Pietro Antonio Maria Umberto Nosadini (Bassano del Grappa, August 15, 1862 – Padua, March 25, 1921) was an Italian Catholic priest and journalist.
He played a notable role in several parishes in Italy as a militant supporter of ultramontanism, founding many organizations. He spent a season in Brazil, in the early days of Italian immigration in Rio Grande do Sul, and is remembered for his short and tumultuous but remarkable period in Caxias do Sul, where he exercised a strong leadership in the Catholic community in one of the most troubled periods of the city's history, and for his pioneering work in the field of regional press. His role in the process of socio-political emancipation of the Italian settlers has also been noted, contributing, through the common bond of religion, to the union of dispersed and culturally conflicting groups, and to the creation of a collective identity where the settler was portrayed as a tireless, orderly, moral worker and promoter of progress and civilization.
Life
Early years
Pietro Nosadini came from an old family of Bassano del Grappa, which was added to the patriciate of Bassano in 1691Lettera Discorsiva di Anonimo Trivigiano con Appendice di Documenti per Servire di II Parte al Saggio di Memorie degli Uomini Illustri do Asolo. Pianta, 1782, pp. 30-31 and to the patriciate of Venice in 1694.Di Gualdana, Cavagna Sangiuliani. Dizionario Storico-Portatile di Tutte le Venete Patrizie Famiglie. Bettinelli, 1780, p. 115 He was the first of the four children of Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Nosadini and Catterina Capellari and a devout Catholic even before his ordination.Costamilan, Angelo Ricardo. Homens e Mitos na História de Caxias. Pozanato Arte & Cultura, 1989, pp. 187-396 He became involved in the activities of the Italian Catholic Youth, and was secretary of the Circle of Bassano-Veneto in 1884."La Gioventù Cattolica Italiana ai Piedi del Santo Padre Leone XIII". In: La Civiltà Cattolica, XXXVI (IX) serie 12, 1885, p. 262 According to Costamilan, he was also secretary of his parish between 1884 and 1889, and "in spite of his young age, his gifts of unusual intelligence and his enterprising genius were evident, as is shown in the historical books that cover the evolution of Catholic action in Italy". His work was noted and cited several times by the Vicenza Olympic Academy, which led him to give a speech on the Peter's Pence during the Vicenza Regional Conclave on August 20, 1889.
Shortly thereafter he joined the seminary of Ceneda, where he studied until 1894, then went to Rome, where he obtained a degree in Journalism. In Rome he was one of the founders of the Pious Union of St. John Berchmans, which aimed to form the spirit of young people from wealthy families within a pure Christian life. The society was approved by the Cardinal Vicar of Leo XIII on March 12, 1895, who appointed Nosadini as its first director. The association seems to have begun to flourish quickly, since a report of activities that Nosadini sent to the pope in July 1895 was answered with praise and encouragement for his work. He did not stay long in Rome because he had not yet taken his religious vows, which were only pronounced in Ceneda on March 25, 1896. He was then ordained a priest and began preparations for an apostolate in Brazil, in accordance with a life plan he had defined in Rome.
Activities in Caxias do Sul He arrived in Brazil shortly after his ordination, heading to Caxias do Sul, the nucleus of a prosperous Italian colony. His first record in the village is from May 22, 1896, already as coadjutor of Giovanni Battista Argenta, vicar of the St. Theresa's Cathedral. Shortly afterwards, on July 15, 1896, Nosadini succeeded Argenta in the parish administration, while José Cândido de Campos Júnior was the intendant. Linked to ultramontanism, Nosadini defended the primacy of the Church in all matters, both secular and religious, and fiercely opposed liberalism, scientism, positivism, Freemasonry, and other progressive philosophies. These disputes raged at the end of the 19th century both in Italy and in Brazil.Barros, Roque Spencer de. "Vida Religiosa". In: Holanda, Sérgio Buarque de. (org). História Geral da Civilização Brasileira. Tomo II, vol. 4. Difel, 1974, pp. 317-337Giron, Loraine Slomp. "Maçonaria x Igreja: luta pela hegemonia (2)". História Daqui, 21/03/2012Valduga, Gustavo. Paz, Itália, Jesus: uma identidade para imigrantes italianos e seus descendentes : o papel do jornal Correio Riograndense (1930-1945). EDIPUCRS, 2008, pp. 106-118Corrêa, Marcelo Armellini. "Antes católicos, depois austríacos e enfim italianos: a identidade católica dos imigrantes trentinos". In: XXVIII Simpósio Nacional de História. Florianópolis, 27-31/07/2015
Nosadini began his pastoral work by founding a series of committees in both urban and rural areas. These associations became known as Catholic Leagues and aimed to strengthen the influence of the Church in the region and to dissolve progressive currents, as well as to sustain the struggle for the return of the former Papal States to the Pope. According to Gustavo Valduga, Nosadini believed that all those who did not join the committees and refused them the sacraments were heretics, which led him to launch a campaign of civil disobedience against the determinations of the Public Power that went against the orthodox Catholic precepts. At the same time, he harshly criticized Campos' government and blamed Freemasonry for the state of tension and disorder that plagued the Italian colony, since the local population was massively Catholic, while Campos was Grand Master of the local masonic lodge Força e Fraternidade (English: Strength and Fraternity). Most of the main civil authorities of the village were also connected to Freemasonry, and the ideology of the Rio-grandense Republican Party, which was in the government of the state and also of the village, was aligned to positivism.Machado, Maria Abel. "Empresários na busca do poder político: acordos e conflitos. Caxias do Sul, 1894-1935". In: Primeiras Jornadas de História Regional Comparada. Porto Alegre, 23-25/08/2000
