The Secular Challenge

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines how the force of secularism dramatically affected Italian society and challenged political Catholicism from the late 1960s until the late 1980s, when Italy was changing alongside urbanization, secularization, consumerism, and sexual modernization. The chapter discusses how Christian Democracy responded to the changing times. Catholic philosopher, Augusto del Noce, emerged as one of the most profound and vocal critics of the emerging secular society, but his views were difficult to reconcile with effective party politics. Aldo Moro and, in a much less effective way, Ciriaco De Mita—a representative of the “third” generation of Christian Democrats—attempted to reform the party, but their projects failed. The chapter is therefore also a story about the progressive decline of Christian Democracy as the hegemonic party that could claim to represent the broader Italian population.