Abstract

The Camaldoli Codex, whose 80th anniversary we celebrate this year (1943-2023), is the manifesto of Catholic thought elaborated in the years preceding the fall of fascism. The Code had a great influence in the writing of the Italian Constitution, especially for the parts dealing with the fundamental rights and duties and the economic and social relations. On these aspects, the proposals of the Catholics became the basis for a point of agreement that also involved the liberals, the socialists and the communists. A colder reception received, on the other hand, the Catholics’ positions on the family and schools. Yet, the most relevant imprint left by the Catholic thought in the constitutional framing is the emphasis on social relations and on social pluralism: a point of synthesis on which both the liberals and the socialist and communists converged