Maurilio Lovatti

ACLI (Christian Associations of Italian Workers): the First Years of Domenico Rosati's Presidency (1976-1978)

In 1976, the impasse looming in the restoration of the desired peaceful relationship with the ecclesiastical authorities after the conflictual period following the condemnation of Pope Paul VI was the decisive factor that led Marino Carboni to resign, with some regret, as president of the ACLI and accept the candidacy for a safe Senate seat, proposed in the meantime by Benigno Zaccagnini as part of the plan to renew the DC (Christian Democracy Party) and open up to civil society. The details of the intricate process that led to Carboni's resignation can be precisely reconstructed based on contemporary notes by Domenico Rosati, Carboni's successor. On May 3, 1976, the Political Commission met, a body without deliberative powers but nonetheless crucial due to the presence of leading figures from all the ACLI's internal components. In the preceding days, Carboni had met with Monsignor Giovanni Benelli through the good offices of Senator Giuseppe Petrilli. The central issue is the risk that recognized ACLI leaders will accept the candidacies proposed to them on the PCI (Italian Communist Party) lists, provoking renewed condemnation from the Bishops. Vittorio Pozzar states that if Emilio Gabaglio and Giovanni Bianchi do not run, "the situation will be managed," meaning avoiding further public condemnation from the hierarchy. Geo Brenna states that either there is pluralism "in all directions" or "the question of the movement's existence" arises. Emilio Gabaglio, while understanding the political significance of the PCI's move to nominate recognizable figures from civil society and the Catholic world, believes that "the ACLI needs to be cautious." 

Three days later, in an informal meeting of the leadership group, Carboni stated that ACLI candidacies on the PCI lists were unacceptable: "They're waiting for us on this issue. The resignation of the candidates from the national council wouldn't be enough. Otherwise, the matter [of relations with the hierarchy] would be definitively closed. At other times, there would have been understanding, but not today." Within the same group led by Carboni, most of the leaders, starting with Rosati himself and Luigi Borroni, were opposed to any restriction of pluralism decided by the National Council or by an extraordinary congress that would exclude from the ACLI those who adhere to Marxism or the PCI, and even more so, to the possible expulsion of those who agreed to run for the PCI in the upcoming political elections. Carboni acknowledges that any potential "forced" action by the national council is not supported by his own members, and so he declares: "I've tried to stall since Florence. Now I'm no longer able to find other ways. [...I'm] not willing to engage in a tug-of-war with the hierarchy." However, he cannot continue his administration, "created to reconcile with the hierarchy." Rosati emphasizes that any resignation of the president "would be inappropriate and wrong" if motivated by political reasons or, even more so, by relations with the hierarchy: "If he were to resign, the president should do so upon accepting the election candidacy: he would not be defeated and would leave his successor's chances intact." Carboni agrees, and Rosati writes at the bottom of his notes taken during the meeting: "I feel this is a gesture of friendship. Because now it's my turn..."

This is what happened: on May 30, 1976, Carboni and the entire Presidency submitted their resignations to the National Council, which rejected their resignations and unanimously elected Domenico Rosati. Previously, at the Executive Committee meeting of May 15, Carboni had specified regarding his resignation that "clearly […] the reason for his candidacy for the Senate on the DC list is purely accidental"; he had mentioned "the objective difficulties […] existing with respect to the possibility of continuing the commitment to restoring proper relations with the hierarchy," but he had also firmly stated that "the resignation of the presidency is neither intended nor should be seen as prejudicial to the continuation of the unitary management" of the ACLI. (Minutes of May 15, 1976, item 1).

Rosati's election was based on a document unanimously approved by the National Council, which outlines certain key points regarding the movement's Christian inspiration and its relationship with bishops. This document affirms the ACLI's commitment to "living within the ecclesial community, contributing to ongoing research within it, with its own authenticity, with its own choice […] of class and anti-capitalism […]. In this spirit, the ACLI, while reaffirming pluralism, considers the exercise of the Bishops' function legitimate in this field too, reiterating the duty to listen, to pay attention, and to undertake necessary reflection […]. (Document unanimously approved by the National Council on May 29 and 30, 1976).

Domenico Rosati, born in 1929 in Vetralla, in the province of Viterbo, and a law graduate, began working full-time with the ACLI in November 1951 as press officer and coordinator of the weekly magazine Azione Sociale, then in preparation, when Ferdinando Storchi was still national president. Editor of the weekly until 1960, he then worked as press officer for the Minister of Labor, Fiorentino Sullo, and subsequently at the Cassa Mutua dei Commercianti (Traders' Mutual Fund) until 1968. A national councilor of the ACLI since 1959, he joined the national Presidency in 1968. After the Cagliari Congress (1972), he was elected vice president. When he became national President of the ACLI, he was 46 years old.

The first delicate moment for the new president was the 14th national congress of Gioventù Aclista, held in Ariccia from June 26 to 29, 1976. Since the referendum on divorce, relations between the youth movement and the ACLI had become extremely tense, unlike anything seen in previous decades. The ACLI demanded autonomy from the movement, particularly regarding political considerations. The ACLI leadership was very close to the positions of the left within the ACLI, and thus the unified reconciliation that emerged in Florence favored improved relations. Rosati delivered a lengthy speech in Ariccia, interrupted by thunderous applause from hundreds of young delegates. He successfully re-established a fruitful relationship with GA, marking a turning point compared to Carboni's Presidency. National delegate Dolores Deidda (leader of ACLI Youth), in her reply, stated that Rosati "has demonstrated himself to be a president who knows how to speak to young people, who knows how to engage with them, who knows how to accept the differences that exist and can exist in analyzing problems and making political judgments; and who recognizes that it is not these differences that constitute the source of division today, but the choice to resolve or repress them."

