Lanza, Antonio

LANZA, ANTONIO. - Moral theologian, archbishop of Reggio Calabria, b. at Castiglione Cosentino on 18 March 1905, d. at Reggio Calabria on 23 June 1950. Ordained priest on 16 April 1927, he was first professor of moral theology in the Calabrian Regional Seminary, from which in 1935 he moved to the same chair at the Lateran Athenaeum. In Rome he held positions in the Roman tribunals, and was vice-assistant of the Movement of Catholic Graduates. He was elected on 12 May 1943 to the metropolitan see of Reggio Calabria, with the see of Bova united ad personam, and, later, the apostolic administration of Nicastro.

He wrote, among other things: La questione del momento in cui l'anima razionale è infusa nel corpo (Rome 1939); De fine primario matrimonii (ibid. 1941); La coscienza morale (in VI Corso Cristologico, La morale di Cristo e le professioni, ibid. 1942, pp. 81-93); La proprietà: l'aspetto teologico-morale (in Riv. intern. di scienze sociali, 51 [1943], pp. 48-49); Theologia moralis fundamentalis (Rome 1949): it is the first volume of a work that is announced as one of the best texts of moral theology, and will be continued); Il messaggio sociale di Gesù (in Il Simbolo, VII. La vita di Gesù, Assisi 1950, pp. 139-50).