Vita e Pensiero

According to the biographical literature on Padre Pio da Pietralcina, this essay confirms that Father Agostino Gemelli played a important role in the long investigations of the Holy Office on the Capuchin  saint. Above all, many scholars accuse him of lying, because he claimed to have visited the stigmata while witnesses, present at the meeting of April 19, 1920, denied it. The careful study, together with  the documents of the Archives of the Holy Office, reveal the facts with more completeness and bring news about the visit to the stigmata by Father Agostino Gemelli. In this article, Don Flavio Peloso,  priest of the “Congregazione dei Figli della Divina Provvidenza” (Don Orione), of whom he was Superior General, currently parish priest, historian and postulator general, wanted to deepen this topic. The  essay includes a documentary appendix, useful to complete the reflection on the topic under investigation.

Jacopo Mazzei, descendant of one of the most illustrious Florentine families, was introduced to higher studies in the economic disciplines by Giuseppe Toniolo. In 1917, Mazzei discussed with Toniolo, who had just returned from captivity, the thesis on The customs reforms of President (Woodrow) Wilson...

The essay argues the constitutional centrality of local democracy, both in the light of the Italian Constitution, and of the practices of democratic participation at the municipal level. These practices have already stimulated the adoption of institutional tools suitable for promoting and enhancing citizens’ participation...

The essay examines the relations between the transformations of the party system and the events of territorial autonomy, on the basis of a perspective of analysis that regards political parties and territorial autonomies as the two engines of the democratization of the legal system set up by the Italian constituent assembly. In the recent experience, this approach reveals the close relationship between the following two phenomena: on the side of autonomies, the redefinition of their form of government in the direction of a monocratic concentration of power, initially enacted at the municipal level and later extended at the regional level too...

Primo fascicolo del 2021

The progress of democracies towards goals of increasingly substantial justice does not seem, according to what is argued in the essay, to be favored by keeping the contributions of religious beliefs or faiths on the margins of the ‘‘public square’’...

The entry into force of the “Services Directive” pointed out the issue of the coastal domain management in the Italian legislation. According to art. 12 of the Directive, Member States have an obligation to ensure that beach concessions are granted for a limited duration and through an open, public selection procedure based on non-discriminatory, transparent and objective criteria. The preferential right of the concessionaires was abolished by the Italian authorities, starting from 31 December 2012...