The Vietnam War, the Church, the Christian Democratic Party and the Italian Left Catholics

Over the years of the Cold War, the conflict in Vietnam assumed the significance of a clash between two civilizations, the West and communism. Italian Catholics thus found themselves not only invoking the end of the conflict, but also expressing their evaluations on the choices made in international politics by the two superpowers. The positions assumed by the ecclesiastic Institution, the Christian Democrats and the Catholic world in Italy towards the war in Indochina were not identical: in fact, if\u2014with a few exceptions\u2014the ecclesiastic hierarchy was distinguished by its extreme caution, in the Catholic party different positions became manifest. It was mainly in Catholic associations, and in general amongst believers closer to the experience of the Vatican Council, that a radical sense of aversion to U.S. foreign policy developed

Christianity and Socialism in Italy in the Early Twentieth Century

Though a Catholic country, Italy has been distinguished by the presence of a deeply-rooted Socialist Party. At the beginning of the twentieth century, encouraged by the economic and social changes taking place as well as by a new and growing awareness, a number of Catholics decided to open up to a dialogue with the socialist world. Some, such as Don Murri, identified Turati's party as a possible political interlocutor, in the conviction that the programmes of the democratic Catholics and those of the left had many elements in common. Others sensitive to modernist issues, particularly in intellectual circles, believed that Christianity at its origins and the early forms of socialism shared the same basic identity. Thus some scholars (including Father Ernesto Buonaiuti) chose to focus on the origins of the church, convinced that examples could be found there of how the world could be changed according to Christian ethics. The response of left-wing culture to these ideas was varied. Some, such as Camillo Prampolini, an exponent of \u201cevangelical socialism,\u201d appeared to be interested in a dialogue, like those socialists who were ready to accept idealist inspiration. The party leadership, instead, barred any suggestion of debate, convinced that Marxism was an alternative to Christianity

Autarchia culturale?

Nell'articolo si analizza la cultura italiana tra le due guerre e si verifica, attraverso le traduzioni letterarie, se il fascismo riusc\uec in effetti ad imporre una politica culturale autarchic

Myths and Ideology

In an international context like that of the Cold War choices in foreign policy strongly affected matters at home. Thus, Paolo Acanfora, whose fine book is devoted to the DC under De Gasperi, focuses on the Catholic party\u2019s political and cultural elaborations in the field of international affairs

Una rivista al centro delle trasformazioni del socialismo italiano

Recensione al libro di Giovanni Scirocco ""Una rivista per il socialismo. "Mondo Operaio" (1957-1969)

Canadian English-speaking Catholics, Latin America and the Refugee issue under Trudeau

During the period of the Council Vatican II, the Catholic world in Canada underwent profound transformations. From the Sixties onwards, English-speaking Canadian Catholics began to take an interest in social problems and, in particular, the contradictions existing in the South American part of the continent. The new climate of inter-religious dialogue encouraged collaboration between the various Christian groups all committed to non-violence and opponents of war and in favor of social justice in the poorer countries. From 1973 onwards, Canadian society, and the Catholic communities as well, had to face the problem of political refugees coming mostly from Chile and Argentina and take up a position regarding the violence against the civilian population in San Salvador and the new socialist and Christian political experiment in Nicaragua. Thanks to the pages of the Toronto newspaper Catholic New Times it is possible to reconstruct the spirit of that age and, most important, verify the close relationship between the progressive North American Catholic world and the new religious and political projects emerging in Latin America

La scrittura, il cervello e l'era digitale

Le nuove tecnologie, come gi\ue0 ha messo in evidenza Marshall McLuhan, stanno cambiando la fisionomia del nostro cervello e la capacit\ue0 di apprendimento. Ci\uf2 mette in discussione le capacit\ue0 critiche proprie della cultura umanistic

Roberto P. Violi, Storia di un silenzio. Cattolicesimo e ’ndrangheta negli ultimi cento anni, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli, 2017

Dopo gli studi di Ciconte sulla storia della \u2019ndrangheta, le ricerche di Borzomati sul cattolicesimo calabrese e il lavoro di Grattieri e Nicaso sul rapporto tra la Chiesa e la criminalit\ue0 in Calabria, ampi spazi di ricostruzione erano rimasti inesplorati sulle relazioni tra cattolicesimo e \u2019ndrangheta nell\u2019area di Reggio Calabria. Il libro di Violi viene a comare un vuoto nella ricostruzione storica, soffermandosi sull\u2019area che ha rivestito un ruolo centrale nella diffusione del fenomeno \u2019ndranghetista. L\u2019autore trae spunti anche dalle riflessioni sviluppate da Dino \u2013 e pi\uf9 recentemente da Cali\uf2 e Ceci \u2013 sui nessi tra la sfera religiosa e \u201cCosa nostra\u201d, e che hanno posto attenzione \u201calle contiguit\ue0 e alle compromissioni, come agli attriti e ai contrasti, ma anche alle equivoche prese di distanza, tra un cattolicesimo non indistinto e una mafia che va vista nella sua pervasivit\ue0 sociale\u201d

IL-33 and its decoy sST2 in patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment

BACKGROUND: Interleukin-33 is a cytokine endowed with pro- and anti-inflammatory properties that plays a still poorly defined role in the pathogenesis of a number of central nervous system (CNS) conditions including Alzheimer's disease (AD). We analyzed this cytokine and its decoy receptor sST2 in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHOD: IL-33 and sST2 were analyzed in serum and CSF of AD and MCI patients, comparing the results to those obtained in age-matched healthy controls (HC). Because of the ambiguous role of IL-33 in inflammation, the concentration of both inflammatory (IL-1\u3b2 and IL-6) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokines was analyzed as well in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of the same individuals. Finally, the effect of IL-33 on in vitro A\u3b242-stimulated monocytes of AD, MCI, and HC individuals was examined. RESULTS: As compared to HC, (1) IL-33 was significantly decreased in serum and CSF of AD and MCI, (2) sST2 was increased in serum of AD and MCI but was undetectable in CSF, (3) serum and CSF IL-1\u3b2 concentration was significantly increased and that of IL-10 was reduced in AD and MCI, whereas no differences were observed in IL-6. In vitro addition of IL-33 to LPS+A\u3b2 42-stimulated monocytes downregulated IL-1\u3b2 generation in MCI and HC, but not in AD, and stimulated IL-10 production in HC alone. IL-33 addition also resulted in a significant reduction of NF-kB nuclear translocation in LPS+A\u3b242-stimulated monocytes of HC alone. CONCLUSIONS: These data support the hypothesis that IL-33 plays a complex anti-inflammatory role that is lost in AD- and MCI-associated neuroinflammation; results herein also suggest a possible use of IL-33 as a novel therapeutic approach in AD and MCI

Thymic volume predicts long-term immune reconstitution in HIV-infected children treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) suppresses viral replication and augments CD4 T cell counts. HAART-associated immune restoration is often difficult to predict. We verified whether increases in CD4 cells, and particularly in cells of the naive phenotype, would be associated in HAART-treated children with thymic volume. Long-term immune reconstitution is significantly better in children with bigger thymuses at the initiation of HAART. Thymic volume has a strong predictive value for the immunological effect of HAART