On February 11, 1929, at the Lateran Palace in Rome, Pietro Gasparri, Cardinal Secretary of State to Pope Pius XI, and Benito Mussolini, Il Duce of the Italian State, signed a series of documents known as the Lateran Accords. In doing so, they solved a problem that had plagued the peninsula for almost sixty years. Commonly known as the "Roman Question", it involved both internal and international considerations. The problem plagued popes and governmental officials alike. After Italian unification in 1870, the Kingdom of Italy, a country with one of the highest Catholic populations on the globe, alienated herself from the center of the Church. Making the situation worse was the fact that the Church itself refused to recognize the new state. The pope simply shut his doors and refused to come out until the situation was solved. The Lateran Accords solved both of these dilemmas. A complex set of documents, the accords were arranged into three separate agreements. A treaty between the Papacy and the state was signed first, whereby each side recognized the other's right to exist. A concordat was then signed. This laid out the working relationship between the Church and the kingdom. Finally, a financial convention was signed which compensated the Holy Father for the lands that had been confiscated during unification. The "Roman Question" was solved. Vatican City was born.

Home of the papal residency, church offices and Saint Peter's basilica, the Vatican had been the center of the Catholic Church since the days of the Roman Empire. With the collapse of Charlemagne's empire, the Church gradually took over the administration of much of Central Europe. For the next one thousand years, popes from St. Paul I to Pius IX exercised their spiritual and temporal rule over a significant portion of the Italian Peninsula. With the rise of European nations over the years, however, papal territory gradually whittled away.

On the eve of Italian unification, only a narrow strip of land across the peninsula and the city of Rome were directly controlled by the Holy See. With the capture of Rome by Italian troops on September 20, 1870, the Papacy was without a home. True, the Vatican still existed, but after unification it was technically under the control of the Italian government. Pope Pius IX locked himself inside and refused to recognize the Italian State. He excommunicated the Italian governmental leaders. Pius even ordered Catholic sovereigns around the world not to visit Rome, for they would face the same punishment. The new nation, fearful of the international ramifications resulting from a direct attack on the Church, decided not to press the issue. In the spring of 1871, the government attempted to initiate a rapprochement when it passed the "Law of Guarantees" which protected, "... the sacredness of the person of the Sovereign Pontiff". A financial settlement was offered as well. Neither was accepted. Over the next fifty years an uneasy truce settled over the dilemma. Popes came and went, as did governmental officials. During the negotiations at Versailles at the end of World War I, there was a glimmer of hope for papal self-determination under Wilson's program, but it was quickly extinguished. The Holy See would have to wait until the Italian government wanted the "question" settled. In the meantime, on February 6, 1922, Pius XI was elected by the Cardinals to assume St. Peter's throne.

Pius from the outset was determined to resolve the situation. Foremost on his mind was the position of the Church in Italy. Catholicism in the peninsula was, and still is, different from that of every other country in the world. The presence of the Holy See, bishop of Rome, within the boundaries of the Italian State, leads the Church to have a profound and direct influence over the Italian people. After 1870, that relationship had been in a state of constant turmoil. Italians could not be true to their state and still follow the directives of the popes. This fact was made even more difficult after the Church acknowledged the doctrine of papal supremacy in 1870. According to papal logic, the Church needed at least some form of sovereignty to recognize the fact that it was universal, rather than under the control of any one government. Thus, in the minds of many during the "question years" the church was held hostage against her will. Pius looked for an opportunity to emerge out of the chaos of the Italian political landscape. What Pius needed was a conservative Italian leader, one that looked to the church as an ally, not an enemy. He found one later that year in a man who was to forever alter the European landscape: Benito Mussolini, known as "Il Duce".

The Duce came to power in the fall of 1922, only a few months after Pius XI's election. A perceptive politician, the Duce realized that in order to control Italy, he needed to control, or at least appear to control, the papacy. As a disciple of Napoleon, Mussolini, "... maintained the greatest outward respect for the Church, as the first of national institutions." The ideology of fascism, however, allowed no such allegiance to the Holy See. The State was supreme. The Duce was caught in a bind. He realized that Roman Catholics populated his country. If he was to be seen as a friend to the Church, it would be much easier to rule. In his eyes, the two antagonists had many things in common. After all, wasn't the church anti - communist and anti - liberal, much as the fascist regime was? Mussolini, watching the spectacle at the Vatican on the day Pius was elected, commented, "Look at this multitude of every nation; how is it that the politicians who govern the nations do not realize the immense value of this international force, this universal spiritual power!"

Negotiations with the Duce's government began early in the fall of 1926. Ironically, the government made the first overtures. The Duce surmised that any reconciliation between his government and the Vatican would be seen as an achievement, something he desperately needed after the Matteotti crisis and his declaration of a dictatorship in Italy. The papacy had been critical of the Aventine Secessionist movement during the previous two years and the time appeared to Mussolini to be prime for communication.

