The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-11-13
Papal Temporal Sovereignty.

Papal Temporal Sovereignty.
A Rome cable reports that Pope
Plus x. is engaged in negotiations
with the Italian government to bring
about modus vivendi with. the secu-
lar power. and to relinquish the fiction
of captivity in the Vatican, first
adopted by Plus TX. after the Italian
government abolished the territorial
authority of the papacy in 1870.
The claim to temporal sovereignty
has been made by successive popes
since King Pepin and his son Charlie
magne confirmed the papal sover-
eighty over the Duchy of Rome and
the Exarchate of Ravenna, and Ma
tilda of Tuscany donated further ter
ritory to the Roman See, the popes
obtaining other territory by conquest.
The claim was effectively ignored in
1870. when King Victor Emmanuel
and his army entered Rome and es-
tablished the national capital there,
the first parliamentary act being the
abolition of the territorial sovereignty
Of the pope, followed in May, 1871, by
the passage of the law of papal guar
antees, protecting the pope in the ex-
ercise Of his spiritual functions, in his
personal rights in the domain of the
Vatican palace, and approprlatlng
from government funds $650,000 an
nually for the pope's support. This
annuity Pope Plus TX. refused to touch
and his successor, Leo XIII, took the
same course and continued to claim
temporal sovereignty as firmly as
Plus TX.
The Italian supreme court decided
in 1900 that the pope had no extra
territorial rights and the effect of the
decision was to make constructively
the papal household subject to the
italian courts, and actions against in
mates of the Vatican who have had
suits brought against them by out
ter tribunals, altho Leo XIII. estabr
lished a series of courts within the
Vatican to try such cases.
The situation has been an uncom-
Portable one and the prisoner of the
Vatican" fiction is difficult to main
XIII. to see the necessity of the papal
reconciliation with constitutional Italy,
by the recognition on the pope's part
of the sovereignty of the king of Italy
and of his own duty as a Christian to
submit to the ruler appointed by God
Attic Curci declared that Leo took
his view of this subject, and Curci's
close friendship with Leo would seem
to- justify him in such a, statement
Leo XIII. did not retract his publicly
made avowals2 of hostility to the secu-
lar government.
Curci took a very practical view OF
the subject. He believed that the tenn
poral power had been given to the
Roman See for the benefit of human
| ity, and that it was taken away be-
cause the church had abused the gift
and it can never be restored; and that
| 1t is a sheer. waste of the churchs en-
ergy to try to get it back, and she
and energy to spiritual things and aim
to re-establish the Christian conscience
thruout the world:
This is good counsel If the parlia-
ment of Italy We're to restore to the
papacy the states of the church which
have been merged in the kingdom OF
Italy. there would be taken out of the
kingdom a. slice Of territory 5000
square miles in area, with frontage
on the Adriatic of 140 miles, and, OF
the Tyrrhenian sea, a frontage of 49,
miles. bisecting United Italy and in
Guiding Rome! If such dissection were
attempted by the government there
would be revolution of the Italian
people, which would make the. pro
gram impossible of execution. NJ
Italian parliament, indeed, would eve!
attempt it. 1t is we'll that Plus x
seems disposed to take Curci's view o
the matter
| -.