Cattolici e Stato liberale nell’età di Leone XIII

The proceedings of the 2006 Venice conference dedicated to the Catholics and the liberal state analyze the changes which occurred in the Roman Church in the age of liberalism. During the pontificate of pope Leo Xlll, the Church assumed an offensive attitude, supported by the tools of neo- Thomism and by an ideology that focuses on Rome as a place to settle all international disputes (after solving the Roman Question). To many outside observers all seemed a kind of return to the Middle Ages and the alleged prerogatives of a right and different than everyone else's. The review identifies the unexpected aspects of this offensive, and these returns: The revolution of canon law in 1917 through the promulgation of a code that modifies in depth the nature of the Roman Catholic Church.