What role did fascism and communism play in the formation of European Christian Democracy? Christian Democracy is a political ideology which emerged during the nineteenth-century in Europe. The movement was originally based on Catholic social teaching and democratic ideas but became weakened as secularism began to rise throughout Europe. Christian Democracy emerged in an attempt to subvert liberal democracy however evolved into a mass party movement. Christian Democratic parties have helped shape the politics of numerous European countries while also playing a major role in initiating and shap¬ing the European integration process. As a political movement Christian Democracy aided the consolidation of Cold War Europe however it remained influential …show more content…
Italy witnessed a shift in population from the rural countryside to towns; this was a direct consequence of the country’s current urbanisation and industrialisation. This era also witnessed the transfer of population from southern rural Italy to other parts of Continental Europe. The Catholic Church therefore had to respond to these demographical shifts both socially and culturally. The church had to confront the political consequences following the economic and social change which gave way to a rise in the revolutionary class movement which was dominated by republican, anarchist and Marxian ideologies. As stated by Val Lorwin in 1971 the Church were increasingly fearful of pluralism and “With industrialization, urbanization, and geographic mobility…the churches became concerned about risks to the faith of the masses. If isolation could no longer protect the faithful from exposure to influences corrosive to their faith, special institutions had to encapsulate them.” In 1890 the Italian Catholic Clergy believed that the rise of anti-clerical propaganda amongst the emerging working class movement combined with the economic and demographical changes led to a ‘dechristianising’ of the population. In 1891 Leo XIII produced Rerum Novarum which was used as the foundation of social Catholicism and was the main motivation for the Catholic social and economic institutions in Italy. Throughout his encyclical the Pope denounces Communism and Socialism as they were seen to be against nature and Divine Law. Rerum Novarum also advocated for the living and working conditions of the industrial proletariat, and promoted State intervention to defend the rights of the people. The paternalism of this era gave the clergy greater control over parishioners which was sanctioned by canon