BARATTA, CARLO. - Salesian educator and sociologist, born at Druogno (Novara) on 10 Oct. 1861, died at Salsomaggiore on 23 Apr. 1909. Received into the Society by d. Bosco, he taught at the House of Alassio and was ordained priest there (1884); he then went to Parma, where he undertook a wide-ranging apostolate in the oratory, the college, the School of Religion for students which he founded (1889), the first in Italy, and the Agricultural School. In the latter he carried out the programme of agricultural renewal promoted by Stanislao Solari (v.), with whom he had friendship and collaboration. B. was an apostle and theorist of the “new physiocracy”: in a pamphlet of 1895 (Di una nuova missione del Clero) he advocated the activity of priests for the increase of national agricultural production; in Principi di sociologia he presented rational agriculture as the premise for a Christian solution to the social question. In 1904 he moved to Turin as inspector, continuing his fervent apostolate. Founder of the Rivista di Agricoltura, author of many religious, sociological, and musical publications.
