Giuseppe Toniolo: A vocation to social justice

Carlos Ferreira

April 30, 2012
On the day the church celebrated vocations, the church beatified Giuseppe Toniolo. He is proof that not just those in religious orders are call to be saints. Toniolo was an economist from the Italian city of Treviso father of seven children.
Born in Treviso in 1845 the now-blessed Giuseppe Toniolo became known for his work with the Pope Leo XIII on the encyclical Rerum Novarum. For him political systems which were not founded in God couldn’t survive.
Toniolo shows what a vocation is all about. Everything you do in your life is part of your vocation. He put God at the center of his work and family life.
Founder of the Italian Week of Social Justice - which celebrated 100 years in 2007 - Toniolo dedicated his life to his vocation an inspired others to come closer to God.
As the Holy Father said after the Regina Coeli yesterday, Toniolo was an example of a life that upholds to the primacy of the human person and social justice.