Romano Amerio (17 January 1905 – 16 January 1997) was a Swiss Italian theologian and a late critic of post-Conciliar evolutions in liturgy and

ecclesiology In Christian theology, ecclesiology is the study of the Church (congregation), Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its ecclesiastical polity, polity, its Church discipline, discipline, its escha ...

. His ''

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

'' is '' Iota Unum''. It is a work dedicated to the study of the ruptures in Church teaching and tradition following the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

Education and teaching

Amerio was born in

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

. He obtained a doctorate in philosophy from the

Catholic University of Milan The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in 1927. He was a disciple of Fr. Gemelli, the founder of the University. He had studied in detail the philosophy of 17th century Italian poet

Tommaso Campanella Tommaso Campanella (; 5 September 1568 – 21 May 1639), baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. He was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 an ...

, of whose work he later became a professional scholar. He is also known for his study of

Antonio Rosmini Blessed Antonio Francesco Davide Ambrogio Rosmini-Serbati (; Rovereto, 25 March 1797 Stresa, 1 July 1855) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and philosopher. He founded the Rosminians, officially the Institute of Charity or , pioneered th ...

and producing a critical edition of the work of

Alessandro Manzoni Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni (, , ; 7 March 1785 – 22 May 1873) was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher. He is famous for the novel '' The Betrothed'' (orig. it, I promessi sposi) (1827), generally ranked among the maste ...

. After receiving his doctorate, he taught philosophy and Greco-Roman classics at the Academy of

in Switzerland.

Peritus at Vatican Council II

Amerio was taken to Vatican Council as a

peritus ''Peritus'' (Latin for "expert") is the title given to Roman Catholic theologians attending an ecumenical council to give advice. At the Second Vatican Council, some ''periti'' (the plural form) accompanied individual bishops or groups of bisho ...

of Angelo Giuseppe Jelmini, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Lugano and Titular Bishop of Thermae Basilicae. Since Jelmini was a member of the Central Preparatory Commission, Amerio was able to view all the schemata and write comments on behalf of Jelmini. 20 Years after the end of the Council, as he grew more and more critical of the discontinuity in doctrine and discipline promoted in the name of the Council by certain groups, he wrote ''Iota Unum.''

Thought

In his writings, Amerio identifies three ''

syllabus A syllabus (; plural ''syllabuses'' or ''syllabi'') or specification is a document that communicates information about an academic course or class and defines expectations and responsibilities. It is generally an overview or summary of the curric ...

es'' which he says were implicitly and intellectually negated during the post-conciliar period : the encyclical ''

Quanta cura (Latin for "With how great care") was a papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius IX on 8 December 1864. In it, he decried what he considered significant errors afflicting the modern age. These he listed in an attachment called the Syllabus of Err ...

'', condemning liberalism and masonic ideology, the decree ''

Lamentabili sane exitu ''Lamentabili sane exitu'' ("with truly lamentable results") is a 1907 syllabus, prepared by the Roman Inquisition and confirmed by Pope Pius X, which condemns errors in the exegesis of Holy Scripture and in the history and interpretation of dogm ...

'' concerning radical biblical criticism, and the encyclical ''

Humani generis ''Humani generis'' is a papal encyclical that Pope Pius XII promulgated on 12 August 1950 "concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic Doctrine". Theological opinions and doctrines known as ''Nouvelle Théol ...

'' of 1950, which reproves of new ecclesial anthropologies and ecclesiologies. Amerio was also opposed to liturgical ''creativity'', and his thought on this issue was essentially in line with the encyclical

Mediator Dei ''Mediator Dei'' (''Mediator etweenGod'') is a papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII on 20 November 1947. It was the first encyclical devoted entirely to liturgy. The encyclical suggested new directions and active participation instead of a me ...

of Pius XII, which precisely held that liturgy was a ''cultus'', and not so much a self-celebration. Amerio also examined institutional changes in the

Holy Office The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible f ...

and felt that the formal abandonment of the term ''heresy'' in official enquiries and procedures had dramatic consequences on Church life, studies and Christian academics. Amerio was a promoter of

apologetics Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics an ...

and was dismayed by the abandonment of notions of

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

and

disputation In the scholastic system of education of the Middle Ages, disputations (in Latin: ''disputationes'', singular: ''disputatio'') offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in sciences. Fixed ru ...

in favour of a purely dialectic approach between Church and World. He held to traditional

Thomism Thomism is the philosophical and theological school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Aquinas' disputed questions ...

and Augustinianism and deeply disliked the common embrace of Kantism, Hegelianism and

Spinozism Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

among many Christian intellectuals. Amerio's essays were praised by traditional scholars in the Church, although they came at a difficult time for him because of the then public conflict between archbishop

Marcel Lefebvre Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre (; 29 November 1905 – 25 March 1991) was a French Catholic archbishop who greatly influenced modern traditional Catholicism. In 1970, he founded the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a community to tra ...

of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X and Pope Paul VI. As such, his 1980s research and books were largely ignored and neglected by leaders inside the institutional Church but have been revived and received new respect in recent years. Amerio died in 1997. Amerio is thought to have been at least partially rehabilitated during the papacy of

Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

. Thus ''

Caritas in Veritate ''Caritas in veritate'' (English: "Charity in truth") is the third and last encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, and his first social encyclical. It was signed on 29 June 2009 and was published on 7 July 2009. It was initially published in Italian ...

'', a 2009 encyclical dedicated to Charity and Truth, explores ideas and concepts that were at the very heart of Amerio's theological and philosophical career.The title of the encyclical is the philosophical subject of Iota Unum.

Principal works

*''Arbitrarismo divino, libertà umana e implicanze teologiche nella dottrina di Cartesio'', Milano, Società Editrice "Vita e Pensiero", 1937 *''L'epicureimo'', Torino, Edizioni di filosofia, 1953 *Tommaso Campanella, ''Della necessità di una filosofia cristiana'', prima traduzione italiana con introduzione e commento a cura di Romano Amerio, Torino, Società Editrice Internazionale, 1953 *''Opere di Giordano Bruno e di Tommaso Campanella'', a cura di Augusto Guzzo e di Romano Amerio, Milano-Napoli, R. Ricciardi, 1956 *''

filosofo e teologo: studio delle dottrine seguito da un'appendice di lettere, postille e carte inedite'', Torino, Edizioni di filosofia, 1958 *''Il sistema teologico di Tommaso Campanella: studio di editi ed inediti con appendici e indici'', Milano, Napoli, R. Ricciardi, 1972 *'' Iota Unum. Studio delle variazioni della Chiesa Cattolica nel secolo XX'', Milano-Napoli, R. Ricciardi, 1985; poi Torino, Lindau, 2009; Verona, Fede & Cultura, 2009 *'' Stat veritas'' - Milano-Napoli, R. Ricciardi, 1997; poi ''Stat veritas. Seguito a Iota unum '', Torino, Lindau, 2009

References

Article by Sandro Magister'Iota Unum: A Study of Changes in the Catholic Church', by Romano Amerio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amerio, Romano 1905 births 1997 deaths 20th-century Swiss Roman Catholic theologians Swiss traditionalist Catholics People from Lugano 20th-century Swiss philosophers Catholic philosophers Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore alumni