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The Intellectuals of Italian Catholic Action and the Sacralisation of Politics in 1930s Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2012

JORGE DAGNINO
JORGE DAGNINO*
Affiliation:
Universidad Andres Bello, Departamento de Humanidades, Fernández Concha 700, 7591538. Las Condes, Santiago, Chile; jorge.dagnino@unab.cl
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Abstract

There has been a growing revival of interest in the subject of political religion in recent years. However, despite this tendency, the perspective of contemporary Italian Catholics on the subject has hardly been touched upon, except by Emilio Gentile and Renato Moro. This article addresses this gap, analysing the response to the phenomenon of political religions during the 1930s by the two intellectual branches of Italian Catholic Action, namely, the FUCI and the Movimento laureati. Indeed, it was during the 1930s that these intellectuals became most aware of the novelty and danger posed by the emergence of the political religions. The article follows the analyses provided by the FUCI and the Movimento laureati on Bolshevism, National Socialism and Italian Fascism. During the 1930s new concepts such as ‘political religions’, ‘religion of the blood’, ‘totalitarian religion’ and ‘new idols’, all expressed the effort of these Catholic intellectuals to come to terms with the new reality of the sacralisation of politics being carried out by the totalitarian experiments.

Les intellectuels de l'action catholique italienne et la sacralisation politique en europe pendant les années 1930

On voit depuis quelques années un intérêt renouvelé porté à la religion politique. La perspective italienne catholique reste cependant pratiquement oubliée, si ce n'est dans les écrits de Emilio Gentile et Renato Moro. Cet article cherche à combler ce vide en analysant la réaction au phénomène des religions politiques pendant les années 1930 de la part des deux sections intellectuelles de l'action catholique italienne, à savoir FUCI et le Movimento laureati. C'est en effet pendant cette décennie que les ces penseurs prirent conscience du nouveau danger présenté par l'apparition des religions politiques. L'article reprend les traces des critiques montées par FUCI et le Movimento laureati au sujet du bolchévisme, du national-socialisme et du fascisme italien. Pendant ces années 1930, une série de nouveaux concepts – ‘religion politique’, ‘religion du sang’, ‘religion totalitaire’, ‘nouveaux idoles’ – témoignent de l'effort des intellectuels catholiques cherchant à faire face à la nouvelle sacralisation de la politique au sein des expérimentations totalitaires.

Die intellektuellen der italienischen katholischen aktion und die sakralisierung der politik im europa der 1930er jahre

Dem Thema der politischen Religion wurde in den letzten Jahren erneut wachsendes Interesse entgegengebracht. Doch trotz dieser Strömung wurde die Perspektive der italienischen Katholiken der Zeit zu diesem Thema kaum erwähnt, außer von Emilio Gentile und Renato Moro. Dieser Artikel thematisiert diese Lücke und analysiert, wie die zwei Intellektuellenbewegungen der italienischen Katholischen Aktion, nämlich die FUCI und der Movimento laureati, auf das Phänomen der politischen Religionen in den 1930er Jahren reagierten. In den 1930er Jahren nämlich wurden sich diese Intellektuellen der Neuartigkeit und der Gefahr infolge des Aufkommens politischer Religionen verstärkt bewusst. Der Artikel orientiert sich an den Analysen der FUCI und des Movimento laureati über den Bolschewismus, den Nationalsozialismus und den italienischen Faschismus. In den 1930er Jahren drückten neue Denkbilder wie ‘politische Religionen’, ‘Religion des Blutes’, ‘totalitäre Religion’ und ‘neue Idole’ alle aus, dass diese katholischen Intellektuellen darum bemüht waren, sich mit der neuen Realität der Sakralisierung der Politik abzufinden, die mittels der totalitären Experimente umgesetzt wurde.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , May 2012 , pp. 215 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 See, among many others, Griffin, Roger, Mallett, Robert and Tortorice, John, eds, The Sacred in Twentieth-Century Politics: Essays in Honour of Stanley Payne (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Maier, Hans, ed., Totalitarianism and Political Religions: Concepts for the Comparison of Dictatorships, 3 vols. (London and New York: Routledge, 2004–7)Google Scholar; Burleigh, Michael, Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe, from the French Revolution to the Great War (London: Harper Collins, 2005)Google Scholar; idem, Sacred Causes: Religion and Politics from the European Dictators to Al Qaeda (London: Harper Collins, 2006); Poewe, Karla, New Religions and the Nazis (New York and London: Routledge, 2006)Google Scholar; Griffin, Roger, ed., Fascism, Totalitarianism and Political Religion (London and New York: Routledge, 2005)Google Scholar and Klinghoffer, Arthur Jay, Red Apocalypse: The Religious Evolution of Soviet Communism (Maryland: University of America Press, 1996)Google Scholar. However, Emilio Gentile has provided what is probably the most methodologically sophisticated and historically grounded accounts of the phenomenon of the sacralisation of politics. Among his many publications dealing with the subject, see, for example, Emilio Gentile, ‘Fascism, Totalitarianism and Political Religion: Definitions and Critical Reflections on Criticism of an Interpretation’ in Griffin, Fascism, 32–81; idem, Il culto del littorio: La sacralizzazione della politica nell'Italia fascista (Rome and Bari: Laterza, 2003); idem, Le religioni della politica: Fra democrazie e totalitarismi (Rome and Bari: Laterza, 2001) and idem, ‘Fascism as Political Religion’, Journal of Contemporary History, 25, 1 (1990), 229–51.

