Holy See–Italy relations
bilateral relations
Holy See–Italy relations are the special relations between the Holy See, which is sovereign over the Vatican City, and the Italian Republic.
History
Relations with the Kingdom of Italy were difficult during the papacies of Pius IX and Leo XIII, who had to endure the status of prisoner of the Vatican after the capture of Rome, refusing to recognize the Law of Guarantees. Leo XIII forbade Christians from participating in elections and accused the Italian state of being controlled by freemasons.
It was only under Pius XI that the Lateran Treaty was signed, establishing the State of Vatican City, allowing for greater papal autonomy.
The new secular Italian Republic established in 1946 recognized freedom of religion. However, under Pius XII and Paul VI, the Christian Democrats thrived and had great influence on Italian politics, in order to stop the Italian Communist Party from gaining power.
Diplomatic Legations to the Vatican in Italy
Due to the size of the Vatican City State, embassies accredited to the Holy See are based in Italy. Embassy officials of other countries also stay in Italy. Treaties signed between Italy and the Vatican City State permit such embassages. The Embassy of Italy to the Holy See is unique amongst foreign embassages in that it is the only embassy based on its home territory.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3932303. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1946.
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This entry incorporates text from “Holy See–Italy relations” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.