Introductory Notes to Carlo Passaglia S.J.’s Magazine Il Mediatore (1863). Political Education and Theology in Post-Unification Italy

Carlo Passaglia S.J. (1812–87) was a renowned theologian and a founding figure of the Jesuit periodical La Civiltà Cattolica (established in 1850). He also harbored a longstanding interest in the political struggle for Italian unification, advocating for the Pope to retain moral and spiritual supremacy while relinquishing temporal power. Expelled from the Society of Jesus in 1859, Passaglia sought refuge in Turin, where he became an active supporter of liberal Catholicism and its clerical faction. This article introduces the reader to Il Mediatore, a magazine directed by Passaglia in Turin from 1862 to 1866. Specifically, the article focuses on the columns written by Passaglia in 1863, just before and in the aftermath of Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus (December 1864).