WORKS AFFILIATED WITH CATHOLIC ACTION ITALY. - These are Catholic bodies and institutions of an economic-social character. The statute of Italian Catholic Action, in art. 2, defines them generically as "of social utility." Their affiliation with Italian Catholic Action takes place through the I.C.A.S. (Istituto cattolico di attività sociale [v.]).
I. NATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF DIRECT CULTIVATORS
Established in 1946. It draws inspiration from Christian social principles and sets out: a) to provide for the protection of the general interests of direct cultivators and of agriculture, obtaining respect and appreciation for the rights of labor in agricultural production, in relation to the other agricultural productive categories, to the entire national economy and to the administrative and political authorities; b) to represent the federated associations and the category of direct cultivators at the national level for questions of a general character affecting the entire category, in dealings with the political and administrative authorities and with the other trade-union and economic associations; c) to promote every initiative and, if necessary, to carry on, either directly or through specially constituted bodies, every activity directed to the improvement of the condition of direct cultivators in the economic, technical and social sphere, and to the increase of agriculture. Press: Il coltivatore (weekly).
II. CHRISTIAN UNION OF ENTREPRENEURS AND MANAGERS
1. History
After the Lombard Group of Catholic Business Managers was founded on May 2, 1945, in Milan, the initiative spread to other regions of northern and central Italy. On Jan. 31, 1947, the Christian Union of Entrepreneurs and Managers (U.C.I.D.) was established in Milan, with delegates from the Lombard, Piedmontese, Ligurian, Emilian-Romagnol and Tuscan groups present. On May 16, 1947, the U.C.I.D. was invited to become part of the National Associations of Patrons catholiques (U.N.I.A.-P.A.C.) on the occasion of their VIII International Conference, held in Paris. In 1948 the Veneto and Roman groups were added; in Oct. of the same year the first National Congress was held in Venice. Two further congresses were held in the following years, 1949 and 1950.
2. Aims
They consist in the presentation of Christian social doctrine, the development of professional morality, the organization of enterprises on a Christian basis, and the growth of a sense of co-responsibility as the indispensable foundation of the most just and effective collaboration among the true subjects of production.
3. Structure
The U.C.I.D. is made up of groups on a regional basis, each governed by a regional executive council and by its own regulations suited to the particular characteristics of the region. Two delegates from each group, in addition to the secretary, are members of the National Executive Council, which meets, as a rule, four times a year, and whose activity is supplemented by a presidential committee. Press: Operare, bimonthly; Responsabilità, monthly.
4. National associations members of the U.N.I.A.-P.A.C
Belgium: Fédération des patrons catholiques (F.E.P.A.C.), in Brussels. Canada: Association professionnelle des industriels (A.P.I.), in Montréal. France: Centre français du patronat chrétien (C.F.P.C.), in Paris. England: Catholic industrialists' Conference (C.I.C.), in Oxford. Italy: Unione cristiana imprenditori dirigenti (U.C.I.D.), in Milan. Holland: Algemeene katholieke werkgevers vereniging (A.K.W.V.), in The Hague.
III. CENTRO NAZIONALE DELL'ARTIGIANATO
On Oct. 20, 1947, the Holy Father granted a special audience in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo to the participants in the First National Congress of Christian Artisans. From that time the National Center of Handicraft may be said to have been definitively established. It arose under the auspices of the I.C.A.S. (Istituto cattolico di attività sociale) and is defined in its Statute as the Christian Association of Italian Artisans. Its purposes are: a) to promote the affirmation of Christian principles in the life, the organizations and the legislation of handicraft; b) to ensure the fullest and most effective participation of Italian artisans in trade-union life through adequate preparation; c) the moral, artistic, technical and economic assistance of Italian artisans, outside of and above every political and trade-union division.
The central bodies are: the National Congress, the National Council, the Central Presidency. The peripheral bodies: the parish centers; the municipal and district centers. The artisans are grouped according to national associations of arts and crafts, whose presidents constitute the Central Committee of Arts and Crafts, to which the study of technical problems is entrusted. National center: Rome. Press: Italia artigiana, monthly.
The National Center of Handicraft (C.N.A.) adheres to the Italian Confederation of Handicraft (C.I.A.), whose fortnightly organ is L'artigianato italiano.
IV. FAMILY FRONT
Founded on 25 March 1946, it aims to be much more than a secretariat for the family, having the purpose of protecting and strengthening the family institution, in accordance with the spiritual, juridical and social traditions of the Italian people, adapted to the needs of the present time. The Front is above all a grouping of heads of families, who agree on its inspiring aims. Other family and para-family bodies may also join; the Front is increasingly moving toward fitting into the framework of family associations in the broad sense and thus aspires to become the unified interpreter of the ethical-juridical and economic-social interests of Italian families before the central and peripheral authorities.