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9 Gentile, ‘New Idols’, 144; and Moro, ‘Religione del Trascendente e Religioni Politiche’, 11–12.

10 Montini to Emilio Guano, 7 March 1935, Archivio Emilio Guano, b.4, f. ‘FUCI. Corrispondenza 1933–1936’.

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16 Yves Congar, ‘Il mondo moderno e la fede’, Azione fucina, 20 Oct. 1935.

17 Ibid.

18 Yves Congar, ‘Il mondo moderno e la fede’, Azione fucina, 3 Nov. 1935 (emphasis in original).

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34 Franco Piccardo, ‘Contributo di autori cattolici alla lotta anticomunista’, Azione fucina, 4 Dec. 1938.

35 G. B. Tragella, ‘La minaccia bolscevica in terra di missione’, Studium, 9 (1937).

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.

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45 Ibid.

46 Gog (Guido Gonella), ‘Tra la vita e il libro: I seguaci del califfo Omar’, Studium, 4 (1934).

47 C. Valente, ‘Sforzi conciliativi dei cattolici tedeschi’, Azione fucina, 14 June 1936.

48 ‘Nazional Socialismo e Cattolicesimo’, Azione fucina, 11 Aug. 1935.

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60 Bendiscioli, Germania, 74.

61 On the importance of celebrations and the new calendar see Burleigh, Sacred Causes, 110–12 and Vondung, ‘National Socialism as a Political Religion’, 92.

62 Bendiscioli, Germania, 79.

63 Evans, Third Reich, 250.

64 Bendiscioli, Neopaganesimo, 28.

65 Ibid., 29–30.

66 Ibid., 15–16.

67 Ibid., 45.

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71 Ibid., 370.

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74 Ibid., 899.

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94 Gino Ferroni, ‘Valore dell'ordine corporativo’, Azione fucina, 16 Aug. 1936.

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100 Fausto Montanari, ‘Il superuomo’, Azione fucina, 9 Jun 1935.

101 Ibid.

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103 Ibid.

104 ‘Personalità e società’, Azione fucina, 18 Apr 1937.

105 Sac. Arcozzi-Masino, ‘Impostazioni errate del problema della personalità’, Studium, 9 (1937).

106 Miles, ‘Eroismo’, Studium, 7–8 (1936).

107 Ibid.

108 Ibid.

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112 Ibid.

113 Guido Anichini, ‘Da Prefetto a Vescovo’, Azione fucina, 11 Dec. 1938.

114 Ibid.

115 Report from Brescia, 6 Apr 1934, in Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dell'Interno, Direzione Generale di Pubblica Sicurezza, Divisione Affari Generali e Riservati, G1, b.19.

116 Reports from Vatican City, 13 May 1932, and from Padua, 4 Oct. 1931, both in Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dell'Interno, Polizia Politica, b.130.

117 B. G. (Giulio Bevilacqua), ‘Sgombrare l'idolo’, Studium, 1 (1940).

118 Ibid.