LATERAN PACTS. - These are the agreements stipulated between the Holy See and the Italian State on 11 February 1929, by which the Roman Question (v.) was resolved.
The settlement of the dispute, which for about eighty years had divided Church and State in Italy and had disturbed and saddened consciences, followed a period of preparation which, considering only the post-war years, went back in its less recent phase to the Cerretti-Orlando talks (May 1919) and found its basis in the negotiations initiated by the Mussolini cabinet after its coming to power.
To the desire for an agreement, generously manifested by the new pontiff Pius XI (v.) at the very moment of his ascent to the pontifical throne, with the blessing from the external loggia of St. Peter's, and confirmed in the encyclical Ubi arcano, the Italian government had in fact responded with the elaboration of a Project for the reform of ecclesiastical legislation (March-December 1925); a project which, prepared by a commission presided over by the Italian undersecretary of Justice and of which some ecclesiastics were also members, though not with an official mandate, was to settle the complex problem of ecclesiastical property, in implementation of art. 18 of the Law of Guarantees (v. report of the commission and bills in A. Giannini, Concordati postbellici, II, Milan 1936, pp. 455-92).
However, with his chirograph of 18 February 1926, addressed to the cardinal Secretary of State (AAS 18 [1926], p. 84 ff.), Pius XI proclaimed that on such matters one could not «recognize in others rights and powers of legislating, except after the appropriate negotiations and legitimate agreements with [the] Holy See». Following this declaration the Italian government shelved the project, and, a little later (14 May 1926), the Minister of Justice Rocco announced to the Chamber of Deputies that the studies on the matter would be resumed on «broader bases».
These were to be the negotiations between the representative of the Holy See, the lawyer Prof. Francesco Pacelli (v.), and that of the Italian government, the Councillor of State Domenico Barone, who died before the conclusion of the agreements; negotiations which, begun privately on 6 August 1926, became unofficial on 4 October of the same year. On 24 October the Holy See made known its detailed proposals, including also the draft of a convention regulating the juridical condition of the Church in Italy, that is, of the future Concordat. Pacelli and Barone signed on 24 November a draft of the Treaty and prepared two drafts for the Concordat by February 1927.
The continuation of the discussions was hampered by various events, among them the episodes relating to the constitution of the fascist youth organizations, which culminated in the forced dissolution, on the part of the Holy See, of the young explorers (cf. chirograph of 27 January 1927, AAS 19 [1927], p. 41 ff.); and only in November 1928, after very numerous sessions, once the documents had been prepared in their definitive form, were the plenipotentiaries appointed, in the persons of the cardinal Secretary of State and the Italian Prime Minister. On 7 February 1929, the cardinal Secretary of State announced to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See the imminent signing of the agreements, which took place in the Lateran Palace on the 11th of the same month. The ratification was exchanged on 7 June, on which day the law of 27 May 1929, no. 810, which made the agreements enforceable in Italy, entered into force.
The L. T. (v. the text in AAS, 21 [1929], p. 209 ff.) consist of: I. a treaty in 27 articles, with four annexes (1, plan of the territory of the State of Vatican City [v.]; 2, list of properties with the privilege of extraterritoriality and exempt from expropriations and taxes; 3, list of properties exempt from expropriations and taxes; 4, financial convention); II. a concordat in 45 articles relating to the conditions of religion and of the Catholic Church in Italy.
With the Treaty it was intended «to eliminate every reason of dissension... existing, by arriving at a settlement... which, by assuring the Holy See in a stable manner a de facto and de jure condition guaranteeing it absolute independence for the fulfillment of its high mission in the world, may allow the Holy See itself to recognize the 'Roman question' as composed in a definitive and irrevocable manner», etc.; while, on the other hand, «since, in order to assure the Holy See absolute and visible independence, it was necessary to guarantee it an indisputable sovereignty even in the international field», there was recognized «the necessity of constituting Vatican City, recognizing over it in favor of the Holy See full ownership and exclusive and absolute sovereign power and jurisdiction» (preamble). With this last declaration solemn confirmation was given to the principle always affirmed, before and after 1870, by the supreme pontiffs, that the free exercise of the even spiritual mission of the Holy See is inconceivable without a territorial base, however small.
