(, P2) was a Masonic lodge, founded in 1877, within the tradition of Continental Freemasonry and under the authority of Grand Orient of Italy. Its Masonic charter was withdrawn in 1976, and it was transformed by Licio Gelli into an international, illegal, clandestine, anti-communist, anti-Soviet, anti-Marxist, and radical right criminal organization and secret society operating in contravention of Article 18 of the Constitution of Italy that banned all such secret associations. Gelli continued to operate the unaffiliated lodge from 1976 to 1984. P2 was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries, including the collapse of the Holy See-affiliated Banco Ambrosiano, the contract killings of journalist Carmine Pecorelli and mobbed-up banker Roberto Calvi, and political corruption cases within the nationwide mani pulite bribery scandal. P2 came to light through the investigations into the collapse of Michele Sindona's financial empire.
P2 was sometimes referred to as a "state within a state""BBC On This Day: 26 May 1981". or a "shadow government".Jones, The Dark Heart of Italy, p. 187. The lodge had among its members prominent journalists, members of the Italian parliament, industrialists, and senior Italian military officers —including Silvio Berlusconi, who later became Prime Minister of Italy; the House of Savoy pretender to the Italian throne Prince Victor Emmanuel; and the heads of all three Italian foreign intelligence services (at the time SISDE, SISMI, and CESIS). When searching Gelli's villa in 1982, police found a document entitled "Plan for Democratic Rebirth", which called for the consolidation of the media, the suppression of Italian labour unions, and the rewriting of the Italian constitution,Jones, Tobias. The Dark Heart of Italy, p. 186. culminating in a creeping hollowing-out of the State.
Outside of Italy, P2 had many active lodges in Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Among its Argentine members were Raúl Alberto Lastiri, who was briefly interim president of the country after the end of the self-styled "Argentine Revolution" dictatorship (1966–1973); Emilio Massera, who was part of the military junta led by Jorge Rafael Videla during Argentina's last civil-military dictatorship (1976–1983); the Peronist orthodox José López Rega, who was Minister of Social Welfare (1973–1975) and founder of the paramilitary organisation Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA); and former Argentine Army general, Dirty War perpetrator, and convicted murderer Guillermo Suárez Mason.
P2's leader, Gelli, has been recognized in the 2020s as the mastermind behind the 1980 Bologna massacre, the deadliest terrorist attack in post-WWII Italy.
Foundation With the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, the Grand Orient of Italy, the most important and numerous Masonic community in Italy, felt the need to safeguard the identity of its most prominent members, even within the organisation. For this reason, the membership of the latter did not appear on any official list, but was known only to the Grand Master, who recorded it as an initiation "by ear". It was not until 1877 that began to draw up a list called Propaganda Massonica, officially establishing the lodge in question and becoming its first venerable master.
Propaganda was 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 of the Piedmont nobility. Since its foundation, the main feature of the lodge was to provide adequate cover and secrecy for the most important initiates, both inside and outside the Masonic organisation.Dino P. Arrigo, Fratelli d'Italia. Cronache, storie, riti e personaggi (per capire la massoneria), Messina, Rubbettino, 1994, .
Adriano Lemmi (Grand Master from 1885 to 1895) was initiated into the Propaganda lodge in 1877 and helped to give it prestige by bringing together members of parliament, senators and bankers who, due to their positions, were forced to leave their local lodges and settle in Rome. During its history, the lodge included important Italian figures, such as the poet Giosuè Carducci, politicians Francesco Crispi and Arturo Labriola and journalist Gabriele Galantara. Other members were Agostino Bertani (1883) (Gnocchini, p. 36), Luigi Castellazzo (1888)(Gnocchini, p. 65), Giuseppe Ceneri (1885) (Gnocchini, p. 67), Giuseppe Aurelio Costanzo (1889) (Gnocchini, p. 86), Nicola Fabrizi (Gnocchini, p. 115), Camillo Finocchiaro Aprile (Gnocchini, p. 122), Menotti Garibaldi (1888) (Gnocchini, p. 141), Pietro Lacava (p. 161), Ferdinando Martini (1885) (Elisabetta Cicciola, forewords of Bernardino Fioravanti and Stefano Bisi, Ettore Ferrari Gran Maestro e artista fra Risorgimento e Antifascismo. Un viaggio nelle carte del Grande Oriente d'Italia, Mimesis, 2021, , p. 170, 1.17), Giuseppe Muscatello (1907) (Fulvio Conti, I Fratelli e i Profani. La Massoneria nello spazio pubblico, Pisa, Pacini ed., 2020., p. 224), Ernesto Nathan (1893) (Gnocchini, p. 195), Oreste Regnoli (1892) (Conti, p. 226), Aurelio Saffi (1885), p. 245), Gaetano Tacconi (1885) (Gnocchini, p. 263)e Giuseppe Zanardelli (1889) (Gnocchini, p. 277).
Even after Lemmi's Grand Mastership, the lodge continued to be an important reference point in the organisation of the Masonic Grand Orient. Among its members, at the beginning of the 20th, century there were Giovanni Ameglio (1920),Gnocchini (2005), p. 12. Mario Cevolotto,Gnocchini (2005), p. 71. Eugenio Chiesa (1913),Gnocchini (2005), p. 72. Alessandro Fortis (1909),Gnocchini (2005), p. 128. Gabriele Galantara (1907),Gnocchini (2005), p. 135. and Giorgio Pitacco (1909).Gnocchini (2005), p. 224.
