93 years ago, the signing of the Lateran Pacts!

Interview by Manuella Affejee - Vatican CityThese agreements, which included both a treaty and a concordat, ended almost 60 years of a bitter crisis between Italy and the Holy See. To understand its origins and springs, we must go back to 1870, the year in which King Victor Emmanuel II completed the political unity of the peninsula by annexing the papal states and the city of Rome, which thus became the capital. of the Kingdom of Italy. Although his honors as head of state are still recognized and his control over the Vatican and Castel Gandolfo is assured, Pope Pius IX refuses to recognize the Italian state; he ordered Catholics not to take part in the country's civil life and declared himself a "prisoner" of the Apostolic Palace.

Unblocking in the 1920s

For 50 years, timid attempts at dialogue followed one another, but without success and the " Roman question " got bogged down with misunderstandings. It was not until 1926 that a long and complex process of negotiations began between the Holy See and the Italian government, led at the time by Benito Mussolini. For Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) and his Secretary of State, Cardinal Gasparri, the aim was twofold: to restore to the Holy See a recognized territorial base which would allow it to carry out its mission on the international scene, and safeguard the life of the Church on the peninsula.