No doubt the spread of Socialism, with its superficial resemblance to some of the features of primitive Christianity, has somewhat modified the character of this ethical movement; so far, in fact, that the Italian Christian Democrats have been confounded, by persons with only a blurred sense of outlines, with the Socialists themselves.

Whatever they may become, however, they now profess views in regard to property which separate them by an unbridgeable chasm from the Socialists.
In their zeal for their fellow-men, and especially for the poor and down-trodden classes, they find the old agencies of charity insufficient.

To visit the sick, to comfort the dying, to dole out broth at the convent gate, is well, but it offers no remedy for the cause behind poverty and blind remediable suffering.

Only through better laws, strictly administered, can effectual help come.

So the Christian Democrats deemed it indispensable that they should be free to influence legislation.