Don Luigi Sturzo

Abstract

In historical retrospect,* the period between the last great formations of European nationalism, German unification and the Italian Riorgimento, and the second world war, must appear as among the most crucial and decisive eras in the political life of the West. The single, but ultimately all-embracing, phenomenon which gives this period its special character is the emergence of the ethical and monistic lay state—the state which, from the sociological point of view, and hence ethically, juridically and politically, seeks the effective subordination to itself of all forms of social life. In Italy, this process, as the result of conditions prevalent there, was especially articulated; and the logic of the new state was developed almost hyperbolically in certain of its dimensions and aspects. In that same country, also as a result peculiar to its conditions, the diagnosis and the contraindications of the monistic state emerged simultaneously with the emergence of that state itself. The ideas and the forces which were effectively to stabilize and then to reverse the process of the lay state were present and active from the moment that state made its effective appearance. For this reason the history of Italy must possess as especial interest during this period. The man who has been, perhaps beyond all others, the expressive and dynamic symbol of those ideas and forces, is Don Luigi Sturzo. As a consequence his career, like the history of his country, has arresting, if not unique, interest.