ABSTRACT
IN T H E 2 0 - Y E A R P E R I O D between the death of Pius XII in 1958 andthat of Paul VI in 1978, Italy changed profoundly, becoming a modern, urban and industrialised state akin to other western countries. In consequence it also underwent a process of secularisation. Some of the causes of this latter transformation were essentially economic, the impact of the so-called economic ‘miracle’ of the 1950s and 1960s, while the cultural ‘invasion’ of Italy by Anglo-Saxon, largely American, influences played an important role as well. In addition to these ‘exogenous’ factors, there were processes of change internal to the Church itself, the launching by Pope John XXIII of the Second Vatican Council and his broader policy of aggiornamento (literally, ‘updating’) of the Catholic Church. The Council had both positive and negative effects. In the short term it brought about liturgical and pastoral renewal, but in the longer term it created dissent and division in the Italian Church. Overall, the consequence of the changes would be to undermine religious belief, diminish the practice of the faith, subvert the bases of the Catholic sub-culture and weaken the influence of the Church in Italian politics and civil society in the reigns of John and of his successor, Paul VI (1963-78).
