ZILERI DAL VERME, ROBERTO. – Italian Catholic deputy and organizer, born in Rome on 25 October 1858, died in Vicenza on 28 February 1937.
He was among the first to take part in the Catholic movement. He distinguished himself particularly through the activity of the « Niccolò Tommaso » for the Christian renewal of the school. He also served as president of Catholic production and workers’ cooperatives. Elected mayor of Vicenza in 1896—the first Catholic-party mayor in a provincial capital—he administered the city with great distinction and firmly stood up to his opponents. In July 1897, Minister di Rudini, who was initiating an anticlerical policy, dissolved the municipal council. After a few years Z. returned to the municipality with the clerical-moderate majority, as councillor for Public Works. He was also a provincial councillor on several occasions. He served as a volunteer for the independence of the Boers in South Africa, and in the unfortunate attempt to restore the monarchy in Portugal. On the occasion of the Calabrian-Sicilian earthquake of December 1908, he was among the first to arrive at the scene, and b. Pio X, who knew him well, entrusted him with many relief assignments. For a long time after that disaster, he worked with the servant of God d. Orione to collect orphans. During the Libyan War and the First World War, although advanced in age, he volunteered with the Red Cross in the most exposed ambulances, and subsequently presided in Vicenza over the Opera nazionale per l’assistenza civile e religiosa agli orfani di guerra. At the same time he retained his position in Catholic Action, presiding over the diocesan committee. When the Italian Popular Party arose in 1919, he immediately joined it and was elected deputy for a constituency in the Vicenza area for the XXV legislature. A sincere supporter of the Conciliation, he expressed his joy at the Lateran Pacts of 1929.