Solving "The Roman Question" and Creating the Vatican City

During the 19th Century, there was a movement that swept the Italian peninsula to create one nation out of many different Kingdoms, Duchies, and Republics. In 1861, Italy was a unified nation under the king of Piedmont, who became the first king of Italy Victor Emmanuel II. However, the peninsula was not fully unified, because Venice was still under the control of Austria, and Rome was still under the control of the Papacy. Venice was made apart of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, and then on September 20, 1870, Italy broke through the walls of Rome at Porta Pia and finished the unification process. Rome then became the capital city of Italy as well as the center of Catholicism. Both Pope Pius IX and King Victor Emmanuel II claimed control of the city.

The Pope felt that he needed temporal powers to control people’s spiritual needs. By controlling land, the Papacy could make sure it had legitimacy and could help people spiritually. The result of September 20 was that Pius IX locked himself inside the Vatican Walls, considering himself a “prisoner of the Vatican.” This started what is called the “Roman Question.” Rome had become both the capital of Italian politics and the center of the Catholic Church, with both rulers claiming superiority. In revolt, Pius IX issued many documents against the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Italy, and stating that the Pope is infallible. Also in response to the Roman Question, the Pope excommunicated everyone in Italian government. He issued documents stating that everyone in this new nation could choose to be Italian by voting and holding office, but they would therefore be excommunicated; one could not be a Catholic and an Italian.

Between 1870 and the 1920s, no solution to this Roman Question came about. Then under Fascism, a solution started to be found. In 1929, Pope Pius XI and Mussolini signed a series of treaties ending this almost 50 Question; the Lateran Pacts was the answer between the two sovereigns. The Lateran Pacts created the Vatican City as its own nation-state. It gave back to the Church the major basilicas in Rome, as well as some of the Pope’s property including his summer home at Castel Gandolfo. Both nations recognized the other, and Catholicism became the official religion of the Kingdom of Italy. After the signing of the Lateran Pacts, as a symbolic gesture, the Via della Conciliazione was created connecting St. Peter’s Square and the Vatican State to the Tiber River and the center of Rome.