ROSA, ENRICO. – Jesuit, writer, born at Selve Marcone (diocese of Biella) on 17 November 1870, died in Rome on 26 November 1938.
He entered the Order in 1886 and was ordained a priest in 1900; in 1905 he was called to join the staff of writers of Civiltà Cattolica, of which he was also director from 1915 to 1931.
To his work as a writer he brought a rare humanistic education, a sure orientation in the philosophical and theological fields, fidelity in interpretation, and the firmness of an indefatigable defender of the directives of the Holy See. For this reason, Catholics and non-Catholics alike looked to him in particular circumstances in order to know what was to be thought and done; and it was rightly said that during the first thirty years of our century he exercised an indisputable function as a leader, especially in highly difficult situations.
In addition to the innumerable articles and reviews he wrote for the periodical, chiefly against the manifold errors of liberalism, the scourge of modernism, and ambiguous orientations (Action française) in the Catholic sphere, and in defence against the accusations levelled at the Pope, he left: Anselmo di Aosta arctiv. cantuariense e dottore della Chiesa (Florence 1909), L'encicl. Pascendi e il modernismo (Rome 1918); Visione cattolica della guerra (there 1925), a collection of articles, at times supplemented by passages suppressed by the censor; Lettere e scritti spirituali di s. Luigi Gonzaga (Florence 1927); I Gesuiti dalle origini ai giorni nostri (Rome 1934); Il b. Rocco Gonzales e compagni martiri (there 1934). Also to be added is his translation of the major work Storia della Chiesa by Cardinal Hergenröther (8 vols., Florence 1904–14), carried through to 1922.