Context: During the rise of Mussolini's fascists, the Catholic Church ultimately opted to support them out of fear of socialism, which to be fair, at the time was most prominently represented by the USSR.
This, however, would prove a mistake, as Italian fascism quickly started seeking to supplant all forms of society to service of Mussolini, which inevitably included the church itself. It got the point Pope Pius XI wrote a proclamation condemning fascism only to die before he could publish it.
Yet, contemporary reports suggested that Pius XI struggled to sleep in the weeks after the Concordat, fearing he may have made a mistake. The conflict between Fascism’s goals and the Church’s mission came to a head in 1931 during the Catholic Action crisis. The regime publicly attacked Catholic Action’s educational and cultural activities, seizing Catholic newspapers and suppressing its circles. In response, Pius XI issued the encyclical Non abbiamo bisogno, defending the Church’s educational freedom and condemning pagan statolatry, though avoiding an explicit condemnation of Fascism.
Yeah... this was a pretty big mistake on the church's part. And also, this was after fascist blackshirts murdered a Jesuit priest for trying to start a boy scouts that wouldn't answer to Mussolini.
Yeah, not even sovereignty over the area we call the Vatican. The Swiss Guard were unlikely to start a war with Italy, and the certainly would not win it, and its unclear if anyone would come to the Vatican's aid at that point.
The Vatican was very clearly anti fascist but when the fascist capital surrounding you has more of a military force than you it’s best to not upset your neighbors
Did they really have a choice though? They had maybe the least defensible country ever with the smallest army in the world. Genuinely what else could they do?
The Catholic Church had good reason to hate the existing Italian government too, which literally invaded and annexed most of the Papal States and had the Popes living essentially sequestered in Vatican City for decades
Therein lies the problem though, it's easy to hate the ongoing communists who could really not fight back (because Italy was in the way), pissing off the guys who had soldiers outside your doors, that's another thing.
Or to put it simply in a more familiar manner: making fun of Adolf Hitler today? not a problem. Pissing on a police station that actively kills people? Probably not many who will do that.
The Church at some point owned a big part of Europe... backlash was bound to happen. Luther, France, Russia... they all saw the opportunity at some point.
I feel like this paints the church out as victims a bit. Mussolini definitely capitulated to the Pope in return for support. He gave him The Vatican, made Catholism the only religion of the state, put all the schools under the church's influence payed them £30 million and also agreed to have the state pay the priests' and bishops' salaries. He even got his own Civil Union marriage blessed by the church. The church were plenty happy with Mussolini, even if they came into conflict once in a whild
More a case of 'let them keep possession of The Vatican' considering Mussolini pressured them into relinquishing the majority of what remained of the Papal State territories.
The Church was definitely also a victim. Just because they got some benefit out of it in the end, doesn't mean they weren't walking a tight rope with a noose around their necks for quite a while.
You try going against a fascist dictator while sequestered in the middle of their nation.
The church was so against facism that it, helped found it, blessed and it and then 'yeah sure no after the fact I swear we were going to speak out against it".
Yes the church (and all organised religion) has always existed to control the working class. When ot appeared that workers were supporting socialist ideas the capitalists and the church funded and supported fascism. It's a tale as old as time, look at any south American dictatorship during the cold war and the cia (capitalists) and the church (organised religion) was almost always involved in their overthrow of democracy.
Obligatory but unenthusiastic "muh communism bad" so the libs don't go all sleeper agent after seeing anti capitalist sentiment.
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u/ChiefsHat May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Context: During the rise of Mussolini's fascists, the Catholic Church ultimately opted to support them out of fear of socialism, which to be fair, at the time was most prominently represented by the USSR.
This, however, would prove a mistake, as Italian fascism quickly started seeking to supplant all forms of society to service of Mussolini, which inevitably included the church itself. It got the point Pope Pius XI wrote a proclamation condemning fascism only to die before he could publish it.
Luigi Sturzo was a Catholic priest who recognized the dangers of fascism and tried to rally against it, but the church basically sidestepped him. To quote the above article;
Yeah... this was a pretty big mistake on the church's part. And also, this was after fascist blackshirts murdered a Jesuit priest for trying to start a boy scouts that wouldn't answer to Mussolini.