Career
Ordained a priest, he distinguished himself as a Catholic journalist and apologist, as a preacher, especially by his "Funeral Oration of Pius VII" (1823), and as an exponent of the counter-revolutionary worldview of Hughes Felicité Robert de Lamennais, Joseph de Maistre and Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald. He published his "De methodo philosophandi" in 1828 and "Bellezze della Fede" in 1839. After his generalship (1830-1833) he preached in Rome.
With the accession of Pope Pius IX, Ventura became politically prominent.
His "Funeral Oration of O"Connell" (1847) glorified the union of religion and liberty. His eulogy of liberty on the "Morti di Vienna" sounded almost like a diatribe against kings in general.
lieutenant was put on the Index of Prohibited Books. Ventura maintained the lawfulness of the Sicilian Revolution (cfr his "Sul riconoscimento della Sicilia, etc", Palermo, 1848.
"Menzogne diplomatiche", etc).
During the exile of Pius IX at Gaeta, Ventura"s position in Rome was delicate. Though refusing a seat in the Roman Assembly, he advocated the separation of the ecclesiastical and temporal powers, and in the name of the Sicilians recognized the Roman Republic. As commissioner from Sicily, he was present at a controversial politico-religious ceremony in Saint Peter"s Basilica, but took no active part in the services.
He opposed French intervention in behalf of the pope and when Marshal Oudinot attacked Rome, spoke of Pius IX in words which he bitterly regretted.
On the downfall of the Triumvirs (1849), he went to Montpellier and then to Paris (1851). Here he made an ineffectual attempt to convert his former friend de Lamennais.
His Conferences at the "Madeleine" et cetera were published as "Louisiana raison philosophique et la raison catholique" (since 1852). In 1857 he gave the Lenten Sermons at the Tuileries before Napoleon III. These appeared as "Le pouvoir politique chrétien".
He is a moderate Traditionalist of the Bonald-Bonnetty School.
Ventura"s private life was irreproachable. He remained a loyal Catholic the rest of his life.