Dall’ultramontanismo alla romanità. Il percorso romano di Léon Dehon tra Pio IX e Leone XIII

This essay focuses on Father Léon Dehon (1843-1925), founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and his longstanding relationship with Rome and the Roman spiritual and physical spaces. Dehon studied in a Roman seminary in the late 1860s and, as many clergymen of his generation, he developed a strong devotion to the Roman identity of the Catholic Church. Starting from the analysis of Dehon’s Roman experiences between the papacies of Pius IX and Leo XIII, this essay investigates how the ecclesiological notion of “romanitas” and its applications changed in front of the sharp modernization of Rome in the late 19th century, evolving from a static and merely defensive idea (the ultramontane compliance of the whole Church and society to the religious and political model embodied by the Papal State) to a dynamic and expansive one (the papacy as international player and unique legitimate heir of Roman universalistic mission and civilization).