TONELLO, MICHELANGELO. — Politician, born in S. Secondo on 29 May 1800, died in Turin on 2 December 1879. Professor of canon law, and subsequently of Roman law, at the Turin Athenaeum, he was a deputy in the Subalpine and Italian Parliaments and a senator from 1868.
His name acquired wide renown in 1866, when he was entrusted with a special mission to Rome to negotiate with the Holy See the problem of the numerous episcopal sees in the territory of the Kingdom. In carrying out the task assigned to him, T. achieved particularly noteworthy results, succeeding where, a few months earlier, a similar mission of the Hon. Vegezzi had failed. Whereas the latter had based the negotiations on a comprehensive solution to the problem, thereby transferring it into the political sphere, T. preferred to leave every question of principle open and to discuss each individual diocese, thus reaching agreement in most of the cases considered. The conversations concerning the archdioceses of Milan and Turin were of particular importance: for Milan, the Holy See consented to the appointment of Msgr. Nazari di Calabiana, bringing to an end a vacancy that had lasted since 1859, while for Turin an agreement was reached on the promotion of Msgr. Riccardi di Netro, bishop of Biella. T. achieved equally positive results with regard to the no less important question of the property of the religious communities.
His mission failed, however, with regard to the Pope’s spontaneous renunciation of temporal power, which Ricasoli had instructed him to request confidentially from Pius IX.
The tact and expertise with which he had fulfilled his mandate won T., in addition to the gratitude of Vittorio Emanuele II, the Pope’s personal sympathy.
canon law. He subsequently taught exegesis at the diocesan Seminary of Reggio Emilia until his death, while also serving as a zealous parish priest of Bibbiano (1920), and later as archpriest of the Cathedral (from 1930). Consultor to the Biblical Commission (1935), he had been a domestic prelate since 1936.
He published: Odi di Salomone (Roma 1914); Matilda di Canossa (per il centenario della morte della grande Contessa, Reggio Emilia 1915); Gesù nella storia (Milano 1925); Il pensiero di s. Paolo (ivi 1928, Torino 1947); Il mandeismo e le origini cristiane