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Related: About this forumA Communion of Dictators Binds Fascism and the Catholic Church
http://vineyardgazette.com/news/2015/07/30/communion-dictators-binds-fascism-and-catholic-church?k=vg55bb5d3b3252c&r=1Benito Mussolini is long gone, but the institution that helped bring him and keep him in power may not be, according to a new Pulitzer Prize winning book by historian and Brown University professor David Kertzer. Mr. Kertzers book, The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe, revisits the narrative of a courageous Catholic Church fighting against a tyrannical fascist regime, and finds that, instead, both institutions were helping each other gain a tighter grip over Italian society.
The key ingredient to Mussolini really becoming a dictator was the Church, Mr. Kertzer told the Gazette. Without it, it wouldnt have happened. Or it could have been stopped.
...
Yet the Pope, he is clear to point out, was not simply acting out of a love for the fascist doctrines Mussolini espoused. The fascist government provided the Vatican with new rights and privileges that had previously been constrained due to its unstable status in modern Italy.
Mussolini not only reinstated the Churchs status by allowing for the sovereign state of Vatican City within Rome but also made Catholicism the official state religion, elevating the Catholic Church to an important position within the fascist state.
The key ingredient to Mussolini really becoming a dictator was the Church, Mr. Kertzer told the Gazette. Without it, it wouldnt have happened. Or it could have been stopped.
...
Yet the Pope, he is clear to point out, was not simply acting out of a love for the fascist doctrines Mussolini espoused. The fascist government provided the Vatican with new rights and privileges that had previously been constrained due to its unstable status in modern Italy.
Mussolini not only reinstated the Churchs status by allowing for the sovereign state of Vatican City within Rome but also made Catholicism the official state religion, elevating the Catholic Church to an important position within the fascist state.
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A Communion of Dictators Binds Fascism and the Catholic Church (Original Post)
trotsky
Jul 2015
OP
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)1. I read "The Pope and Mussolini"
It's pretty fascinating. I recommend it.
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)2. K & R
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)3. Il Duce also endowed the new Vatican state with a huge pile of cash.
The corruption ridden Vatican bank is the direct descendent of that endowment.