In addition to reconciliation with the GA, after the 1976 general elections, the new presidency sought to consolidate good relations with the DC, but within a framework of dialogue and interaction with the major popular parties. Repeatedly confirming its positive assessment of the strategy of broad coalitions and national solidarity, the Rosati presidency sought to establish a multipolar system of relations, primarily with the DC left and the Moro-Zaccagnini political line, but also with Berlinguer's PCI, which in those months was committed to reviving the historic compromise, and with De Martino's PSI, and then, from July 16, 1976, with Craxi, who appreciated the ACLI's concern, made public after the June general elections, about the threat posed to intermediate forces following the polarization that emerged from the elections. Finally, with the confederal unions (Macario, Lama, and Benvenuto participated in the round table on trade union unity promoted by the ACLI on March 3, 1977).

As part of this strategy, on March 19, 1977, Domenico Rosati spoke at the DC's national workers' conference in Turin, at the request of Paolo Cabras, director of the party's labor office. For the first time in over a decade, a national president of the ACLI participated in an official DC initiative.

But the most important moment of the first year of Rosati's presidency was undoubtedly his participation in the CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference) national meeting on evangelization and human promotion, which effectively represented the largest consultation of bishops, clergy, and laity ever held in Italy. The starting point was the document written by Msgr. Enrico Bartoletti and approved by the CEI on April 17, 1975. After Msgr. Bartoletti's death (March 1976), some doubts arose about the appropriateness of continuing preparations for the conference, which were overcome by the determination of Cardinal Antonio Poma and Fr. Bartolomeo Sorge. (F. De Giorgi, Paolo VI, Morcelliana, Brescia 2015, pp. 661-62).

The conference opened in Rome on October 30, 1976, and concluded on November 4, presided over by Cardinal Antonio Poma. The vice-presidents were Msgr. Luigi Maverna, Fr. Bartolomeo Sorge, and professor Giuseppe Lazzati; Rosati was on the presidency committee. Pope Paul VI personally celebrated Holy Mass for the meeting participants in St. Peter's Basilica, and in his homily, he emphasized the event's transformative and rethinking nature: "This is what it is about, you know: evangelization and human advancement. The Church invites you and commits you to rethinking its mission in the contemporary world, to an authentic and new religious conscience, to engaging with the dizzying modern world, indeed, to a dialogue of salvation for those who undertake the difficult mission of opening it, and for those who are fortunate enough to welcome it." (Paul VI, Homily of 31 October 1976, in Evangelizzazione e promozione umana, Atti del convegno ecclesiale, 30 October - 4 November 1976, AVE, Rome 1977, p. 27).

Human promotion has definitively become one of the goals to which the Italian Church must aspire, in the knowledge that it cannot be separated from evangelization: "The Christian community, because it is entirely evangelizing, is, as such, an active agent of human promotion, in the diversity of the roles of bishops and priests, men and women religious, and the laity." (Presentation of the conference proceedings by the permanent committee of the CEI, in Evangelizzazione e promozione umana, p. 14). In the third general report to the conference, Msgr. Filippo Franceschi, the new Archbishop of Ferrara, intends to indicate, based on everything that emerged during the preparatory phase, "with what proposal […] the Church present in our country can effectively contribute to the work of promoting humanity." (F. Franceschi, Esigenze e prospettive dell'evangelizzazione nella società di oggi, in Evangelizzazione e promozione umana, p. 133 and following).

First, Archbishop Franceschi emphasizes that the Church's action must seek to avoid two temptations: that of fundamentalism, which is spreading among conservative believers, and that of secularization, which seems to be gaining support among progressives. In particular, fundamentalism presents itself "as a tendency to see and make earthly realities function as a support for spiritual ones, [...] as a rejection of the proper autonomy of the temporal context, [...] as a tendency to derive a self-sufficient culture from faith." The Archbishop of Ferrara, highly critical of traditionalist and conservative attitudes, recalls: "The Church is for the world. The temptation to reverse this trend, confining Christians within their communities rather than sending them out to others, is always dangerous in difficult times, when the confrontation with the world is most difficult. Under the pretext of maintaining the Church in its purity, such an attitude would push it to place itself in an artificial space, cut off from the world."

Archbishop Franceschi's reflections are very balanced, and appreciated by the assembly and the commissions, also on the topic of Catholics' social and political pluralism: "Regarding [...] the question of the presence of Catholics in civil society, that is, whether they should gather in unified groups and formations or rather obey the logic of the diaspora (always to contribute their own contributions to the advancement of humanity), it does not seem possible to give a theological or dogmatic answer: the judgment and evaluation are historical and contingent." However, a healthy pluralism is also inspired by the common criterion according to which the Christian's commitment must aim to "overcome the status quo [...] No historical condition exhausts hope for the Christian, nor can it be considered ideal."

In his final reply, accompanied by prolonged and repeated applause, Fr. Sorge summarized: "The conference today calls upon the Italian ecclesial community to make a priority commitment to seeking a new cultural mediation, which will lead to a re-expression of the faith and the Christian message in a way that responds to the new cultural demands that have arisen in Italy in recent years." (B. Sorge, Una Chiesa in ricerca, in servizio, in crescita, in Evangelizzazione e promozione umana, p. 324).

On the controversial issue of pluralism, he proposes a solution that respects the different tendencies that have emerged: "Just as it is normal for different organized movements to form, even though they are inspired by the same evangelical values, in theory it is equally legitimate for other Christians—individually or in groups—to prefer to act within different political movements, not inspired by evangelical values, but not in conflict with them […] with the aim of inspiring and guiding them with their Christian witness. However, contingent historical situations may arise in which the unity of Catholics can become a grave moral duty." The prevailing orientation that emerged from the conference, and shared by Pope Paul VI himself, is based on the conviction that the Church, faced with the great heterogeneity of the historical and social situations in which it must operate, does not wish to propose univocal and predefined solutions, but intends to entrust local Christian communities with the responsibility for concrete evaluations and choices, on the basis of their capacity for prophetic discernment.

The ACLI, which had actively collaborated in preparing the conference through dozens of provincial and regional conferences, were present in large numbers at the national conference. Commenting on the conference in an editorial in the ACLI weekly, Domenico Rosati wrote: "The conference […] appeared, at its conclusion, as one of those events that leave their mark. It is significant that this opinion is shared, both by those who believed in the conference and contributed to its preparation—and we are among them—and by those who had viewed the conference with skepticism or suspicion, almost as if it were a preordained opportunity for a fundamentalist revival of the Italian Catholic world." (D. Rosati, A Vangelo aperto, in Azione Sociale, November 14, 1976, pp. 1-2).

