Issue of Anti-Semitism in the Relationship between Italy and the Holy See During the Pontificate of Pius XI

Abstract

In the first half of the 20thcentury, with the growth of anti-semitic sentiments, the ItaloVatican agenda was supplemented by the so-called Jewish question, which affected the position of the community of this ancient race in Europe, in particular Italy. The fascist leadership and the Catholic clergy perceived the situation around Italian Jews each in its own way: they had different perceptions of the representatives of this ethnic minority and, therefore, different approaches to a dialogue with them. However, Italy and the Vatican were allied at least by the geographic space and the citizens living within it. The Church, far more alarmed by political extremism on the left than on the right, made friendly overtures toward Mussolini’s regime. In spite of this in 1938, Mussolini, without regard to the aspirations of the Holy See, approved openly discriminatory laws against Jews, which looked more and more like a copy of Hitler's policy. The article attempts to explore Jewish issues in the context of a cooperation between the fascist regime and the clerical elite of the Roman Catholic Church in order to determine the place and role of this topic in the relationship of the secular and ecclesiastical authorities of that period.