Lateran Treaty
Francesco Pacelli was dean of the lawyers of the Rota and legal advisor to Pope Pius XI. In this role, he was instrumental in negotiating this Lateran Treaty in 1929, which reaffirmed the independence of the Papacy with the formation of Vatican City as a sovereign entity. Francesco Pacelli described in his "Diario della Conciliazione " details and difficulties of these negotiations from a Vatican perspective. Pope Pius XI and Pietro Gasparri had entrusted to him the daily negotiations for the Lateran Treaty. Pacelli had over two hundred protracted audiences with Pius XI over twenty different draft versions of the final treaty.