SANTUCCI, CARLO. - Catholic organizer, lawyer and senator, b. in Rome on 9 Feb. 1849, d. there on 29 July 1932.
A lawyer of worth, he effectively defended religious Orders and pious works against the application of the subversive laws. In 1885 he became a member of the Council of the Bar Association, remaining there until 1924, often with the functions of president. Provincial councillor (1877), municipal councillor of Rome (1886), in 1916 he was appointed president of the Banco di Roma, and held that office for seven years. He also presided, for several years, over the Roman Union for administrative elections; and he succeeded Count Gentiloni in the presidency of the Catholic Electoral Union (v.). Once the Italian People's Party was formed after the war, he joined it and was appointed senator in Oct. 1919.
Notable among his speeches are those in the Municipal Council on the monument to Giordano Bruno (1888); the one on religious instruction in elementary schools (1893) and the one in honor of the Holy Cross offended at a public funeral (1894), and others marked by patriotic sentiment: e.g., for Italy's entry into the last war of independence (1915). In that year he received from Pope Benedict XV the task of going to Bern to obtain from the Swiss government hospitality for the most seriously wounded Italians and Austrians. In Catholic Action, he was among the founders of the St. Peter Circle of the Italian Catholic Youth. He also belonged to the Lazio Committee of the Work of Catholic Congresses, and in Sept. 1900 he held the effective presidency of the XVII National Congress in Rome. His fervent apostolate in the Franciscan Third Order must be remembered. He left a substantial 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 Paul.
Bibliography
Agostino Vian