This article reconstructs the main political tensions inside the Italian Catholic movement during the two
pontificates of Pius IX and Pius X, therefore between the end of the nineteenth Century and the beginning
of the twentieth Century. The approach outlined is historical and critical-analytical. The main currents of
Catholicism, socialism and Italian liberalism are reviewed: social Catholicism, trade unionism, the positions
of Luigi Sturzo, Filippo Meda, Arturo Labriola and Benedetto Croce are enlightened. In the conclusion, it is
argued that, from the early years of Giovanni Giolitti’s government and of the liberal phase of the Italian
post-unification history, the clerical idea of building a state without secularism becomes unreal.
