REZZARA, NICCOLÒ. - Catholic organizer, b. at Chiuppano (Vicenza) in 1848, d. at Bergamo on 6 February 1915. At Vicenza he taught in the secondary schools from 1869 to 1877 and was a very active organizer of youth circles and founder of the periodical Berico.
Having moved to Bergamo, he continued his work of apostolate, laboring in the St. Aloysius circle and in the Opera dei congressi cattolici. He was an effective journalist: he founded the weekly Campanone, was director of the Eso of Bergamo, established an association among Catholic journalists, started a company for an illustrated Catholic weekly, and gave a strong impulse to the publishing activities of the S. Alessandro printing house of Bergamo. In his many-sided activity there was no lack of that directed toward workers, to whom he devoted himself as secretary of the Unione economica-sociale. But more than anything he distinguished himself in the field of schooling, where, as councilor of education of Bergamo, he fought strenuously together with Fr. G. Zocchi and Msgr. G. Radini Tedeschi to safeguard freedom of teaching and to advance the Christian school: effective was his influence in this regard at the Settimana sociale of Venice in 1912, while governmental school secularism was prevailing ever more strongly. He did not lack for covert opposition and mob hatred because of his fidelity to the Church and to the pope.
Principal works: La scuola neutra (Bergamo 1881); L'ateismo nelle scuole pubbliche (ibid. 1883); Il monopolio dell'istruzione in Italia (ibid. 1887); Le nostre battaglie (ibid. 1888); Il movimento cattolico della diocesi di Vicenza, (ibid. 1895); Sui doveri dei rappresentanti del popolo nelle pubbliche amministrazioni (ibid. 1895); Preoccupazione dell'ora presente (ibid. 1898); L'Azione Cattolica in Italia (ibid. 1904); 2783 istituzioni cattoliche economico-sociali all'Esposizione di Milano (ibid. 1906); Il problema scolastico nell'ora presente (ibid. 1913); Le scuole comunali ai comuni (ibid. 1913); Il patronato scolastico imposto per legge (ibid. 1914).
Bibliography2 works
Augusto Moreschini