CARLO MARIA CURCI. - Jesuit, orator, and polemicist, born in Naples on 4 September 1809, died at Careggi (Florence) on 19 June 1891. His name is associated with the strenuous defense of his Order during very difficult and perilous times, against the calumnies—spread liberally—found in the works of V. Gioberti, and with the painful episode of his struggle against the Vatican and the temporal sovereignty of the Holy See.
Initially favorable to Gioberti (he had an edition of *Il Primato* printed in Benevento), he later opposed him fiercely, publishing *Fatti ed argomenti in risposta alle molte parole di V. Gioberti intorno ai Gesuiti* (Naples 1845) in response to the *Prolegomeni* of *Il Primato*. The pamphlet caused a stir; the abbot replied, and Curci countered with *Una disamina sopra le tre ultime opere di V. Gioberti: «I prolegomeni», «Il Gesuita moderno» e «L'Apologia»* (2 vols., Paris 1849). Convinced at that time of the necessity of temporal power for the Holy See, he defended it in *La demagogia italiana e il Papa Re. Pensieri di un retrogrado* (Paris 1849). Shortly afterward, in 1850, he founded *La Civiltà Cattolica* (q.v.) in Naples with the collaboration of other Fathers and assumed its direction, though not for long, as by 1853 he had returned to preaching in Rome and from 1872 in Florence.
CURCI, CARLO MARIA - Portrait - Rome, Casa degli scrittori de *La Civiltà Cattolica*.
Meanwhile, his ideas were evolving, and from defender of temporal power he moved to the opposite position, arguing that its loss should be considered a blessing and that the Church ought to seek reconciliation with the new Italy, even at the cost of a full renunciation (cf. the *Ragione dell'opera*, preface to his *Lezioni esegetiche e morali sopra i quattro Evangelii* [5 vols., Florence 1874–76], which constitutes his finest work and where he first publicly expressed these ideas, later reiterated in a memorandum to the Pope). Having refused to retract, he was dismissed from the Order (1877) and continued to write, now more freely, against the Pope and the Jesuits, with works such as *Il moderno dissidio tra la Chiesa e l'Italia per occasione di un fatto particolare* (Florence 1878); *La nuova Italia ed i vecchi zelanti* (ibid. 1880); *Il Vaticano regio, tarlo superstite della Chiesa cattolica* (ibid. 1883); *Lo scandalo del «Vaticano regio», due la Provvidenza, buono a qualchocosa* (ibid. 1884). The last three works were placed on the Index (1881 and 1884), the author was suspended, and again deplored and condemned by Leo XIII (letter of 28 August 1884 to the Archbishop of Florence, in P. Galletti, *Memorie storiche del p. Luigi Riccardi*, Prato 1901, pp. 609–10). Curci made a retraction of his errors, submitting himself to the judgment of the Church (1884), and from then on lived privately and obscurely. Ten days before his death, he was readmitted into the Society of Jesus.
Besides the works mentioned, he wrote others worthy of note: *Il paganesimo antico e moderno* (Rome 1862); *Il cristianesimo antico e moderno* (ibid. 1862); *La natura e la Grazia* (ibid. 1865); *Lezioni sui due libri dei Macabei* (Rome 1872); *Memorie utili di una vita distillate* (Florence 1881).