The road to Fascism and the link to the church - why the government must stay out of religion.

An interesting quote from 'imbabci2' from a post on this blog:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/election08/71066/

History Lesson: Mussolini had to foster good relations with the Roman Catholic Church because, regardless of his dictatorship, the Roman Catholic Church was such a powerful institution in Italy. While Mussolini governed the political side of Italy, the Roman Catholic Church governed the spiritual side. In this sense, Mussolini could not afford to anger the Roman Catholic Church.Mussolini had recognised this as early as 1920 when the fledgling future leader of Italy had said that the pope "represents 400 million men scattered the world over…….(this was) a colossal force." Once leader, Mussolini had to decide on whether to take on the power of the Roman Catholic Church in Italy or to work with it. He chose the latter. In this way, Italians did not have to have divided loyalties. Therefore, Mussolini worked to get the Roman Catholic Church to accept a Fascist state while he planned to offer the Roman Catholic Church what it wanted.In particular, Mussolini and the Roman Catholic Church clashed over who should control education. To ensure that children grew up as good Fascists, Mussolini wanted the state to control this - as it did. However, the Roman Catholic Church felt that it should have this power. Both sides worked for a compromise. The attempt to settle this dispute started in 1926 and it took until 1929 for agreements to be signed. These were the Lateran Treaties. They covered areas other than education.The Papal States,the name given to land previously owned by the Roman Catholic Church in Italy, had lost all its land in the 1870 unification of Italy. The Roman Catholic Church received £30 million in compensation in 1929 and the Church was given 109 acres in Rome to create a new papal state - the Vatican. The pope was allowed a small army, police force, post office and rail station. The pope was also given a country retreat called Castel Gandolfo.Another part of the treaty was called the Concordat. This made the Roman Catholic faith the state religion - this was a fait accompli anyway. The pope appointed his bishops, though they had to receive the government’s blessing. Religion had to be taught in both primary and secondary schools. The Roman Catholic Church was given full control of marriage.When these agreements were signed in 1929, Mussolini’s popularity was at its highest. He had got what he wanted - the support from the members of the public who may not have supported the Fascists but who saw the Roman Catholic Church working with the Fascist government, and that by itself created a tacit acceptance of Mussolini’s government.