Like the Catholic kings he fuses politics and religion, coming to conceive of a ‘political’ religion. He creates not a political community but a community of faith, inclusive toward the faithful, ruthless with heretics. And his enemies are the same as those of Catholic Spain: Protestant civilization and the Enlightenment, now renamed ‘capitalism’ and ‘liberalism.’

Loris Zanatta teaches History and Institutions of Latin America at the University of Bologna. He is a columnist for the Buenos Aires newspapers “La Nación” and “Clarín” and a member of the Academy of the History of the Argentine Republic. He has numerous historical publications to his credit, including: Eva Perón. A political biography. , Rubbettino (2009); History of Contemporary Latin America, Laterza (2010); Populism, Carocci (2013); The Catholic Nation. Church and dictatorship in Bergoglio’s Argentina. , Laterza (2014, also published in Argentina), Fidel Castro. The last “Catholic King,” Salerno (2019) and Jesuit populism. Perón, Fidel, Bergoglio , Laterza (2020).

At the end of the meeting, the author will be available to the audience for signacopies.