La gratitudine nel pensiero politico cattolico italiano controrivoluzionario e liberale

The essay examines how the concept of gratitude was employed in Italian Catholic political thought between the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, both by counter-revolutionary Catholicism and by liberal Catholicism, albeit with different meanings and implications.

For counter-revolutionary Catholic thinkers, the French Revolution represented a subversion of the natural order willed by God. They saw gratitude to God as the foundation of obedience to authority, whether religious, familial, or political. Numerous authors contributed to consolidating this idea, including Adeodato Turchi and Monaldo Leopardi.

Liberal Catholic thinkers, while also emphasising the importance of gratitude to God, offered an alternative interpretation. They recognised the value of individual freedom and the necessity of a political order that safeguarded it. Lamennais and Rosmini argued that freedom was itself a gift from God. From this perspective, political gratitude was not owed a priori but had to be earned by rulers through political actions aimed at the common good. Gioberti and Balbo identified the Albertine Statute as an example of such meritorious action, deserving of gratitude from the subjects.