CLERICALE and CLERICALISMO. — CLERICALE is one of those adjectives coined periodically for use in a disparaging sense, as happened in the 16th century with the term “chietino” to denote a person devoted to a pious life, and later with “gesuita” as a synonym for hypocrite and secret schemer. It soon became a noun as well; thus wrote Tommaseo: “It is abused in a contemptuous sense as a noun (i c.) to denote not only the clergy and those who side with them, but also anyone who professes religious beliefs” (N. Tommaseo-B. Bellini, Dizionario della lingua italiana, I, II, Torino 1865, p. 1467).
Tommaseo already noted the confusion being fostered by those who proclaimed themselves liberals: not only were attempts made to discredit political opponents, but believers who sought to be Catholics in the genuine sense of the word—by adhering to the integral Catholic teaching and refusing to compromise with new theories and the growing indifference to religious matters among the upper classes—were also targeted. This misunderstanding, or rather confusion, between political and religious concepts persisted; and how the word was understood a few years later is evident in another dictionary published some years afterward: “Today in political language, ever fertile in new coinages, it is said of one attached to a party who, under the pretext of religion, is hostile to every civil liberty, and is more often used as a noun” (G. Rigutini-P. Fanfani, Vocabolario italiano della lingua parlata, Firenze 1883, p. 370).
Panzini, in turn, wrote: “After 1870, clericale was applied to persons and associations that aimed 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 accession of Pius X to the papacy, when the clericali took to the polls, the term clericale was given to those who advocated an accord between religious and civil power. With the concordat of 11 Feb. 1929, the word clericale is less in use. It can still denote those who would wish to return to old antagonisms (1934)” (A. Panzini, Dizionario moderno, Milano 1941, p. 141). There is no one among true and sincere believers who longs for such returns, yet the word clericale in its disparaging sense has not fallen out of use. A similar fate befell the term clericalismo, which followed its shifting meanings. To these correspond those of anticlericale and anticlericalismo.
Indeed, terms have been coined to denote particularly the virulent action of enemies of every religion and especially of Catholicism, who, ever ready to employ every means of struggle—from propaganda by word and press to direct, even violent, action—systematically and openly oppose them. Yet they do not shrink from proclaiming themselves anticlerical and from practicing anticlericalism in the sense that, while remaining obedient to the faith and declaring themselves believers, they aim to combat political tendencies allegedly inherent in genuine Catholicism or abuses contrary to genuine Christian practice and tradition.
How this kind of action can be reconciled with the reverence due to ecclesiastical authority is not always easy to understand; whereas those who do not hesitate to appropriate the words anticlericale and anticlericalismo in this second sense easily confuse themselves with open enemies of the Church and, more or less consciously, cooperate in their destructive work. V. also LAICISMO; LIBERALISMO.