FEDERATION AMONG THE ASSOCIATIONS OF THE CLERGY IN ITALY (F.A.C.I.) - Attempted in various forms since the beginning of this century through movements in individual Italian dioceses (e.g., Bologna, Turin, Sicily) that sought to defend the clergy and its interests against the attacks of Freemasonry, the F.A.C.I. definitively came into being in 1917, through the work of a group of Sienese priests who, under the guidance of Cardinal P. Maffi and of Msgr. P. Scaccia, Archbishop of Siena, united into a single association all the energies scattered across the various dioceses of Italy.
The first congress of the F.A.C.I., to which came the approval of the Holy Father, took place in Pisa in October 1917: there Msgr. Condio, representative of the diocese of Turin, was elected president of the Federation. The driving force and soul of the F.A.C.I. at its birth was the vice-president, Msgr. Nazareno Orlandi of Siena.
The first interventions of the F.A.C.I. in defense of the clergy and of ecclesiastical institutions came immediately after its founding, with the struggle against the Sacchi decree, in defense of ecclesiastical property; interventions that all proved victorious. The years following the World War were further years of tenacious struggles in which the F.A.C.I. attempted to provide the entire clergy with more suitable economic means and succeeded in obtaining from the State Treasury considerable sums that each year have passed to the fund for worship for the increase of the congrua.
Other measures were taken after the Congresses of Naples in 1919 and of Bologna in 1921, to relieve the clergy of fiscal and trade-union pressures, and for the reform of ecclesiastical legislation. In recent times various welfare works arose on the initiative of the F.A.C.I.: a sanatorium for the clergy at Vigne d'Arco in the Trentino, two pavilions for sick priests (Bisceglie [Bari], Venice), an insurance society, two houses of care and rest (Montecatini and Marina di Massa), agreements with various Institutes to obtain the greatest facilities for priests.
The Congress of the Federation meets every two years. Moreover the F.A.C.I. has published its own monthly bulletin, since 1919, under the title Bollettino ufficiale of the F.A.C.I.; since 1924 under the title L'amico del clero.