At the time, the priest denied the accusations cited by Valduga, claiming to be an obedient follower of the law that guided his followers to do the same, and saying that he had never refused the sacraments to any Catholic. In any case, it did not take long for his opinions to trigger strong opposition from the Intendency, which saw the priest as an inciter of revolts and an embarrassment to its purposes. Therefore, the confrontations and accusations between them multiplied, but Nosadini knew how to win the respect of the population in a short time. According to Maria Abel Machado, the priest was always a supporter of the people and spoke their language, receiving many public expressions of appreciation. He also earned the support of important local leaders, such as Caetano Costamilan, Salvador Sartori, João Michele, Antônio Moro, Luiz Michielin, Luiz Baldessarini, and Ambrósio Bonalume. According to Loraine Giron, the priest was a powerful force in organizing and unifying the Catholic community, and under his leadership "the Catholic movement gained strength and became feared". Eliana Alves and Márcia Sanocki consider that, in addition to the specifically religious aspect, the priest was an important agent in the early stages of the political emancipation process of the settlers and the formation of an immigrant elite, which began to dispute the power with the authorities of Luso-Brazilian origin, taking advantage, as Alves observed, of the gap created by the lack of harmony within the public administration itself, since the Intendency represented one part of the interests, and the Municipal Council, another. The Council itself was divided between Catholics and Masons, although the latter prevailed.Alves, Eliana Rela. Fides Nostra, Victorian Nostra: Os italianos católicos e o processo de aquisição do poder político na Intendência de Caxias (1890-1924). Dissertação de Mestrado. PUCRS, 1995, pp. 63-70Sanocki, Márcia. "Il Colono Italiano: comércio, imprensa e poder em Caxias no século XIX". In: Dreher, Martin Norberto (org). Imigração & Imprensa. EST, 2004, p. 551 Indeed, in a context in which the immigrants came from different Italian regions, were heirs of old cultural, social and political rivalries, and even spoke dialects that were sometimes almost incomprehensible to each other, religion was a decisive factor in uniting everyone around common goals.Seyferth, Giralda. "As identidades dos imigrantes e o melting pot nacional". In: Horizontes Antropológicos, 2000; 16 (14):143-176Corrêa, Marcelo Armellini. Dos Alpes do Tirol à Serra Gaúcha: a questão da identidade dos imigrantes trentinos no Rio Grande do Sul (1875-1918). Dissertação de Mestrado. UNISINOS, 2014, p. 12Valduga, p. 10 In the words of Alves:Nosadini served as an intellectual of the rural type, identified by Gramsci as a member linked to the peasant and petty-bourgeois social mass of the cities, who puts the peasant mass in contact with the state or local administration, which gives him a great political and social function. [...] Father Nosadini played exactly the role attributed to the intellectual of the rural type, because the organization of the Italian settlers, in order to request the resolution of their problems, started from his action. [...] During his period in Caxias do Sul, the priest mobilized the settlers around the committees in such a way that, at the slightest sign of discontent, the Catholics promoted manifestations of displeasure, always criticizing the administration.Despite the great support he had, the tension reached a critical point and ended in violence. Nosadini was warned by João de Barros Cassal, former police chief and member of the Governing Council of Rio Grande do Sul of 1891, that his life was in danger. In fact, he was attacked on February 8, 1897, when the parish house was surrounded by an armed band led by Guido Livi, Angelo Chitolina, and João Lorenzo Vigo, who shot at the residence, invaded it, stabbed, beat, and kidnapped the priest, taking him under a halter to a remote rural area, where he was put to death. However, his executioners changed their minds at the time and let him live, on the condition that he leave Caxias do Sul immediately. Once released, the priest went to the house of his friend Caetano Costamilan in the Loreto district to treat his wounds, and then took refuge in Nova Pádua.
At this point, the conflict that had settled in Caxias reached the state authorities, who began to interfere. The bishop of Rio Grande do Sul, Dom Cláudio Ponce de Leão, going against Campos' wishes, placed the priest in charge of the parish in Caxias do Sul, and took his decision to the state president Júlio de Castilhos, who ordered the intendant of Caxias do Sul to guarantee his full reinstatement in his functions, which would only occur a few months later. On June 14, 1897, a large caravan of supporters picked him up in Nova Pádua and brought him back to Caxias do Sul, where he was received with tributes, fireworks, and festivities organized by the Catholics.
After that, Campos and Nosadini tried to establish a friendly and cooperative dialogue, but the peace did not last long. On October 15, 1897 O Caxiense, the first newspaper of Caxias do Sul began to circulate, belonging to the organ of the Rio-grandense Republican Party and linked directly to the Intendency. Already in the first issue the priest was accused of harming the civic festivities celebrating the Italian Unification and the proclamation of the Riograndense Republic. A few days later, the Santa Cecilia Band, funded by the Municipality, began to perform in public the Papal Hymn, without proper justification, arousing Nosadini's indignation. Other attacks on the priest and the Catholic Leagues followed in successive editions of O Caxiense.