LATERAN TREATY

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 258, 28 July 1930, Page 6

LATERAN TREATY

Temporal Power The long-standing disputes betwean the Papacy and the Italian Government in regard to the question of temporal power of the Pope, and the restoration of that power by ; the signing of the Lateran Treaty last year, was the subject of a lecture delivered .last evening to the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Historical Association by Hie Rev. Father Dowling, S.M., JI.A., rector of St. Patrick’s College. Before touching ou the actual subject of the temporal power of the Papacy and its restoration, Father Dowling explained why the Pope claimed to be tho sovereign over any territory, whether great or small. The Church of Rome, he said, claimed to be not a national Church but rather an international one. inasmuch as its mission was international. It claimed the privilege of having no Interference from any outside power. This could be realised only by the granting of some portion of territory to the Pope, making him sovereign ruler of that territory, placing him outside the boundaries of national States, and thus securing independence and freedom in the currying out of the religious aim of the church. These conditions were granted by the Lateran Treaty of 1929. Tracing the development of tile temporal power of the Church. Father Dowling said that Constantine the Great was the first Pope to grant flic Pope permission to hold land, and iu 1201 the Pope definitely emerged as an Italian prluce. In 1871 the Law of Guarantees was passed by the Parliament, a law which Pius IX and succeeding Popes refused to accept, on the ground that it denied the Pope’s sovereignty. It reduced the Pope to the level of an ordinary Italian citizen, and he did not even own the palace in which lie lived. The law was simply a one.-sided arrangement imposed on the Pope. During the following ill) years the Church did not lose Its jurisdiction, but maintained its position only by refusing to recognise the statute Rumours that the Roman question wouldbe solved were current in Italy when Mussolini assumed the dictatorship in 1.922, said Father Dowling. On February 11, 1929, the Lateran Treaty was signed, by which the Pope, for his part, declared the Roman question to be definitely settled. Tho interest of those present was Indicated by the many questions which were asked of the speaker at the close of his address.