Giorgio La Pira

Italian politician, born in Pozzallo, Sicily, S Italy. He was a leading member of the left wing of the DC (Christian Democracy) and a deputy, and was critical of the government's economic policy. He was twice mayor of Florence (1951–7, 1961–6), and was a leading member of the international peace movement.

Giorgio La Pira (Jan. 4, 1904-Nov. 5, 1977) was a distinguished Italian politician who served as Mayor of Florence twice (1950-1956, 1960-1964). In his public and private life, La Pira was a tireless champion of peace and human rights who worked for the betterment of the poor and disenfranchised.

The son of a Sicilian packinghouse worker, La Pira was born in Pozzallo to a family of modest means.

After studying accounting in Messina, La Pira received a law degree from the University of Florence in 1925.

On the eve of World War II, La Pira founded the review Principles, which promoted human rights and openly criticized fascism. After his offices were raided by the Italian police, La Pira escaped to Siena, then Rome.

After the war, La Pira set about rebuilding Florence, which like most Italian cities at the time, was struggling to recover from the destruction and misery of war. As La Pira was fond of saying, “Towns, not houses.”

These neighborhoods centered around local shops, public gardens, markets, churches, schools, and tree-lined streets.

Additionally La Pira lead the reconstruction of bridges, such as the famous St.Trinita Bridge.

At times La Pira took an even more active role in job creation. When Florence’s oldest industrial plant threatened to close due to a slump in demand, La Pira persuaded the government to take it over, thus saving more than a thousand jobs.

La Pira was a Dominican tertiary, i.e. Despite sometimes intense criticism, La Pira paid many visits to Moscow, China and even Hanoi, throughout the Cold War era. La Pira also worked to move Arabs and Israelis forward in the peace process. Until his death in 1977, La Pira promoted issues such as disarmament, the importance of third world development, and tolerance among world religions.

In 1986, the Catholic Church began the process of Giorgio La Pira’s beatification. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Giorgio La Pira, John Paul II praised “the holy mayor”: “Before the powerful of the earth, La Pira expressed with firmness his ideas as believer and as a man who loved peace, inviting his interlocutors to a common effort to promote the fundamental good in different ambits: in society, politics, the economy, cultures, and among religions.”