Giuseppe Dalla Torre (journalist)

Giuseppe Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto (19 March 1885 – 17 October 1967) was an Italian journalist.

Biography

Giuseppe Dalla Torre was born in Padua. A descendant of an ancient family from Treviso that later moved to Rome. His main interests since youth included Catholic Action and journalism. He met Giuseppe Sacchetti (1845–1906), editor of the Voce della Verità, a daily newspaper of Veneto intransigentism. He attended schools in his home town; he participated in the local Catholic movement and was president of the diocesan youth federation.

After his first journalistic experiences, as a contributor to the Vicenza newspaper Il Berico and correspondent for the Florentine newspaper Unità cattolica (directed by Sacchetti), he was called to direct the new daily La Libertà (1909). In the same year, he graduated in law at the University of Padua.

The first issue of the newspaper was published in Padua on 15 December 1909. The newspaper stands out for being one of the first in the Veneto region to overcome the intransigentist positions of the Work of the Congress, the main Italian Catholic lay association. Thanks also to the visibility gained by the direction of Libertà, Dalla Torre became the diocesan president of Catholic Action in Padua (1911).

His name was brought to the attention of Pope Pius X who, in October 1912, appointed him to the presidency of the Popular Union. On the occasion of national assemblies of the Catholic movement (Unione popolare, Azione Cattolica, Settimana sociale), Dalla Torre made public speeches, agreed with the Holy See, in which he affirmed that the time of hostility between the State and the Catholic Church was coming to an end and that the two sides should come to a mutually satisfactory agreement.

In 1915 he was appointed by Benedict XV (who ascended the papal throne in 1914) as president of the steering committee of Catholic Action, a top body set up by the pontiff to coordinate the activities of the various lay Catholic organisations. When Italy entered World War I (May 1915), Dalla Torre enlisted as a volunteer. He was 30 years old. Under arms, an artillery officer in the area of operations, he fell ill with diabetes and had to return to civilian life.

After the end of the war (1919), Pope Benedict issued new directives to lay Catholics. He called upon Catholic Action to prepare consciences for the Christian restoration of society, outside and above political action. Dalla Torre was a protagonist of this new phase. In 1920 he was called to direct the Osservatore Romano, adding this position to that of president of the board of directors, which he had held since 1918.

His experience at the helm of the Holy See's unofficial newspaper lasted a good forty years (1920-1960), a historical period marked by profound upheavals in national public life. L'Osservatore Romano became the faithful interpreter of the papal magisterium, never yielding in the face of questions of principle. From the columns of the Vatican newspaper, Dalla Torre fought in defence of freedom of conscience against unwarranted political pretensions. Among the battles he sustained: the one on the education of the young (1920s); the one in 1931, when the Fascist government, by authoritatively disbanding Catholic Action, believed it was realising its ambitions; the refutation of Mario Missiroli's Given to Caesar (1929) with the essay Give to God (1930). In 1929, after the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty, Dalla Torre, at the request of the Vatican Secretariat of State, moved with his family to the new state and took citizenship.

The new editor wanted to increase the focus on the facts of world politics: in 1934 he entrusted the young Guido Gonella with a column commenting on international politics: thus Acta Diurna was born. The circulation of L'Osservatore increased to exceed that of any other Roman daily. The editor added an illustrated weekly, L'Illustrazione vaticana, to the daily newspaper. Within the weekly, the column "The International Fortnight" was edited by Alcide De Gasperi. During these years, Dalla Torre's name gained international resonance and prestige. From 1934 to 1960, he was president of the International Catholic Press Union. After the World War II, he was appointed a member of the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.

Throughout the 1930s Dalla Torre was closely followed by the political police as a figure hostile to the regime. With Italy's entry into the Second World War, there was a crackdown by the regime on L'Osservatore. The newspaper was not allowed to publish any communiqués on war operations, neither from Italy nor from any other nation involved in the conflict.

During the long months of the German occupation of Rome (September 1943 to May 1944), Dalla Torre defended the newspaper's independence. He managed to save several political persecuted persons. At the end of the conflict, the Rome Army Corps decorated him with the Military Cross.

After the wr, the L'Osservatore resumed its functions as papal paper. In 1960 he voluntarily resigned due to age limit (he was 75 years old). Appointed editor emeritus, he continued to attend the newspaper's editorial office as long as his strength permitted. Pope John XXIII awarded him the honour of Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Pope Pius IX.

He died at his home in Vatican City on 17 October 1967.

Private life

He was grandfather of the jurist Giuseppe Dalla Torre (1943–2020) and Giacomo dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto (1944–2020) who was, from 2018 until his death, Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Works

• Date a Dio (1930)
• I cattolici e la vita pubblica italiana (1864-1920) (1944)
• Azione cattolica e fascismo (1945)
• Memorie (1965)

References

• Alessandrini, Federico (1982). "Giuseppe Dalla Torre." In: Francesco Traniello & Giorgio Campanini, eds., Dizionario storico del movimento cattolico in Italia, Vol. 2. Casale Monferrato: Marietti, pp. 150–53.
• Brezzi, Paolo (1948). "Dalla Torre, Giuseppe, conte di Sanguinetto." In: Enciclopedia Italiana, II Appendice. Roma: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
• Malgeri, Francesco (1986). "Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, Giuseppe." In: Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Vol. 32. Roma: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.