Abstract

Examining the open comparison between Guglielmo Pepe and Alessandro Passerin d’Entreves which appeared in the pages of «Città libera» in 1945, Giuseppe Capograssi brings into this discussion Tocqueville’s considerations about the contributions of the religious spirits to the quest for liberty, and those of Catholicism to the development of the principle of equality. Above all, he brings into this debate – facing the abyss without God of the totalitarianisms – a deep reflection about Croce’s religion of liberty, giving reasons for the absolute compatibility between the statement of catholic belief and the cultural and political adherence to the liberal principles