ITALY AND THE POPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20171, 4 February 1929, Page 9

ITALY AND THE POPE.

I'LAN OF KECONCILIATION.

AGREEMENT NOW COMPLETE, CONCESSIONS BY THE STATE. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. (Received February 0, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON. Feb. 2.

The Rome correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says a completo agreement has now been reached between the Popo and the Italian Government, which is only awaiting formal signature. Tho Pope will bo declared to bo the possessor, with sovereign rights, of the Vatican- Palace and gardens, the Basilica of St. Peter's and all the ecclesiastical i palaces in Porno which the Stale possessed in 1870, and the use of which only iwas allowed to the Church.

The Lateran Basilica—really the Pope's Cathedral church, though no Pope has .entered it since 1870^— is to become part of tho"Pontificial State, says the correspondent, as well as the road across the Tiber, which connects it with the Vatican.

Italy will recognise tho Papal sovereignty and pay £11,000,000 for the extinction of the Vatican's The Pope has specially requested that this sum shall be devoted exclusively to missions and works of beneficence throughout the world in order not to give tho agreement the appearance of a financial bargain.

It is stated that the Pope is planning to hold next year an Oecumenical Counoil which, besides discussing questions of dogma, will ratify the reconciliation of the Holy Sec to Italy.

The significance of the agreement which is reported to have been reached between the Italian Government and the Pope iies 111 the fact that the spiritual head of the See of Rome, at prisoner by choice within the walls of the garden of the Vatican, will end the self-imposed retirement in which the Pontiffs have lived for more than 50 years. The advocates of the restoration "of a part of tho Papal domain have been confident for some years that Italy would eventually concedo a few square miles of territory to the Holy See. The first foothold of tho Roman Catholic Church as an owner of land in Italy was gained in the fourth century. The tradition is that Constantino in 315 a.'d., as Emperor, gave to the Christians the palace and garden of Platius Lateranus. There was built tho venerable Church of St. Jolui Lateran, which to this clay is the cathedral of tho Pope as Bishop of Pome. The temporal power of tho Pope, however. may be definitely traced to the eighth century. The Roman Catholic Church had gradually assumed authority over much of mid-Italv and its domain became like a buffer State. It had received gifts of vast tracts of land from old families which had become extinct, and many thousands of people placed themselves under its protection. Such was its extent and influence that the See of Rome later found itself more or less forced into becoming a civil administrator, not only in the Eternal City, but in tho outlying territories. By the middle of the 18th century they comprised 17,200 square miles and stretched from the Adriatic Sea through mid-Italv. When Pope Pius IX. was consecrated in 1846 tho States of. (lie Church, with a population then of 3,000,000, were in a flourishing condition and their area was practically tho same as it had been ;v century before. Forced to fleo from Rome by tho invasion of the Austrians, the Pontiff established himself at Gaeta, just beyond tho borders of Iho Papal State, where he remained until he was able to return through the intervention of the French. The last of the Popes to rule the territory controlled by the Church for centuries, Pius IX., was maintained in power by French arms. Jn the great movement for the unification of Italy led by Victor Emmanuel IT. and Garibaldi, tlie Romagna district in 1360 dropped away from the Papal States. This reduced tho lands of tho Church to less than half of their former area. For fully 10 years the French battalions sustained tho Pope in his dominions. When tho Franco-Prussian War began Napoleon 111. was obliged to'withdraw his forces, a-nd with his defeat and capturo at Sedan in 1870, tho fate of tho Papal States was sealed. It was felt by the revolutionary party that they stood in the way of the unifying of Italy and of tho movement to change the capital from Florence to Rome.

Under tho Pa'pal Guarantee Bill, enacted by tho Italian Government in 1871, it. was reported that the Pope should continue his spiritual authority unhindered and that his person should be considered as " sacred and inviolable." It was specified that ho was to have as many guards as he thought necessary to ensure his safety and to prevent the spoliation of his palace. Under the new order the See of St. Peter lost all its lands except the square milo or so which is included in the Vatican gardens. It, of course, retained the splendid palace, the Vatican, and its treasures of art and literature, ijie Laleran and tho Castel Gondolfn, with its outbuildings, furnishings and treasures. The splendid Palace of the Quir* in:il, summer palace of the Popes, w:*s taken over bv the Government and became the residence of tho King of Italy.