Propaganda Massonica was banned in 1925, alongside all other Masonic lodges and secret societies, by the Fascist regime.Law n°. 2029 of 26 November 2025. The Grand Master signed the decree dissolving all lodges.Santi Fedele, La massoneria italiana nell'esilio e nella clandestinità. 1927-1939, Franco Angeli, Milano 2005. However, Italian Freemasonry was reconstituted in exile in Paris on 12 January 1930.
Following the end of World War II, Freemasonry became legal again and the lodge was reformed. The name was changed to when the Grand Orient of Italy numbered its lodges. By the 1960s, the lodge was all but inactive, holding few meetings. This original lodge was only tangentially related to the one established by Licio Gelli in 1966, two years after becoming a Freemason."What was the P2 Lodge?", Anti-masonry Frequently Asked Questions, Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. On the contrary, Giuliano Di Bernardo, former Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy, affirmed that "the cards of the P2 affiliates bore the signature of the Grand Master, therefore they were all effective members of the Grand Orient of Italy."*The P2 Lodge, until its dissolution in 1982 due to the Anselmi-Spadolini law, was a regular lodge of the Grand Orient of Italy, as attested by extensive documentation that passed between the grand masters Gamberini, Salvini and Battelli on the one hand and Licio Gelli on the other. Peter Gomez:The existence of the Propaganda Due Lodge was known, but it was not known who exactly its members were? Giuliano Di Bernardo:Grand Masters knew it, because the Grand Masters signed the badges. The cards of the P2 affiliates bore the signature of the Grand Master, therefore they were all effective members of the Grand Orient of Italy. From an interview of Peter Gomez to Giuliano Di Bernardo, as quoted in Giuliano Di Bernardo: So che esiste un elenco completo di nomi della loggia P2 (April 17, 2023).
With the return of the Grand Orient to Italy, the lodge was reconstituted under the name 'Propaganda 2', for reasons of numbering of Italian lodges imposed by organisational necessity. The lodges resumed their activities,Dino P. Arrigo, Fratelli d'Italia. Cronache, storie, riti e personaggi (per capire la massoneria), Rubbettino, Messina 1994, p. 46. . returning to the direct authority of the Grand Master of the Order until the advent of Licio Gelli. During the Cold War, Italian Freemasonry traditions of free-thinking under the transformed into fervent anti-communism. The increasing influence of the political left at the end of the 1960s became a concern to the Masons of Italy. Gelli was first appointed by Lino Salvini, Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy—one of Italy's largest Masonic lodges, to represent him in all functions within the lodge (1970),Aldo A. Mola, Storia della Massoneria italiana dalle origini ai nostri giorni, Bompiani, Milano 1982, p. 746. with task of reorganizing P2,Ginsborg, Italy and Its Discontents, pp. 144–148. then he was appointed Venerable Master, i.e. head in all respects (1975).Dino P. Arrigo, Fratelli d'Italia. Cronache, storie, riti e personaggi (per capire la massoneria), Rubbettino, Messina 1994, p. 52. .
Based on notes from the SISMI and SISDE discovered by magistrate Vincenzo Calia during his investigation into the death of Enrico Mattei, the P2 Lodge was allegedly founded by , who ran it until he became president of Montedison. After the , he was replaced by the duo Licio Gelli and Umberto Ortolani.Gianni D'Elia, "'Petrolio', la bomba di Pasolini", in il Fatto Quotidiano (April 2, 2010). According to other sources, the secret head of the P2 Lodge was former Christian Democrat Giulio Andreotti.Dario Fiorentino, La Loggia P2, collana Storia dei grandi segreti d'Italia, n.5, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Rcs MediaGroup, 2021, pp. 56–57.Antonio Ingroia, Dalla parte della Costituzione, Imprimatur Editore, .Antonella Beccaria, I segreti della massoneria in Italia, Newton Compton, Roma 2013, .
Gelli was initiated into Freemasonry on 6 November 1963, at the "Gian Domenico Romagnosi" lodge in Rome. The Parliamentary Commission believes that Gelli had also gained influence in the "court" of Argentine General Juan Domingo PerónFiorentini (2021), p. 84. (a photograph shows him at the Casa Rosada with the President and Giulio Andreotti): he was subsequently affiliated with the Hod Lodge by Venerable Master Alberto Ascarelli and promoted to the rank of Master.Dario Fiorentino, La Loggia P2, collana Storia dei grandi segreti d'Italia, n.5, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Rcs MediaGroup, 2021, pp. 64 and 66–67.
Subsequently, in the "Garibaldi – Pisacane di Ponza – Hod" lodge, Gelli began to introduce numerous prominent figures, earning the appreciation of his venerable Master, who introduced him to , Grand Master of the Order. Gelli convinced Gamberini to initiate new members "on the sword" (i.e. outside the specific Masonic ritual) and to include them in the list of "covered brothers" of the P2 lodge.Fiorentino (2021), pp. 64–65.Arrigo (1994), pp. 46–47.
Gelli took a list of "dormant members", or members no longer invited to participate in Masonic rituals, as Italian Freemasonry was under close scrutiny by Christian Democracy (DC) in power through the Pentapartito. Through these initial connections, Gelli was able to extend his network throughout the echelons of the Italian establishment. In 1967, P2 initiated former SIFAR Brigadier-General Giovanni Allavena, who handed Gelli approximately 157,000 confidential files (see ) on many public persons, including intercepted telephone calls, photographs, correspondence, and private information.
Discovery