The volume is a revisited and updated collection of the nine essays that the author dedicated in the last forty years to one of the most important Italian bishops of 20th century: Giacomo Lercaro. Archbishop of Bologna between 1952 and 1968, candidate to the papacy in 1963, protagonist of Vatican II council (1962-1965), Lercaro was representative of the reformist current that contented to the conservative one the guide of catholic Church in the phase of passage from pope Pius XII to pope Paolo VI. The volume analyses this experience from different point of view: diocesan government, international relations, ideological battle against communist public administration of Bologna, ideas concerning peace, war, labour, ecclesiology and so on.
