The Pope and Mussolini: 90 years ago the Vatican was born

Understand what was behind a radically anticlerical dictator allowing the Church to have an independent state in the capital of Italy

“The Vatican trusts the new political realities much more than it did the old liberal democracy. The Church recognizes that fascist ideas are closer to Christianity than Jewish liberalism.” These were Hitler’s celebratory words after Cardinal Pietro Gasparri signed an agreement with Mussolini’s fascist Italy – through the Lateran Treaty.

The conflict between the Church and the Italian state began in 1870, when King Victor Emmanuel II invaded Rome and incorporated the city into his kingdom – a city that had been Catholic territory since it was ceded in 756 by Pepin the Short. King Emmanuel II attempted to reach an agreement with the Pope of the time, Pius IX, who did not agree to be part of a secular state.

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The situation could not have seemed better when Benito Mussolini, an anti-clerical radical who even ordered God to kill him publicly to prove that he did not exist, came to power in 1922. In 1938, long after this photo, he was still talking about the Pope as a “malignant tumor”. At the end of his life, Mussolini started talking about God – possibly no more sincere than Hitler pretending to be a Christian.

The fact is that, like the efficient demagogue that he was, he understood the difference between his feelings and those of the Italian population. Thus, on February 11, 1929, the dictator, in the Lateran Palace, sat down with Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, placed the papers on the table and made the agreement: the Vatican state was formalized with full authority to the Pope being head of state, also having power over neighboring territories such as the Palace of Castelgandolfo and the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Saint Mary Major and Saint Paul Extramuros. In addition to the Vatican winning compensation of 90 million dollars, religious education would become mandatory in schools, marriage would have civil effects and divorce would be prohibited.

It was only in 1978 that the Catholic religion ceased to be official in Italy – and so the country finally took another step towards what we call secular (even though it was never 100%).

By MARIANA RIBAS / Originally published in Adventures in history