Ernesto Balducci

Ernesto Balducci (6 August 1922 – 25 April 1992) was an Italian Catholic priest and peace activist.

Biography Balducci was born in Santa Fiora, Tuscany, Italy as the eldest of four children.

When he was twelve, his father was laid off and the Scolopi, a Catholic religious order dedicated to the education of the poor, offered him a free place in seminary. He studied theology at Rome, then Letters and Philosophy at Florence. He was ordained as a priest in 1945 and was part of the Piarist religious institute.

Work in Florence

The foundation of the Centro d'Impegno Cristiano "Cenacolo" (Centre for Christian Commitment) in 1952 gave him the chance to intensify both his friendship with the charismatic mayor of Florence Giorgio La Pira, and his relationship with the author-priest Lorenzo Milani and the disciples of Jacques Maritain, known as the 'Little Brothers'. In 1958 Balducci founded the monthly review Testimonianze ("Testimonies"),

Campaigning

He campaigned against the grounds of war, both before and after the Gulf War, and used the five hundredth anniversary in 1992 of the Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Americas, as the occasion to put the very foundations of modernity in question, and these campaigns became a point of reference for the large Italian peace movement.

It was while returning from one of these debates that Ernesto Balducci was involved in a car accident. including:

Francesco d’Assisi John: The Transitional Pope Urge una escuela para la paz

Legacy The Ernesto Balducci Foundation was founded in 1995. These issues included international conflict, the nuclear threat and global ecology.