Propaganda Due - Foundation

Foundation

"Propaganda" was originally founded in 1877, in Turin, as "Propaganda Massonica". This lodge was frequented by politicians and government officials from across Italy who were unable to attend their own lodges and included prominent members from the Piedmont nobility. The name was changed to "Propaganda Due" following World War II, when the Grand Orient of Italy numbered its lodges. By the 1960s, however, the lodge was all but moribund, holding few meetings. This original lodge, however, had little to do with the one Licio Gelli established in 1966, two years after becoming a freemason.

Masonry in Italy had been outlawed by the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, but it was reborn after the Second World War under USA encouragement. However, its traditions of free thinking under the Risorgimento morphed into a fervent anti-communism. The increasing influence of the left at the end of the 1960s had the Masons of Italy deeply worried. In 1971, Grand Master Lino Salvini of the Grand Orient of Italy—one of Italy's largest Masonic lodges—assigned to Gelli the task of reorganizing the lodge.

Gelli took a list of "sleeping members"—members who were not invited to take part in masonic rituals anymore, as Italian freemasonry was under close scrutiny by the Christian Democrats in power. From these initial connections, Gelli was able to extend his network throughout the echelons of the Italian establishment.