The role of Italy's president is largely ceremonial, though he does appoint the prime minister. Mattarella, 73, is an independent and has most recently served as a constitutional court judge. He was nominated by prime minister Matteo Renzi, and was elected by Italy's parliament on Jan. 31; he will take office Feb. 3.
Mattarella's elder brother, Piersanti, was governor of Sicily and was killed by the Mafia in 1980. Mattarella entered politics among the ranks of Christian Democracy.
Christian Democracy was founded in 1943, and inherited the legacy of the Italian People's Party, which was founded by Fr. Luigi Sturzo – the party offered a solid Catholic point of reference, and attracted those formed in Catholic associations.
The party came to an end in 1994 with the Tangentopoli scandal, an investigation of nationwide investigation into political corruption.
Catholics are now said to be increasingly irrelevant in the Italian political landscape, but the election of a Catholic president shows that the Catholic experience in policy may still have an impact.
A former editor of the Italian Jesuit-run magazine “Aggiornamenti Sociali,” Fr. Sorge stressed that “Pope Francis’ exhortation Evangelii Gaudium dedicates 10 paragraphs to good politics, which have not been taken into much consideration.”
Fr. Sorge commented that “almost unaware of it, Pope Francis makes current again Fr. Sturzo's intuition. Like Fr. Sturzo, the Pope does not address only Catholics, but both believers and non- believers, and tells them which are the foundations of the good politics, which is the foundation of Fr. Sturzo’s thought, reviewed and updated.”
This is why “the election of Mattarella awards Fr. Sturzo's intuition of a strong lay commitment to Christian values in politics.”
As Christian Democracy was composed of a huge platform, it was generally divided in wings, and Mattarella was part of the leftist wing of the party
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