feb 11, 1929 - Lateran Pacts / Concordat

Description:

>90% of Italians were Catholics,
the Church was deeply involved in their lives, dictating popular customs and morality,
it was especially influencial in the countryside, where the local priest was the only source of news and was the main opinion-maker

during the Liberal period the church never got along well w/ the state

therefore securing the Church's support was very important to Musso,
he took a compromising approach

the Lateran Pacts were three seperate treaties

Overall:
Musso gained:
- Church backing behind the regime
- international prestige
- a reach into the rural masses
- Catholic political youth organisations dissolved
- state could veto major church appointments

the Church gained:
- a new sovereign state (the Vatican)
- lots of money (recompensation for land lost during the unification of Italy)
- Catholic teachings / morality reintroduced in schools via Religion classes
- Catholic Action (an organisation to protect the interests of Catholics with many subgroups for women, youth, etc.) left alone by the gov

this agreement gave Musso the support of the Church at the cost of total totalitarian control (by the 1930's Catholic Action had >1 M members and there was tension between it and the gov)
one example of this is the tension between the state and Catholic Action in 1931 when Musso thought that Catholic Action was extending its role into areas claimed for the state,
the dispute was resolved by compromise:
Catholic Action was left to run religious, educational and recreational activities (except sport), sticking out of politics

Added to timeline:

Date: