PASSAGLIA, CARLO

Theologian; b. Pieve S. Carlo, Lucca, Italy, May 2, 1812; d. Turin, March 12, 1887. In 1827 he became a Jesuit. From 1840 to 1844 he was prefect of studies at the Germanicum in Rome, and in 1844 professor of dogma at the Roman College. He became professor at the papal Sapienza University in Rome in 1858, left the Jesuits in 1859, and in 1860 was named a member of the papal commission for the theological investigation of the Causa italica. In 1860 he wrote Il pontifice ed il principe. He was Cavour's mediator, and in 1861 he published, anonymously, Pro causa italica ad episcopos catholicos, which was placed on the Index. He fled Rome in October of the same year and accepted a professorship in moral philosophy at the state university of Turin. In 1862 he directed to Pius IX a petition on behalf of about 9,000 Italian priests and was suspended. He was the editor of the weekly Il mediatore (1862–66), the daily La pace (1863–64), and Il gerdil (1864). In 1863 and 1864 he was a member of Parliament. He had been seeking reconciliation with the Church since 1868, and on March 8, 1887, a few days before his death, he obtained it.

Passaglia was a patristically oriented theologian with strong leanings toward Petavius and Thomassin. He published the first book of Petavius's Dogmatics in 1857. He showed a mastery of theology, and together with G. perrone and his two disciples, K. schrader and J. B. fran-zelin, he renewed the study of it at the Roman College. There he was the teacher of renowned German theologians, including H. J. denzinger, F. hettinger, B. jungmann, H. von hurter, and M. scheeben. Passaglia took part in the preparatory work that led to the definition of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and to the wording of the bull Ineffabilis Deus. Yet at Vatican I, Passaglia's view of the mediate papal power of jurisdiction was rejected. His theological works are of lasting value, for example: Commentarium theologicorum, 3 v. (Rome 1850–51), De ecclesia Christi, 2 v. (Regensburg 1853–56), and De immaculata deiparae semper virginis conceptu, 3 v. (Rome 1854, Naples 1855). From his unpublished material H. Schauf edited De conciliis oecumenicis, theses (Rome 1961).

Bibliography: c. sommervogel et al., Bibliothèque de la compagnie de Jésus (Brussels-Paris 1890–1932) 6:332–336. c. boyer, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al. (Paris 1903–50) 11.2:2207–10. h. hurter, Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae (Innsbruck 1903–13) 5.2:1499–1500. l. biginelli, Biografia del Sac. Prof. Carlo Passaglia con documenti (Turin 1887). p. d'ercole, Carlo Passaglia: cenno biobibliografico e ricordo (Turin 1888). c. g. arevalo, Some Aspects of the Theology of the Mystical Body of Christ in the Ecclesiology of G. Perrone, C. Passaglia, and Cl. Schrader (Rome 1959). w. kasper, Die Lehre von der Tradition in der römischen Schule (Freiburg 1962).

[h. schauf]