Keywords

• This article draws on the documents
• almost entirely unedited
• from the personal archive of Luigi Gedda
• the founder of the Civic Committees (Cc) and champion of the catholic Activism during the ww2postwar. In this paper is examined in particular the Gedda's thought and the role in preparation for the administrative elections of 1951-52
• which formed a fundamental preview of the political consultations of 1953. The declines in support for the Dc
• accompanied with the rise of socialist-communist forces constituted a source of great concern for the Holy See
• which devised the famous "Operation Sturzo"
• trying to force De Gasperi to make an alliance with the right parties
• like the Monarchist National Party (Pnm) and the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (Msi)
• to which
• however
• the Christian Democracy Party (Dc) had a strong reserve because of their unconstitutional nature. The new documents presented in this paper help to better delineate the "political project" of Luigi Gedda
• his personal evaluation of Dc and of the role of Catholics in Italian policy
• the network of contacts between the Cc and the Msi and the opposition encountered within the national leadership of Catholic Action (Ac)