Madrid, Spain, Dec 2, 2008 / 18:11 pm
During the presentation of the first international catalogue of stamps, Archbishop Luigi De Magistris, prefect emeritus of the Apostolic Penitentiary, revealed this week that the founder of the Italian Communist Party, Antonio Gramsci, returned to the Catholic faith of his childhood and received the sacraments before dying in April of 1937.
Gramsci was the father of a more sophisticated version of Marxism, which gave rise to so-called “Euro-Communism.” Under his scheme, the Catholic Church and the Christian family were the main enemies to gaining control of minds and of the culture, which he considered essential to maintaining long-term political power.
Among the measures he used to achieve what he called “cultural hegemony,” Gramsci proposed ending the beliefs, traditions and customs that speak of the transcendence of man and creating a culture in which transcendence has no place. He also aimed to infiltrate the Church to get dissident bishops and priests to speak out against her. His plan was to destroy the Church from within.
The Spanish daily La Razon reported that the conversion of Gramsci “has been confirmed and denied on various occasions, but this is the first time that a member of the Curia declares that the rumor is certain.”