Don Giuseppe Rizzo (22 December 1863 in

Alcamo Alcamo (; scn, Àrcamu, italic=no) is the fourth-largest town and commune of the Province of Trapani, Sicily, with a population of 44.925 inhabitants. It is on the borderline with the Metropolitan City of Palermo at a distance of about 50 kilo ...

– 17 April 1912 in Alcamo) was an Italian Catholic priest, politician and journalist.

Biography

Don Rizzo was early challenged in his childhood, as his father was a humble workman and his mother died when he was only three years old. He attended the Royal Gymnasium (high school) in Alcamo, and completed his philosophical and

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

studies, at the diocesan seminary of

Mazara del Vallo Mazara del Vallo (; ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Trapani, southwestern Sicily, Italy. It lies mainly on the left bank at the mouth of the Mazaro river. It is an agricultural and fishing centre and its port gives shelter to the ...

, where he was ordained as a priest, on 22 September 1888.Vincenzo Regina, Don Giuseppe Rizzo maestro di spiritualità, Alcamo, artigrafichecampo, 2002,p.33. Statua_a_Don_Giuseppe_Rizzo_(Alcamo)

During the first years of his priesthood, he devoted himself to educating young people. He founded an oratory, dedicated to Saint

Francis de Sales Francis de Sales (french: François de Sales; it, Francesco di Sales; 21 August 156728 December 1622) was a Bishop of Geneva and is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church. He became noted for his deep faith and his gentle approach to ...

, and later the Association of

Azione Cattolica The Azione Cattolica Italiana, or Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action) for short, is a widespread Roman Catholic lay association in Italy. History In Italy in 1905, Azione Cattolica was established as a non-political lay organization under the dir ...

Don Bosco John Melchior Bosco ( it, Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco; pms, Gioann Melchior Bòsch; 16 August 181531 January 1888), popularly known as Don Bosco , was an Italian Catholic priest, educator, writer and saint of the 19th century. While working ...

", to give an appropriate social, political, and religious formation to the young. The association aimed at ''educating to an open and practical life as a Christian, studying and promoting the activities of Azione Cattolica, useful for the countryVincenzo Regina, Don Giuseppe Rizzo politico e giornalista, Alcamo, artigrafichecampo, 2003. according to the principles of

Christian Democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

, willed by the Pope.'' Following his election as a town councilor, he served as a

mediator Mediator may refer to: *A person who engages in mediation *Business mediator, a mediator in business * Vanishing mediator, a philosophical concept * Mediator variable, in statistics Chemistry and biology *Mediator (coactivator), a multiprotein ...

of peace between opposing parties; he trained people to vote freely and disinterestedly and worked for the moralisation of the town administration. Don Rizzo's life was never an easy one: he engaged himself as a banker, journalist, town councilor, and, obviously, a priest. His activism was not well regarded by the conservatives of that period and so Don Giuseppe was sent to prison, together with many other people, accused of being a subversive and the instigator of the popular uprising in January 1903 owing to the

excise file:Lincoln Beer Stamp 1871.JPG, upright=1.2, 1871 U.S. Revenue stamp for 1/6 barrel of beer. Brewers would receive the stamp sheets, cut them into individual stamps, cancel them, and paste them over the Bunghole, bung of the beer barrel so when ...

, for retail sale, which had become a slavery for people. On 25 March of the same year, he was declared fully innocent and released. This dramatic experience weakened his body, but not his spirit; in fact, Don Rizzo resumed his activity with greater energy. He started a bank ''Cassa Rurale ed Artigiana'', a farmers cooperative and a

consumer cooperative A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a fo ...

, to help his poor fellow citizens, who had suffered a serious economic crisis caused by the bankruptcy of two local banks (the Banca Segestana of Castellammare del Golfo and the Popolare Cooperativa of Alcamo) and major problems in the agricultural field, due to the

Phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs ...

. During his life, he always followed the spirit of the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

. He died prematurely on 17 April 1912 at the age of 49. Following a decision by the bank's partners and board of directors in 1995, his ashes rest in the chapel inside the Basilica of Our Lady of the Assumption, built on a plan by the famous architect, professor

Paolo Portoghesi Paolo Portoghesi (born 2 November 1931, Rome) is an Italian architect, theorist, historian and professor of architecture at the University La Sapienza in Rome. He is a former president of the architectural section of the Venice Biennale (1979–92 ...

, together with Paolo Borghi’s sculptures.

Banking

Cassa_Rurale_ed_Artigiana_Don_Rizzo_(Alcamo)

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, a small and motivated group of so-called social priests promoted some initiatives which had a remarkable social impact: their greatest success was the creation of banks that, above all, were willing to distribute agricultural credit. In those years,

access to credit Access to finance is the ability of individuals or enterprises to obtain financial services, including credit, deposit, payment, insurance, and other risk management services.Demirgüç-Kunt, A., Beck, T., & Honohan, P. (2008). ''Finance for All?: ...

was the Sicilian farmers' greatest problem: they were obliged to appeal to a rescue, an archaic form of anticipation that owners gave to farmers, but with an annual interest up to a level of 50 per cent or, in extreme cases, to

usury Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is ch ...

. This made it very difficult for most farmers to build wealth. In 1902 the bankruptcy of two local banks in Alcamo brought several people to ruin: it was on that occasion that don Giuseppe Rizzo thought to create the ''Cassa Rurale and Artigiana'', a

cooperative bank Cooperative banking is retail and commercial banking organized on a cooperative basis. Cooperative banking institutions take deposits and lend money in most parts of the world. Cooperative banking, as discussed here, includes retail banking carr ...

with the goal of freeing the poor from usury. From the beginning, Credit Unions have had a close relationship with a territory, linking their history with that of communities, enough to win the appellation of "local bank". The Banks of Cooperative Credit have structured themselves in a national system called Credit Union. The ''Banca Don Rizzo'' is still active and has about 3,000 partners today growing from the initial 24. The bank has opened 17

branches A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually ...

in several centres of the provinces of

Trapani Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an impor ...

and

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

References

Sources

*Marsala Rosanna: Alle radici del popolarismo: Lo Cascio, Sturzo, Traina; G. Giappichelli Editore *Vincenzo Regina: Don Giuseppe Rizzo politico e giornalista; artigrafichecampo, Alcamo, 2003 *Vincenzo Regina: Don Giuseppe Rizzo maestro di spiritualità; artigrafichecampo, Alcamo, 2002 *Vincenzo Regina: Don Giuseppe Rizzo e l'azione sociale dei cattolici dal 1860 al 1912;

Aracne Aracne is an Italian publishing company, founded in 1993 by Gioacchino Onorati and specialized in academic and scientific literature. It is the only Italian publishing company that does not require exclusive rights for its publications. Aracne pu ...

, 1988

External links

*Tommaso Papa: Memorie storiche del clero di Alcamo; ed. Accademia di studi Cielo d'Alcamo, Alcamo, 1968 *http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2002/12/15/don-rizzo-il-banchiere-solidale.html?refresh_ce *https://web.archive.org/web/20160806112142/http://www.siciliainformazioni.com/redazione/69868/don-giuseppe-rizzo-un-prete-fuori-dalla-sacrestia *https://web.archive.org/web/20160817102149/http://www.comune.alcamo.tp.it/in-comune/uffici/25-servizi-alla-persona.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20150918004434/http://www.bancadonrizzo.it/banca_donrizzo_rete_bcc.aspx {{DEFAULTSORT:Rizzo, Giuseppe People from Alcamo Founders of Catholic religious communities 1912 deaths 1836 births 20th-century Italian politicians 19th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests

Biography

Banking

See also

References

Sources

External links