From Camaldoli to Trieste

The text was designed to illustrate the progress made by Catholics on the theme of democracy starting from the Code of Camaldoli and its surroundings up to today, in view of the Trieste Social Week. It is a quick overview, supported however by a series of notes that would allow for in-depth analysis.

At the end there is also a paragraph on the proposal of the CEI president Don Matteo Zuppi for a European Camaldoli. Edited by the Cattolica publishing house, Vita e Pensiero, the volume will be available from January. It's really worth a read. The author writes in the preface: «The recent anniversary celebration of the conference held in Camaldoli in July 1943 has brought to the fore a meeting which took place during the Second World War and which, together with other factors, had its importance in accompanying the emergence of a new season of political presence of Catholics. Among the factors that contributed to that season there is, as we will see, the resumption of the Social Weeks with an appointment, in the autumn of 1945 in Florence, on the Constitution and the Constituent Assembly, the work carried out, in various capacities, by professors of the Catholic University and by Gemelli himself, as well as the meetings around Alcide De Gasperi and Giuseppe Spataro which led to the drafting of the Reconstructive Lines of Christian Democracy. Different paths, in many cases parallel, which testify to the richness and liveliness of the contributions. An intense season in which many recognize themselves as soon to become protagonists of the democratic rebirth of the country. We are used to talking about rebirth even if it would be more appropriate to talk about the birth of democracy.

The 50th Social Week has been announced next July 2024 on the theme At the heart of Democracy. An important event for which the promoting committee has planned a detailed program that intends to involve the Italian dioceses. It is not difficult to recognize how democracy constitutes the fil rouge that connects the season of the last war period, with the ferments I have mentioned, up to the present day where Catholics are called to take charge of a historical phase in which representative democracy is in crisis. Trends are manifesting themselves that go in the direction of illiberal democracies or even nationalistic regurgitations that pave the way for various sovereignisms fueled by never-suppressed populist impulses that make inroads into societies shaken by the phenomena of modernization and in profound transformation".

Gianfranco Cattai

NP Gennaio 2024