The Opera dei Congressi or Work of the Congress was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

organisation that promoted Catholic ideas and culture. It was created in 1874, and observed the positions of the Catholic Church, in particular ''

Non Expedit (Latin for "It is not expedient") were the words with which the Holy See enjoined upon Italian Catholics the policy of boycott from the polls in parliamentary elections. History The phrase, "it is not expedient," has long been used by the Roman ...

''.Helena Dawes (2011). The Catholic Church and the woman question: Catholic feminism in Italy in the early 1900s. ''

The Catholic Historical Review ''The Catholic Historical Review'' (CHR) is the official organ of the American Catholic Historical Association. It was established at The Catholic University of America in 1915 by Thomas Joseph Shahan and Peter Guilday and is published quarterly b ...

'' 97 (3): 484–526 It began as a non-political group but moved into protesting the imprisonment in the Vatican of the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

. It fought against

anticlerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

legislation and the many divorce bills that were introduced by successive Liberal governments (1861–1922). It was organised in a hierarchical way, with headquarters at local, regional and

diocesan In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

levels. After 1880, it had a surge in popularity and promoted economic and social activity with farm loan banks,

mutual aid societies A benefit society, fraternal benefit society, fraternal benefit order, friendly society, or mutual aid society is a society, an organization or a voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit, for instance insurance for relief fr ...

, and

cooperatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

. Its influence was at its height in 1897, but it was temporarily disbanded in 1898 after being blamed for widespread bread riots. It was dissolved in 1904 by

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...

References

Further reading