Vita e Pensiero

Il saggio ricostruisce le vicende del cattolicesimo cremasco in campo politico

Scopo di questo lavoro è quello di aggiungere un’ulteriore tessera al variegato mosaico delle...

With this essay, the Author demonstrates that along the 150 years of the unified Italian State, a troubled issue was the evidence of an initial conflict and a following happy encounter between two liberties. The two liberties are those of the Church and of the State and they have been in contrast to each other for a long time in national history. In the Author’s opinion, the wound, opened in far 1860, was healed when the Constitutional article no. 7 was passed, after a terrific speech of Giuseppe Dossetti.

Angelo Gallotti played a leading role in the land of Lomellina, diocese of Vigevano, in the educational and cultural fields, politics and administration, as well in his own family and ecclesiastical experience during the second half of the Twentieth century. In this essay, the Author shows the education he received from his family, at the parish and at school before he received a profound education at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. The experiences lived by Gallotti are outlined as a Christian testimony, in his everyday environment but also within the wider historical context as referenced in the precise annotations.

Contrary to 20 years ago, women’s active role in the history of the Catholic movement and the 20th century Italian Church is now a topic that is studied often. The recent revival of research, a mixture between ‘gender studies’ and ‘religious history’, let us acquire new materials and viewpoints, which should be reconsidered in a complete synthesis. In this introduction to the conference, the Author tries to raise some problems about chronology and historiographical interpretation, in order to start a new season of research.

Among the archival documents from the 19th and 20th centuries that re-emerge today is the presence of women’s ‘minor’ literature. It is very important because it describes the model of a ‘new woman’ and reveals the topic of emancipation, seen as the acquisition of full citizenship and ethical and social engagement. Especially through the publication of magazines and novels, many Christian feminists (among them, Giacomelli, Saporiti, Melegari, Bisi Albini) also spoke for new dignity for women and a search for faith that should not be taken for granted.

The essay gives a biographical sketch of Adelaide Coari. The young Milanese teacher had an active role in the spread of Union rights and in the emancipation of women. Appreciated by the ecclesiastical authorities from Milan in the early 20th century, she was deprived of authority in the years of the modernist crisis. This essay offers information about the situation of the sources and gives bibliographical indications for the biography of a woman who played a leading role in the Catholic social movement.