Giorgio La Pira

Giorgio La Pira, TOSD (Raimondo in religious life; 9 January 1904 – 5 November 1977) was an Italian Catholic politician who served as the mayor of Florence. La Pira belonged to the Third Order of Saint Dominic. From 1934 until his death, he lived in the San Marco complex.

La Pira was a staunch advocate for peace and made several trips to the East to places such as China and the Soviet Union, which were sometimes deemed to be controversial in the Cold War era. Those trips were undertaken to discuss peace ventures and ends to conflict with La Pira also prioritizing ecumenism as a reason for visiting Moscow where he often met with members of the Russian Orthodox Church. La Pira's cause for sainthood opened in the 1980s, and he was a Servant of God. He became titled as Venerable on 5 July 2018 when Pope Francis confirmed that he had lived a life of heroic virtue.

Life Education La Pira was born on 9 January 1904 in Pozzallo, Ragusa, Sicily, to a Sicilian packing-house worker. He was the first of six children born to Gaetano La Pira (1870–1937) and Angela Occhipinti (1876–1943). He was baptized on the following 7 February with his maternal uncle Luigi (1880–1973) as his godfather. His maternal aunt was Settimia Machi Bartolini (1888–1945). His siblings were Salvatore (1905–1975), Giuseppina (1908–1990), Giovannino (1912–2003), Maria Cristina (1913–1980), and Ernesto (1915–2005). One close friend was Salvatore Quasimodo, who was a future Nobel prize-winner for literature, and another friend was Giuseppe Lazzati. He often read Dante Alighieri as well as Plato and Saint Thomas More. La Pira attended the Giacinto Pandolfi school from 1909 to 1913 as part of his education and entered the Antonello Technical-Commercial College from 1914 until 1917.

On 1 November 2004, Pope John Paul II sent a letter to Cardinal Ennio Antonelli for the occasion of the centennial of La Pira's birth and recalled La Pira's "great intellectual and moral energy, strengthened and refined by extensive daily study, thought, ascesis and prayer". The pope further praised La Pira for his fusion of politics and faith while remembering that La Pira liked the motto contemplate aliis tradere which he had learned from Saint Thomas Aquinas. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – future Pope Benedict XVI – hailed La Pira in an address to the National Association of Italian Local Authorities on 26 April 2004 as "an eminent figure in politics" who "worked for the cause of fraternal existence among nations" and attempted to promote the "basic good in various spheres" of life whether it be politics or culture.

The centennial of La Pira's birth was celebrated at the palace of Montecittorio on 25 February 2004, in which former prime minister and La Pira's good friend Giulio Andreotti gave an address to those gathered. Andreotti said that the former King of Morocco Hassan II had asked him whether – as a Muslim – he could give witness in La Pira's canonization cause since the king had been fascinated with La Pira's long-sightedness. The king had met La Pira at his cell in San Marco, and La Pira's humble nature fascinated Hassan II more so. Andreotti was once in China on the banks of the River Kwai at a convent where a nun had asked him: "How is La Pira?"

Beatification process The cause for La Pira's beatification commenced in Florence in a diocesan phase that Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli inaugurated on 9 January 1986 and which Cardinal Ennio Antonelli closed two decades later on 4 April 2005. This diocesan process was charged with hearing witness testimonies – which included Hassan II of Morocco – and collecting documents relating to La Pira's life and works. This also included his published and unpublished writings, which required theological approval in order to see if there was a potential contravention of doctrine in them. The formal introduction to the cause came under Pope John Paul II on 22 February 1986, once the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official edict of "nihil obstat" (nothing against) to the cause and titled La Pira as a Servant of God. Upon the closure of the diocesan process, all documents were sealed in boxes to be sent to the C.C.S. in Rome for assessment, where the congregation validated this process on 24 October 2007. The official Positio dossier was submitted to the C.C.S. for assessment in 2017. Pope Francis confirmed La Pira's life of heroic virtue on 5 July 2018 and named him as Venerable. The postulator for this cause was the Dominican priest Gianni Festa.

Electoral history ElectionHouseConstituencyPartyVotesResult 1946 Constituent Assembly DC 10,879 1948 Chamber of Deputies Florence–Pistoia DC 21,231 Elected 1958 Chamber of Deputies Florence–Pistoia DC 35,016 Elected 1976 Chamber of Deputies Florence–Pistoia DC 35,175 Elected Source: Elezioni Storico