Rosati notes that this result is even more significant because the diocesan delegates to the national conference were chosen by the bishops themselves, and therefore represent the local churches in their entirety, not just militants and activists from Catholic organizations and movements. He also notes that the conference excluded Catholics who had joined the PCI's lists as left-wing independents, contrary to what Giuseppe Lazzati or Rosati himself had wished: the preparatory committee had not admitted them, believing that they had "self-excluded" themselves from the Christian community by not following the CEI's guidelines. Rosati also fully shares the idea that the conference is a starting point, not a point of arrival, for the Italian Church: "It is no coincidence, therefore, that the entire assembly emphatically emphasized the need not to consider the experience closed, but to extend it to the periphery and the center by identifying forms and tools for consultation that will allow bishops to shape their pastoral decisions based on the living reality and real tensions of the Christian community in a profoundly changed Italy. This seems to be an authentically conciliar indication that vigorously reaffirms the methodology of Octogesima adveniens, entrusting Christian communities with the task of adopting the most appropriate pastoral orientations, after consulting all the components of the Church."

Regarding the content of the conference's conclusions, Rosati emphasized how two opposing temptations were peremptorily excluded: that of fundamentalism, a true "Gospel woodworm," in the expression used by Father Sorge, and that of a "parallel church" that challenges the hierarchy. Regarding the presence of ACLI members, Rosati added: "Many of us were present; we avoided forming a 'current,' and we tried to give a free and personal contribution to the committees in which we spoke, one that could not help but be influenced by our unique experience. Our contribution was accepted and listened to, like all the others; a constructive contribution to the growth of an ecclesial community open to understanding the problems and experiences of believers who live the conditions and commitment of the labor movement."

The historical importance of the conference, emphasized at the time by Rosati and the ACLI members present, is confirmed decades later by historians: "No one can deny the courage that inspired it and the enthusiasm it generated among the participants and among a large part of the then rather shrunken and rigid ecclesial body. A breath of fresh air, a peremptory call to commitment to both evangelization and human promotion, a moment of reunification and awareness that seemed to spread to all participants." (G. Frosini, I convegni ecclesiali nella Chiesa italiana, in A. Acerbi, G. Frosini, Cinquant'anni di Chiesa in Italia, EDB, Bologna 2006, p. 121).

Fulvio De Giorgi thus situates the conference on evangelization and human promotion in the history of the Italian Church: "Ten years earlier, the Italian Church had a different face, very un-Montinian and still largely fundamentalist. The delay in Italian ecclesiastical Montinism was not Montini's fault but, primarily, the responsibility of the Italian episcopate that Pope Paul VI found himself facing. In any case, the shockwaves of the conference continued, despite Bartoletti's departure (and it was a serious void), even after Montini's death, for the first part of John Paul II's pontificate and concluded with the ecclesiastical conference of Loreto and, above all, with the arrival of Ruini at the helm of the CEI." (F. De Giorgi, Paolo VI, pp. 663-64).

On December 7, 1976, at 12 noon, the national president of the ACLI, Domenico Rosati, was received in audience by the Substitute of the Secretariat of State, Monsignor Giovanni Benelli. According to Rosati himself, Monsignor Benelli had determined "the Vatican's attitude" towards the ACLI affair from the Turin congress (1969) onwards, and his assessments of the direction taken by the ACLI under the presidency of Carboni were cautious and tentative: "'We will judge you by your actions' was the watchword that bounced up and down the hierarchy to the CEI terminals. Benelli then used to speak and write 'by venerated mandate'; and everyone understood – from the American ambassador to the lowest parish priest – that his thinking corresponded to that of Pope Paul VI." (D. Rosati, Il laico esperimento, Edup, Rome 2006, pp. 71-72).

Rosati recalls: "I was immediately struck by the friendliness of my interlocutor," and when asked how much time he had been granted, Benelli replied, "As long as necessary." The conversation lasted a full two hours. After patiently and attentively listening to a lengthy report from the president on the situation and evolution of the ACLI over the last decade, toward the end of the conversation, according to Rosati himself, Msgr. Benelli made a very specific request: "The ACLI was expected to oust from the organization's governance, and then from the organization itself, those (names and surnames) who, as members or sympathizers of Marxist-inspired forces - including socialists, guilty of having followed Livio Labor to the perilous shores of the PSI - were not qualified to be members of a Christian association: 'What do you intend to do, President?' The entire sequence of the difficult relationship between the ACLI and the hierarchy (not in recent years, but from the very beginning) culminated in that question."

Rosati's response summarizes a line shared by the entire national leadership since the Florence congress. The ACLI intends to strengthen and make more explicit the movement's Christian inspiration and its focus on the teachings of the Church, committing to do nothing to detain those who do not share this approach. However, it is always in accordance with the principle that in a democratic movement, whether to remain or leave is up to the individual's conscience, rejecting the idea of purges. He would rather resign. According to Rosati, it is not the role of the president, nor of other ACLI bodies, to force members to resign unless they violate the statute. Rosati, in what appears to be a sort of all-out defense of the ACLI, also recalls the CEI's 1971 decision, which withdrew ecclesiastical consent from the movement, considering it a good starting point for rebuilding the relationship with the hierarchy, as it avoids the risk of compromising the Bishops in questionable political or social choices: "By referring to the CEI's 1971 resolution, which acknowledged the ACLI's new position, I knew I was touching a raw nerve: there was, in fact, a difference of opinion between the Italian episcopate and the Vatican Secretariat of State; and this was probably the reason why the CEI's distancing itself from the ACLI was followed by the Pope's much harsher and more explicit condemnation. Benelli was of the opinion that a formalized relationship needed to be re-established at the end of the recovery process; on the contrary, I supported the Bishops' thesis […] to demonstrate that a return to the past would not have made the path that the Bishops themselves had chosen practicable. The farewell was cordial."

