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Concordat of 1984

A concordat with the Vatican is a special sort of treaty that gives the Roman Catholic Church certain legal rights and privileges not enjoyed by other religious bodies. A concordat is involved in the problems attendant upon mixed marriages, the practice of non-Catholic physicians in Catholic hospitals, adoptions, sectarian content in the public school curriculum, credit for courses in religion, and the observance of religious holidays.

On 18 February 1984, a new treaty regulating reciprocal relations between Italy and the Vatican was signed in the Roman palace of Villa Madonna. On the Italian side the document was signed by Prime Minister Bettino Craxi and on the Vatican by State Secretary Cardinal Agostino Casaroli.

In this fashion the Lateran treaties, formally approved 11 February 1929 by Benito Mussolini, went out of force. According to the articles of those treaties, the Catholic Church acquired a whole series of privileges. Rome was declared a "Holy City" and the Catholic faith was declared to be the "only state religion." From the time of the signing of the Lateran treaties, more than 50 most stormyyears had passed in the course of which radical changes had taken place in the world, in Italy and in the Vatican itself. For all practical purpose, many of the positions of the 1929 concordat ceased to be binding.

Thus, for example, on 1 December 1970, the institution of divorce was officially introduced in Italy, and still considered a great evil by the Catholic Church since it views this institution as one that contradicts the Ten Commandments of Christian morality and natural law. Even the Catholic Church realized in the past period the futility - and at time the harm - of its former attempts to tie itself too closely with these or those parties, states, ideologies and law andorder.

The constitution "Gaudium et Spes," adopted by Vatican II, stated that the Church "does not link its hopes to privileges granted by the state power"; that it - furthermore - "declines to use certain legally acquired right since it would seem that their use would cast doubt on the sincerity of serving God or that the new conditions of life require a different system of relationships." The Council's constitution refers subsequently only to the right of the Church to freely proclaim the faith, to teach, to attest to truth and to express moral values.

The day after the signing of the new document, John Paul II, speaking in the St. Peter's Square in Rome, noted that the signing of the new version of the concordat served as an important juridical basis for bilateral peaceful relations between the Vatican and the Italian Republic and that it created for the Church opportunities of a creative contribution to the moral good and development of the state.

The text of the new document was considerably smaller than the Lateran treaties, a big portion of which was the expression of the privileged position of the Catholic Church and Catholicism as the "sole religion of the state." In the new agreement this point does not appear. Catholicism ceased being the official religion of Italy. The new concordat confirms that Church marriages have juridical force, but Church divorces have to be approved by a civil appeal tribunal. The Church has the right to bless only those marriages which are legal from the point of view of Italian legislation (age, relationship,mental health, absence of a marriage with another partner).

The new agreement significantly differed from the 1929 concordat with respec tto still another question. Whereas the 36th article of the Lateran Treaty stated that Italy recognizes the teaching of Christian doctrine in the interpretation of Catholicism as the foundation and crown of the system of public education, the teaching of religion will be hence forth conducted in schools in accordance with the new treaty, but this time as an elective subject. Parents must now themselves determine in advance and communicate to school authorities whether they do or do not want to have their children taught religion in school. Consequently, participation or nonparticipation in lessons on religion cannot serve as the grounds for any sort of discrimination.

Universities, academies, seminars, colleges and other institutions engaged intraining specialists in ecclesiastical disciplines are subordinate only and exclusively to the Church. Academic designations and titles awarded to Catholic educational institutions are recognized by the state. Thus, the Church retains for itself significant rights and influence in the sphere of public education. Other significant changes compared to the Lateran treaties concern the status of the city of Rome. In the earlier document, the fascist authorites of Italy recognized for Rome the title of "Holy City" and assumed the obligation of eliminating from Rome everything that contradicted its sacral character. The new treaty simply recognizes the "special significance that Rome possesses for believing Catholics."