CATHOLIC INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ACTIVITY (I.C.A.S.). — In the regulations approved on 28 November 1946 by the Most Excellent Episcopal Commission for Italian Catholic Action, it is defined as the specialized technical organ of the I.C.A. for everything relating to economic and social action.
It arose in 1926 to gather the inheritance of the former Catholic social organizations, such as the Italian Confederation of Workers, the Confederation of Mutual Aid and Social Insurance, the Italian Cooperative Confederation, and the Federation of Rural Banks.
The I. has the task of formulating and disseminating the orientation of Catholic thought with regard to the problems affecting institutions and categories in their existence and harmonious functions, as well as promoting the establishment of Catholic social institutions and works, supervising their theoretical and practical orientation, and assisting them with moral support by implementing their unified coordination.
In accordance with these aims, the I.C.A.S. is organized into two sections: the Studies Section identifies current economic and social problems and interprets their content in the light of Christian social thought; it prepares monographs and social publications for information and guidance; promotes and collaborates in the doctrinal planning and implementation of the Social Weeks of the Catholics of Italy, for which a special permanent committee has been established; offers a threefold correspondence course in social, trade-union, and cooperative formation; and publishes the fortnightly periodical «Orientamenti sociali», now established as the organ of economic and social guidance, information, and formation for all Italian Catholics. Among the problems most extensively studied are those of relations between Church and State, the trade-union question, the industrial and agricultural questions, the problems of credit and rural banks, the question of apprenticeships, etc. Publications include «Per la comunità cristiana», a synthesis of Catholic social thought also known as the «Codice di Camaldoli», and the Proceedings of the Social Weeks (cf.) from 1945 to the present.
The Social Works Section effectively contributed to promoting, or 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 Crafts Centre and the Italian Confederation of Crafts, the Italian Women’s Centre, the Christian Union of Entrepreneurs and Managers, the Catholic Committee for Emigration, and the Family Front.
At the national level, the I.C.A.S. is directed by a president, a presidential council, an ecclesiastical adviser, an administrator, and a general council, composed of those responsible for social activities in the various national Associations of the I.C.A., representatives of the coordinated and dependent Works, and representatives of the affiliated institutions.
At the diocesan level, Diocesan Secretariats of Social Activity (Se. D.A.S.) have been established.
Since 1950, the I.C.A.S. has established within itself a Centre for Europeanist Action.