Community and People in Catholic Thought, 1830-1870

ABSTRACT Far from being limited to denunciations of modernity, nineteenth-century Catholic thought had a programmatic and visionary side. This essay deals with the models of community put forward by Lamennais in L’Avenir, Antonio Rosmini, Luigi Taparelli d’Azeglio, and Wilhelm Ketteler. These writers re-imagined the foundations of public life against the claims of self-interested individualism and state omnipotence. Three theses in particular capture their vision of the future polity: i. societies, which were not “mechanisms”, needed Catholicism as animating spirit; ii. political representation should be “organic”; and iii. whereas the liberal elites imposed their vested interests on the common people, the Catholic polity reflected their needs and beliefs. The four writers envisaged a community of the gentle and caring, which, like the family, was hierarchical, self-governed, local, and supportive. In contrast, it was argued that the people had no voice under liberalism, because the elite’s values were not the people’s and because the political system was a mere arena for the clash of special interests. This was a communitarian and populist Catholicism, prizing self-government, denouncing parliamentary politics, and siding with “the people”.