The following week, on December 13, Rosati was received in Milan by Archbishop Giovanni Colombo, accompanied by Msgr. Giovanni Battista Guzzetti and Father Pietro Galli, for a more detailed examination of the issue of Catholic political pluralism and the cases in which ACLI leaders, such as Giovanni Bianchi, had made statements supporting left-wing independents, contrary to the bishops' recommendations. For Rosati, the positive outcome of the meeting significantly contributed to improving relations with the hierarchy: "From that moment, throughout the entire long term of my presidency [1976-87], I no longer received definitive requests of a global nature." (ibid., pp. 74-75).

The approach outlined to Cardinal Benelli would be scrupulously followed in the years to come. The central idea was to bring all provincial ACLI branches back to full respect for the values derived from the movement's Christian inspiration, correcting any deviations through dialogue and persuasion, and only in the event of failure, taking disciplinary action. A significant example of this is the case of the Turin ACLI, whose Provincial Council approved on May 11, 1977, a document positively evaluating certain aspects of the abortion law then under discussion in Parliament. This contrasted with the negative assessment of the proposed law repeatedly expressed by national bodies, starting with the Executive Committee of March 6-7, 1976, which, as we have seen, had also been praised by L'Osservatore Romano. Just a few months earlier, an editorial in Azione Sociale had stated that the prevailing opinion in Parliament was "predisposed to favor, rather than discourage, abortion. The bill now under discussion reveals this fact because, ultimately, any woman who wishes to have an abortion will be able to legally abort." (Azione Sociale, December 19, 1976, p. 1). The immediate and resolute action of the national presidency succeeded in persuading the Turin ACLI to reconsider their position, to the satisfaction of the city's archbishop, Cardinal Pellegrino, who had repeatedly shown himself sympathetic to the ACLI.

The same strategy also includes a further distancing by the ACLI from the positions of Cristiani per il Socialismo (Christians for Socialism) and the extreme fringes of Catholic dissent: "To maintain […] that the choice of class, and by extension the choice for socialism, derives coherently from faith is wrong. From faith can and must derive the choice of the poor, that of the Gospel […] While the choice of class and for socialism […] arise […] from an analysis that is historical, economic, social and political..." (A. Gennari, Il futuro dei cristiani per il socialismo, in Azione Sociale, 23 January 1977, pp. 6-7).

Improved relations with the Church were also fostered by Rosati's patience, meeting with dozens of bishops during the first years of his presidency to explain the movement's situation and intentions, and by the presence and commitment of Father Pio Parisi, who wrote in Azione Sociale in January 1977: "I have been following the ACLI for several years now […] now, however, my presence here among you also has a new significance, both substantial and formal. In fact, I have been asked by the national office for Pastoral Care of the World of Labor to collaborate […] by following in particular the religious formation of ACLI workers." Father Parisi wrote frequently in Azione Sociale, participated in a roundtable discussion on the tenth anniversary of Populorum Progressio, with Ruggero Orfei and Angelo Gennari, which was prominently featured in the ACLI weekly, and encouraged attention to religious issues. Gioventù Aclista also organizes a conference The Future of Faith in the Expectations of Young People in Assisi (23-25 September 1977).

At 9:02 a.m. on Thursday, March 16, 1978, on Via Fani (between Via Trionfale and Via della Camilluccia in Rome), a couple of kilometers from the Olympic Stadium, the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades) kidnapped Aldo Moro and killed five of his escorts. The operation was carried out by at least ten young Red Brigade members (the youngest was 23, the oldest 31), determined and ruthless: in just a few seconds, they fired over 90 shots.

At that time, the Pope was ill. He had to cancel the previous day's general audience and was forced to cancel most of his other engagements. Upon hearing of Moro's kidnapping, Pope Paul VI, though deeply saddened and still indisposed, immediately wrote to the Christian Democrat statesman's wife, whom he knew personally, to express his deep sympathy "in her torment" over her husband's kidnapping. Three days later, still feverish, from the window of his study, at the Angelus, he addressed the thousands of young people gathered in the square: "Let us pray together for all those who are suffering in these days, bearing more vividly within themselves the imprint of Jesus' passion: for the families mourning their loved ones, cut down in the line of duty by a senseless, murderous hatred that has once again sought to undermine peaceful social coexistence; let us pray for the Honorable Aldo Moro, dear to us, kidnapped in a vile ambush, with a heartfelt appeal for his return to his loved ones." (Paul VI, Angelus Domini, March 19, 1978, in Insegnamenti, Vatican City 1965-79, vol. XVI, pp. 216-17).

From the first days after the kidnapping, Pope Paul VI considered possible interventions to facilitate Moro's release. Monsignor Pasquale Macchi, the Pontiff's secretary, wrote: "Among the options for freeing the Hon. Moro, it seemed possible to attempt to secure his release through a large ransom. The Pope gave instructions to raise the necessary sum. Monsignor Cesare Curioni, chaplain of the San Vittore prison in Milan, was informed to investigate ways to facilitate this possibility." (P. Macchi, Paolo VI e la tragedia di Moro, Rusconi, Milan 1998, p. 21).

Despite Father Curioni's utmost efforts, both direct and indirect contacts through Msgr. Fabio Fabbri, also a prison chaplain, and lawyer Giannino Guiso, Renato Curcio's defense attorney, were unable to reach the Red Brigades detaining Moro. The Red Brigades themselves denied any knowledge of any negotiations with the Vatican. Mario Moretti wrote tersely: "If they spoke to anyone, it certainly wasn't the Red Brigades. The newspapers write that many people went looking for us, but we don't have a representative office. No one came to us in those days." (M. Moretti, Brigate Rosse. Una storia italiana, Anabasi, Milan 1994, p. 165). Valerio Morucci declared to the Parliamentary Commission on Massacres: "I know nothing about this negotiation, I can't know where it ended up, and I doubt it could have ended up anywhere." (Hearing of Valerio Morucci, 18 June 1997, cited in R. Ferrigato, Non doveva morire, San Paolo, Cinisello B. 2018, p. 202).

