by Marco Zabotti*
Exactly 180 years after the birth of Giuseppe Toniolo, which took place in Treviso on March 7, 1845, the extraordinary relevance of the “thought -action” of the insigne teacher Treviso – the first economist in history to rise to the honors of the altars as Blessed – stands out with particular importance in the life of the Church and the country. The celebrations for this special anniversary Tonioliano take on great value and meaning, to reiterate the ecclesial and civil community the validity in today and tomorrow of a really exemplary lesson and life.
Secular holiness, thought and action
University professor of political economy for forty years in Pisa, who died in 1918 and buried in the Cathedral of Pieve di Soligo, a native town of his wife Maria Schiratti, Giuseppe Toniolo – officially blessed since 2012 – is a recognized model of human and Christian virtues. “I want to make myself holy” It was his intent of life, from a very young age. His spiritual diary is a mirror and confirmation of this daily commitment, in the life of Brushing, father of seven children (three died at an early age), university professor and educator of young people, tireless animator and authoritative guide of the Catholic movement between the late ‘800 and early 1900s, theoretical of the primacy of ethics in economics, cooperation and social democracy, consultant of Leo XIII for the encyclical “rerum” Novarum “of 1891, man of Catholic action and president of the Popular Union, founder of international magazines and studies (Pistoia, 1907), supporter of the birth of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, standard bearer of the possible establishment of a” Catholic Institute of International Law “for Peace (1917).
Salt and light
“The blessed Giuseppe Toniolo was salt and light that shines, capable of translating the Gospel into a cultural project at the service of man”: in the words of the Patriarch of Venice, Francesco Moraglia, we find the profound reasons for the greatness of this secular saint, a man of indomitable hope and extraordinary vision of the future. They stand out the primacy of God and the unifying synthesis in the life of a man always faithful to the vocation of Christian secular, proper to those who treat temporal things and orders them according to God. Salt and light, with a presence that knows how to discern, thinks and proposes, activates, builds communion, assumes the responsibilities in full. Here is the topicality of Toniolo: a true Christian, who does not hesitate or discourage, does not adapt to current mentality, does not fear modernity, but knows how to face with creativity and foresight the cultural, economic and social novelties of his time with the deep gaze and concrete, positive, competent and reforming action. A total, integral, “popular” holiness, “next door”, as Pope Francis points out in his apostolic exhortation “Gaudete et exsulati” on the call for everyone to be saints.
Pieve di Soligo, the city of Blessed Toniolo
Blessed Toniolo has always been very tied to the city of the Piave Quartier: here he joined in marriage with Maria Schiratti on September 4, 1878, lived summer periods in the house of Piazza Umberto I, was active at the service of the cooperative economy of the territory and wanted his last earthly home, because so, he said, “the humble will come to lay a rouquel about my tomb”. And always here the miracle of Francesco Bortolini’s healing for his intercession, recognized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, took place. Already for the whole time of the recovery of the national and diocesan cause of beatification of the servant of God Giuseppe Toniolo, between the last fifteen year of the last century and the whole first period of the new millennium, the city of Pieve di Soligo has hosted important celebrations, conferences and events in the field Cultural and training put in place by the diocese of Vittorio Veneto to encourage Toniolo’s knowledge and devotion. AND Here today the diocesan institute “Blessed Toniolo is located. The streets of the saints “, which since 2017 operates primarily to encourage the path to the canonization of Blessed and is engaged with many activities on the ecclesial, cultural and social front. In particular, it proposes the Giuseppe Toniolo prize, now in 2025 at its tenth edition, and in these days it is developing important news on the level of web communication and initiatives on culture and beauty, also sponsoring books and publications. During this year, then, the IBT will collaborate with the parish of the Duomo Santa Maria Assunta for various events scheduled because the Pievigino Cathedral will be a jubilee church, precisely in the sign of Toniolo, from 4 September (liturgical memory of Blessed) to 7 October 2025 (anniversary of death).
Giuseppe Toniolo symbol and patron of a new Christian humanism
Compared to the great planetary themes of participation, of social democracy and a new economic model, more and more at the center of the reflection and the urgency of concrete choices, we can look at Giuseppe Toniolo as an icon and fruitful symbol of life lived in the service of the common good, fueled to the roots of the profound values of freedom, justice and solidarity towards all. As he recently put black on white Toniolo paper Presented in Pieve di Soligo on IBT initiative, shared by various pastoral, economic and social subjects of the territory, a series of essential values and lines of action inspired by Blessed Toniolo are extraordinarily current, capable of giving answers of meaning, life and hope to men and women today. Here they are: fullness of life; the person at the foundation; support for families; centrality of school, culture and training; primacy of ethics in economics; Company and work for everyone safely; new corporate and community welfare; cooperation in modernity; social democracy and subsidiarity; intermediate bodies protagonists; the necessary peace; participation in the common good. In the year of the Jubilee of hope, here is Giuseppe Toniolo patron of a new Christian humanism at the height of the new challenges of culture, economy and society of our time.
*Scientific Director Diocesan Institute “Blessed Toniolo. The streets of the saints “
