Polemics over the past may hint at a Catholic vocation for memory

ROME – Ernest Renan once famously said that forgetting is an essential factor in the creation of a nation, which makes the historian a perennial threat to nationality. He had a point: Memory is a combustible thing, because how the past is framed, interpreted and understood can just as easily drive people apart as bring them together.

Recently, Italy has delivered two classic examples of the point, both of which may suggest a potential new calling.

The first came in the country’s annual polemics over April 25...