Catholicism, Fascism and Italian Education from the Riforma Gentile to the Carta Della Scuola 1922-1939

Abstract

THE QUESTION of Church-State relations in Italy in the 19th and early 20th centuries was as critical a problem to Italian statesmen as that of the Mezzogiorno. The hostility of the Roman Catholic Church towards the new Italian nation spanned five popes and almost seventy years, lasting until the signing of the Lateran Accords in 1929 during the pontificate of Pius XI. During this entire period the Vatican refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Italian government; the non-expedit forbidding Catholic participation in politics was not lifted entirely until 1919; and the Holy Father remained in voluntary exile in his apartments until after 1929. In return, the Italian governments of the Liberal Era used the power of the state to harass the Church, encouraging anti-clericalism and Masonry among the people and limiting the influence of Catholicism whenever possible. Although gradually the Church and the Italian State became accustomed to the status quo and the strongest waves of anticlericalism seemed to have passed by 1963, there nonetheless remained a strong current of suspicion which lasted well into the 20th century. Indeed, by 1900 it was not possible to speak of the realization of Cavour's celebrated formula, A free Church in a free State, for Italians had been embittered by the inflamed passions emanating from both sides of the Vatican walls. The most hotly contested issue between the papacy and the Italian state during these years was that of the Temporal Power which Pius IX and his successors steadfastly held to be an inviolable part of the Patrimony of St. Peter. The loss of papal territory dominated the entire