ABSTRACT: At a moment in which the Italian Communist Party hopes to reap, by means of the "historical compromise", the fruits of the voting by which in 1947 it supported the constitutional acknowledgement of the Concordat ratified in 1929 between the Catholic Church and the Italian Fascist State (art. 7 of the Italian Constitution), the Radical monthly "La prova radicale" publishes three texts by Gramsci (1), Donati (2) and Salvemini (3) on the Concordat, to prove the short-sightedness of that decision. The Italian Communist Party, in spite of these "compromises", has not succeeded in its plan to attract intellectuals and Catholic masses on its own positions. As a matter of fact, the Concordat becomes the means by with the Catholic Church and the Christian Democrat Party succeed in detaining control over large popular masses.

(LA PROVA RADICALE, n.10-11-12 August-October 1973)

With the Concordat "The Church....commits itself to a specific form of government....to promote the consent of part of the rulers which the State explicitly acknowledges to be incapable of obtaining with its own means: this is the essence of the capitulation of the State..." These are the words of Gramsci. We can legitimately replace the word "State" with political forces, political parties and therefore the Communist Party as well, and understand how very Gramsci-like and apparently incomprehensible in the PCI's prospective too, the decision of voting article n. 7 of the Concordat was.

In 1947, Togliatti (4), who was an expert of the Yalta negotiations, had set aside (granted he had ever cultivated them) any hypothesis of seizing power by means of a revolution. At that moment, to cement the Concordat to the Constitution, averting it from Parliament meant, even considering the logic of the Concordat as appropriate to Togliatti's conception of politics, to deprive oneself of a powerful negotiation weapon as regards the clerical milieu, it meant to increase the power and the arrogance of it, to trigger excommunications, to facilitate the rupture of the workers' movement, the PCI's isolation, the function of chaplain of Pius XXII's Atlantic alliance, the repression of the little that had been achieved in terms of renewal on the part of the Italian Catholicism. Togliatti was a cheap Marxist indeed if he believed that article n.7 would have enabled the PCI to attract intellectuals and Catholic masses; we know this to be true now, but it could have been realized even then. From the creation of t

he ACLI (5) in 1944 to the constant censorship of the Christian Left, to make two examples, many were the signals enabling to fully understand that for the Church and later for the Christian Democrat Party the main goal, typical of any conservative force cultivating ambitions of hegemony over society, was that of maintaining the control over large popular masses, and that in this area it would have exerted maximum initiative, using all possible means, starting with the most effective ones offered precisely by the Concordat. Article 7., far from yielding that "religious peace" apt to make the struggle between social classes transparent, strongly contributed in polluting it and weakening it. It was a very serious political mistake. Because if it was not a mistake, there is no explanation for that voting other than fear, fear of a clerical milieu which everyone considered regenerated by the Resistance, but which in fact everyone feared capable of strong reactionary outbursts. In any case, after a quarter of a

century, this appears to be the attitude of today's Italian Communist Party: in the dossier on the "Christian Democrat affair" published some months ago on Rinascita (6), the thesis is quite explicitly expressed according to which the relation based on cooperation with the Christian Democrat Party must be sought for, because it is also a party of popular masses eager for advanced policies and at the same time because it contains such dangerous germs for the democratic and constitutional order, that an open conflict would be a folly, that is, putting our domestic Barzel and Strauss in minority and in opposition; it is clear that the second belief is the one that is really influential on the policies of the PCI, and it is the tragical evidence of the failure of Togliatti's strategy. It is all the more necessary to read Gramsci once again.

Donati, one of the few rigorous anti-fascists which the political movement of Italian Catholics can boast, is not by chance one of the most forgotten characters in the memory of the Christian Democrats, and not only in their memory. We suggest to read, eight years after the "Quesitalia", Donati's considerations against the Concordat. Donati considered anti-clericalism as a necessary attitude for the assertion of religious feeling: it is an important work to evaluate the quality of the ideal and political debate which, even if coming after the "Sillabo" (7) and the wrong-doings of Pius X, had been maturing among the believers over 40 years ago. One can understand the deep distortion caused in the conscience of the Concordat by referring to the speech delivered by the Constituent Assembly in 1947 by Catholic Dossetti, the defeated advocate of a left-oriented DC: in spite of the experience of the Resistance, the thrusts towards renewal and the yearning for justice, in his conceptual world we find many similari

ties with Padre Gemelli (8), and nothing reminding us of Donati: so far as to advocate the legitimacy of article n.5 of the Concordat, the one banning from all public offices unfrocked priests or priests condemned by censorship.

Donati's thoughts seems to us up to date even as regards that vast part of "dissenting" Catholicism which, choosing class and socialism without simultaneously solving the problems of the relations between religious institutions and religious feelings, remain in enclosed between integralism (the quest for a "Christian socialism") and clericalism (the defense and the representation of the Church as an institution, with all the adjustments and the "dialectics" involved in a class position).

Salvemini's pages, written prior to the Constituent, simple but not over-simplified, comprehensible but not rigorous, today more than yesterday represent a valid compendium of the things to be done in order for our country to recover the aspect of a democratic country as regards the religious phenomenon, and not only that. After 25 years of exercise of the Concordat and of Christian Democrat power, in an industrial and no longer rural society, which has more or less escaped its condition of isolation and cultural mortification, it is vital for democracy to succeed in forcing all political forces, the DC especially, to give its opinion on society and on the State; and first of all on a level of principles, and then perhaps on a level of opportunity. The silence of the present parliamentary left on the fundamental choices which should sustain and guide everyday political life is a worrying symptom pointing to the existence of a regime. To break this silence by means of a political struggle is the priority of t

he forces engaged in the democratic renewal of our country.

Translator's notes

(1) Antonio Gramsci: Italian politician (1891-1937), one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party.

(2) Giuseppe Donati: Italian politician (1889-1931), anti-fascist.

(3) Gaetano Salvemini: historian and politician (1873-1957), anti-fascist.

(4) Palmiro Togliatti: Italian politician (1893-1964), Secretary of the Italian Communist party from 1927 to 1964.

(5) ACLI: Christian Association of Italian Workers, founded in 1944.

(6) "Rinascita": political and cultural weekly of the Italian Communist Party, founded in 1944 by Palmiro Togliatti.

(7) "Sillabo": document issued by Pius IX in 1864, a list of 80 philosophical, ethical and political errors.

(8) Agostino Gemelli: Franciscan friar (1878-1959), founder of the Catholic University of Milan.