Today, few politicians have a
reputation for ethics far less holiness, but after WWII, there cropped up men
who would have a lasting effect on their country. We
have seen Venerable Robert Schuman (French), the Italians, Servant of God Alcide
DeGaspari, the foe of fascism, Servant of God Father Luigi Sturzo, the priest politician, and Venerable Giorgio
La Pira, the lay Dominican.
SERVANT
OF GOD ALDO ROMEO MORO was born in 1916.
He rose to be a prominent statesman and politician as a member of the Christian
Democrat Party, eventually becoming the 38th Prime
Minister of Italy from 1963 to 1968 and again from 1974 to 1976.
Known
as one of Italy’s longest serving Prime Misters in modern times, Aldo Moro is
also considered the Father of the Italian “left of center” politics and a very
popular leader in the Italian Republican history. An intellectual by
temperament and education, he was known as a mediator, especially within his
own political party as well as with the Italian Communist Party of his time.Aldo
Moro implemented a series of social and economic reforms that
modernized the country. Due to his accommodation with the Italian Communist Party leader Enrico
Berlinguer, known as the Historic Compromise, Moro is widely
considered to be one of the most prominent fathers of the modern Italian center-left.
On
March 16, 1978 Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the radical “Red Brigade” and killed after
fifty-five days of captivity, on May 9th.. His body was
found in a parked red car on a street in the center of Rome, not far from the
church of Gesu, also near the headquarters of both the Christian Democratic
Party and the Italian Communist Party.
He
was born near Lecce in the Apulia region (southeast) of Italy. He studied law at
the University of Bari, where he later taught philosophy of Law, colonial
policy and criminal Law. At the age of twenty, in 1935, he joined the Catholic
University Students’ Association in Bari. (Photo: with his brother Alberto, on left, who died in 1944)
Four
years later, with the approval of Msgr. Giovanni Battista Montoni, who later
became Pope (St.) Paul VI, Aldo Moro was chosen as president of the Catholic
University’s Students’ association, a post he kept until 1942, when he was succeeded
by Guilio Andreotti, another important Italian politician.
Initially
interested in social democratic policies, eventually Aldo Moro’s Catholic faith
and convictions directed him toward the newly founded Christian Democrat Party.
There he befriended Guiseppe Dossetti, another prominent politician who in
later life was founder of a Catholic religious community near Bologna.
In
1942 Aldo Moro married Eleonara Chiavarelli, when they were both about 36 years
old. They had four children, three girls and one boy.
Aldo
Moro was also an active part of Catholic Action, which was a strong lay
movement in Italian Catholic culture and the seedbed for many religious and
priestly vocations.
Eventually Aldo Moro became vice-president of the Christian Democrats and took part in an
editing of the Italian Constitution. In 1948 he was elected to the Italian
Parliament and remained active in politics until his death. During his first
term as Prime Minister of Italy beginning in 1963, his political career
promoted housing for the poorer sectors of society as well as education
initiatives for students of all ages.
The
minimum wage was raised during his time as Prime Minister and pensions for
seniors were promoted. Health care was also a concern of his. He was considered
a tenacious leader and mediator between varying political parties of the day. He also worked to integrate young people, women and laborers into ordinary
Italian life. The need for democracy was a constant theme in his political
approach.
When
in 1978 the militant far-left organization known as the “Red Brigade” abducted
Aldo Moro off a street in Rome, he was not immediately harmed, but police and
bodyguards accompanying him, five in number, were murdered by his abductors.
At the time he was kidnapped Aldo Moro was heading to parliament for
a crucial vote on a ground-breaking alliance he had proposed between the
Christian Democrats and the Italian Communists. Both parties had strong
objections, even abhorrence, about the alliance. Both Moscow and Washington,
DC, were also apparently unhappy about the proposal.
A general strike was carried out in Italy during the Prime Minister’s
abduction in 1978 and searches for him took place in Rome, Milan and Turin.
During the almost two months of his captivity, he was allowed to correspond
some with family and friends. Attempts were made to have him released but his kidnappers would not move. Even Pope Paul VI, who had known Aldo Moro for
decades, offered himself in exchange for Aldo.
The Red Brigade had a private trial and Aldo Moro was found guilty
and sentenced to death. The kidnappers sent out demands that unless sixteen Red
Brigade members were released from prison, he would be killed. Terrorist
demands were not met and Aldo Moro was ultimately shot ten times, then left in the
trunk of a red Renault that was parked on Via Michaelangelo Caetani on May 9, 1978. The place seemed carefully selected, as
midway between the headquarters of the Italian Communists and the Christian
Democrats.Though
largely forgotten today outside Italy, the kidnapping and death of Aldo Moro marked
an important turning point in contemporary Catholic history, one whose
consequences are still being felt. For the Catholic church, the fallout from
the Moro affair was immense. Combined with Italy’s adoption of a liberal
abortion law in early 1978, the Moro affair helped to seal a growing alienation
between the church and the secular left – forces that in the years immediately
after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) had seemed to be moving towards
detente.
While
Aldo Moro is not presently being considered for canonization as our past
politicians of the same era, he certainly was “one of the good ones”.
.