Over the course of two years, a compromise was hammered out. The final solution, known as the "Lateran Accords", solved the "Roman Question" for good. A treaty came first. Under the Holy Father's insistence, a treaty came first. This had been a major sticking point regarding the "Law of Guarantees". By signing a treaty, the Italian State recognized the sovereignty of the Catholic Church, and dealt with her as a member of the international community. The terms were simple. The Church got her independent state, although it only amounted to about one hundred acres. Italy officially recognized the Roman Catholic Church as the official state religion. The Vatican promised to always remain neutral and to stay out of international politics and diplomacy. Anti -- clerical laws passed by the Italian parliament since 1870, including the Law of Guarantees, were declared null and void.

The concordat signed dealt with the status of the Church in Italy. In that respect, it was similar to the other concordats that Pius signed during his reign. Church holidays were made legal holidays for the state. Religious marriage was declared legal in the eyes of the state. The appointment of Bishops was left to the pope, with a concession that he would let the government know who he was going to appoint. Catholic youth groups were declared outside the scope of state action, since they were nonpolitical. Religious education was established in primary schools and the Catacombs were given to the Holy See with the understanding that the Vatican would allow Italian excavation and exploration to occur.

Finally, the pope received a cash settlement for the lands that had been confiscated over the years. This amounted to 750 million Italian Lire in cash, and bearer bonds worth one billion Lire. In exchange for this, the Holy See agreed to accept this amount as a final settlement.

Mussolini got what he wanted as well. He had his national church, and with it the support of the pope. It looked for all the world as though the papacy had irrevocably linked itself with a fascist regime. Dealings with the Duce, however, were not always smooth. Within two years, a crisis had developed over the role of the church in education. It was to be the first sign of trouble with the fascists.

Since the early middle ages, the church had been responsible for the education of the youth in Italy, as was the case in much of Europe. Although the French Revolution and reforms across the continent had taken much of that power away from the bishops and monks, in Italy the Church was still held ultimately responsible. The Duce felt that he needed to change that relationship. In the spring of 1931, in clear violation of the concordat, Mussolini's "black shirts" began to harass and beat up members of the Italian Catholic Action, a youth group devoted to the teachings of the church.

By the early summer, the pope felt strongly enough to issue an encyclical on the subject. In it, he condemned the violence. He then went on to state that although the church was grateful to the fascist regime for spreading the, "... welfare of religion...", the recent attacks on Catholic youth groups led the Holy Father, "... to doubt whether the former benevolences and favours were indeed actuated by a sincere love and zeal for religion, or whether they were not rather due to pure calculation and to an ultimate goal of domination." The encyclical then went on to state that it was not possible for the church to only be responsible for religious education, leaving the rest to the state. Although the encyclical was suppressed in Italy, it reached Paris. Publishers there sent it out to the rest of the world. Mussolini was outraged, but realized that he had overstepped his bounds. Italian fascism wasn't strong enough to take on the Vatican just yet. In September of 1931, an uneasy peace was reached. The violence stopped, only to resume a short while later. The incident was an uneasy reminder of the often-strained relationship between the Vatican and the Italian government during the 1930s.

One thing is certain. The Italian people welcomed the rapprochement. In sanctioning the Italian State and declaring Mussolini a "man of providence", the Papacy allowed Catholics across the peninsula to do the same. As the Duce grew in power and stature, the line between Church and State often blurred. This coalescence can been seen in a prayer developed for school children after the Lateran Accords. Taking its cue from the Nicene Creed of the Church, it read,

On February 10, 1939, only two days before he was to address the world calling for a disarmament conference, Pope Pius XI died in the papal residence at Vatican City. This single event seemed to many to foreshadow the end of serenity in Europe. Within a few short months, armies from across the globe would be locked in mortal combat. The Duce would survive six more years, until 1945, when he would be executed by his own people. Over the years, many historians, both Catholic and non-Catholic, have tried to analyze the relationship between Pius XI and Mussolini. Many accuse the Vatican of "selling out" to a fascist dictator and looking the other way when the Duce marched his armies out of Italy. Others accuse the Duce of manipulating the Catholic hierarchy into sanctioning his fascist program.

Analyses such as these miss the point. Pius XI and Benito Mussolini, for all their faults, solved a problem that had been a source of tension for almost sixty years. Their solution, known as the Lateran Accords, guaranteed the independence of Vatican City and the Catholic Church for the rest of time. The agreement was not perfect. Many issues would come up over the years that would have to be resolved. After six years of war, Europe again stood in ashes and had to be rebuilt. Through it all, however, one constant remained: the independence and neutrality of the Holy See. This is the lasting legacy of the relationship between Pius and the Duce. The "question" was answered in the Lateran Palace.