CLERICAL AND CLERICALISM. - "Clerical" is one of those adjectives that are periodically coined to be used in a derogatory sense, as happened in the sixteenth century with the word "chietino" to denote a person given to a devout life, and later with "Jesuit," as a synonym for hypocrite and secret schemer. It soon became a noun as well; whence Tommaseo wrote: "They abound in a sense of contempt as a noun (the clericals) to mark with censure not only the clergy and those who humanly side with it, but those who profess religious beliefs" (N. Tommaseo-B. Bellini, Dizion. della lingua ital., I, II, Turin 1865, p. 1467).
Tommaseo already noted the confusion that was being made by those who proclaimed themselves liberals: not only was an attempt made to cast discredit upon political adversaries, but believers were also targeted who intended to be Catholics in the genuine meaning of the word, by adhering to the integral Catholic teaching, and who did not wish to come to terms with the new theories and with that indifferentism in religious matters that was gaining ever more ground in the upper classes. This misunderstanding, or rather confusion, between political and religious concepts continued; and how the word was understood some years later can be read in another dictionary from a few years afterward: "Today in political language, always fertile in new names, it is said of one who is attached to a party, an enemy, under the color of religion, of every civil liberty, and almost more often as a noun" (G. Rigutini-P. Fanfani, Vocabol. ital. della lingua parlata, Florence 1883, p. 370).
Panzini in turn wrote: "After 1870 'clericals' were called the persons and associations that proposed to fight for the vindication of the rights of the Holy See. Abstention from political voting was the most evident norm of clerical politics. After the elevation of Pius X to the pontificate, when the clericals began going to the polls, the name 'clerical' was given to those who hankered after an agreement between religious and civil power. With the concordat of 11 February 1929 the word 'clerical' is less in use. It can still indicate those who would like to return to the old antagonisms (1934)" (A. Panzini, Dizionario moderno, Milan 1941, p. 141). There is no one among true and sincere believers who hankers after such returns, and yet the word "clerical" in its derogatory sense has not fallen out of use. A similar fate befell the word clericalism, which followed its changing meanings. To these corresponded those of "anti-clerical" and "anti-clericalism."
These have in fact been created to signify particularly the virulent action of the enemies of every religion and in particular of Catholicism, who, always ready to employ every means of struggle, from propaganda by word and by the press to direct action, even violent, make themselves systematic and open opponents of it. Nor do they shrink from proclaiming themselves anti-clerical and from engaging in anti-clericalism — persons who, as they assert, while remaining respectful of the faith and proclaiming themselves believers, propose to combat political tendencies rooted in genuine Catholicism or abuses at variance with genuine Christian practice and tradition.
How this kind of action is reconcilable with the reverence owed to the ecclesiastical magisterium is not always easy to understand; while anyone who does not shrink from appropriating the words anti-clerical and anti-clericalism in this second meaning easily comes to be confused with the open enemies of the Church and to cooperate, more or less consciously, in their destructive work. See also LAICISM; LIBERALISM.