INCOMPATIBLE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 9, 10 July 1931, Page 7

INCOMPATIBLE

FASCISM AND' CHURCH

FATE OF CONCORDAT

(Eeceived 10th July, 11 a.m.) BOMB, 9th July. Signor Mussolini has ruled that membership of the Fascist Party is incompatible with membership of the Catholic Action organisation. It is authoritatively stated that Italy will shortly renounce the Concordat -with the Vatican in accord* ance with public opinion,-- which is at present overwhelmingly in favour of ending the Concordat.

The Concordat, which came into being on 11th February, 1929, established a new relationship between the Italian Government and His Holiness Pope Pius XL, and reinforced Mussolini's prestigo immensely. The agreement was made up of a political treaty, a financial convention, and a concordat. The political treaty defined the ques-1 tion of Papal sovereignty, and replaced the law of 1871 which defined the. franchises and prerogatives left the Pope, but refused sovereignty by implication. The "exclusive.and absolute) power" of the Pope, which is similar to that of any other monarch, is exercised over the basilica of St. Peter, and tho palace and garden of the Vatican. At the outset, Mussolini offered His Holiness, in addition, on the Janiculum, tho Villa Doria Pamphili, tho Villa Gabriolli, and a wood of firs. These wore declined. The new law ensures tho Pope complete freedom of action, gives many privileges to; the functionaries of the Vatican domiciled beyond its boundar-i ios, grants complete liberty in. time of war, engages the parties as equals on the same footing, and decides juridical questions between the Church and the Italian. State. In consequence, the Vatican City was left withthe necessity to draw up a new penal' code, and has issued its own coinage, etc.