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This article focuses on the Italian Catholic press's reactions to John Paul II's pastoral work concerning Europe's future. We explore the effects of Wojtyla's proposal for a continent united by Christianity through an examination of representative publications from major cultural and political currents. The research focuses on the second half of the 1980s and the intertwining of the Pontiff's public discourse with Gorbachev's project for a 'Common European Home'. The goal of this article is to frame the debate within the auspices of Ostpolitik, the European integration process and, more generally, thinking at the time on the political function of religions in a period of post-secularist theories. In particular, we examine the clash on the issue of the continent's Christian roots, pitting democratic Catholics against Comunione e Liberazione within the framework of the Italian Church's transformation, leading up to Card. Camillo Ruini becoming President of the Italian Episcopal Conference (I.E.C.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is only seven years since Monsignor Camillo Ruini resigned from his role as President of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), yet it feels much longer. The tempestuous events that marked Silvio Berlusconi's decline, on one hand, and the election of Pope Francis to the Holy See, on the other, have made such an impression on recent Italian history that seems to leave no time for reflection on what has happened over the last twenty years. This article explores how, during this time, Cardinal Ruini has re-fashioned the relations between the Catholic Church and Italian politics, following a pattern that has come to be known as 'ruinismo'. The essay follows the development of the theological-political line of the Conference, from the "mediation" of the "Catholic Party", the Christian Democrats (DC), to the "policy of presence" of politically committed Catholics, defined in these terms by the ecclesiastical congress in Loreto in 1985 and fully carried out under Ruini's management, with the backing of Berlusconi's governments. The aim is to establish whether and to what extent the "Ruinian" rule may be regarded as the consequence of mainstream Catholic politics of the 1980s and, equally, as a response to the cultural and political transformation brought about by the upheavals of the corruption scandals of 1989-91. Only from this long-term perspective is it possible to determine whether Ruini's exit has brought an end to ruinismo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]