EN
The author of the paper The Italian Towianists and the Rise of the Christian Democracy in Italy before 1939 focuses on the religious activity of two Italian followers of Andrzej Towiański – Tancredi Canonico and Attilio Begey. Sokołowski points out that Lega Demo-cratica Nazionale created in 1906 and Lega Democratica Cristiana Italiana (after 1913) – the organizations which attracted the Italian Towianists – were the answer to the voice of the pope Leo XIII expressed in encyclicals Quod Apostolici muneris (1878) and Rerum novarum (1891). Because of the fact that Canonico and Begey perceived towianism not only as religious but also political structure which supported ecumenism, the lower classes, a collectivity of social life and the coexistence with the Catholic Church, we can call it a Christian demo-cracy nucleus or Christian democracy avant la lettre.