ACQUADERNI, GIOVANNI. — Founder and first president of the *Società della Gioventù Cattolica Italiana* (q.v.), born at Castel S. Pietro (Emilia) on March 3, 1838, died at Bologna on February 16, 1922. A year after the dissolution of the «Associazione cattolica italiana per la libertà della Chiesa in Italia», which had been the object of violent anticlerical reaction, A. launched, together with Mario Fani (q.v.), the new Society on June 19, 1867, with the aim of «defending Christian society» and the motto: *Preghiera-azione-sacrificio* [Prayer-Action-Sacrifice].
By 1871 the work had developed to such an extent that he conceived the idea of making it the central promoter of a mobilization of all Catholic forces, and thus arose the *Opera dei Congressi* (q.v.), which held its first assembly in Milan in 1874 and continued for nearly three decades to gather, through regional, diocesan, and parochial committees under the direction of a general committee, all willing members of the Italian Catholic laity. He was an originator and animator of ever new and varied initiatives, such as the *Obolo* of St. Peter, the exhibition for the jubilee of Leo XIII (1888), the newspaper *L'Avvenire d'Italia*, and the bank *Il Credito Romagnolo*.