Moro's kidnapping provoked an immediate, heartfelt, and massive popular reaction. The confederate unions called a national strike in which approximately 15 million workers participated. Demonstrations took place in Italy's major cities. The largest was in Rome, in Piazza San Giovanni, attended by over 200,000 people. On March 18, the funeral of the escort was held. A huge crowd filled the Piazzale di San Lorenzo near the Verano Cemetery and applauded as the bodies of the fallen passed by. Giulio Andreotti, then Prime Minister, wrote in his diary: "The families, of the very poor, were in agony. Some wreaths were placed on De Gasperi's tomb in the atrium. […] The crowd was immense and impressive: silent, aware." (G. Andreotti, Diari 1976-79. Gli anni della solidarietà, Rizzoli, Milan 1981, March 18, 1978, p. 193).

From the day of the kidnapping, the ACLI mobilized at all levels, actively participating in demonstrations and initiatives promoted by workers' unions and anti-fascist political parties. A national ACLI manifesto (poster), prepared immediately on March 16 and posted throughout Italy, forcefully stated that with Moro's kidnapping and the massacre of his escort, the terrorists intended to erase "the hope of an orderly development of democracy" in Italy (D. Rosati, Il laico esperimento, p. 93). A few days later, Rosati intervened with an editorial, which, after recalling the value of Moro's political vision, urged ACLI members to take active action against terrorism and to defend democratic institutions: "The defense of democracy is achieved today by preventing vast masses of citizens from retreating into fear, disaffection, and disengagement […] This is not the time for withdrawal from the field but for greater participation, at all levels. […] We will do our part by implementing - together with political, trade union, and social forces - that great initiative of democratic education that is essential to morally and physically isolate the murderers but also, and above all, to ensure broader scope for the recovery of our institutions of freedom. We will do this […] among young people, in schools, in the workplace, consistent with the values we inspire." (D. Rosati, "Why Terrorism Will Not Win," in Azione Sociale, March 26, 1978, pp. 1 and 16).

The ACLI leadership, completely unaware, like all other Catholic organizations, of the Holy See's efforts to free Moro (which were conducted with the utmost secrecy) and understanding the reasons that made it impossible for state institutions to open negotiations recognizing the Red Brigades, instructed President Rosati to verbally express to Benigno Zaccagnini the ACLI's complete willingness to contribute in any concrete way possible and through any humanitarian initiatives to free the Christian Democrat statesman. This same willingness was communicated to Franco Salvi, Moro's close associate, and confirmed in a letter to Zaccagnini, after release no. 6 of the Red Brigades, which announced the death sentence of the President of the DC: "If you think, if you think, that the ACLI, precisely because of its particular nature as a private and autonomous organization, which does not perform functions of constitutional importance, can be used for any initiative aimed at attempting to achieve the objective that we all set ourselves, know that you can count on all our energies." (Letter from Domenico Rosati to Benigno Zaccagnini of 17 April 1978, cited in D. Rosati, Il laico esperimento, p. 96.)

Meanwhile, the ACLI sought to develop its educational role by organizing assemblies and meetings in all its Circoli (clubs, basic structures), seeking to encourage the widest possible participation of all Catholics, regardless of their social and political affiliation. A handbook was prepared for clubs throughout Italy Da cristiani, nell'unità di tutto il popolo, per la lotta contro la violenza, per un nuovo sviluppo della democrazia (From Christians, in the Unity of All the People, for the Fight Against Violence, for a New Development of Democracy), ACLI, Rome 1978, which was distributed widely. According to the national President, in this way, the ACLI intended to implement "democratic pedagogy, essential for overcoming disorientation, disaffection, and populist ferment; ultimately, to prevent the objectives aimed at by terrorist activity from being achieved."

Rosati, however, admits that the ACLI, like much of public opinion, had initially underestimated the terrorist threat that had been hanging over the country for some years: "In truth, the ACLI were not particularly prepared for their encounter with terrorism. A posthumous reading of their attitudes shows that, essentially, they followed the fluctuations of media opinion, which initially interpreted the phenomenon as entirely derived from a black matrix and only later understood that the issue was more intricate on the left wing as well. Now people realized that the explosion of the Red Brigades and their political "reasoning" established a connection between the latest bloody deeds and the ideological premises inherent in discourses on the revolutionary use of violence that had also been recorded within the ACLI and in the Catholic area during the hottest moments of the rebellion following '68. Positions, of course, entirely minority and residual..." (D. Rosati, Il laico esperimento, p. 95-96).

The release of the Red Brigades' communiqué no. 6 (April 15) announcing Moro's death sentence set a frenetic and convulsive pace in attempts to open a channel of communication with the Christian Democrat statesman's jailers. On April 18, Amnesty International made a public appeal to the Red Brigades, with the prior consent of the DC and Moro's family, and also supported by the Pope Paul VI, who privately consulted the Archbishop of Canterbury to facilitate the attempt. (A. Giovagnoli, Il caso Moro. Una tragedia repubblicana, Il Mulino, Bologna 2005, pp. 173-74). The next day, Lotta Continua published an appeal, promoted by "circles close to the Moro family," signed by six Bishops (including Bishop Clemente Riva, Auxiliary Bishop of Rome; Bishop Filippo Franceschi, Bishop of Ferrara; Bishop Mariano Magrassi, Archbishop of Bari; and Bishop Luigi Bettazzi, President of Pax Christi Movement), several priests, prominent Italian and foreign theologians, numerous intellectuals, several socialists (such as Riccardo Lombardi, Norberto Bobbio, and Giuliano Vassalli) and communists (Umberto Terracini and Lucio Lombardo Radice), and, most importantly, for the issue at hand, by the leading leaders of Catholic associations: Mario Agnes, President of Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action); Giuseppino Monni, President of the FUCI (Italian Catholic students); and Domenico Rosati, President of the ACLI. The appeal calls on Moro's jailers to "consider that outside of human life there is no possibility of the man's liberation" and asks "the Italian government, parliament, political parties, those detaining Aldo Moro, and all forces, institutions, and persons in authority, to take the necessary and formal steps for the release of a man who is paying and has paid a very high price." (An Appeal, in «Lotta Continua», 19 April 1978).

