Luigi Sturzo
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Don Luigi Sturzo |
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| Member of the Italian Senate | |
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In office 8 May 1948 – 8 August 1959 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
26 November 1871 Caltagirone, Sicily, Italy |
| Died | 8 August 1959 (aged 87) Rome, Lazio, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Political party |
Italian People's Party (1919-1924) Independent (1924-1943) Christian Democracy (1943–1959) |
| Residence | Rome, Italy |
| Alma mater | Pontifical Gregorian University |
| Profession |
Politician Priest |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Don Luigi Sturzo (Italian pronunciation: [luˈiːdʒi ˈsturtso]; 26 November 1871 – 8 August 1959) was an Italian Catholic priest and politician. Known in his lifetime as a "clerical socialist," Sturzo is considered one of the fathers of Christian democracy. Sturzo was one of the founders of the Partito Popolare Italiano in 1919, but was forced into exile in 1924 with the rise of Italian fascism. In exile in London (and later New York), Sturzo published over 400 articles (published posthumously under the title Miscellanea Londinese) critical of fascism, and later the post-war Christian Democrats in Italy.
Born in Caltagirone, Sicily, Sturzo was ordained on 19 May 1894. After his graduation he taught philosophy and theology in his native city. From 1905 to 1920 he was vice-mayor of Caltagirone.
Sturzo was among the founders of the Italian People's Party (Partito Popolare Italiano, PPI) in January 1919. The formation of the PPI, with the permission of Pope Benedict XV, represented a tacit and reluctant reversal of the Vatican’s Non Expedit policy of non-participation in Italian politics, officially abolished before the November 1919 elections, in which the PPI won 20.6% of the vote and 100 seats in the legislature. The PPI was a colossal political force in Italy: between 1919 and 1922, no government could be formed and maintained without the support of the Italian Popular Party. However, a coalition between the Socialists and the PPI was deemed unacceptable within the Vatican, despite being proposed by Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti in 1914, and later imagined by his progressively powerless successors—Bonomi (1921-1922) and Facta (1922)—as the only possible coalition that excluded the Fascist party.
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