LUCIANO MUSSELLI

Chiesa e Stato all'Assemblea Costituente: l'articolo 7 della Costituzione italiana

N. 145

Summary - Object of this article are the events that brought about the formation of Article 7 of the Italian Constitution, which deals with the relations between the State and the Catholic Church, sanctioning the independence of the Church and placing the Lateran Pacts of February 11, 1929 as instrument of regulation of the relations between the Church itself and the State.

The a. tries to demonstrate how the choice made with Article 7 of the Constitution, namely the maintenance in force of the Lateran Concordat and the assurance of protection on the part of the Constitution, stemmed from a slow and suffered evolution. This is evident from the very beginning of the works of the first undercommission of the Constituent Assembly, whose task was to study and elaborate the article referring to the relations between Church and State, where the communist leader, Togliatti, already shows availability and comprehension towards the request of the Christian Democracy for a reconfirmation of the Concordat in the Constitution. Thus, from the very beginning, that fundamental understanding takes place between communists and christian-democrats which, notwithstanding moments of crisis due to the unwillingness of the communists to mention the Lateran Pacts drawn up between Pious XI and the fascist regime in the republican Constitution, ended in the approval of Article 7 with the favourable vote of the Italian communist party itself. The reasons for this vote stemming from Togliatti’s personal decision are many, from the exigencies of the preservation of the religions peace to those concerning the safeguard of the continuation of the communist presence in the government The communists’ decision to vote in favour was not sudden, therefore, but was the coherent continuation of an ideological and political bent to dialogue and collaboration with the catholic forces.

The union of the christian-democratic and the communist forces, to which were added the votes of the liberal-conservatives and of the Uomo Qualunque party, put an end to the opposition of the socialists and the laic-progressist parties, at the end of a long and impassioned parliamentary debate in which became evident the degree of laity or confessionality of the various political parties of the Italian Constituent Assembly and of their exponents.