Il "fascista" mons. Alberto Costa e il presunto anti-fascista don Giuseppe De Giorgi nella Lecce del ventennio

Abstract

Fascism, during all twenty years in which it was at the helm of the Italian government, established relations with the Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy that were sometimes idyllic, sometimes risky in conflict. In terms of permeation, the fascist ideal never reached a total conquest of Catholic political and social thought; but it can not be denied, on the part of a large number of bishops and priests, the adherence sometimes without reserve to fascism and its Duce. Within the province and specifically of the Diocese of Lecce, Msgr. Alberto Costa, bishop of Lecce from 1929 to 1950, was a convinced supporter and an unyielding defender of the social and moral restoration brought by fascism in Italy. Next to the prelate, many were the priests who followed his example, including don Giuseppe De Giorgi. In those days, it/people made he look like anti-fascist to purely venal matters, but he knew how to defend himself against these accusations and was rehabilitated as a convinced supporter of fascism directly by Mussolini. The essay, thanks to the documentation preserved in the State Archives of Lecce, the Archives of the Archbishop's Curia and the Archbishop's Library "Innocenziana" of Lecce and examined, outlines the figure of the two prelates, convinced supporters of the fascist ideal.