Romolo Murri (Monte San Pietrangeli, 27 August 1870 – Roma, 12 March 1944) was an Italian politician and ecclesiastic. This Catholicpriest was suspended for having joined the party Lega Democratica Nazionale and is widely considered in Italy as the precursor of Christian democracy.
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),[1]Cultura sociale (1898),[2]Il domani d'Italia (1901), Rivista di cultura (1906), Il commento (1910).
His activities brought him into controversy with the Holy See, especially after he established the National Democratic League in 1905: the movement was explicitly condemned in 1906 by Pope Pius X in his encyclical Pieni l'Animo, which forbade all priests from joining it, under the penalty of suspension a divinisipso facto.[3]
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 for the Lateran Treaty of 1929.[6]
In November 1943, he reconciled with the Church and the excommunication was lifted by Pope Pius XII. He died in Rome on 12 March 1944.[5]
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 [collection 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
^University newspaper that supported the FUCI work. On the occasion of the Catholic Congress of Fiesole in 1986, the magazine direction and the FUCI organization itself were removed from Murri. cf. Gabriella Fanello Marcucci, Storia della FUCI, Studium, Roma, 1971.
^The foundation of this newspaper, announced by Murri, its main inspiration, to the Catholic congress of Milan in 1987, was a response to the recently founded magazine of the socialists "Critica sociale". The first number of "Cultura sociale", in which Don Sturzo also collaborated, was printed in Fermo in 1898.
