Vittorino Veronese
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Vittorino Veronese | |
|---|---|
 Veronese in 1957 | |
| 4th Director-General of UNESCO | |
| In office 1958–1961 | |
| Preceded by | Luther Evans |
| Succeeded by | René Maheu |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 January 1910 |
| Died | 3 September 1986 (aged 76) |
| Citizenship | Italy |
| Alma mater | University of Padua |
Vittorino Veronese (1 March 1910 – 3 September 1986) was an Italian anti-fascist lawyer and activist who served as UNESCO’s Director-General from 1958 to 1961.[1][2] Before his appointment as UNESCO’s Director-General he served as Chairman of the Catholic Institute for Social Activity and of Azione Cattolica.[3] From 1952 to 1956 he served on UNESCO’s board and was UNESCO’s chairperson from 1956 to 1958.[4] Three years after the appointment as the Director-General, Veronese had to resign due to health concerns.[5]
Veronese would continue to hold roles within the Catholic Church after his career with UNESCO, and to be prominent in the international sphere until his death in 1986 at the age of 76.
Vittorino Veronese was born in a country town near Venice, Vicenza on 1 March 1910.[6] His father worked in a local electric plant as a chief technician, and his mother was a school teacher.[6]
Young Vittorino Veronese started school early and advanced with his scholastic peers.[6] He was not proficient in sports, but would cite a passion for music later in life.[7]
Veronese graduated from the University of Padua with a doctoral degree in law before he reached twenty-one.[6] His thesis was about the right of Vatican citizenship.[8] He worked as a lawyer for ten years after graduation, then started to pursue a career in the fields of sociology and education.[7] He became a sociology instructor at the Institute of Social Sciences at Ateneo Angelicum University in Rome.[9]
During the war years, he worked together with democratically-minded scholars and directed a review, named “Studium”.[3][9] He became the editor of the review in a later year.[9]
Veronese was a captain for a time in the infantry reserve and discharged during the war because of his suffering from arthritis.[6] He served as a high officer during his twenties in the Catholic Movement of University Graduates and he was close with the Vatican-including activism there.[6]
Veronese did not participate in the Fascist movement under the rule of Mussolini.[7] During the early interwar period, he supported the rule of Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Paul VI.[3] In 1939, at the age of twenty-nine, Veronese was invited by Montini to Rome and appointed to the position of general secretaryship of the Movimento Laureati (Catholic University Graduates’ Association) affiliated with Italia Catholic Action.[3] His work mission was to expel Communists out of the postwar governments.[6] The same year, he married Maria Petrarca, with whom he had seven children: Marialaura, Francesca, Paolo, Gianluca, Alberto, Lucia, and Pietro.[8]
Between 1944 and 1946, he participated in the establishment of the Associazione Cattolica Lavoratori Italiani (ACLI), Italy's future Catholic trade union association.[3]
After 1944 and the collapse of fascism in Italy, Veronese was appointed the first lay President of Italian Catholic Action. In this capacity he would go on to hold many other prominent roles, including member of the Governing Board of the Foundation “Premi Roma” for youth, President of the Association of Refugee Intellectual in Italy, President of the Italian Central Institute of Credit, President of the “Consorzio di Credito per le Opere Pubbliche” and member of the executive committee of the Italian African Institute.[9]
Vittorino Veronese would later be removed as President of Italian Catholic Action in 1952 by Pope Pius XII in favour of Luigi Gedda.[3]
