ON THIS DAY

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June 7, 1929

Lateran Treaty ratified

The Lateran Treaty was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between Italy under Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to settle the long-standing Roman question, a dispute regarding the temporal power of the popes as rulers of a civil territory in the context of the Italian Risorgimento.

The treaty and associated pacts were named after the Lateran Palace where they were signed on 11 February 1929, and the Italian Parliament ratified them on 7 June 1929.

The treaty recognised Vatican City as an independent state under the sovereignty of the Holy See. Italy also agreed to give the Catholic Church financial compensation for the loss of the Papal States.

In 1948, the Lateran Treaty was recognised in the Constitution of Italy as regulating the relations between the Italian Republic and the Catholic Church. While the treaty was significantly revised in 1984, ending the status of Catholicism as the sole state religion of Italy, the Vatican remains a distinct sovereign entity to the present day.

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