ITALIAN CONCORDAT OF 1929.

Although tolerable working relations had been established between the church and liberal governments from the time of Italian unification, the "Roman question" still remained unresolved after World War I. The papacy (Holy See) wanted internationally valid recognition of its sovereignty within a defined territorial area, a recognition it did not enjoy under the Law of Guarantees of 1871. But in the early twentieth century the church had a powerful instrument of pressure in the form of the lay organization Popular Union, better known as Catholic Action. In addition, although in no way sponsored by the church, the Catholic political party, the Popular Party, was founded in 1919. This party was polarized between Christian democrats, with a progressive social program, and conservatives; its leaders, including its general secretary, Luigi Sturzo, were Christian democrats. Its members varied considerably in their commitment to the Vatican line on the Roman question.

THE FASCIST ERA

On 6 February 1922 Achille Ratti of Milan was elected pope as Pius XI, and in October the Fascists came to power. Ratti had been linked to Milanese Catholic conservative circles. He was strongly committed to Catholic Action and saw this, not the Popular Party, as the effective lay champion of the Catholic interest. He distanced the church from, and ultimately undermined, the Popular Party, whose independence and readiness to ally with the Socialists and other secular parties incurred his mistrust; banned by the Fascists, it disbanded in 1926. Benito Mussolini's government made friendly gestures toward the church from late 1922, starting with the restoration of the crucifix to schools. The early Fascist movement was strongly anticlerical, as Benito Mussolini had been himself. However, an opening toward the church was a way of out-maneuvering the Popular Party. Furthermore, Mussolini was sensitive to the positive evaluation of Catholicism, as cementing national values, that had spread among Italian nationalists from the beginning of the century. The absorption of the Italian Nationalist Association into the Fascist Party in 1923 brought in many men who had by now become religiously conservative. Conciliation with the church was part of a general Mussolinian policy of accommodation with the established forces in Italian society. Negotiations between the Vatican and the government to resolve the Roman question were pursued from 1923. A facilitating role was played by "clerico-fascists," socially eminent Catholic conservatives who had split from the Popular Party between 1922 and 1924. The pope was concerned not only to resolve the issue of the Holy See's status but also to secure a position of autonomy for the Italian church and security for Catholic Action. Fascist attacks on Catholic lay organizations made the latter issue one of urgency.

The Patti lateranensi (Lateran Accords), concluded between the Holy See and the Italian state on 11 February 1929, comprised a treaty regulating the relations between the two powers and a concordat regulating the position of the church in Italy. The treaty recognized the Holy See's independent territorial sovereignty in the area of the Vatican. Catholicism was now recognized as "the only state religion." An appended financial convention established compensation for the annexation of papal territories between 1860 and 1870. The concordat gave guarantees of the independence of the church in Italy. It recognized the pope's exclusive right to appoint bishops, while stipulating that the Holy See would consult the government. The state renounced exercise of the exequatur, the license releasing the revenues of newly appointed bishops and other major benefice holders, which governments had used in the past to deny revenues to papal appointees whom they had not approved. As previously, the state would subsidize the stipends of clergy. The legal personality of religious orders, abolished under legislation of 1866–1867, was now recognized. The civil validity of church marriages was also recognized for the first time since 1867. Furthermore, church courts were given exclusive jurisdiction over annulments of marriages; this was a highly contentious issue. The pope's special concerns regarding the organizations of Catholic Action were met by a clause permitting these, provided they remained nonpolitical. Under the Lateran Accords and in terms of general practice, the church was effectively given establishment status for the first time in united Italy.

The "Conciliation" reassured conservatives as to the character of the regime and doubtless contributed to the popular consensus for it in the 1930s, but the Lateran Accords were heavily criticized by hard-line Fascists, who were strongly irritated by the wave of militancy by the organizations of Catholic Action that was stimulated by the fortieth-anniversary celebrations of Leo XIII's encyclical on the "social question," Rerum novarum, in 1931 . Attacks in the Fascist press on Catholic Action and the government's suspension of its youth organizations, which were seen as rivaling Fascist ones, led to a major church-state confrontation. This was resolved by the accords of September 1931, which reiterated the nonpolitical character of Catholic Action and prevented it from sponsoring trade union activities. But relations between the church and the regime became increasingly strained as Fascist hard-liners reasserted themselves in the 1930s and the regime became more totalitarian. In 1938 the regime set out to cripple Catholic Action, with some success in the short term. In other respects, however, the Italian church was able to build up its organization in the Fascist era so that it was able to play a crucial role in the chaotic period between the fall of the Fascist regime in 1943 and the peace.

THE POSTWAR ERA

After the fall of fascism, maintenance of the Lateran Accords was a priority both for the church and for the Christian Democrat Party. In March 1947 the Lateran Accords were inserted into the new constitution enacted by the Constituent Assembly; this insertion was secured by the votes not only of the powerful Christian Democrat Party but also of the Communists, who did not want to break the antifascist front.

The Lateran treaty governing the Vatican's status has never really been called into question. The concordat, however, appeared ever more anachronistic in an increasingly secularized society. The Christian Democrat Party, the dominant partner in the postwar government coalitions—which had disappointed the Vatican by its reluctance to push aggressively for the maintenance of Catholic values in society—became increasingly unable to defend the concordat, as its electoral position progressively weakened from 1952. The law of 1970 permitting divorce, supported by popular referendum in 1974, effectively breached the concordat. The referendum of 1978 in favor of a law permitting abortion was another step in the same direction. The Vatican and the Italian church, in any case, after the pontificate of John XXIII (1958–1963) and the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), had now become more willing to accept a pluralist society.

The revision of the concordat was undertaken under center-left governments of the Pentapartito (party of five), in which the now much weakened Christian Democrats had been obliged to surrender more power to their coalition partners, the "lay parties" of the Liberals, Republicans, and Social Democrats, their old allies, now joined by the Socialists. The revision was amicably agreed to between the government and the church by the Palazzo Madama accords of 18 February 1984. The revised concordat effectively disestablished the church. It stated: "The principle of the Catholic religion as the only religion of the Italian state, originally indicated by the Lateran pacts, is no longer valid." Instead, "the state and the Catholic Church are each, within their own order, independent and sovereign." The obligation of the church authorities to consult with the state over appointments to bishoprics and other benefices was reduced to a simple obligation to inform. The state's positive commitment to support Catholic religious instruction in schools, under the terms of the Lateran treaty, was watered down: the principle of cooperation between the two powers in this area was balanced by a proclamation of the principle of religious freedom. Highly controversially, the cognizance of church courts of annulment of marriage remained. The prohibitions of political activities by clergy and of state employment of ex-clergy in the 1929 concordat disappeared. Provision was made for the phasing-out of state subsidies to the clergy; instead, tax rebates would be allowed on donations by the faithful. Significantly, a pointer to the more collegiate conception of the church that had emerged in the era of Vatican II, the Italian Episcopal Conference, rather than the papacy, was recognized as the supreme authority in the Italian church for normal purposes.

See alsoCatholic Action; Fascism; John XXIII; Mussolini, Benito.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Coppa, Frank J. "Mussolini and the Concordat of 1929." In Controversial Concordats, edited by Frank J. Coppa, 120–181. Washington, D.C., 1999. Text of Lateran Accords in appendix.

Ferrari, Silvio. "The New Concordat between Church and State." In vol. 1 of Italian Politics: A Review, edited by Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti, 134–145 . London, 1986.

Pollard, John F. The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–1932: A Study in Conflict. Cambridge, U.K., 1985. The best treatment in English. Texts of Law of Guarantees, Lateran Accords, and September Accords in appendix.

Oliver Logan