The Family Front was promoted, after mature study and in response to numerous requests received from various quarters, by the adult branches of Italian Catholic Action, and it still adheres to it with autonomy of operation. The bases of its doctrine and its action were set out in an elaborate "Charter of the Family," to which more than a million heads of families adhered by signing a special card.
Two national conferences have been held so far; the Front has participated in various international congresses of European family specialists and has published several studies of a family nature. When the occasion arose, it intervened actively to stimulate and guide the action of the public authorities in protection of the family. The organ of the Front is the fortnightly La famiglia italiana.
Presidency and central directing commission in Rome, provincial committees in every capital and local committees in many municipalities. Delegations in the various zones.
V. CONFEDERAZIONE COOPERATIVA ITALIANA
The resurrection of the Confederation, owed to the faith and the work of the lamented Luigi Corazzin, bears the date 15 May 1945, the anniversary of Rerum novarum.
In it were gathered together the forces of Cooperation of Christian inspiration that had been scattered by the Fascist regime. From the very first revival it was confirmed that the Italian Cooperative Confederation (C.C.I.) is a national association for the representation, assistance, protection and auditing of the cooperative movement. It is a free body, independent of every political party. It is constituted by cooperative and mutual-aid bodies and their consortia, associated, in each province, in a single union, and in national federations.
The following were established as the tasks of the Confederation: a) the development, coordination and regulation of the cooperative and mutual-aid movement; b) the representation and the moral and economic protection, in Italy and abroad, of the cooperative and mutual-aid bodies and of their members; c) the defense of the collective and individual interests of cooperation, as an instrument for the transformation of the social structure; d) the development of the cooperative conscience, encouraging all initiatives suited to the moral elevation and the technical training of cooperators; e) the preparation of workers for the acquisition of the instruments of production and exchange in the cooperative economy; f) the implementation and increase, on the national level, of technical, legal, administrative and economic assistance to cooperatives, to their consortia and to mutual-aid bodies in general, also by means of auditing; g) the collection and processing of statistical data on cooperation; h) the exercise of every other function deriving from laws, regulations, or acts of the public authority.
The organs of the Confederation are: a) the National Assembly of the delegates of the unions; b) the National Council; c) the Executive Committee; d) the president; e) the general secretary; f) the Board of Auditors; g) the Board of Arbitrators.
Peripheral organs: a) Provincial Unions of cooperatives and mutual-aid societies; b) International Federations. - Press organ: L'Italia cooperativa, a weekly.
The Italian Cooperative Confederation was legally recognized by decree of 12 Apr. 1948 by the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare. The Statute was approved by the National Assembly of the delegates of the unions at the meeting of 22 Oct. 1949 and by the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare by decree of 11 Jan. 1950, published in the Gazzetta ufficiale della Repubblica, no. 22 of 27 Jan. 1950. At the end of Oct. 1950 the Confederation counted 8,650 member cooperatives, of which: 2,700 consumer; 1,537 production and labor; 2,300 agricultural; 344 building; 769 various. The Provincial Unions at the same date numbered 66 and the National Federations 5. The Confederation has realized the "Casa della cooperazione," reviving in Borgo S. Spirito in Rome the Palazzo degli Alicorni, in which it has placed its headquarters.
The motto of the Confederation is: "Ut unum sint."
To the Italian Cooperative Confederation there also adheres the Federation of rural banks. The organization of these special mutual-aid bodies is legally recognized in the form of the Ente delle casse rurali, an autonomous body, which has its seat in Rome.
VI. CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION OF CINEMA OPERATORS (A
C.E.C.). - Promoted in 1949 by the Catholic Cinematographic Center (C.C.C.), it provides for representing the material and moral interests of the category of exhibitors of Catholic movie theaters, in particular with regard to the State administration, public and private bodies and trade-union organizations; to ensuring its members a service of legal, administrative and tax consultancy and assistance; to promoting and encouraging every direct understanding; to regulating, in the common interest, relations with other exhibitors and with the private cinema industry.
Press: it has a column in the monthly magazine of the C.C.C.: Rivista del cinematografo.
VII. ORBIS FILM
Founded in 1944, it is a company for the production and distribution of documentaries and feature films with a religious-moral background. It promotes the development of substandard gauge; it has begun its own distribution of substandard-gauge and standard-gauge films, on good terms, to particularly needy parishes. Orbis, moreover, assists through a technical office all Catholic cinema theaters and religious bodies with technical consultancy. On the occasion of the Holy Year it also established a photographic laboratory, which also serves for the production of filmstrips for fixed catechetical projections.
It also has underway a program for the production of 30 catechetical short films.
Ernesto Talentino