CATHOLIC INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ACTIVITY (I.C.A.S.). - In the system approved on 28 Nov. 1946 by the Most Excellent Episcopal Commission for Italian Catholic Action, it is defined as the specialized technical body of the A.C.I. for everything relating to economic-social action.
It arose in 1926 to take up the legacy of past Catholic social organizations, such as the Italian Confederation of Workers, the Confederation of Mutuality and Social Insurance, the Italian Cooperative Confederation, and the Federation of Rural Banks.
The Institute has the task of formulating and disseminating the direction of Catholic thought in the face of the problems that affect institutions and categories in their existence and in their harmonious functions, as well as promoting the establishment of, overseeing the theoretical-practical direction of, and assisting with moral support the Catholic social institutions and works, carrying out a unified coordination of them.
In accordance with these aims, the I.C.A.S. is organized into two sections: the Studies section handles the identification of the economic-social problems of the moment and interprets their content in the light of Christian social thought, drafts monographs and social publications of information and orientation, promotes and collaborates in the doctrinal framing and realization of the Social Weeks of the Catholics of Italy, for which a special permanent committee is constituted, offers a threefold correspondence school for social, trade-union and cooperative formation, and edits the fortnightly periodical «Orientamenti sociali», which has established itself today as the organ of orientation, information and economic-social formation of all Italian Catholics. Among the most studied problems, mention should be made of that of relations between State and Church, the trade-union problem, the industrial and agricultural one, the problems of credit and rural banks, the problem of apprenticeship, etc. Among the publications: «Per la comunità cristiana», a synthesis of Catholic social thought also known by the name «Codice di Camaldoli», and the Proceedings of the Social Weeks (cf.) from 1945 to the present.
The Social Works section has contributed effectively to promoting, or has directly promoted, the reconstitution, in the years 1945 and 1946, of the free social organizations, such as: the Christian Associations of Italian Workers, the Italian Cooperative Confederation, the National Center of Crafts and the Italian Confederation of Crafts, the Italian Women's Center, the Christian Union of Entrepreneurs and Managers, the Catholic Committee for Emigration, the Family Front.
The I.C.A.S. is directed at the national level by a president, a presidency council, an ecclesiastical adviser, an administrator and a general council, composed of the persons in charge of social activities of the various national Associations of the A.C.I. and by the representatives of the coordinated and dependent Works and of the adhering institutions.
Within the diocesan sphere, the Diocesan Secretariats of Social Activity (Se.D.A.S.) are constituted.
Since 1950 the I.C.A.S. has constituted within itself a Center of Europeanist Action.