In July 1861, the Osservatore Romano was first issued with both the approval and financial assistance of Pope Pius IX. From the beginning, the Osservatore assumed an official character; it was to make the V atican's position clear on various issues and to engage in a special struggle with an antagonistic Italian government. A Catholic layman edited the paper under the general supervision of the Vatican Secretary of State. At times, the Secretary of State used the paper directly to write articles too important to be left to anyone else.1 In addition, the Osservatore was the only paper permitted to print official documents, letters, and encyclicals of the Holy See. The historian, therefore, will find this paper an extremely valuable source toward understanding the public attitude of the Vatican toward movements and issues in Italian politics through the years. Certainly, the major political movement experienced by the Italians in the twentieth century was Fascism. After King Victor Emmanuel III refused to sign a decree estab lishing martial law aimed at stopping the Fascist March on Rome and after the fall of the ineffective government of Luigi Facta, the King asked Benito Mussolini to form a government. With only thirty-five Fascists in the Chamber of Deputies, Mussolini found it necessary to form a coalition government on 30 October 1922. During the next