De Gasperi e la Santa Sede nella crisi italiana (1942-1943). Osservazioni sul «memorandum Dalla Torre»

The Holy See played a substantial role of national «supply» in the transition of Italy from Fascism to democracy during the Second World War, by regaining diplomatic relationships with United States in order to sustain the Italian State integrity after the fall of the dictatorship. On the political field, the Christian Democratic Party (Dc) aimed to acquire the Vatican legitimation as «Catholic» referent in the democratic reconstruction. The relationship between the Dc and the Holy See had a first starting-point in drafting a crucial document addressed to the American diplomacy, rather identified with the so-called «memorandum Dalla Torre» written in September of 1942 and commonly attributed by the historiography to the authorship of the political leader of the Christian Democratic Party, Alcide De Gasperi. The essay deals with the discovery and interpretation of this memorandum among the official Vatican sources and suggests how De Gasperi’s intervention can be extended in drafting one more and well-known document directed to Washington State Department, officially signed by the Holy See on the internal situation of Italy in the end of 1943.