I would like to make a brief introduction to the central idea that I intend to propose to you and that I have traditionally, and for some time, linked to the Catholic presence in Italian society and politics, also with reference to Camaldoli. I naturally express myself with the frankness of a political “operator”, as I have been throughout my life. A slightly different way, I suspect, from the one used by the splendid “scientists” who preceded me with their arguments.
The reason for the premise is motivated by the need – for me at least, still current – to propose an explanation, especially aimed at those who are not familiar with the work we have been carrying out for some time in the Socialismo Foundation: and that is the reason for our constant and insistent attention to the Catholic situation in Italy. A fact that might seem, at least to some, a bit discordant with the tradition and experience, even cultural, of the socialist affair in our country.
In order not to waste too much time, I present this explanation to you, using a joke that Francesco Margiotta Broglio wanted to recall when speaking in this room several years ago, while introducing a meeting dedicated to an in-depth study of the “Craxi Concordat”, that of 1984.
I didn’t participate in the debate, I was sitting in the audience, in the front row, and listened attentively. And my friend Margiotta, addressing me directly and addressing me by my first name, asked me to recall again, together with him, the joke with which the Prime Minister for whom we worked at the time, precisely Bettino Craxi, had he responded dryly to the observations, but also to the doubts that we presented him with respect to the elaboration of the new law that we had in hand, that of implementation of a specific and delicate point of the new pact between the State and the Church and which dealt with the provision which was to introduce the funding of 8 per thousand for all Italian churches. “Do not starve the priests!”: this was the dry indication that the Garibaldian socialist who then governed our country with authority, unambiguously delivered to his interlocutors of that day, doubtful and even worried.
Craxi, but then also many socialists together with him, were very clear that a country by its nature, history and tradition that is strongly individualistic, too often tending towards confusion and indeterminacy in its collective finalization, needed a political guide like bread that she was wise, prepared and balanced; that above all he was able to constantly express authority and strength in governing it. And he was convinced that this could not have happened without a constant contribution to this policy on the part of the Catholic Church and its priests, its message and its vision of the world, its solidarity and also its faith.
I start from the strength and – for me – from the perennial relevance of this memory to go back to proposing the central point that I am very much interested in affirming: that is, the indispensable action that Catholics and their Church can and must bring to the solution of the Italian political crisis. To make this program even more topical, I would like to return to recalling the recognition contained in a very in-depth research, carried out two years ago, on the condition of the Italian Church, research published in a volume of 20211 dedicated precisely to the proven irrelevance of the Church on the occasion of the pandemic crisis, with strong emphasis on its explicit subordination to politics and science in that tragic epic.
In fact, I too believe that the crisis of the Italian Church, in particular that connected with the positive action it expresses in the world in which it lives, works and of which it is a fundamental part, namely Italian society, is still of serious proportions. I can add that, compared to the state of crisis at the time proven by the authors of the volume, I am today more pessimistic: so I would tend to speak not only of a “Lost Flock”, as the text was then entitled, but I would add an even more specific clarification: I would speak of “Sheep without a shepherd”. Naturally I do not forget the fact that this crisis is part of a condition of spirituality in the global West, particularly in our European homeland, which has been underway and evident for decades, with a progression which has only become more visible in recent years. But, I repeat, the specific characteristics that were highlighted in the volume I have mentioned do not consider them referring to a past event: they have been inherent in the specific historical and cultural fabric of Italian society for some time and in their own ways.
On the basis of this assessment, I immediately come to the point that I am interested in underlining and which I consider to be the center of our discussion: that of the relationship between lived Catholicism and above all its organizational reality, here in Italy, and politics. We all know to what extent and with what results this formidable Catholic presence has always been a very important protagonist of Italian political life; and how, however, it was decisive above all after 1944-45 and then continued, for long decades, at least as far as Tangentopoli. This also happened by virtue of the persistence within it – and for a long period, even after the Council – of its specific condition of unity with respect to politics, constantly and tenaciously promoted and supported directly by the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The characteristics that it has shown over time, and above all its finalization after the 1970s, can and must of course also be interpreted and historically criticized; For example, I have many criticisms and observations to offer on this topic – as I have frequently done in recent years, which I still believe are well founded. Nonetheless, however, the persistence of a condition of active and strong Catholic presence in politics has decidedly and directly influenced both the condition of the Italian Church and, obviously, our political life after 1945. I think there is no need to spend too many words to demonstrate this fact; but you will allow me at least to emphasize one point which is decisive for me. I do so by quoting one of the major theorists and historians of this long, long and vital relationship between the Church and politics, which lasted at least fifty years: Gianni Baget Bozzo. This priest, very intelligent but also a little mad, in the moment of his final crisis wrote about it in depth in a book that came out precisely in 1994: “Catholics and Christian Democrats. An Italian political experience” (Rizzoli, 1994).
