A common altar? John Paul II’s European project within Italian Catholic political debate

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the Italian Catholic press’s reactions to John Paul II’s pastoral work concerning Europe’s future. We explore the effects of Wojtyla’s proposal for a continent united by Christianity through an examination of representative publications from major cultural and political currents. The research focuses on the second half of the 1980s and the intertwining of the Pontiff’s public discourse with Gorbachev’s project for a ‘Common European Home’. The goal of this article is to frame the debate within the auspices of Ostpolitik, the European integration process and, more generally, thinking at the time on the political function of religions in a period of post-secularist theories. In particular, we examine the clash on the issue of the continent’s Christian roots, pitting democratic Catholics against Comunione e Liberazione within the framework of the Italian Church’s transformation, leading up to Card. Camillo Ruini becoming President of the Italian Episcopal Conference (I.E.C.).