“Dal cattolicesimo democratico al nuovo popolarismo” by Lino Prenna

With an original approach to the theme of popularism, Lino Prenna goes back to the philosophical and theological roots that have marked his path, as a historical declination of democratic Catholicism. But in this beautiful book there is also an equally ambitious attempt to indicate a hypothesis of actualization (the “new popularism”, in fact) on which it is foreseeable that some discussion will open. Professor Prenna then offers us a further suggestion, that of intertwining the discourse with the thought of Pope Francis, an apparently non-political Pope, because he does not show any interest in parties, while he is profoundly so in the substance of his teaching, because it helps the politics and politicians to see what they alone cannot do. Democratic Catholics, popular or neo-popular, are urged by these pages to transform his social teaching into a political project: a teaching declined in an understandable and convincing way even for non-believers and, above all, for those who play politics, often living their own time in the most absolute cultural bewilderment.