UNION OF FRIBOURG. – An association among European Catholic scholars of social issues, established at the end of the last century, which, through periodic conferences held in Fribourg, sought to unite and direct their social tendencies toward a convergent path.
In Rome, especially through the initiative of Monsignor Domenico Jacobini (v.) MERMILLOD, GASPARD (v.), several other scholars of social economics gathered with the initial aim of research and discussion. Through Mermillod, a learned and vigorous polemicist, they established contact in 1883 with a group of French sociologists who directed the *Œuvre des cercles catholiques d'ouvriers*, and with another group of German Catholics who, under the Löwenstein (v.), were promoting their first congresses in Germany. This correspondence of studies and early organization was the origin of the Union of Fribourg, which in 1884 began its periodic international conferences, welcomed with favor by the government of that Catholic canton. To these meetings, de Mun (v.) recounted in masterful pages, Italian Catholics could not fail to be present. Among others were Marquis Lorenzo Bertini, Count Cesare Sardi, Monsignor Jacobini, Monsignor Talamo (v.), and Count Edoardo Soderini.
Noteworthy is the important role played among the Italians in the work of the Union of Fribourg by Count Medolago-Albani and Giuseppe Toniolo. Medolago (v.) was a member of the governing council and national correspondent of the Union; moreover, he served as president in 1886 of the Study Commission on the regulation of rural property, LÉRINS (v.) as rapporteur in 1887 on the state of social legislation in Italy, and was one of the most active members of the Commission on the corporative system. Giuseppe Toniolo (v.) contributed to the discussions and resolutions the fruit of his profound scientific preparation, especially regarding the program for the organization and representation of the working classes and the obligation of the State to intervene with appropriate legislation. These international conferences continued for several years, and each concluded with an address to the Holy Father, presenting the theses elaborated in the sessions and invoking from him a guiding word. Mermillod, by then Bishop of Geneva and a cardinal, acted as intermediary between Fribourg and the Vatican and kept Leo XIII informed, who followed the Union’s work with great attention. Similar appeals in those years reached the Pope from the International Scientific Congresses of Paris and the Social Works Congresses of Liège. These many hopes and prayers were not in vain, and on 15 May 1891 Leo XIII issued the encyclical *De conditione opificum* (*Rerum novarum* [v.]), which, condemning the theories of socialism and liberalism, laid out a new and complete Christian social program.