MATTEI GENTILI, PAOLO. - Journalist and politician, b. at Pennabilli (Pesaro) on 15 Oct. 1874, d. at Rome on 28 Nov. 1935. While still very young he entered the Catholic university circle founded by R. Murri and contributed to La vita nova and Cultura sociale; later he took over the editorship of L'Ateneo. After graduating in law, in 1907 he became editor of the Corriere d'Italia.
When the great grouping of the Catholic press was formed, thanks above all to Count Giovanni Grosoli Pironi, he became head of the group and founded L'Italia of Milan. He then resumed the editorship of the Corriere d'Italia, which he held until the paper closed in 1929. Having entered political life, he was among the founders of the Democrazia Italiana, later the Partito Popolare Italiano. A deputy for Ancona in the 25th legislature, he also represented the Marche in the 26th, 27th and 28th legislatures. In 1923, during the debate on the electoral law, having dissented from the Party's policy, he was expelled from it. In 1924, after the Aventine secession, he founded with E. Martire and Carapelle the Centro Cattolico Nazionale. In July 1924, as undersecretary
Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Justice and of Religious Affairs, he promoted the reform of civil legislation in ecclesiastical matters, and constituted under his presidency a commission of jurists and experts, in whose work three representatives of the Roman Curia took part, though not in an official capacity, in order to study together the problems of a political and administrative nature relating to the relations of the State with the Church: a preamble to the Lateran Pacts, which had always been the goal of M. G.'s journalistic and political activity. He was appointed senator of the Kingdom on 1 March 1934. His work as a writer is enshrined in numerous articles in newspapers and journals and in 3 novels: I Cenci (Milan 1901; 2nd ed. Treviso 1908); Verso la nuova aurora (Florence 1901); Attraverso il prisma (Milan 1904). Alessandro Mattei Gentili