As Rosati explains, he had been asked to join the appeal by the Radicals, and the following day, while reading the appeal, he noticed that the phrase calling on the government to take "necessary and formal steps" didn't exactly match the text read to him over the phone. However, despite the incorrectness, he decided not to revoke his support for the appeal so as not to break the Catholic community's front line. On April 20, the appeal also received the authoritative endorsement of the presidency of the CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference). The CEI, in a statement, affirmed the need for "a decisive and common goodwill, inspired by the primary values of civil coexistence: respect for human life, consideration for inalienable family ties," and urged "those who intend to assume responsibility for deciding on a human life" to persist in "seeking the right path." Rosati writes: "Some of the signatories had publicly dissociated themselves. I did not do so, to avoid further misunderstandings and also out of consideration for the family." (D. Rosati, Il laico esperimento, p. 97). In essence, the national President's position remains firm in adhering to the humanitarian solution line, supported by much of the DC leadership, which, however, excluded actions that could lead to institutional recognition of the Red Brigades. The reasons that ruled out political recognition of the Red Brigades are reiterated in an article in the ACLI periodical, signed by A. G. [Angelo Gennari]: "This is the challenge of terrorism: to force us to throw away our freedom, to limit it ourselves, to commit suicide as a democracy, to adopt its own means of defense, those proposed by Almirante. This is the truest and most profound reason why the Republic can in no way "recognize" terrorists, giving in to them."

Rosati, however, refused to sign the document, signed by Pietro Scoppola, Vittorino Veronese, and Cardinal Michele Pellegrino, among others, which denied the authenticity of Moro's prison letters and stated, "The Aldo Moro we know […] is not present in the letters addressed to Zaccagnini and published as his." (They Want to Destroy Moro's Figure, in «Il Popolo», 26 April 1978, cited in A. Giovagnoli, Il caso Moro, p. 225).

Communiqué No. 7 of the Red Brigades, released on April 20, two days after the false communiqué No. 7 (the one that reported that Moro's body had been thrown into the Apennine lake of Duchessa), made public a terrible ultimatum: the release of the prisoner "can only be considered in relation to the liberation of communist prisoners" within the peremptory deadline of 48 hours.

This dramatic development of the story, and in particular Moro's letter addressed to him, ("Only Your Holiness can place moral reasons and the right to life before the needs of the State, understandable in their order" writes Moro in the letter to Pope Paul VI, undated, received on 20 April 1978, in P. Macchi, Paolo VI e la tragedia di Moro, pp. 26-28; A. Moro, Lettere dalla prigionia, edited by M. Gotor, Einaudi, Turin 2008, pp. 68-69) induced the Pontiff to address the famous appeal to the BR.: "I write to you, men of the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades): restore the Honorable Aldo Moro to freedom, to his family, and to civil life. I do not know you, and I have no way of having any contact with you. Therefore, I am writing to you publicly, taking advantage of the time remaining until the death threat you have issued against him expires. He is a good and honest man, whom no one can accuse of any crime, or accuse of a lack of social awareness or a failure to serve justice and peaceful civil coexistence. I have no mandate to deal with him, nor am I bound by any private interest in him. But I love him as a member of the great human family, as a friend in my studies, and, in a very special way, as a brother in faith and as a son of the Church of Christ. And it is in this supreme name of Christ that I turn to you, who certainly are not unaware of it, to you, unknown and implacable adversaries of this worthy and innocent man; and I beg you on my knees, free the Honorable Aldo Moro, simply, unconditionally, not so much because of my humble and affectionate intercession, but by virtue of his dignity as a common brother in humanity, and for the cause, which I hope will have strength in your conscience, of true social progress, which must not be stained with innocent blood, nor tormented by superfluous pain." (Letter of Paul VI to the Red Brigades, 21 April 1978, in P. Macchi, Paolo VI e la tragedia di Moro, pp. 31-32).

Also around April 20, coinciding with the ultimatum contained in the Red Brigades' communiqué no. 7, a substantial shift in the attitude of the PSI (Italian Socialist Party) and Bettino Craxi occurred. The Socialists, since the days immediately following Moro's kidnapping, had supported a firm stance. As recently as April 11, they had praised the DC for having been able to "resist any surrender," and a few days later they had confirmed the "imperative" to defend without hesitation "the stability of democratic and parliamentary institutions." In an editorial on April 21, however, the PSI maintained that "first and foremost, there is the imperative that imposes itself on any civil society and therefore also on the Italian state […namely] the defense of human life." (A Political and Human Drama, in «L'Avanti», April 21, 1978, p. 1). As Agostino Giovagnoli notes, the PSI worked to "bring to light, through the majority parties or government bodies, the willingness - though never fully defined - to make an 'autonomous' gesture by the State." (A. Giovagnoli, Il caso Moro, p. 183). Regarding the genesis of this initiative, Pietro Craveri recalls that initially "De Martino sponsored it […] Giuliano Vassalli took up the cause, having responded to the requests of Carlo Alfredo Moro, the magistrate brother of the Christian Democrat Leader. A concerted effort to take an initiative began to form, which Craxi embraced." (P. Craveri, Una battaglia della guerra fredda, in «Mondoperaio», 2018, no. 3, pp. 55-60, at p. 60). Vassalli is tasked with identifying a terrorist not stained by blood crimes, in particular conditions (seriously ill or a woman with a young child) who could be the subject of a formally legitimate measure of clemency by the State, in an attempt to try to save Moro's life.
The ACLI were also involved in this perspective. Rosati recounts: "On May 3, a meeting took place between me and the secretary of the PSI, Bettino Craxi, which I attended with Luigi Borroni. […] In his room on Via del Corso, the PSI secretary said he had decided to speak with the ACLI because he believed it was important for such a representative Catholic organization to support a concrete initiative aimed at saving the life of the Honorable Moro, after so many days of segregation in the mysterious 'people's prison,' from which the Red Brigades issued increasingly arrogant statements alternating with increasingly anguished messages from the victim. […] Craxi spoke persuasively of the opportunity to explore the possibility of a one-for-one exchange between a terrorist held in Italian prisons and the 'prisoner' Aldo Moro." (D. Rosati, Il laico esperimento, pp. 97-98). Craxi does not reveal to his interlocutors the basis on which he considers this option viable. Rosati observes that the proposed option goes beyond the "humanitarian solution" accepted by the government and the DC. Craxi assures that the initiative is substantially supported by the DC secretariat. On the same day, however, Zaccagnini confirms that the DC does not deviate from the "humanitarian solution" agreed upon by the majority parties (which, among other options, included involving the International Red Cross to assess the state of Italian prisons and the taking over of detained terrorists).

