Roman Union

UNIONE ROMANA. — Association of Roman Catholic electors, active in the municipal elections of the City of Rome from 1872 to 1919.

When the Holy See forbade Italian Catholics to participate in political elections and to hold parliamentary office, it permitted and indeed recommended active involvement in the administration of municipalities and provinces, even in alliance with men of another party who could be relied upon to maintain just and loyal relations between the bodies represented and respect for the religious conscience of the populations. Associations of Catholic electors therefore arose in many cities, and the first alliances with the party known as the moderates or conservatives produced excellent results, freeing several municipalities from the domination of the radical party, that is, of liberalism subservient to the Masonic sect.

In July 1872—almost contemporaneously with the beginning of the Opera dei Congressi (v.)—L'Osservatore Romano published the appeal of a Catholic electoral committee for the defence of the moral interests and religious sentiments of the Urbs. The promoters of this U. R. were the directors of the Roman Catholic newspapers (L'Osservatore Romano, La Voce della Verità, Lo Squillo), namely the Marquis of Bavaria, Pietro Pacelli, and Filippo Tolli. They were joined by Count Francesco Vespiagani, Msgr. Domenico Iacobini, the lawyer Jacouci, the lawyer Jacometti, Professor Burri, the lawyer Benucci, and others among the leading figures of Catholic Action. The U. R. set out to bring to the Capitoline men who represented the Roman people and protected the interests of the Urbs.

The sectarian newspapers sounded the alarm against the so-called “clericals, enemies of the fatherland,” but the new organization was highly successful and the first result promising. The Catholics elected on the U. R. list formed a minority group in which men of authority distinguished themselves

personally, and men of great worth, who, besides Vespignani, Tolli and Pacelli, included Soderini and Crispolti, De Rossi, Marucchi and Aureli. They were fiercely opposed and branded as adversaries of the constitution of the Kingdom, with Rome as its capital, although on many difficult occasions they had demonstrated wise cooperation for civic interests, as well as a keen desire for an equitable agreement between the Holy See and the Italian State. In 1895, together with the moderate party, they won a majority and wisely maintained their position even in difficult circumstances, especially during the administrations of Ruspoli and Torlonia.

In the general elections of November 1907, a so-called popular bloc was formed between the radical socialists and the leading representatives of Freemasonry, with an anticlerical political program that extended beyond the sphere of those governing the Municipality; Ernesto Nathan, head of Freemasonry, was elected mayor of Rome. U. R. had resolved to abstain from voting and published a manifesto explaining the reasons for this decision to the citizens, who did not deny the high moral value and appropriateness of the act. Indeed, after a short interval, in the by-elections the Catholics returned in large numbers to the Council, with brilliant results that were subsequently repeated time and again. In August 1909, a Commission composed of Commendatore Paolo Pericoli, Dr. Mario Cingolani and Dr. L. Cochetti was appointed to direct and reorganize U. R. In March 1912, Prince Don Giovanni Borghese was elected president. When the Italian Popular Party arose, U. R. dissolved itself (1919) and was reconstituted in 1924, under the auspices of the Centro nazionale; but it lasted only a short time.

BBL.: the archives of U. R. have been dispersed. Cf. the Cronache della Civ. Catt. for the following years: 1907, IV, p. 614; 1909, III, p. 611; 1912, I, p. 741; E. Soderini, Il pontificato di Leone XIII, II, Milano 1933; Amicus, Gli operai della vigna - Filippo Crispolti. Note biografiche, Roma 1943, passim. Agostino Vian