Quote Originally Posted by Arjos View Post
That isn't true, the Pope has the same impact he'd have on any catholic in the world...
Hmm, somehow I don't quite buy the idea that the word of the Pope confers quite the same authority to every Catholic, from Ireland, Spain Italy, to France, the USA and the Netherlands. Time and place matter. For example in the Netherlands and the USA Catholics have been going pretty much their own way sometimes directly contravening official Papal doctrine. (From positions on sex and marriage to the use of vulgar tongue during mass.)

The Lateran Pacts finally settled the Roman Question, defining the relation between Italy and the Pope, who 'til then didn't recognize Italy and pretty much waited and looked for any foreign help to re-establish the papal state.
Later our constitution affirmed how laïcité is the supreme principle of the state, abolishing catholicism as the state religion...
All in all, it was a tactful way to deal with it, the Vatican wasn't "created" out of the blue, but was a far more complex historical reality...
Well yes but Mussolini did not settle for the Vatican out of the kindness of his good heart. It was a cold political reality: he needed legitimacy and the power that could give it to him was the Church. So did Franco by the way, hence his alliance with the Church. In Ireland, again the clergy conferred significant authority politicians did not dare to doubt.

France, now that would be the exception. I hardly need point out how France differs from nearly every other country in its staunch ideal of laïcité, and it took them quite a bit of effort to get there.