Blessed Giuseppe Toniolo

Soon-to-be Blessed John Paul II has claimed the headlines in recent days, and rightly so, but it is worth noting that the Holy Father also decreed that Giuseppe Toniolo, a Catholic layman who was an economist and sociologist during the late 19th and early 20th centuries will also be beatified.

Giuseppe Toniolo was born in 1845 in Italy and taught eonomics for more than 40 years. He was married and the father of seven children. Popes Leo XIII and Pius X took note of his teachings, especially his advocacy for worker protection. Leo XIII may have used Toniolo’s ideas in his encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891.

Toniolo defended the economic and social value of religion in politics. He founded a union fighting for worker’s rights. He led the Catholic Action movement in Italy.

His beatification was approved after it was found that a man in his 30s was healed after asking for Toniolo’s intercession of serious injuries sustained in a fall a number of years ago.

You can read more at: Catholic News Agency.

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