Italian American Herald - September 2019

ACHIEVERS
Consul General in Philadelphia is no stranger to life in great cities
PAGE 5
VINI D’ITALIA
Everything ends with bread and wine — even the Last Supper
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LOCAL
An evening of opera to support cancer research in Rehoboth Beach
PAGE 13 SEPTEMBER 2019
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Painting depicts the breach of Porta Pia, when Piedmontese infantry corps of Bersaglieri breached the Aurelian Walls and entered Rome.
Capture of Rome came in September, 149 years ago
By Jeanne Outlaw-Cannavo
Though in Italy there are no national legal holidays in September, there is a very significant date in September that marks a special event in Italian history. It was actually on Sept. 20 that the “capture of Rome” took place, which was the final event of the long process of Italian unification known as the Risorgimento, marking both the final defeat of the Papal States under Pope Pius IX and the unification of the Italian peninsula under King Victor Emmanuel II of the House of
Savoy. The capture of Rome on Sept. 20, 1870, ended the approximate 1,116-year Papal reign under the Holy See that started 754 AD.
It all began during the Second Italian
War of Independence when much of the Papal States had been conquered by the Piedmontese Army, and the new unified Kingdom of Italy was created in March 1861, when the first Italian Parliament met in Turin. On March 27, 1861, the Parliament declared Rome the capital of the Kingdom
of Italy. However, the Italian government
could not take its seat in Rome because it
did not control the territory. Unfortunately for Italy, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour,
the leading figure in the Italian reunification movement, died soon after the proclamation of Italy’s unification, leaving to his successors the solution of the knotty Venetian and Roman problems. The Austrians were still in Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and the pope was still in Rome. Cavour had firmly believed that without Rome as the capital, Italy’s unification would be sadly incomplete; for the historic position of the Eternal City, with its immortal
memories, was such that Italians could not allow another power to possess it.
“To go to Rome,” said his successor, Ricasoli, “is not merely a right; it is an inexorable necessity.” In regard to the future relations between church and state, Cavour’s famous dictum was, “A free church in a free state,” by which he meant that the former should be entirely free to exercise her spiritual powers and leave politics entirely to the latter. In addition, a French garrison
continued on page 4
Casting off Papal reign was a milestone event in Italian unification
Vol. 6 / No. 9