Abstract

The article takes Giuseppe Dossetti as a paradigmatic figure in Catholic reflection on issues of democracy and social justice. Dossetti was a resistance fighter against Nazi-fascism, a jurist, a politician engaged during the years of the Constituent Assembly, and later chose the religious path, playing a leading role during the years of the Council. The themes of social justice, democracy as a means of including the less affluent, poverty as a condition to be overcome, the Constitution as a political project, the Church’s humble style, and its non-conservative role in history are central to his actions and reflections and, in many ways, at the foundation of the emerging Italian welfare state.