To the attainment of this end, since the constitution of the State of Vatican City was not by itself sufficient, provision was further made to establish a special juridical situation, within the Italian legal order, for the central organs and institutions of the Church; while, on the other hand, with the financial convention constituting Annex IV of the Treaty, the claims of the Holy See against Italy were liquidated, with the payment to the Holy See of 750 million and the delivery of 1 billion of Italian 5% Consolidated stock.
The Treaty, in art. 1, reaffirms «the principle consecrated in art. 1 of the Statute of the Kingdom of 4 March 1848, by which the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion is the sole religion of the State».
Art. 2 contains the recognition, on the Italian side, of «the sovereignty of the Holy See in the international field as an attribute inherent in its nature».
Art. 3 recognizes «in favor of the Holy See full ownership, exclusive and absolute sovereign power and jurisdiction over the Vatican, as it is at present constituted, with all its appurtenances and endowments, thus creating Vatican City»; while art. 4 establishes that in that City itself «no interference on the part of the government may be exercised
Italian and that there be no other authority than that of the Holy See."
By art. 8, "Italy, considering the person of the Supreme Pontiff sacred and inviolable, declares punishable the attempt against His person and the provocation to commit it with the same penalties established for the attempt and the provocation to commit it against the person of the King" (now of the President of the Republic, arts. 276-77 of the Penal Code). Furthermore, "the offenses and public insults committed in Italian territory against the person of the Supreme Pontiff by speeches, by acts and by writings are punished as the offenses and insults against the person of the King" (now of the President of the Republic, art. 278 of the Penal Code).
The particular juridical situation of organs, persons and things relating to the supreme direction of the Church is outlined, in its fundamental features, in arts. 9, 10, 11 of the Treaty. In them it is established (art. 9) that "all persons having stable residence in Vatican City are subject to the sovereignty of the Holy See"; that (art. 10) "the dignitaries of the Church and the persons belonging to the Pontifical Court, who will be indicated in a list to be agreed upon between the High Contracting Parties, even when they are not citizens of the Vatican, shall always and in every case with respect to Italy be exempt from military service, from jury duty and from every personal service (while equal treatment is provided for other permanent officials of the Holy See)"; that (art. 11) "the central entities of the Catholic Church are exempt from every interference on the part of the Italian State (save the provisions of Italian laws concerning the acquisitions of moral bodies), as well as from conversion with regard to immovable property."
By art. 12 "Italy recognizes in the Holy See the right of active and passive legation according to the general rules of international law"; while in art. 19 it is established that "the diplomats and envoys of the Holy See, the diplomats and envoys of foreign governments accredited to the Holy See and the dignitaries of the Church coming from abroad directed to Vatican City... may... reach it through Italian territory" (cf. LEGATION, right of; DIPLOMATIC CORPS; DIPLOMATIC COURIERS; DIPLOMATIC AGENT).
In arts. 13-16 the ownership, immunity and exemption from expropriations and from taxes of certain immovable properties belonging to the Holy See are recognized. For its part, the latter, in accordance with the provision of art. 18, will keep "visible to scholars and visitors... the treasures of art and of science existing in Vatican City and in the Lateran Palace."
Although this is implicit both from the preamble and from the content of the Treaty, the last paragraph of art. 26 (cf. also art. 45, paragraph 2 of the Concordat) expressly declares abrogated the law of May 13, 1871, no. 214 (law of guarantees [v.]) and "any other provision contrary to the... Treaty."
The Concordat, which accompanies the Treaty, regulates "the conditions of religion and of the Church in Italy."
