Communion and Liberation (Italian: Comunione e Liberazione) is an Italian Catholic ecclesial movement and is considered a de facto advocacy group with free or low commitment participation requirements that generated Conflicts of Interest in private and public companies in Italy since the 1970s. Several notable members have been condemned by Italian authorities for crimes regarding bribery, corruption and fraud.^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

Communion and Liberation movement created a lot of Conflicts of Interest in several private and public companies in Italy since 1970s untill nowadays and it has been investigated by Italian authorities for several legal issues regarding frauds, bribery and corruption.^[17]

Communion and Liberation originally grew out of the educational and catechetical methods of Don Luigi Giussani, who founded the movement in 1969. Giussani developed these methods through his work within the Catholic youth association Gioventù Studentesca (GS, literally "Student Youth") born in 1954 at Berchet High School in Milan, where Giussani was a school teacher.

Communion and Liberation emerged from Gioventù Studentesca during the late 1960s. Following Giussani's appointment in the theology department at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in 1965, GS had begun to drift away from Giussani's methods and was adopting social and political ideals popular among student movements in Italy at the time. The faction of former GS members who rejected both the leftist student movement and the new direction of the official Catholic organizations took the name Comunione e Liberazione (originally the title of a manifesto they had authored and distributed). The was first used in 1969 among a group who were a former Student Youth members.

During the 1970s, Giussani took an increasing interest in CL, which had resumed many of the distinctive practices and methods of GS and was operating as an unofficial Catholic organization in Italy outside the traditional lay Catholic structures. Nevertheless, during the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce it was CL rather than the official Catholic organizations that undertook the task of defending the Catholic Church's position to Italian society. Through its role in the referendum CL gained the sympathy and trust of many Italian bishops and of Pope Paul VI, who voiced his support of Giussani and CL at a Palm Sunday youth event in 1975. During this time CL acquired a reputation as an integralist organization and was the target of violence, culminating in 120 attacks on persons and CL offices in 1977, during leftist students riots.^{[18][non-primary source needed]}

By the mid 1990s CL's influence in Italian politics did not wane. The movement's activities underwent a change of direction in the wake of the Tangentopoli corruption scandals, in which some CL adherents were allegedly implicated but subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. The Movimento Popolare ceased all its operations in 1993. In Italy many members of the movement were highly supportive of Silvio Berlusconi, first under the umbrella of a small party called The United Christian Democrats, then (after 1998) directly within Forza Italia, later revamped into the People of Freedom. Roberto Formigoni, a member of CL, was elected Regional President of Lombardy in 1995 as the candidate of a center right-wing coalition. He has been reelected three other times since then. In the 2010 Lombard regional election Formigoni was reelected for the fourth consecutive term.

Communion and Liberation movement members are estimated to be about 300000 in Italy. Communion and Liberation movement is composed by three main branches^[19][20]:

• Company of the Works (Italian: Compagnia delle opere): Business association conglomerate who comprends about 30000 Italian companies and 1000 no profits companies^[20]

• Communion and Liberation University: College and University branch of the movement composed by Italian Universities students^[19]

• Student Youth Group (Italian: Gioventù Studentesca): High School members in several Italian cities are educated through weekly meetings to deal and exchange favours with other Communion and Liberation members.^[20][19]

The main annual reunion event of Communion and Liberation is the Meeting for friendship among peoples on August in Rimini, Italy.^[20]

Company of the Work (Italian: Compagnia delle Opere) is an Italian Association created by the movement Communion and Liberation that includes more tha 35,000 Italian companies (banks, schools, Universities, Hospitals, Consulting Agencies, etc) and 1000 no profit organizations.^[21][19]

The Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples (also known as Communion and Liberation Meeting and in Italian "Meeting di Rimini"), is an Italian event organized by the Communion and Liberation movement, a lay Catholic organisation, held every year on August in Rimini, Italy since 1980. The Communion and Liberation meeting is a large scale rendezvous between companies, CEOs, Italian Ministers, business persons, and CL activists. It has been a subject of controversy owing to potential conflicts of interest.[2][3] The event is entirely staged and managed by 4000 Italian volunteers. The meeting has had about 800,000 attendees per year in the last editions.[4][5]^[22]

