The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

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Salesian Philip Pascucci, although Pittini was a strong advocate of expanding Salesian educational oppor-

tunities in general, Pittini’s “great preoccupation as Provincial was vocations.”

As soon as he took up his

duties as Provincial in New Rochelle, Pittini realized that the educational facilities at St. Joseph’s House of

Studies in New Rochelle were overcrowded and needed more space. Eventually, he decided upon a large

farm with a five-acre lake, a mansion, and a small forest in Newton, New Jersey, which was purchased by

the Salesians for $49,000 in 1928.

Pittini unleashed a well-orchestrated fundraising campaign to raise the

estimated $250,000 required to build a massive three-story, red-brick building that would be the center of

Don Bosco College.

In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Pietro Ricaldone, the fourth Salesian Rector Major

(the head of all Salesian institutes worldwide), sent Pittini to establish Salesian schools in the Dominican

Republic, which had been dominated by Trujillo’s regime since 1930. Trujillo rose to military power during

the U.S. military occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916-1924), eventually becoming the leader of

the U.S.-created National Guard. In an effort to consolidate his power, Trujillo sought to form a symbiot-

ic alliance with the Church to legitimate his regime. On September 23, 1930, a few months after Trujillo

took control of the government, the Vatican appointed Italian priest Giuseppe Fietta as papal nuncio to the

Dominican Republic and Haiti. Trujillo told Fietta: “The nexuses that unite the Holy See and the Domini-

can Republic are truly immortal. I will be personally and actively interested in consolidating these nexuses

while I am in charge of the National Executive. I trust that your efforts will be fruitful under the protection

and cooperation that my government will offer you.”

Fietta praised the dictator for his relief efforts in the

aftermath of Hurricane Zenon, which hit the Dominican Republic in August 1930.

Fietta, who served as

papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic and Haiti until 1936, when he was assigned to Argentina, estab-

lished a close working relationship with Trujillo that was beneficial to the Church.

Pittini arrived in the Dominican port city of San Pedro de Macorís on August 16, 1933 and three

days later met Trujillo in Santiago de los Caballeros. During their first meeting, Trujillo was favorably im-

pressed by the conservative Italian priest who spoke Spanish and English fluently. When Archbishop of San-

to Domingo Adolfo Nouel (1906-1935) resigned for health reasons, the Vatican nominated Pittini as the 47

archbishop of Santo Domingo on October 11, 1935. Dominican scholar Julio Rodríguez Grullón contends

that Trujillo told Fietta he wanted the Vatican to nominate Pittini.

Pittini was consecrated on December

8, 1935 by Archbishop of Puerto Príncipe Joseph-Marie Le Gouaze in Santo Domingo’s Basilica Cathedral

of Santa María la Menor. For the next twenty-six years, Pittini modernized and enlarged the Church in

the Dominican Republic with Trujillo’s assistance.

According to Dominican historian Frank Moya Pons,

Trujillo provided the Church with more than $26 million to support its expanded activities.

An essential

component of this modernization process was establishing a large Salesian presence in the Dominican Re-

public. Decades after Pittini created the first Salesian institute on the island, Dominicans continue to benefit

from the educational and social services provided by the Salesians. For example, the Instituto Agronómico

y Técnico Salesiano/Salesian Agricultural and Technical Institute (IATESA) in La Vega currently enrolls

more than 500 students. Pittini also sought to expand the pastoral workforce in the Dominican Republic by

training more Dominicans for the priesthood (in newly created and expanded seminaries) and encourag-

ing foreign priests to come to the island. The institutional growth of the Church during Pittini’s tenure is

manifest in the increased number of dioceses, parishes, priests, educational institutions, health institutions,

and religious communities. This culminated in the decade of the 1950s, when the Vatican authorized the

creation of four new dioceses to meet the needs of the expanding Church.

During his tenure, Pittini was a strong promoter for the construction of the Christopher Columbus

Memorial Lighthouse (known to Dominicans as the Faro a Colón in Spanish) to be built in Santo Domin-

go.

The idea initially gained widespread popularity among U.S. and Latin American representatives at the

Fifth International Conference of American States in Santiago, Chile in 1923. The plan envisioned dona-

tions from all nations and peoples. In 1931, Scottish architect Joseph Gleave won the design competition

Page 137:

Celebration of the Holy

Mass. From the left:

Priests Eduardo Ross,

Luis F. Henríquez,

and Monsignor

Ricardo Pittini.

de la Nación

Opening page:

Riccardo Paolo Pittini

Piussi (Salesians

Don Bosco) portrait

by C. Saleache.

Episcopology of the

Archdiocese of Santo

Domingo, by José Luis

Sáez, S.J., Archbishopric

of Santo Domingo,

Santo Domingo 2011.