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Essay on Catholism and its Impacts on Italian Government
Long before either modern Republican-Liberalism or Socialism had surfaced in Italian political history, its cultural/religious history was full of moments of “popular” interpretation of the Gospel message in contrast to the notions of “individual wealth,” “possession of property” and “clerical power.” Without going back to the foundation of the Benedictine monasteries (6th century) in the Italian countryside with its emphasis on work and prayer, along with its preservation of the writings (and in some cases even the spirit) of the Fathers of the Church toward wealth, it is sufficient to remember the mendicant order of Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) and his reaction to the growing gap between rich and poor.
Francis, who came from a family of the then emerging merchant bourgeoisie, was harshly received by the ruling clergy class of the Middle Ages for his concept of poverty, which was in violent contrast to their often pompous lives. In addition to this tradition in Italian religious-cultural history, there were also the joculares, witty, roving actors, whose spontaneous “plays” not always but often brought out the contrast between the clergy and Jesus Christ. Their tradition documents a form of anti-clericalism, or better, a form of popular protest against those who held the power and the wealth while the laity did the work and remained poor. Dante is also an excellent example of dissent from with the Catholic intellectual world of Italy toward the religious leaders of his time.
Without reproducing an extensive documentation of this period, it is hoped that sufficient hints have been given so that the image of a totally “obedient,” uncritical Catholic Italy has been blurred (Vittorio Messori, 14).Likewise, it can be safely stated that long before the official birth of the Italian Socialist Party in 1892, almost all of Italy’s illiterate peasantry had heard the story of Jesus......
