CATHOLIC CIVILIZATION (LA) - A bimonthly cultural journal published by the Italian Jesuits. The Jesuits had already been thinking, even before 1848, of a periodical publication intended to impress a direction of sound orthodoxy upon modern civilization; but the dispersal of the Society of Jesus in Italy and political events caused the project to come to nothing. Fr. Carlo Curci, a Neapolitan (1810-91), a combative rival of Gioberti, returning to Italy at the end of 1849, brought with him a concrete plan, well considered in all its particulars. Through Card. Antonelli, at Portici, he presented it to Pius IX, who received it with fervor, willed its prompt implementation, and further provided the first means necessary for its financing. Curci gathered around himself a select group of collaborators, among them Fr. Luigi Taparelli d'Azeglio, already famous as the author of the Saggio teoretico, the man of letters Antonio Bresciani, Matteo Liberatore, philosopher, Giovan Battista Pianciani, scientist, and others.
The first issue of the C. c. came out in Naples on 6 April 1850, with a programmatic article by Curci, others by Taparelli and Liberatore, and with the first installment of the novel L'Ebreo di Verona by Bresciani, who, interweaving with the romantic plot the great events of the eve, aroused immense interest and was the principal factor in the prompt and general success of the new journal. The success was such that as many as eight reprints of the first volume had to be made; subscribers at the end of the first quarter were already 6,307, and soon rose to as many as 11,800. The outward form and the arrangement of the contents (into articles, review of the press, and contemporary chronicle; the bibliography was introduced in 1856; the novel in installments) has remained more or less unchanged. Until 1933 the authors remained anonymous: from that year the articles are signed.
Curci remained, at least nominally, at the direction until 1864; from 1861, however, he was inclining toward new political orientations, and gradually became estranged from the journal he had founded. Having then left the Society in 1877, he also began to attack it with virulent writings. The C. c. announced itself as an organ destined to lead civilization, from the 16th century onward tainted by heterodox infiltrations, back to its original and legitimate Christian and Catholic sources: hence the reason for the title. Politically it professed respect for every form of legitimate government, including representative government. In fact, however, it did not take long to subject constitutional governments and modern democratic forms to an implacable criticism, as infected with heterodoxy. Thus while it drew upon itself, on the one hand, the wrath of Ferdinand II of Naples, who forbade the entry of the C. c. into the kingdom, on the other it succeeded in becoming exceedingly hateful to the liberal governments of the time, especially to Piedmont. Farini gave life to the Turin journal Il Cimento (1852-1856) as an antidote to the influence of the C. c.: Bertrando Spaventa confuted its doctrines there with articles that G. Gentile has collected in a volume (La politica dei Gesuiti, Rome 1908); and Francesco de Sanctis published there a famous demolition of Bresciani's novel.
In Oct. 1850 the C. c. moved to Rome and, after other locations, established itself in the Palazzo dei Convertendi at Sossacavalli (now S. C. della Chiesa orientale on via della Conciliazione). Because of the occupation of Rome in 1870, it had to emigrate, but, after a brief pause, it reappeared in Florence; it returned again to Rome in 1877 on via Ripetta, where it still resides. It possesses a richly furnished library, a precious archive, its own printing press and furthermore its own publishing house. Today the work is supported by a society of friends scattered throughout the peninsula, linked among themselves by a special organ entitled Gli Amici della C. c. At present the journal has about 20,000 members, the maximum reached thus far.
The history of the C. c. is found closely bound to the religious, moral and political life of this last century: it remained extraneous to none of the great events that succeeded one another. Just as anyone wishing to inform himself on the great religious facts (dogma of the Immaculate Conception, infallibility of the Pope, Syllabus, Vatican Council, Americanism, modernism, condemnation of Action française, Conciliation, etc.) would find in it precious sources of information, so the historian both of the Risorgimento and of Italian national life will not be able to dispense with consulting the political articles and the rich and highly informative chronicles of the C. c., which are a kind of documentation and continued critical commentary on them. The restoration of the doctrines of St. Thomas Aquinas and that of sacred music owe much to the daily and tenacious action of members of the C. c.: of Taparelli and Liberatore the former, of A. De Santi the latter.
The Holy See has honored the journal with repeated public attestations of confidence and esteem. Pius IX in 1866 constituted its editorial board as a special college; Leo XIII in 1890 gave this a more definite character and assigned it as one of its proper tasks the defense and propagation of the doctrines of the Angelic Doctor. Its faithful adherence to the directives of the Holy See and the inspired character of certain of its publications confer upon the C. c. a high authority not only in Italy but in the entire Catholic world.
Men eminent in the various branches of knowledge have always taken part in its editorial board, such as, for the juridical and moral sciences, Taparelli d'Azeglio (1793-1862) and Salvatore Brandi (1852-1915), for theoretical philosophy Matteo Liberatore (1810-92), Giovanni Cornoldi (1822-1892) and Giovanni Busnelli (1866-1944), in the historical sciences Raffaele Garrucci (1812-81), Giuseppe Brunengo (1821-91), Hartmann Grisar (1845-1932), Ilario Rinieri (1853-1941), in Christian art Carlo Bricarelli (1857-1931); in the history of ancient peoples, Antonio De Cara (1835-1905); furthermore the Dante scholars Francesco Berardinelli (1816-93), Cornoldi and Busnelli; the apologists, polemicists, polygraphs Gaetano Zocchi (1846-1912), Angelo De Santi (1847-1922), Enrico Rosa (1870-1938), Mario Barbera (1877-1947); in narrative art Antonio Bresciani (1798-1862), Raffaele Ballerini (1830-1907) Giovanni Giuseppe Franco (1824-1908), De Santi, Barbera; in the economic and social sciences Matteo Liberatore, Antonio Pavissich (1851-1913).
There exist analytical and synthetic indexes in print for series or periods of years up to 1940; furthermore a general index of the years 1850-1903; in preparation is the general index of the first 100 years (1850-1949), in which the names of the authors are indicated by initials. For the individual editors see the obituary notices in the C. c. and in Sommervogel (under the individual names). A complete and exhaustive monograph is still lacking.
Bibliography8 works
Pietro Pirri