Ahab and the white whale: the contemporary debate around the forms of Catholic political commitment in Italy

Abstract

For more than the half of its republican history, the Italian political landscape was dominated by the Christian Democrats – a religiously inspired conservative political party. After its collapse, the possibility of creating a new (or renewed) Catholic party has been widely debated. This contribution focuses on how different areas of Italian Catholicism present the issue of a possible unified Catholic political commitment: what is in their opinion the unifying criterion and what shape the Catholics’ political commitment should take. Data are based on the analysis of articles from Catholic magazines and daily newspapers in the period between September 2008 and spring 2012, thus including the Monti cabinet (November 2011–February 2013).

Keywords:

• Christian Democracy
• religious party
• Italian politics
• religion and politics
• Catholicism

Notes

Ozzano, “The Many Faces of the Political God.”

Kirchheimer, “The Transformation”; Sartori, Parties and Party Systems; Panebianco, Modelli di Partito; Bartolini and Mair, Identity, Competition and Electoral Availability; Katz and Mair, “Changing Models of Party Organizations”; Bellucci and Segatti, Votare in Italia.

Ceccarini, “Unioni di fatto.”

Segatti, “I cattolici al voto”; Ceccarini and Diamanti, “Catholics and Politics.”

Parisi, “Un partito di cattolici?”; Cappello and Diamanti, “Appartenenza religiosa”; Ceccarini, Le voci di Dio; Scoppola, La Democrazia dei Cristiani; Ceccarini and Diamanti, “Catholics and Politics”; Segatti and Vezzoni, “Religion and Politics”; Maraffi et al., “Le fratture sociali.”

Pace, L'unità dei cattolici.

Between 1948 and 1992, DC support averaged at around 38%, with a maximum of 48.5% in 1948 and a minimum of 29.7% in 1992. Source: ITANES data, ADELE archive.

In order to maintain the Cold War equilibrium, since Italy was under the US sphere of influence, the Communist Party was excluded from the government.

Galli, Il bipartitismo imperfetto; Sartori, Parties and Party Systems.

Kirchheimer, “The Transformation”; Lyon, “Christian-Democratic Parties and Politics,” 84; Vree, “Coalition Politics”; Bardi and Morlino, “Italy”; Diotallevi, “The Territorial Articulation of Secularization”; Segatti, “Religiosità e territorio”; Boucek, “Rethinking Factionalism.” On the cross-class character of Christian democratic parties see Kalyvas and van Kersbergen, “Christian Democracy,” 185.

Contin, Realtà cattolica e Democrazia cristiana; Giorgi and Ozzano, “Catholicism and Democracy in Italiy”, Giorgi and Ozzano, “Democrazia e Religione”; Tosi and Vitale, “Explaining How Political Culture Changes”; Verucci, La Chiesa cattolica.

Galli, Storia della Democrazia Cristiana; van Kersbergen and Manow, Religion, Class Coalitions, and Welfare States.

The expression “influential minority” was used by Ceccarini and Diamanti, “Catholics and Politics,” 46–7: “The church is powerful in terms of its social presence and influence, but Catholics, in society, are an increasingly narrow circle. In fact, if we consider the numbers of ‘practicing’ Catholics, the church is by this point a ‘minority’ in Italian society.”

Ceccarini, “Comunicazione, opinion leader e chiesa locale.”

Magister, Chiesa extraparlamentare; Ceccarini, “The Church in Opposition”; Damilano, Il partito di Dio.

Bobba, Il posto dei cattolici.

Ceccarini and Diamanti, “Catholics and Politics,” 38; Pace, “La modernizzazione religiosa”; Rusconi, Come se Dio non ci fosse.

The term collateralism was used to define the close relationship between the network of Catholic Associations and the Christian Democrats.

Biorcio and Vitale, Oltre Tocqueville.

Bartolini and Mair, Identity, Competition and Electoral Availability.

Sassen, Una sociologia della globalizzazione.

Ricolfi, Frattura etica.

Giorgi and Polizzi, “A Catholic Movement in Politics.”

Brenner, “Urban Governance”; Kazepov, Rescaling Social Policies; Ferrera, The Boundaries of Welfare.

Bellucci and Segatti, Votare in Italia; Segatti and Brunelli, “Italia religiosa.”

Biorcio, “The Lega Nord”; Biorcio, La rivincita del Nord; Diamanti, La Lega; Ozzano, “Models of Religiously Oriented Parties.”

See Ceccarini and Diamanti, “Catholics and Politics,” 44.

Segatti, “I cattolici al voto”; Segatti and Vezzoni, “Religion and Politics.”

Ceccarini, “The Church in Opposition.”

Maraffi, Religiosità, fiducia e orientamenti politici; Segatti and Brunelli, “Italia religiosa”; Marzano, Il cattolico e il suo doppio.

Ceccarini and Diamanti, “Catholics and Politics.”

Segatti, “I cattolici al voto.”

Ibid.; Ceccarini, “The Church in Opposition.”

Pastoral visit to Cagliari (Sardinia), Eucharistic celebration (homily), Esplanade in front of the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria (7 September 2008). Available in English at: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20080907_cagliari_en.html (accessed February 13, 2013).

On the Catholic media sphere in Italy, and on the Dioceses’ magazines, see Ceccarini, Le voci di Dio.

Angelo Panebianco, “Le scelte politiche dei cattolici,” Corriere della Sera, September 6, 2009.

See, for instance, Luca Rolandi, “Il mondo cattolico boccia la manovra,” Vatican Insider, July 15, 2011.

