AVVENIRE (L') D'ITALIA. — Bolognese Catholic daily, founded on 1 November 1896, on the initiative of Cardinals Mauri and Svampa, by Giovanni Grosoli, president of the Opera dei congressi e comitati cattolici, and Giovanni Acquaderni, founder of the Gioventù cattolica italiana, under the title L'Avvenire and with Filippo Crispolti as editor. In 1902 it adopted its present title and came under the direction of Cesare Algranati (known by the pseudonym Rocca d'Adria), who made it the liveliest and most combative of the Italian Catholic papers. In 1915 Paolo Cappa (later a deputy and senator) was appointed its editor; he gave the newspaper considerable renown both during the 1915–18 war and at the time of the Partito popolare italiano. In 1923 the newspaper passed to the Centro nazionale, under the direction of Enrico Bolognesi, but declined and did not regain its former vigor until 1927, when it was acquired by the Compagnia di S. Paolo. Since then its editor has been Raimondo Manzini, later a deputy to the Constituent Assembly and to Parliament. The newspaper’s area of circulation, under agreements reached through the aegis of Azione Cattolica, includes Emilia, Veneto, and Tuscany; together with the other Catholic newspapers, it is linked to the S.I.R. (Roman Information Service), from which it receives Roman and Vatican news.
Of particular importance, especially through the efforts of Raimondo Manzini and Mario Luzzi, was its “third page” in the early postwar period. It became the meeting place of the young Italian Catholic literary movement, and gave rise to the gatherings of Catholic writers, Pontespizio, and Ragguaglio.