Italian Catholics and the social question : the emergence of a social consciousness and social action amongst conservative Catholics in late 19th century Italy

The Opera dei Congressi e dei comitati cattolici in Italia was established in 1874 by conservative Catholics, known as the interansigenti, as a means of drawing together the numerous Catholic societies and individual Catholics into a united Catholic movement to oppose the anticlerical actions of the new Italian State and push back the increasing secularisation of Italian society. The organisation was to exist for 30 years during which time it held 19 national congresses, the proceedings of which form the basis of this study. Through their efforts to reassert the influence of Catholicism in Italian society, these Catholics were increasingly brought to confront the severe contemporary social problems: the evident suffering and exploitation of many workers and peasants, and their growing resistance and political agitation which were arising from the development of capitalism combined with the continuing impact of semi-feudal residues and pressures from an increasing population and the policies adopted by the governments of the late 1800s. These problems were generally referred to as the social question. The intransigent attempted to deal with the social question at both a theoretical and practical level, trying to define their understanding of what composed a truly Catholic society and what was therefore unacceptable about contemporary Italian society, and involving themselves with the establishment of a network of institutions and associations through which they thought Catholic principles could be restored to what they believed to be their rightful place and the causes of social conflict and suffering removed or at least ameliorated. Major divisions were to emerge within the Opera dei Congressi over the most effective response, from a Catholic viewpoint, to the social question, and the degree of importance socio-economic issues should have within the organisation. These divisions, together with changing papal policies, were ultimately to lead to the dissolution of the organisation. The history of the Opera dei Congressi, however, reveals the emergence on the part of a growing number of devout Catholics, of a social consciousness, of an awareness that Catholics, both lay and clerical, had a moral, spiritual and practical responsibility to grapple with the social question in a way that had effective results and, based on that social consciousness, the development of a small but significant network of institutions to implement Catholic social thinking. These Catholics saw that individual acts of charity were no longer sufficient but rather that questions of social justice were involved. Through their work, although it was often flawed and contradictory, they laid the basis for a Catholic social movement and new approaches to the problem of the Church's relationship to modem society