the English Catholic revival. Proponents of this movement who became part of it were Newman, Lockhart, Phillips, Pusey, Gentili and others. Gastaldi arrived in England, subsequent to the second wave of conversions, that of 1851. Among these was the future Cardinal Manning. (It seems that at that time there had been an annual average of twelve thousand converts to Catholicism). The Rosminians — about ten of them — worked at Ratcliffe, Rugby, Loughborough, Newport and Cardiff. Their work was teaching, pastoral care and intinerant missions. Don Gastaldi was destined for the house at Rugby, where the novitiate had been transferred. He had to learn English well (and he totally dedicated himself to doing so). He taught moral theology to the brethren, he was a reviser for the press and would later be administrator. On 8 September 1853 he took his first (scholastic) vows, and he wrote that, for him, it was day full of enthusiasm and joy. He preached for the first time in English — after so much one-to-one training in the pulpit (Demosthenes) — in February 1854 at St Mary’s, Loughborough. Gradually preaching would become his principal ministry in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland; a frantic activity (missions to people, preparations for the sacraments, retreats for priests and sisters, panegyrics) which became exhausting. This preaching was interrupted twice for brief periods, during which he returned to Italy, in May-September 1856 and in summer 1857 (Rosmini had died and now he experienced a crisis in his vocation). On his second return to England he visited Monsignor Luigi Fransoni, the archbishop in exile at Lyons, as a token of his support for him. In August of 1858 Gastaldi was in Cardiff as superior of the house and parish of Saint David. He directed parochial schools, administered the sacraments, introduced confraternities, promoted devotion to the Rosary, and helped the poor. It was unceasing work for the Lord. But his church became more and more insufficient for his needs, so he decided to build another, which was dedicated to St Peter and was opened in September 1861. He gives some statistics on the state of the parish in his reports to General G. B. Pagani; 10,000 faithful (Irish for the most part), 1,600 annual communions, 3,000 regular practising Catholics at Sunday Mass. He finishes, ‘…a lot of work and many crosses. On certain days I struggle with people with whom I do not get on and hear bitter and loathsome words from those from whom it would never be expected’ (Letter of 12 October 1860). He needed money more than ever (and asked for it from his family and friends in Italy). He built a little church near the docks for Sunday Mass for the sailors, he was involved with Catholic prisoners, he built up good relations with the Anglicans and he was always interested in ecclesiastical problems and Italian politics.

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