All attempts failed: Aldo Moro was assassinated on May 9, and his body was found on Via Caetani in Rome. Rosati recounts: "On May 9, 1978, at lunchtime, the entire ACLI leadership was gathered at the home of Pagliarini's widow, on Via Marco Polo, for one of the usual spiritual reflection meetings promoted by Father Pio Parisi. The news of the discovery of Moro's body on Via Caetani was announced by the expression on the face of the head of the press office, Giorgio Bonelli, even before the words he spoke. We rushed to Piazza del Gesù. It was already crowded. As we struggled toward the entrance, I felt someone embracing me. It was Giovanni Berlinguer, Enrico's brother. We both cried." (D. Rosati, Il laico esperimento, pp. 99).

For the Pontiff, Moro's killing was "a deadly blow, which marked his person, already weakened by illness and advanced age." (P. Macchi, Paolo VI e la tragedia di Moro, p. 44). At the funeral of the Hon. Moro, presided over by Cardinal Vicar Ugo Poletti in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, in the absence of the statesman's wife and children, Pope Paul VI pronounced the famous prayer: "And now our lips […] want to open to express […] the cry, the weeping of ineffable pain with which the present tragedy suffocates our voice. Lord, hear us! And who can hear our lament, if not You, O God of life and death? You have not heard our plea for the safety of Aldo Moro, this good, gentle, wise, innocent man and friend; but You, O Lord, have not abandoned his immortal spirit, marked by faith in Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. For him, for him. Lord, hear us!"

The day after Moro's body was discovered, Rosati wrote a confidential and personal letter to Giulio Andreotti, Prime Minister, reaffirming the ACLI's support for the political framework of national solidarity: "At this moment, emotions seem to overwhelm rationality. I feel compelled to respond to this pressure by writing to you that, as far as we are concerned, there will be no compromise with respect to the orientation, which we have repeatedly expressed, of safeguarding the stability of the political framework centered on the government you lead. Personally, I am convinced that, if even this barrier collapses, there is only the green light for destabilization and involution." (Rosati's confidential letter to Andreotti, dated May 10, 1978).

The ACLI periodical Azione Sociale published a large photo of Moro on its front page, alongside the caption: "They have assassinated Aldo Moro: horror, grief, prayer, solidarity with his family and with the DC are the spontaneous feelings of Christian workers in this hour of death. But they cannot kill democracy: the message of freedom on which Aldo Moro's moral and political lesson is based remains intact in the conscience of the people." (May 14, 1978).

A few weeks later, the ACLI President met with the Bulgarian Ambassador to Rome, Venelin Kozev, and when asked who might have benefited from the statesman's passing, the diplomat stated that it benefited both the West (USA) and the East (USSR). Rosati recounts having asked Kozev why the USSR had an interest in hindering the Communists' accession to the government, and receiving this response: "Do not underestimate the concern raised by the Communists' entry through democratic means and within an Atlantic framework: a true shift of sides." The president commented: "Since then, I have never been able to dismiss this Bulgarian theory, one among many, but a very compelling one: a 'parallel convergence' of different, indeed opposing, needs, united on the basis of balance and stability." (D. Rosati, Il laico esperimento, p. 100; the publication of declassified English and American documents seems to fully confirm the Bulgarian diplomat's thesis; see: G. Fasanella, Il puzzle Moro, Chiarelettere, Milan 2018, pp. 206-207 and 211).

The national Congress in Bologna (June 1978) was preceded by the 23rd national study Meeting on the theme From development in crisis to a new culture of development: ACLI research, which took place in Riccione in January of the same year. It was introduced by a detailed report by Ruggero Orfei, head of the research office of the ACLI national Presidency. The meeting marked a significant milestone in the history of the ACLI, as it established several guiding principles that would shape its work throughout Rosati's long Presidency (1976-87) and beyond. In particular, a reevaluation of civil society and the so-called intermediate bodies of society emerged forcefully, and as a result, the ACLI's commitment to the political and cultural growth of civil society itself was defined, from a perspective in which the state is conceived as an institutional expression of social realities, in a cultural attempt to revisit the traditional principle of subsidiarity. Furthermore, the conference emphasized the need to rethink development, moving beyond a purely quantitative vision, a topic that remains relevant today. Orfei notes that there is a sort of implicit dogma in the mentality engendered by capitalism, namely, "the assumption of a quantitative criterion to guide every qualitative variation" (R. Orfei, General Report to the XXIII National Study Meeting, in Quaderni di Azione Sociale, 1978, no. 3, pp. 25-84, p. 36), which leads to the habit of considering everything that is not measurable as abstract. Essentially, the aim is to deepen and apply to the Italian social context the fundamental principle already enunciated by Pope Paul VI, according to which the development of human societies cannot be reduced to simple economic growth, but must strive for authentic human advancement. (Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, no. 14).

President Rosati, evaluating the conference's results, emphasized how Riccione Meeting highlighted: "The exaltation of what we have called the fourth dimension - meaning the depth of a civil society capable of organizing itself to propose and experiment independently - which is an indispensable factor in the creation of a moral, even before social and political, fabric capable of withstanding the authoritarian pressures shaking the country. […] The cultural operation to be accomplished is […] an overcoming of capitalism and its logic, even before its economic and social structures, in the consciousness of millions of individuals and the organizations that transmit its historical memory." (D. Rosati, After Riccione: the duty to think big, in Azione Sociale, 29 January 1978, p. 15).

A notable and authoritative testimony to the fruitful process undertaken to enhance the Christian character of the ACLI is given by the speech of Father Pio Parisi, again at the Riccione conference: "In the ACLI there is genuine Christian inspiration, a true striving for faith in Christ, without facile illusions of full fidelity, of perfection achieved." (Speech by Father Pio Parisi, in Quaderni di Azione Sociale, no. 3, pp. 131-142, at p. 140).