CISL (Catholic workers’ union, centre-oriented); Confartigianato (organization of artisanship and small enterprises); Confcooperative (Confederation of Catholic cooperatives); Coldiretti (organization of agricultural enterprises); ACLI (associations of Christian workers – left-oriented); Movimento Cristiano Lavoratori (Movement of Christian Workers); Compagnia delle Opere (Company of Works, connected to Communion and Liberation, right-oriented).

The Community of Sant'Egidio is a church-related association founded in 1968, and committed to solidarity and prayer.

Andrea Riccardi, “Segnali di impegno tra i cattolici. Una voglia di responsabilità politica,” Corriere della Sera, July 15, 2011; see also Alberto Bobbio, “Riccardi: coraggio, fratelli d'Italia,” Famiglia Cristiana, October 11, 2011.

See Andrea Tornielli, “Basta leader demiurghi. I cattolici oltre Berlusconi,” Vatican Insider, August 30, 2011.

http://www.forumlab.org/headlines/articolo_view.asp?ARTICOLO_ID=113729 (accessed February 14, 2013).

Marco Iasevoli, “Abbiamo idee e vogliamo bene all'Italia,” Avvenire, October 2, 2011.

Alberto Bobbio, “Riccardi: coraggio, fratelli d'Italia,” Famiglia Cristiana, October 11, 2011.

Giovanni Grasso, “Le associazioni: Adesso un cambiamento profondo,” Avvenire, October 18, 2011.

Mauro Pianta, “No al partito unico, sì ai valori non negoziabili,” Vatican Insider, May 27, 2011.

See Gian Guido Vecchi, “Dal Vaticano spinta ai cattolici per un partito di ispirazione Cristiana,” Corriere della Sera, July 15, 2011.

Mariano Crociata, Avvenire, May 30, 2011.

See Gianni Cardinale, “Mons. Crociata: ‘La Chiesa non fa governi e non li manda a casa,’” Avvenire, October 1, 2011.

Gian Guido Vecchi, “Dal Vaticano spinta ai cattolici per un partito di ispirazione Cristiana,” Corriere della Sera, July 15, 2011.

Andrea Tornielli “Cattolici in mezzo al guado. ‘La DC? Un sogno d'estate,’” Vatican Insider, September 4, 2011.

See “Chi vuole la testa di Riccardi,” Famiglia Cristiana, March 8, 2012; “Conciliare lavoro e famiglia, il Forum attacca,” Famiglia Cristiana, March 23, 2012.

In Paolo Conti, “Cattolici divisi, così il messaggio è a rischio,” Corriere della Sera, December 9, 2009.

See Paolo Viana, “Vittadini: Noi cattolici, coscienza critica dell'Italia,” Avvenire, August 27, 2011.

Stefano Filippi, “Un altro modo di fare politica,” Tracce 3 (2010).

In order to underline the importance of Avvenire in the Italian media sphere, it is worth reporting the case involving its director, Dino Boffo, and the right-wing newspaper Il Giornale, owned by Berlusconi's family, in 2009. After Boffo criticized Berlusconi, Il Giornale published a series of articles on a supposed “scandal” involving the Avvenire director. Even though the scandal proved to be false, Boffo resigned.

Gianni Gennari, “Cattolici in politica, strattonati e subito zittiti,” Avvenire, July 23, 2010.

Claudio Gentili, “L'alfabeto dell'economia. Il codice che la orienta all'uomo,” Avvenire, September 16, 2011.

See Giulia Cananzi, “Cattolici tirati per la giacca,” Il messaggero di Sant'Antonio 4/2008; Aldo Maria Valli, “Cattolici e politica. Nuove leve cercasi,” Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio 10/2010.

Toscana oggi has more than 50 articles on Todi and its consequences.

Guglielmo Frezza, “C’è un filo da riannodare,” La Difesa del popolo, October 14, 2011.

Angelo Zema, “Per la politica una nuova opportunità,” Romasette, 21 November 2011.

Eugenio Nastasi, “Cattolici in politica: un convegno a Rossano,” CalabriaEcclesia 2000.it, 31 March 31, 2012.

IPSOS, November 2011, “I Cattolici e la Politica,” research commissioned by ACLI. Available at: http://www.acli.it/documenti_acli/38_incontro_studi_2012/Materiali/t5%2012055546%20cattolici%20e%20politica_sintesi.pdf (accessed February 22, 2013).

Politicians included representatives from PD (Baio Dossi, Paola Binetti, Luigi Bobba, Marco Calgaro, Claudio Gustavino), UDC (Carlo Casini, Rocco Buttiglione, Luisa Santolini, Luca Volonte, Magdi Cristiano Allam, Savino Pezzotta), PDL (Isabella Bertolini, Laura Bianconi, Maurizio Castro, Elisabetta Gardini, Barbara Saltamartini), and Massimo Polledri from the Northern League. In terms of political language, the reference to the common good echoed the social movement's struggle on common goods – that were taking place during the same period. See Maria Antonietta Calabrò, “Ma ora pensiamo al bene commune,” Corriere della Sera, June 24, 2009.

See Roberto Zuccolini, “I parlamentari credenti: ma non è un processo a noi”, Corriere della Sera, September 8, 2008.

See Andrea Tornielli, “Cattolici a sinistra, la vera sfida è sui valori,” Vatican Insider, September 1, 2011.

See “Italia in mezzo a un guado, i sacrifici devono portare frutti,” Avvenire, May 25, 2012.

Francesco Riccardi, “Olivero: troppo sconforto in giro, serve un progetto politico,” Avvenire, May 3, 2012.

See Ceccarini, Le voci di Dio.

See Cartocci, Geografia dell'Italia cattolica, on the rates of church attendance and religious marriages.