The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1929. ROME AND ITALY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 35, 11 February 1929, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1929. ROME AND ITALY.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Ever since the coming of the new year it has been widely reported that the Papacy and the Italian Monarchy have at last been reconciled, and that Rome is to appear upon the stago of international affairs once more as an independent sovereign State. Mussolini, as absolute rider of Italy, has been able to withhold all definite information on the subject from his own people, but the details of the agreement now circulating through Europe appear'to be authentic and reliable. The Pope accepts from Italy a small territory, including , the Vatican and the Church of St. Peter, with a population of about 15,000, on terms that satisfy the requirements of the Church on the ecclesiastical side and restore to it, though on a small scale, at least the semblance of its temporal power.

According to the generally accepted reports, the compact between the Pope and the Italian Government includes a Concordat or agreement on religious questions, as well as a political treaty. The Concordat concerns merely the status of the Roman Catholic University at Milan and various aspects of the matrimonial question. But it is certain that no attempt will be made to enforce the ecclesiastical law of the Roman Catholic Church throughout Italy. On the political side the Papacy has withdrawn its claim for a "corridor" to the sea, and has accepted by way of reparation the accumulated sum (£12,000,000 in all) due from the Italian Crown since IS7O, which the Popes have hitherto refused to touch. The new* State is to become a member of the League of Nations, and will thus at once acquire political independence and the right to participate in international affairs.

There are great possibilities latent in this revival of the temporal authority of the Popes. Not the least of these is the re-emergence of the Papacy as an acknowledged factor in the diplomatic world. The reigning Pope, now freed from his long seclusion in the Vatican, is said to be contemplating already a visit to England and to other European countries, and such a step may easily give rise to new complications in international affairs. The effects of this revival of the Papal sovereignty must be left for the future to decide. But for the present it is clear that not only the Papacy, but the Fascist Government, must gain immensely by this change. Mussolini, whatever may be said in criticism of his autocratic methods, is. an astute politician, and he understands that the devotion of the Italian people to Roman Catholicism renders the Pope a valuable ally to Fascism. Nothing but the healing of this long-standing antagonism between the Popes and the Kings of Italy could secure complete national unity for the country, and Mussolini, like Napoleon, realises that without a religious basis national power is insecurely founded. This agreement Avith the Papacy may yet rank in history on the same footing as Napoleon's great Concordat, and whoever loses by this reconciliation, Fascism will certainly gain.