Who is the author referred to in the Pope's 4 April 2014 homily? I'll keep my question short. Does anyone know to whom Pope Francis was referring in today's homily, when he discussed an author whose books were initially banned by the Church, but now this person is celebrated as Blessed?


  Many thinkers in the Church were persecuted, as well. I think of one, now, at this moment, not so far from us: a man of good will, a prophet indeed, who, in his writings reproached the Church for having lost the way of the Lord. He was summoned in short order, his books were placed on the index [the list of works that were banned or restricted to experts because of their problematic, erroneous and even heretical content], they took away his teaching positions – and thus, this man’s life ended – and it was not so long ago. [Now] time has passed, and today he is Blessed. How is it, though, that he, who yesterday was a heretic, is today a Blessed of the Church? It is because yesterday, those who had power wanted to silence him because they did not like what he was saying. Today the Church, who, thanks be to God knows repent, says, ‘No, this man is good!’. Moreover, he is on the way to sainthood: He is a Blessed.


Homily in Santa Marta, 4 April 2014
I don't know for sure who the Pope meant, since he did not give very many clues, but I think he was referring to Antonio Rosmini-Serbati (1797-1855). His writings criticising the church were placed on the Index during his lifetime, but he was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. The biography fits the way that Pope Francis describes events, with the possible exception of &quot;not so long ago&quot;, depending on how wry he was being (and of course, from the point of view of Church history, it's comparatively recent).
A decree of Pius IX on 30 May 1849, reproduced here as a supplement to an 1841 edition of the Index, lists:

Delle cinque piaghe della Santa Chiesa trattato dedicato al Clero Cattolico etiam con Appendice di due lettere sulla elezione de'Vescovi e Clero e Popolo.
La Costituzione secondo la Giustizia sociale, con una appendice sulla unità d'Italia.
-- Di Antonio Rosmini Serbati. Decret. 30 Maii 1849. Auctor laudabiliter se subjecit.

That Latin remark at the end commends Rosmini for submitting to the listing of his books. The same books are listed in the 1900 recension; I haven't tried to trace the history any more closely than that.
These works carry the English titles Of the five wounds of the Holy Church and The Constitution of Social Justice respectively. Wikipedia summarizes the first as follows:

Of the Five Wounds of the Holy Church presupposes an analogy between the Holy Wounds suffered by the Lord's natural Body pierced on the cross, and His mystical body, the Church, pierced by the sins and errors of men in the ages of Christian history.
The five main evils of his contemporary Italian Church correspond, in Rosmini's view, to the five wounds of the hands, feet, and side of the Divine Redeemer. Beginning with the wound in Jesus' left hand, he likens it to the lack of sympathy between the clergy and people in the act of public worship, which he sees as a result of a lack of adequate Christian evangelical teaching. This is to be accounted for by the wound in the right hand — the insufficient education of the clergy, their secularisation and their alienation from scripture and their bishops. This again was both caused and perpetuated by the great wound in the side, which pierced the Heart of the Divine Sufferer, and which Rosmini sees as a parallel for the divisions among the Bishops, separating them from one another, and also from their clergy and people, forgetting their true union in the Body of Christ. The wound of the right foot is compared to the civil power of the Bishops making them into worldly schemers and politicians, more or less intent on selfish interests. The wound of the left foot is compared to events of the feudal period, when the freehold tenures of the Church were treated as fiefs by an overlord, or suzerain, who saw in the chief pastors of the flock of Christ only a particular variety of vassals or dependants.

As indicated above, Rosmini's contested reputation was eventually rehabilitated. Some recent documents of interest:

Note on the Force of the Doctrinal Decrees Concerning the Thought and Work of Fr Antonio Rosmini Serbati, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1 July 2001. Cardinal Ratzinger of course became Pope Benedict XVI, and was the one to declare Rosmini to be Venerable and later Blessed.
Homily of Cardinal José Saraiva Martins at the Mass for Rosmini's beatification, 18 November 2007.

Aside from the clear continuing interest on the part of Benedict XVI, it's interesting to speculate whether Pope Francis might have found something appealing to him in Rosmini's writings, on social justice and the reform of the church.