ACQUADERNI, GIOVANNI. – Founder and first president of ITALIA (v.), born in Castel S. Pietro (Emilia) on 3 March 1838, died in Bologna on 16 February 1922. One year after the dissolution of the «Associazione cattolica italiana per la libertà della Chiesa in Italia», which had been the object of a violent anticlerical reaction, A. launched FANE (v.) on 19 June 1867, with the aim of the «defence of Christian society» and with the motto: Preghiera-azione-sacrificio.
By 1871 the undertaking had already attained such development that he thought of making it the centre for promoting the mobilization of all Catholic forces; thus arose the Opera dei Congressi (v.), which in 1874 held its first assembly in Milan and continued for almost thirty years, through regional, diocesan and parish committees, under the direction of a general committee, to bring together all willing members of the Italian Catholic laity. He was the deviser and driving force behind ever new and varied initiatives, such as the Peter’s Pence, the exhibition for the jubilee of Leone XIII (1888), the newspaper L'Avvenire d'Italia, and the bank Il Credito Romagnolo.