The 14th ACLI National Congress was held at the Bologna Fair from June 15 to 18, 1978. The national Presidency had considered postponing the congress due to the turbulent political situation: Moro had been assassinated the previous month, the abortion law had been definitively approved by the Senate, the Reale law introducing police custody had been confirmed in the referendum of June 11 and 12, and the Lockheed scandal erupted, leading President Giovanni Leone to resign.

In his introductory speech to the Congress, Rosati explained why the postponement option was ultimately rejected: "If we had delayed our schedule […] we would have demonstrated our fear, submitting to the brutal blackmail of those who exploit panic to disrupt the life of the country and its institutions, to establish a tyrannical plan based on fear, in which the forces of force prevail over the force of reason."

In his report, Rosati recalls the Pope's commitment to saving Moro: "Paul VI, precisely in the face of Moro's tragedy, found in faith the strength for an exceptional act of humility, to humble himself in an unheard plea for human mercy that reached the tones of biblical prophecy."

The President paints a disillusioned and realistic picture of the ACLI: "The risks of loss of identity and role are always looming in an organization like ours, with uncertain boundaries, marked by strong membership mobility and a massive migration of activists." Despite this, in the three years since the Florence Congress, the ACLI have sought to translate and make transparent their Christian inspiration in action and reflection "in the commitment that sees us participate in the emancipatory struggles of the labor movement" by operating "as Christians within the labor movement." The ACLI have recovered a dimension "that had often eluded us in the past," namely the "disruptive value of the Christian faith" in the critique of ideologies, a dimension that for the younger generation has been seen as a discovery, an "epistemological turning point."

Rosati recalls the new climate that has developed in the Italian Church since the conference on Evangelization and Human Promotion, in which the ACLI participated with conviction at all levels and which demonstrated how it is possible "to build a Church that is continually searching in the face of historical innovations." For Rosati, the conference clearly revealed the persistence of a deep-rooted misunderstanding between the Church and the labor movement, a misunderstanding not of principle ("there can be no rift between the evangelical message and the commitment to the liberation of man from all material and spiritual conditioning") but rather due to mutual distortions in the perception of the other's reality. This, on the one hand, demonstrates the historical failure of the ACLI, which arose precisely to bridge this rift and overcome these misunderstandings, but on the other, it makes the active presence of an organization like the ACLI even more indispensable, which has "equal credibility in the Church and the labor movement, to carry out this function of frontier, of connection, of liaison, of synthesis." Still regarding the ACLI's Christian mission, Rosati noted with satisfaction that the presence of a priest was always guaranteed in the movement's numerous and varied educational activities, both nationally and locally, and that specific moments of reflection were always identified "on topics that lay people's commitment to social work and the workers' movement particularly required for a constant Christian inspiration in their personal and group work."

Confirming that a united stance has now taken root within the ACLI, the congressional debate fully supports Rosati's theses regarding Christian inspiration, to the point that the national President can state in his reply that regarding the acquisition and clarification of "the ACLI's Christian identity, no fundamental disagreements or doubts have emerged with respect to the indications I had given." From a political standpoint, the ACLI confirms its willingness to continue the dialogue with the PCI, so much so that Rosati, in her congressional report, criticizing the prejudicially anti-communist tendencies that have emerged forcefully within the DC since Moro's death, states: "Faced with the involutionary pressures that are looming on the horizon […] we declare that we will fight to prevent the resurgence […] of the line of conflict. […] We do not want the country to divide. We want it to be even more mixed up; that is, we want it to be unified, in a fundamental consensus on the values of democracy and the Constitution, and thus implement the premises of justice on which it is founded."

The Congress unanimously approved a telegram to Pope Paul VI, affirming the will of all ACLI members to work as Christians within the labor movement to establish a culture of development based on the values of human advancement. The Pope's response, expressing gratitude for the message and expressing his hope that the ACLI "will make an original contribution to authentic and integral Christian and human advancement, especially in the workplace, inspired by the Gospel message in light of the Church's constant social teaching" (Azione Sociale, September 17, 1978, p. 4), was greeted with prolonged applause and interpreted as an important first step toward a desired full reconciliation.

At the conclusion of the Bologna Congress, (which the former president Emilio Gabaglio did not participate in, because he had resigned from the National Council in June 1977 due to incompatibility with his positions in the CISL) the 70 members of the ACLI National Council were elected using the traditional panachage method, which was reintroduced on this occasion to strengthen the spirit of unity. The list led by Rosati obtained 41 councilors (58.6%); the left-wing components obtained 17 (24.3%) and the right-wing Pozzar-led components obtained 12 (17.1%). The unified management of the ACLI was unanimously confirmed, and Rosati was re-elected president.

For ease of understanding, newspaper article titles have often been translated into English. The titles of the books from which the quotes are taken have been left in Italian.

Domenico Rosati (1929-2024) was a Senator of the Italian Republic from 1987 to 1992.

Domenico Rosati's main writings in Italian:

- La questione politica delle ACLI, Edizioni Dehoniane, Napoli 1975.
- L'incudine e la croce. Mezzo secolo di Acli, Edizioni Sonda, Torino 1994.
- La fabbrica della speranza. Dino Penazzato, le Acli, la politica: una biografia tra memoria e futuro, Editoriale Aesse, Roma 1995.
- Biografia del centrosinistra: 1945-1995, Sellerio, Palermo 1995.
- La profezia laica di Livio Labor. Apologia di un cristiano senza paura, Editoriale Aesse, Roma 1999.
- Il laico esperimento. Lavoratori cristiani tra fedeltà e ricerca, 1976-1987, Edizioni dell'Università Popolare, Roma 2006.
- I cattolici e la politica. Potere e servizio nello spazio pubblico, Edizioni Dehoniane, Bologna 2015.

ACLI: i primi anni della presidenza di Domenico Rosati (1976-1978) (in Italian)

Giovanni XXIII, Paolo VI e le ACLI (in Italian)

Maurilio Lovatti - main index of online papers