Lateran Pacts — Vatican City Created
The Lateran Pacts of 11 February 1929 resolved the 'Roman Question' — the dispute between the Italian state and the Catholic Church that had festered since 1870, when Italian forces had taken Rome and the pope had refused to recognise the Kingdom of Italy, declaring himself a 'prisoner of the Vatican.' The pacts consisted of three documents. A Treaty recognised Vatican City as a sovereign state under papal authority — the world's smallest country, comprising 0.44 square kilometres around St. Peter's Basilica. A Concordat made Catholicism the state religion of Italy, recognised church marriages as legally valid, required Catholic religious instruction in public schools, and gave the Church significant influence over education. A Financial Convention paid the Holy See 750 million lire in cash plus 1 billion lire in consolidated bonds as compensation for the loss of the Papal States. For Mussolini, the pacts provided enormous legitimacy. The settlement of a dispute that had made Italy internationally awkward for sixty years was celebrated as a statesmanship achievement; the fact that Pius XI called Mussolini 'a man sent by Providence' was quoted approvingly by fascist propaganda. The pacts also gave the fascist government access to Catholic networks in rural and small-town Italy that it could not otherwise reach. For the papacy, the pacts were a pragmatic but uncomfortable settlement. Vatican City's sovereignty gave the Church an independent international legal personality for the first time since 1870; the financial settlement secured its institutional independence. The price was implicit legitimation of the fascist regime — a price the Church would make uncomfortable later when forced to reconcile it with the Nuremberg Laws' treatment of Jewish converts to Christianity.
- Year: 1929 CE
- Category: Political
