EDITORIAL
from issue no. 11 - 2006
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Dossetti
With references from Father Gemelli, from Milan arrived Professor Giuseppe Dossetti, holder of the chair of Ecclesiastical Law at the Catholic University. The “wind from the North”, which we had not noticed up to that moment, blew with great intensity. Without beating about the bush Dossetti described the central apparatus as «out of date» and the peripheral structures as inadequate
Giulio Andreotti
Giuseppe Dossetti
Who was Dossetti?
The secret of the success of the Christian Democrat party in the early post-war years depended a great deal on the possibility for young people to enter a situation that – except for the change of name – was controlled by the surviving members of the Italian Popular Party. Not only the president De Gasperi, but men such as Scelba, Spataro, Piccioni, made us feel at ease, preventing us – here I speak about my personal experience – from being traumatized by joining an assembly in Montecitorio (the National Consultation of September 1945) that included giants such as Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, Benedetto Croce, Francesco Saverio Nitti, Ivanoe Bonomi and Pietro Calamandrei.
We were promoted “seniors” and there was remarkable harmony at party headquarters, only in part shaken by the independent-minded Giovanni Gronchi.
In that situation, with references from Father Gemelli, from Milan arrived Professor Giuseppe Dossetti, holder of the chair of Ecclesiastical Law at the Catholic University. The “wind from the North”, which we had not noticed up to that moment, blew with great intensity. Without beating about the bush Dossetti described the central apparatus as «out of date» and the peripheral structures as inadequate.
I must however say that he devoted much attention to the youth groups and suggested greater visibility in the world. He gave a very fine speech to one of our meeting in the Volturno theater and at the end led a procession – a novelty for us – that marched singing Bianco Fiore all along Via Nazionale down to party headquarters.
From the Catholic University he invited two other colleagues to work for the DC in Rome: Amintore Fanfani and Giuseppe Lazzati. He got public relations – central and peripheral – entrusted to the former in a completely new scheme. At first Professor Fanfani had the role of senior official but immediately criticized the inadequacy of our arrangements. He said it was wishful thinking to hope to face and beat the Communists with a Catholic Action type of voluntary work. It was certainly a correct observation and perspective; but De Gasperi more than once showed concern at the cost of an organization of the kind.
But the “professors” didn’t only fill the role of Martha because they made a very remarkable contribution to the work of the Constituent Assembly.
They lived in a shared apartment close to the Chiesa Nuova. Rome is an extraordinary city, the Vallicellian basilica, the Chiesa Nuova, continues to be called “New Church” after so many centuries. And will continue to be so. I have mentioned Father Gemelli. We members of the FUCI, the Federation of Italian Catholic University Students, perhaps with the nonchalance of youth, didn’t invite him to chair our study groups because we considered him too accommodating with the fascist regime especially in support of corporativism. Later I was to change my attitude. It was he who explained to me the necessity of a modus vivendi with the Ministry of National Education. And for that matter the Catholic University had come into being by the decision of the minister Benedetto Croce and, after a four year trial, had been definitely approved by Giovanni Gentile.
Dossetti and his friends constituted the first “current” within the Christian Democrat party. It seemed that currents served the circulation of ideas (the phrase came from Nicola Pistelli, promoter of the one known as the Base, backed by Enrico Mattei and strongly opposed by Don Sturzo).
The president of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano with the presidents of Lower House and Senate, Fausto Bertinotti and Franco Marino, and the president of the Constitutional Court, Franco Bile, 5 December 2006 at Montecitorio Palace during the study day on “Giuseppe Dossetti at the Constituent Assembly and in Italian politics”
Only personal intervention by Pius XII convinced the Catholic world and almost all the Dossettians to withdraw from opposition to the idea of a military pact. There was also concern not to allow the Left to monopolize opposition to the Atlantic Alliance.
I have kept the draft of a letter that I sent to President De Gasperi in support of his idea of bringing the Dossettians firmly into the common effort of our party.
Many “seniors” did not agree with this opening and when in 1953 the trajectory of De Gaspari’s government ended – through betrayal by the minor allied parties – they did not back De Gasperi himself in the election to the chairmanship of the party.
The Dossettian group, however, had had some internal divisions also, when Fanfani joined the government against Dossetti’s wishes. Light is thrown on that critical moment in the pages of the La Pira-Fanfani correspondence. The editors of the collection may not have understood it; and I pointed it out when launching the volume in Siena.
However Dossetti’s political vocation gradually waned to the point of convincing him that it was not the will of God and that his task, taken up in the underground Committee of Liberation in Reggio Emilia, had reached its end. The party lost an essential contribution. He had busied himself not only with laws and large-scale issues, but dealt with decision and diligence also with the quest for solutions and specific problems.
As an example let me recall a meeting in which he got me to participate as undersecretary. It was a moment of crisis in the Reggio Emelia parmesan market and a solution had to be found. He explained in detail that the stocks were creating problems also for the banks that accepted them as guarantee. The government had to intervene and without delay.
Leaving Rome and central politics he wanted to take up his priestly vocation without delay, but the cardinal archbishop Giacomo Lercaro convinced him to offer himself as candidate mayor of the city of Bologna, historic stronghold of the Italian Communist Party
Leaving Rome and central politics he wanted to take up his priestly vocation without delay, but the cardinal archbishop Giacomo Lercaro convinced him to offer himself as candidate mayor of the city of Bologna, historic stronghold of the Italian Communist Party.
Let me say incidentally that Dozza, the mayor, had an ongoing relationship with the minister Scelba, who once – receiving him at Ministry of the Interior – phoned me to stir up the sports federation in a case relating to the city stadium, complaining about delays.
Maybe whoever suggested to the cardinal the idea of Dossetti’s candidacy was thinking that the city that boasts (except for the challenge of the Sorbonne) the oldest university in Europe would rejoice at the idea of having a professor with chair as mayor.
On the other hand “Dozza” Bologna had more than a lead on “doctoral” Bologna. Nor were Dossetti’s electoral sermons on the reduction of consumption and similar topics of any help.
The path of the priesthood was clearly by then what the Lord wanted from him. He undertook it with a particular sensibility for the Holy Places and Scripture. The small cenacle – so very different from the Community of the Chiesa Nuova – became a reserved spiritual and cultural haven for many people, even distant ones.
I saw him for the last time at a commemoration of Cardinal Lercaro in Bologna. He had a hermit’s look in his cassock. He was very affectionate with me and spoke about his apostolic work with calm depth.
The passage in the Gospel came to mind in which the optima pars is considered that of contemplation. But in his years in Rome Dossetti had, as I have already suggested, also taken the part of Martha with great dedication.
