Don Battista Testa, prete partigiano

Formazione e azione di un presbitero ambrosiano, figlio spirituale del cardinal Schuster

Abstract

In the research for a fruitful balance between micro and macro history, this article offers a biographical profile of Battista Testa, an Ambrosian priest formed at the Venegono Seminary in the years in which part of the teaching body – well represented by Fr. Gaetano Corti – took a stance against the racism of the fascist regime. Ordained in 1940 and placed first in the com-munity of Sesto San Giovanni and then that of Cinisello Balsamo, the young Fr. Battista combined his own priestly ministry with that of a prudent and active participation in the Resistance movement in favour of the liberation of the country from German occupation and from the final fascist demands. Although at that time willing to collaborate with the communist partisans, as of the subsequent 1948 elections Fr. Battista would find the same movement a political adversary, set on manipulating the memory of the Resistance, obscuring uncomfortable truths and minimizing the multiform provision of diverse forces. Concerning all of these events, revisited with the intention of overcoming the limitations of opposing ideological misconceptions, the fig-ure of Archbishop Schuster stands out as a reference point both for the entire diocesan clergy and in particular for Fr. Battista himself.