Gioacchino Ventura e Napoleone III: la résurrection de l’Empire comme celle du jour de Pâques

Starting from the observation of Luigi Sturzo who interpreted Gioacchino Ventura’s French period as a phase of involution of his political thought, this essay examines Ventura’s reflections on the 2 December coup d’état. In order to understand the reasons that pushed the Sicilian Theatine to exalt, after the enthusiastic adherence to the ideals of ‘48, the Second Empire as a consecration of a divine plan aimed to preserving the sovereignty, to support the Church, and to reject the advance of a democracy opened to socialist demands, the analysis will focus on the political judgments expressed in the preaches of 1857 held in the imperial chapel of the Tuileries.