Hello there. We have two professors here, two scholars with us today, co-authors.

One is Rosario Forlenza. He is professor in the political science department at Luis University in Rome.

He is co-authored a book with Bjorn Thomason, who is also with us.

He is professor of sociology at Roskilde University in Denmark.

The book is Italy's Christian Democracy, the Catholic encounter with political modernity.

That is our topic today. Welcome, professors. Thank you.

Good to be with you, Mark.

Yes. First, we jump right into the book here, and I'll – I have questions I've gone through, deeply researched, studied volume, and let the two of you figure out how you want to answer the questions.

But first, you say that in order to understand the current situation in Italy with Christianity, we really have to go all the way back to the French Revolution.

Why is that? What did the revolution mean for Catholicism in Italy way back at the end of the 18th century?

The French Revolution was an enormous challenge to the church

because it openly opposed the church in France and in many other parts of Euro.

And it also meant that the church came to occupy a very defensive position towards political

modernity for a long period of time for more than a century.

And this was a difficult position for the church because it wanted to play a role in this modern world,

but it was against the forces, the secular democratic forces that were gaining ground in France and then in the rest of Europe.

So it's really important to see how the Catholic Church was trying to find positions towards a modernizing world and finding a role to play in this modern world.

And that took a very, very long time before it started to articulate not just a resistance to the secular modernity that became dominant in 19th century,

but also trying to formulate a different vision and platform for thinking modernity from a Catholic standpoint.

In the book, you set up Pope Gregory the 16th as a key figure in the decades after the revolution, all the tumultuous

upheavals taking place, the Napoleonic wars, the changes in governments.

In what direction did he steer the church in the face of all these changes?

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