"The Roman Catholic Church gained more from the Lateran Pacts than did the government of Mussolini" How far do you agree with this judgement on the impact of the Lateran pacts in the years 1929-1939?

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* "The Roman Catholic Church gained more from the Lateran Pacts than did the government of Mussolini" How far do you agree with this judgement on the impact of the Lateran pacts in the years 1929-1939?

The Lateran pacts (1929) were made up of three agreements made between the Roman Catholic Church and the Fascist State. The first was the Lateran treaty, in this treaty the Vatican City was made a sovereign state and the Pope recognised Rome as the Italian capital. In the second agreement, the Financial Convention, the church was given 1750million lira in a mixture of state bonds and cash as compensation for the lands lost in Italy's unification. Finally, there was the Concordat. In this agreement it was decided that Catholicism was the sole religion of the state; the catholic leisure group, Catholic Action, would be allowed to continue but would not be able to be political or participate in sports; Catholic Religious Education would be taught in all school and the state would be able to veto major church appointments. The impact of this pact had positive affects for both sides. The agreements made stopped the church leading any direct and substantial opposition to fascism but, at the same time, the continued existence, and power, of the church meant that the Fascist State could never be truly totalitarian.

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One of the major gains from the Lateran Pacts for the church was that their 'tools' of indoctrination were allowed to continue. Namely, these tools were Catholic Action and Religious Education. In the Lateran Pacts it was agreed that Roman Catholic Religious Education would be compulsory in all state schools. This Religious education was nothing like what Religious Education is today; it was basically Catholic Education. Also, it was agreed that Catholic Action would be allowed to continue to exist, albeit it would not be allowed to be at all political and it would not be allowed to do ...

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