CATHOLIC OBSERVER, THE. - Daily newspaper founded on 2 Jan. 1864 by the Archbishop of Milan Carlo Caccia Dominioni. Its first directors were Msgr. G. Marinoni and Fr. F. Vittadini, and it immediately distinguished itself by its uncompromising attachment to the Holy See and by its lively polemics both against its opponents and against the Catholics called “moderates.”
Born in the same year as the “Syllabus,” the newspaper bore its imprint entirely for thirty years; it attained its greatest renown from 1869 to 1898, when it was directed by Fr. D. Albertario (v.), who engaged in sharp polemics against the liberals, the clerical-moderates, and the Rosminians. During that period the newspaper faced legal proceedings and, in 1898, was suspended for four months by the political authorities, while Fr. Albertario was arrested and sentenced. With Albertario’s death (1902) and the transfer of the editorship to Filippo Meda (previously a contributor to the newspaper, together with Fr. Vercesi, G. Mauri, P. Arcari, G. Molteni, and others who later became well-known journalists and politicians), the newspaper, without disavowing its tradition of fidelity to the Holy See, began a new phase in which it advocated preparing Catholics for participation in public life, whenever the ecclesiastical authorities should permit II. In 1907 Filippo Meda and Marchese Cornaggia, under the auspices of Archbishop Cardinal Ferrari, suppressed their respective newspapers (L'O. C. and La Lega Lombarda), giving rise to L'Unione, which after five years became the present Milanese Catholic daily, L'Italia.