Umberto Benigni

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Umberto Benigni

Umberto Benigni (born March 30, 1862 in Perugia , † February 27, 1934 in Rome ) was a priest and church historian who worked in or for the Vatican.

biography

He was the son of a city official and attended the seminary in Perugia as a child , where he was ordained a priest in 1884 and from 1885 was a lecturer in church history . In addition, Benigni became active in church journalism at an early age: first in his home region, from 1893 as editor-in-chief of the Catholic daily L'Eco d'Italia also nationwide. His contributions were based on the social doctrine of Leo XIII. When tensions arose with Tommaso Reggio , Archbishop of Genoa , he moved to Rome in 1895, where he initially carried out historical research as an assistant to the Vatican Library . In 1900 he became an employee of the Vatican journal La Voce della Verità; In 1901 he took over its management. In 1901 Benigni also became a professor of church history at the " Seminarium Romanum ". One of his students was at times Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli . Teaching positions at other Roman training centers were added, as was the establishment of the journal Miscellanea di storia ecclesiastica e studi ausiliari in 1902 (for example: miscellaneous things from church history and auxiliary studies).

During Benigni's teaching activities, many textbooks and special studies were created that reveal hard work, erudition, a special interest in the Christian Orient and above all in church social history (main work: Storia sociale della chiesa , 7 volumes from 1907). From 1902 Benigni also took over offices at the Roman Curia : in 1906 he was appointed Undersecretary of the "Congregation for the Extraordinary Affairs of the Church", which was assigned to the State Secretariat under Cardinal Secretary of State Rafael Merry del Val (1865–1930). Benigni was active here during the reign of Pius X. This was shaped by the action against modernism (1907 encyclical “ Pascendi Dominici gregis ”, 1910 “ Anti-modernist envy ”). Benigni set up a Vatican reading room for the press ; there journalists were supplied with selected information materials (from 1907 the daily bulletin La Correspondenza di Roma , from 1909 to 1912 La Correspondance de Rome [ND in 3 volumes with a preface by E. Poulat, Milan 1971]; 1913-14 Cahiers romains [Roman books] ). In this way, Benigni managed to gain a variety of direct and indirect influence.

In addition, Benigni established a conspiratorial network of priests and laypeople throughout Western Europe who informed him about theologians, Catholic writers and cultural workers who were suspected of modernism. The network had various sub-associations. This secret society and intelligence service was called " Sodalitium Pianum " (known in France as "La Sapinière") and had a formal statute.

Cardinal Secretary of State del Val prevented a canonical establishment of the covenant and showed a certain distance from Benigni's activities. Not least in Germany there was a protest against an "integralist conspiracy" operating in this way. In 1911, Benigni and his organization left the structure of the State Secretariat at his own request. From the inauguration of Benedict XV. in March 1914 and the beginning of World War I , Benigni's influence waned. In 1921 the responsible congregation dissolved the sodalitium; the reason she cited "changed circumstances".

Benigni was increasingly isolated within the church and in the last years of his life he approached the fascist movement (1923 founding of the "Entente romaine de défence sociale"). In her he saw an ally for his anti-modernist and anti-liberal goals.

1926–1929 he published the work Meurtre rituel chez les Juifs ( ritual murders among the Jews) (according to Hagemeister, 2017, the author is Erwin Brandt, so wrongly assigned here).

In 1934 Benigni died in Rome.

Most of today's church historians judge his work and his personality very negatively. His intelligence, his hard work and his organizational talent are recognized, while his anti-Semitism, the calculating coolness of his character and the conspiratorial approach against internal church opponents are criticized. In research it remains controversial to what extent Pius X. Benigni's work knew and approved in detail. Benigni's estate in the Vatican Archives is closed to research.

Others

Eugenio Pacelli, later (March 1939 to October 1958) Pope Pius XII. , became Undersecretary of Pietro Gasparri in March 1911 and his secretary on February 1, 1914, succeeding Umberto Benigni. Whether Pacelli was also involved in the Sodalitium Pianum is controversial.

Benigni saw in the Rhinelander Hermann Cardauns (1847-1925), the leading Catholic publicist of the Kulturkampf time, “a danger to German Catholicism”.

Works

  • Meurtre rituel chez les Juifs , Belgrade, 1926–1929.
  • Miscellanea di Storia e Cultura Ecclesiastica , 1906
  • Storia Sociale della Chiesa

See also

bibliography

  • Gérard Bavoux: Le porteur de lumière. Les arcanes noirs du Vatican. Pygmalion, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-85704-488-7 .
  • Fergus Corry: In the Vanguard of Catholic Anti-Modernism, 1907-21. Sodalitium Pianum, La Correspondance de Rome and Mgr. Umberto Benigni. Toronto 1995 (unpublished master's thesis, Regis College and University of Toronto 1995).
  • Roland Götz: "Charlotte in the Tannenwald". Monsignor Umberto Benigni (1862–1934) and the anti-modernist “Sodalitium Pianum”. In: Manfred Weitlauff , Peter Neuner (Ed.): For you Bishop - with you Christ. Festschrift for Friedrich Cardinal Wetter on his seventieth birthday. EOS-Verlag, St. Ottilien 1998, ISBN 3-88096-292-8 , pp. 389-438.
  • Maria Teresa Pichetto: L'antisemitismo di mons. Umberto Benigni e l'accusa di omicidio rituale. In: Italia Judaica. Gli Ebrei nell'Italia unita 1870-1945 (= Pubblicazioni degli Archivi di Stato. Saggi 26). Atti del IV Convegno Internazionale Siena 12-16 July 1989. Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali, Ufficio Centrale per i Beni Archivistici, Rome 1993, ISBN 88-7125-059-1 , pp. 431-444.
  • Émile Poulat : Catholicisme, démocratie et socialisme. Le mouvement catholique et Mgr Benigni de la naissance du socialisme à la victoire du fascisme. Casterman, Tournai 1977, ISBN 2-203-29054-4 .

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Lawrence Elliott: John XXIII. The life of a great Pope . Herder, Freiburg 1974, ISBN 3-451-16939-8 , p. 33.
  2. ↑ a b Michael Hagemeister : The "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in court. The Bern Trial 1933–1937 and the “Anti-Semitic International” . Zurich: Chronos, 2017, ISBN 978-3-0340-1385-7 . Short biography, p. 513
  3. ↑ Hubert Wolf : Pope & Devil. The Archives of the Vatican and the Third Reich. 2nd, revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-57742-0 , pp. 42-47.
personal data
SURNAME Benigni, Umberto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian priest and church historian
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Perugia
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1934
Place of death Rome