Saccardo, Francesco

SACCARDO, FRANCESCO. - Catholic journalist, b. in Venice on 12 Sept. 1862, d. at Chirignago (Venice) on 22 Oct. 1931.

Having earned a degree in law, after a brief practice of the legal profession he devoted himself to journalism, at first collaborating on literary journals. In the early days of daily journalism, the able Catholic polemicist Giuseppe Sacchetti (v.) was his teacher on the editorial staff of La Specola of Padua, and he succeeded him in 1888 as director of La Lega lombarda of Milan. In '98 the trust of Card. Sarto called him to direct La difesa, a Catholic daily of Venice, and he remained there until Nov. 1917, when, owing to the sad conditions of the city after the rout of Caporetto, the newspaper could no longer hold out.

A municipal councillor of Venice during the Grimani administration, he concerned himself with important civic interests. He was then president of the provincial administration and of the Catholic Insurance Society of Verona. In political matters, he was always among those Catholics yearning for a just reconciliation between the Holy See and the Italian State, treating of it with balance of thought and temperate form in his writings and speeches. Initially a member of the Italian People's Party, he later enrolled in the National Catholic Centre.

Agostino Vian