Why was Vatican sovereignty restored in 1929?

The Vatican lost it's sovereignty to a Piedmont led uprising in 1868 which led to the annexation of Rome in 1870.

Decades later the Italian King and his premier Mussolini granted the return of full sovereignty in Feb 1929. What was in it for the Italian fascists that induced them to do so and was any role played by the Catholic party in Germany or by the Rothschilds reputed to be bankers to the Pope?

Does anybody have some solid advice or answers for me please?

I am writing a period novel and want to get a handle on the politics which forced restoration of the Vatican?

Is there any link with the Concordat with Hitler and was any deal done in advance of the concordat?

The Nazis ultimately wanted to repress the Catholic Church but rumours persist of alleged Vatican collusion. I am unsure what to believe?

There are 3, Vatican, Windsor and Banking, and Washington DC.

The answer is obvious. These 3 centers rule the world. In their minds. Not mine. In mine, this makes it very clear were the Cosmic arrest team need to start.

reply to post by Unity_99


Agreed 100%

That tells me nothing I am afraid because all you are telling me are your assumptions and you are not citing any facts to help me join the dots.

hardly qualify as master communicators. Please if you want to inform me or the wider audience at least explain yourselves with reference to facts ...dates, or events otherwise I will write you off as another spoon head

Originally posted by sy.gunson
The Vatican lost it's sovereignty to a Piedmont led uprising in 1868 which led to the annexation of Rome in 1870.

Decades later the Italian King and his premier Mussolini granted the return of full sovereignty in Feb 1929. What was in it for the Italian fascists that induced them to do so and was any role played by the Catholic party in Germany or by the Rothschilds reputed to be bankers to the Pope?

Does anybody have some solid advice or answers for me please?

I am writing a period novel and want to get a handle on the politics which forced restoration of the Vatican?

Is there any link with the Concordat with Hitler and was any deal done in advance of the concordat?

The Nazis ultimately wanted to repress the Catholic Church but rumours persist of alleged Vatican collusion. I am unsure what to believe?

Its not my focused area of history, but traditionally the Popes never liked it when their seat of power was held by secular authorities and made it well known of their displeasure to the states and their faithful, and considering how important Catholicism is to the Italians, it would make sense for the government to try and work something out that wouldn't be a constant thorn in their side.

Here's the wiki link answer to the problem, though I suggest you look at the sources listed and then read their sources to find out more closer answers from the historians then just rely on the wiki.

Thanks Koffee for attempting a clarification. It inches me a bit closer. I was interested that Italy although under no obligation to restore sovereignty not only did so but paid considerable compensation.

Without some form of coercion that would be almost unheard of today.

Is it possible therefore that either Mussolini or the King of Italy desperately needed Papal support to influence their own political power base?

Back to the OP anybody else please can you tell me whether there was any banking aspects to this?

reply to post by sy.gunson


While it's certainly possible that banks had an interest in a sovereign Vatican it's not the most likely impetus. Mussolini, while publicly denouncing organized religion in general and the catholic church specifically, knew full well that his power relied very much on the support if the people. The people being catholic were mire likely to listen to the church/pope over their secular leader. Pacifying the
Church made this a moot point. It was tantamount to bribing the pope into backing his position of power. To understand what the church gained to benefit from this arrangement from a bankers perspective I would recomend looking into the P2/banco ambrosiano scandal of the 70's and 80's where the church was implicated money laundering through the Vatican bank. With the Vatican regaining sovereignty they didn't have to answer to the italian government and their banks were defacto offshore banks with no oversight other than the vaticans and no investigations could be made without Vatican involvement. It was a win win situation for the Vatican. Sovereignty coupled with no oversight gave them free reign to do whatever they wanted from laundering money for the mafia to helping nazis escape to South America.

Thanks Peter. I agree about the money laundering and Nazi ratlines etc especially after the war, but i am curious if any of that kind of activity was implicit or existed at the outset in February 1929?

You are clearly correct that Mussolini needed to placate Italian Catholics.

Was there any element that anyone knows of Vatican political pressure against the fascists in the late 1920s which might explain the contradiction between fascist disdain for the church and yet it's willingness to restore sovereignty?

Did the Vatican have something over Mussolini which could have toppled him from power?

Lateran Treaty The Lateran Treaty is one of the Lateran Pacts of 1929 or Lateran Accords, three agreements made in 1929 between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, ratified June 7, 1929, ending the "Roman Question". Italy was then under a Fascist government; the succeeding Italian governments have all upheld the treaty. The pacts consisted of three documents: A political treaty recognising the full sovereignty of the Holy See in the State of Vatican City, which was thereby established. A concordat regulating the position of the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion in the Italian state. A financial convention agreed on as a definitive settlement of the claims of the Holy See following the losses of its territories and property. Negotiations for the settlement of the Roman Question began in 1926 between the government of Italy and the Holy See, and culminated in the agreements of the three Lateran Accords, signed for King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy by Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister of Italy and leader ("Duce") of the National Fascist Party, and for Pope Pius XI by Pietro Gasparri, Cardinal Secretary of State, on February 11, 1929. The agreements were signed in the Lateran Palace, hence the name by which they are known. The agreements included a political treaty which created the state of the Vatican City and guaranteed full and independent sovereignty to the Holy See. The Pope was pledged to perpetual neutrality in international relations and to abstention from mediation in a controversy unless specifically requested by all parties. The concordat established Catholicism as the religion of Italy. The financial agreement was accepted as settlement of all the claims of the Holy See against Italy arising from the loss of temporal power in 1870.

Source

Interesting topic !

Edit to add ...

It would be very interesting to did up some old Italian news papers from that time so the we could read the pop topics of the time regarding the church , and how the people felt about the Vatacan falling under to controls of the Italian government before the Vatacan got independence

Vatican sovereignty was restored by Mussolini through the Lateran treaty, because the Vatican was the only political force in Italy ready to support fascists no matter what! Additionally Mussolini had greatest appeal on those who were less educated and in Italy these people tend to be bigots, who call themselves religious. Mussolini would never get any approval from the middle or higher class for his idiotic warmongering, rather he needed short sighted poorly educated zealots.