While referring, for the examination of these conditions, to another entry (ITALY, IV), it should be observed here that they are based on the following fundamental principles: 1) assurance, on the part of Italy, of the "free exercise of spiritual power," of the "free and public exercise of worship, as well as of... jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters in conformity with the norms of the... Concordat" (art. 1); 2) determination of forms of particular favor for ecclesiastical persons and entities (arts. 3-4, 6-8, 29, paragraph 1, 30, paragraph 3); 3) relevance, in Italian law, of norms and relations of the Church's legal order, especially with regard to marriage (v. MARRIAGE, IV, II) and to teaching. All these norms concur, in their complex, in orienting the Italian legal order, if not in a strictly confessional sense, toward considering the position of religion and of the Catholic Church as invested with particular prestige.
Some observation is necessary on the character of the documents and on their value. They constitute, first of all, a solution founded on a bilateral agreement, in conformity with what had always been requested by the Holy See; and in this they stand opposed to the discipline unilaterally established by the law of guarantees. But it must be noted likewise that such a solution was reached independently of the intervention of any other subject of international law; and this in contrast with the projects, advanced several times, which provided precisely for the participation of other states in the conclusion of the agreement, in order to assure to it a greater stability.
The protocols, Treaty and Concordat, must be considered acts having relevance in the international legal order; as regards the first there is no doubt that it is a true and proper international treaty, stipulated between the Italian State and the Holy See, as the supreme organ of the Catholic Church, which already in the time preceding the stipulation possessed international personality. As regards particularly the Concordat, the most authoritative doctrine holds without hesitation its nature as an international act (v. CONCORDAT). It should be observed, moreover, that it too was stipulated by the Holy See as the supreme organ of the Catholic Church (with the same capacity, therefore, assumed in the Treaty) and not, as maintained by some, as representative of a hypothetical Italian national church.
A problem of high importance is that relating to the relationship in which the Lateran protocols stand to one another; that is, whether they are independent of one another or whether they instead constitute a single whole, so that the non-observance or denunciation of one of them (in practice the problem arises for the Concordat) entails as a consequence the extinction of the other.
Without giving weight to manifestations preceding the conclusion of the P. L., and limiting the examination to these and to official declarations contemporary with or subsequent to them, one may observe first of all how in the preamble of the Treaty itself it is said that "the Holy See has proposed that the Treaty... be accompanied, as a necessary complement, by a concordat, etc." In art. 26 of the Treaty itself there is then mention of the "AGREEMENTS which are today subscribed." The connection of the two protocols is demonstrated likewise by the discourses of the pontiff Pius XI of 11 and 13 Feb. 1929 and especially by the pontifical chirograph of 30 May of the same year (AAS, 21 [1929], p. 297 ff.) in which it is affirmed that "Treaty and Concordat, according to their letter and spirit, as also according to the oral and written explicit understandings, are the one a necessary complement of the other and the one from the other inseparable and indivisible. Hence it follows that simul stabunt or else simul cadent" (loc. cit., p. 305). On the Italian side, these solemn declarations are matched by those contained in the report of the Head of Government and of the Minister of Justice to the bill for the execution of the agreements, according to which "the Concordat is the logical and necessary development" (of the Treaty); as well as "the Concordat integrates and completes the Treaty."
In addition to the already mentioned law of 27 May 1929, no. 810, by which the P. L. were made executory in Italy, provision is made for the issuance of other dispositions to give execution to the treaty norms; among these the most important, all relating to matters that are the object of the Concordat, are: the law of 27 May 1929, no. 847, on the recognition for civil effects of marriage celebrated before the ministers of the Catholic cult; the law of 27 May 1929, no. 848, on ecclesiastical bodies and on the civil administrations of patrimonies destined to purposes of cult; and the relative regulation, approved by R. D. 2 Dec. 1929, no. 2262 and modified by R. D. 26 Sept. 1935, no. 2032.
Bibliography5 works
Rodolfo Danieli