Abstract

The paper looks at the historical and contemporary role of Catholic Church in Italian politics. Over the last sixty years Catholicism has played an important role in Italian society. The paper identify three ways in which Catholicism interacts with Italian public life: as a peculiar version of “civil religion”, through Catholic inspirited political parties and the Church intervening directly in specific public debates. After identifies the change of political role of the Catholic Church in the last decades the paper recognize the main challenges for this particular relationship in the next future.