Romolo Murri (27 August 1870 – 12 March 1944) was an Italian politician an
ecclesiastic
A

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

, he was suspended and later excommunicated for having joined the Lega Democratica Nazionale. For his political activism, he is considered a precursor of Italian

Christian democracy Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

and by extension of the

Democrazia Cristiana Christian Democracy (, DC) was a Christian democratic political party in Italy. The DC was founded on 15 December 1943 in the Italian Social Republic (Nazi-occupied Italy) as the nominal successor of the Italian People's Party (1919), Italian ...

party.

Biography

Murri was born in Monte San Pietrangeli on 27 August 1870. In 1894, he was a promoter of the FUCI, in 1901 of Democrazia Cristiana Italiana and in 1905 of Lega Democratica Nazionale. He founded the publications ''Vita nova'' (1895), ''Cultura sociale'' (1898), ''Il domani d'Italia'' (1901), ''Rivista di cultura'' (1906), ''Il commento'' (1910). His activities brought him into controversy with the

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, especially after he established the National Democratic League in 1905.

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X (; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing Modernism in the Catholic Church, modern ...

explicitly condemned the movement in 1906 in his encyclical ''Pieni l'Animo'', forbidding all priests from joining it under penalty of suspension ''a divinis'' ''

ipso facto is a Latin phrase, directly translated as "by the fact itself", which means that a specific phenomenon is a ''direct'' consequence, a resultant ''effect'', of the action in question, instead of being brought about by a previous action. (Contras ...

''. After failing to comply, Murri was suspended ''a divinis'' from his clerical status in 1907. His movement was once again condemned by Pius X in his encyclical ''

Pascendi Dominici gregis ''Pascendi Dominici gregis'' ( English: ''Feeding the Lord's Flock'') is a papal encyclical letter, subtitled "''On the Doctrines of the Modernists''", promulgated by Pope Pius X on 8 September 1907. Context Pius X viewed the church as under si ...

'', which equated it to

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, and was finally excommunicated in 1909. On the same year, he was elected to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

on the lists of the Italian Radical Party. In 1912, he married in Rome with Ragnhild Lund, daughter of the former president of Lagting (the upper house of the

Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...

), with whom he had a son. He failed to be re-elected in 1913, something that was explicitly celebrated by the leader of the '' Azione Cattolica'' Count Ottorino Gentiloni. He supported Italy's entry into World War I. After the rise of the Fascist regime in Italy, Murri withdrew from active politics and devoted himself to journalism, becoming a contributor for '' Il Resto del Carlino''. He showed cautious support for Fascism and the

Lateran Treaty The Lateran Treaty (; ) was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between Italy under Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to settle the long-standing Roman question. The treaty and ass ...

of 1929. In November 1943, he reconciled with the Church and the excommunication was lifted by

Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

. He died in Rome on 12 March 1944.

Works

In addition to the numerous writings in the aforementioned periodicals in which he participated; Murri wrote some essays. * Catholic Conservatives and Christian Democrats, 1900 * Class organization and professional unions, 1901 * Battles of today, 1901-1904 ollection of articles published in «Cultura Sociale»* Social Summary, 1906 * Clerical politics and democracy, Cesaro, Ascoli Piceno, 1908 * Spain and the Vatican, Milan, Treves Brothers, 1911 * War profiles, Milan: Italian Publishing Institute, 1917 * From Christian Democracy to the Italian Popular Party, 1920 * The ideal conquest of the state, Milan: Imperia, 1923 * Faith and Fascism, Rome, 1924 * The contemporary spiritual crisis. Origins - Orientations, 1932 * Cavour, Rome: Formiggini, 1936 * The universal idea of Rome, Milan: Bompiani, 1937 * The Christian Message and History, 1943

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murri, Romolo 1870 births People excommunicated by the Catholic Church 1944 deaths 19th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests People from Monte San Pietrangeli