Communion and Liberation has been criticizied in Italy because in several Italian cities Communion and Liberation members who works in the high work position like CEOs or political persons only hire people that are Communion and Liberation members.^{[citation needed]} Communion and Liberation members like Italian companies CEOs or managers choose to hire other Communion and Liberation members and make horizontal and vertical mobbing towards other workers that are not part of Communion and Liberation movement in Italy.^[23]

Several Italian newspapers wrote about the possibilty that some Italian Banks are illegally controlled by Communion and Liberation (Banco BPM and Banca Popolare di Milano), it is said that their actual CEO Giuseppe Castagna is a member of the Communion and Liberation movement and he faced several conflicts of interest and he is investigated since 2016 because he gave bank fundings for millions Euro towards his personal Communion and Liberation friends to receive business favors and due money laundering.^[24] Other banks includes: Credito Siciliano Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo Bank, Artigiancassa Spa Bank, Akros Bank, and Intesa Bank.^[25][26][27] Italian newspaper La Repubblica wrote about several Italian Companies are illegally controlled by Communion and Liberation in 2011(CityLife, Ge.Fi, Montagna Costruzioni, Sinesis, Green Holding, Cooperativa La Cascina).^[25] Italian newspaper La Repubblica wrote about several public Italian hospitals that are illegally controlled by Communion and Liberation; Niguarda Milan Hospital, Maggiore Milan Hospital.^[25]

Company of the Work and Communion and Liberation is considered by many workers a problem in Italy; because Communion and Liberation movement companies CEOs hire only other CL people to get financial favours from them.^[16][19]

Communion and Liberation movement has been accused to illegally get a contract to build an immigration center for million of euro in 2015.^[28]

Italian Region Lombardy Communion and Liberation movement political spokeperson Roberto Formigoni was been convicted of bribery and sentenced to 6 years in prison in 2016.^[29][30]

The Communion and Liberation movement Italian priest Mauro Inzoli (nicknamed "Don Mercedes" due his luxurious Mercedes Sports car) who used to manage the Communion and Liberation "Food Counter" (Italian: Banco Alimentare) initiative to help very poor people giving them food for free, was convicted of child molestation against 5 children in 2016.^{[31][32][33][34]}

• Communion and Liberation: A Movement in the Church by Davide Rondoni
• Comunione e Liberazione by Massimo Camisasca, (San Paolo, 2001-2006, 3 Volumes)
• Comunione e Liberazione by Salvatore Abbruzzese (Il Mulino, Bologna, 2001)
• La lobbi di dio (God's Lobby in English), a journalistic inquiry about the Movement by Ferruccio Pinotti (in Italian)
• The Pope's Armada: Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious and Powerful New Sects in the Church, Gordon Urquhart, Bantam Press (June 1, 1995), ISBN 0-593-03388-4
• Comunione e Liberazione: A Fundamentalist Idea Of Power", Dario Zadra, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1994, pp. 124–128 – Fundamentalism Project)
• Fundamentalisms Observed Martin E Marty, R Scott Appleby, (University of Chicago Press, 1 lug 1994), ISBN 0-226-50878-1
• Italy: A Difficult Democracy Frederic Spotts, Theodor Wieser, (Cambridge University Press, 30 apr 1986), ISBN 0-521-31511-5
• Strong Religion Gabriel Abraham Almond, R Scott Appleby, Emmanuel Sivan, (University of Chicago Press, 15 gen 2003), ISBN 0-226-01498-3

• Communion and Liberation International homepage
• Article on CL by John Allen, National Catholic Reporter
• Description of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation which appears in the Directory of International Associations of the Faithful, published by the Pontifical Council for the Laity at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2013-04-05), as reported by Zenit News Agency.
• Article on CL by Antonio Gaspari, Inside the Vatican
• Crossroads Cultural Center

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