The volume demonstrates, with great lucidity and foundation, how the construction of the ruling class of the Italian Church, starting precisely from the events of 1943-1948, was closely and inextricably linked to the growth, development, affirmation of the political presence of Democracy Christian. The Italian bishops who established themselves and splendidly managed ecclesial affairs for the fifty years following 1943, a long journey which was dominated and in some way concluded with the pontificate of Pope Montini, are the visible and convincing demonstration of this condition, of this fact.
That widespread and vital, high-ranking and very solid Catholic reality was, I repeat, a very important protagonist of Italian political life at least until Tangentopoli. The sudden collapse that then occurred of the party system (and naturally above all that of the Christian Democrats), moreover considered morally degrading due to the way it was built and above all due to the way it had happened, conditioned the Italian bishops to such an extent that they radically changed the their previous orientation, even their own vision of politics. So that, albeit gradually, since then they have in fact withdrawn from participation in the democratic life of their own country, limiting themselves to contemplating its developments from a safe distance, even if continuing to engage in the positive guidance of multiple social activities and dedicating themselves mainly to to cultivate, in the State-Church relationship, moral questions and cultural problems.
I would also like to remind you once again that this rupture took place above all because at the time it was believed that even the Church, at least on the strictly political front, was somehow defeated, and moreover frightened, by that affair, also due to the potential co-responsibilities that they could have been directly charged with respect to the clamor of the facts of political corruption which then exploded. It was above all for this reason that I believe that the top of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of those years did not want or was unable to seize the possibility, which at the time (1994- 96) perhaps could have been grasped, to once again become a strong element of ethical and human animation of all Italian democracy, also using the long initial phase that characterized the transition after Tangentopoli. Among other things, this has prevented or in any case strongly hindered, where ever it had been proposed, the carrying out of an active and participatory role of the Catholic laity in the necessary reconstruction of politics, in fact supporting the natural, albeit prudent, anti-political tendency that Since then, it concretely began to circulate also in many vital parts of the Catholic world, precisely as a consequence of how the collapse of the party system had occurred.
It is by referring to this condition, together with extraneousness and compromise, that I think we can deal with the condition, which I consider dramatic, which characterizes the present of the Church in Italy: indeed, a people without a shepherd. What happened then was a grave mistake; and it must be added in truth that it is mainly to be charged to whoever led the CEI at the time, namely Cardinal Ruini. That an ill-conceived political system, born in 1992-1994 with the built-in flaws of injustice and violence, presided over by a predominantly and inevitably recoiled and very often unprepared ruling class, above all because it has no roots; that such a system was left to itself, without participation, without mediation, without corrections by the spiritual force and by the human and concretely widespread network which represented a great past and which is still an extremely important part of the future of the Italian nation, was truly a big mistake, which today unfortunately we are all obliged to pay the price. Naturally starting with whoever has the responsibility of leading the Catholics of Italy.
I conclude. For me, therefore, today, a “grounding” is needed, the definition of a project and a consequent action, including organizational action capable of readmitting Catholics and those of the laity who in any case refer to Christian values into Italian politics. Today I don’t think it would be possible to talk about or imagine an organized force acted directly by the Church: probably in the present it would be out of time and out of history. Nor would I speak of concrete tools and operational forms to be implemented directly. The most important thing, at least for me, is to be aware, and to convince others, that today the pastors of the Church in Italy must be urged to reflect on the high civil and political responsibility that challenges them. In particular, they must be invited to critically consider the results achieved today by the politics of the nation which is also entrusted to their pastoral care, certainly also as a result of the behaviors they have too often adopted in the past thirty years. The time has truly come for Italian Catholicism to reflect, all together, on the role it has played in this long period in supporting the realization of the common good. I repeat: going beyond the infinite and yet positive contribution that it has in any case produced and without forgetting the immense number of particles of good that this world guarantees our people every day.
The Catholic Church has such a vast historical responsibility with respect to the Italian nation that any small or major concern or any traditional prudence should be set aside today. This responsibility must be fulfilled immediately, before it is too late.