SANTUCCI, Carlo. - Catholic organizer, lawyer, and senator, born in Rome on 9 February 1849, died there on 29 July 1932.
A distinguished lawyer, he effectively defended religious orders and pious works against the application of the anti-clerical laws. In 1885 he became a member of the Council of the Order of Lawyers, remaining there until 1924, often serving as president. He was provincial councillor (1877), municipal councillor of Rome (1886), and in 1916 was appointed president of the Banco di Roma, a position he held for seven years. He also presided for several years over the Roman Union for administrative elections and succeeded Count Gentiloni as president of the Catholic Electoral Union (v.).
After the war, when the Italian People’s Party was formed, he joined it and was appointed senator in October 1919.
Notable among his speeches were those in the municipal council on the monument to Giordano Bruno (1888); on religious instruction in elementary schools (1893); and in honor of the Holy Cross, which had been insulted during a public funeral (1894), as well as others imbued with patriotic sentiment, such as that on Italy’s entry into the last war of independence (1915). In that year, Pope Benedict XV entrusted him with a mission to Berna to obtain from the Swiss government the admission of the most seriously wounded Italian and Austrian soldiers. In Catholic Action, he was among the founders of the Circolo S. Pietro of the Italian Catholic Youth. He also belonged to the Lazio Committee of the Opera dei Congressi cattolici and in September 1900 presided over the 17th National Congress in Rome. His fervent apostolate within the Third Order of St. Francis must also be remembered. He left a significant record of his Franciscan activity in the book: *Manuale completo del Terz'ordine*. He was also a member of the Society of St. Vincent de’ Paoli.