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Life in Fascist Italy; 1922-1940. (Church and antisemitism) - Coggle…
Life in Fascist Italy; 1922-1940. (Church and antisemitism)
Mussolini's aims in italian life
1) To adopt policies that would help him consolidate his position as an all powerful Duce.
Late 1920s
: revealed a desire to transform Italian society and even the Italian character.
1930s
: expressed contempt for the 'bourgeois mentality', which stressed the importance of family, religion, local loyalties and a comfortable standard of living. His new breed of fascists were to be disciplined and obedient.
He wanted to promote the ideology of motherhood for women: he wanted submissive women and strong mothers, and live a peasants life in the countryside. contraception should be banned, and urban women were considered a threat, which influenced mussolini's decision to pursue a policy of ruralisation in late 1930s.
results of this were mixed: some fascist women were against this; they wanted to look and act like the stars they saw on screen.
policies towards women were emphasised by catholic church.
m wanted women to dramatically increase the population (40m to 60m by 1950): battle for births; 1927. 1926: law against abortion. bachelor tax on men. 12 children per family considered perfect amount. propaganda used.
Fascism and the Catholic Church
In Italy over 90% of people considered themselves to be Catholic, however their level of commitment varied. In the 1930s, about only 5-10% took communion regularly; 20% attended church at least every other sunday, and 50% considered themselves to be catholic. Church particularly influential in countryside because peasant communities relied on their priests for news and views of outside events.
Relations with the Church up to 1928
: M made concilatory moves towards the church because he needed support of social, economic and administrative elite to help consolidate his position
Conflict between church and fascism becaude fascism was totalitarian so shouldn't allow other beliefs to exist, and the PPI was a rival political group who competed for support of same groups of people. They both wanted to indoctrinate the young, so M saw value in getting their support
M had his children baptised in 1923 and a religious marriage ceremony to his wife in 1926. He also closed down many wine shops and nightclubs, and made swearing in public a crime.
Despite differences, church hated communism more and M seemed to be able to stop it. On 2 Oct 1922, Pope ordered clergy to remain politically neutral and not support PPI. In Jan 1923, Cardinal Gaspirri had secret meetings with M about withdrawal of support from PPI, and in the same year, mussolini started paying priests more and restoring catholic education in schools.
However, fascism didn't have active support of church. In 1923 pope ordered dismantling of PPI. Formal negotiations between church and state lasted 3 years, and broke down for a while in 1928 because of attempts to close catholic youth groups.
Lateran Pacts (1929)
pact which officially ended conflict between church and italy. showed mussolini couldn't remove catholic influence, and anti-fascist catholic action was eliminated.
The papacy now officially recognised the italian nation state. The pope agreed to recognise the italian states possession of rome and the papal states. the state recognised the churchs control over vatican city and the pope received 30 million pounds for surrendering its claim to rome.
the concordat part of the pact recognised the catholic church held a dominant position in italian society. catholicism stated as state religion. pope could appoint all bishops, but gov could veto any politically suspect candidates. state would pay clergy salaries, clergy couldn't belong to any political parties, catholic religious education made compulsary in state schools, no divorce without church consent, catholic action recognised as a legal group.
Challenges between state and church
church took part in everyday life of fascism. e.g. priests participated in ONB activities. however, there were criticisms from some priests who were worried about being openly associated with fascism. e.g in 1930, the archbishop of milan openly praised fascism and received 300 priests circulating a letter of open protest saying good catholics couldn't accept fascism. some radical fascists also thought the lateran pacts betrayed their aims.
further disputes in 1931 as gov tried to suppress catholic action: it was a rival to fascist youth organisations and had 250,000 members. The Church agreed it wouldnt involve itself with political activities however the church continued to try and infleunce the youth. for example, it declared fascist balilla blasphemous, and radio vatican also broadcasted alternative views and information in an effort to not allow fascism to control every part of life.
During the mid-late 1930s, the church supported the christian crusades of mussolini in ethopia and spain. however, when anti-jewish laws were introduced in 1938-9, pope pius xi expressed his unhappiness. the church regretted its support of duce.
What did Mussolini and church gain from the lateran pacts?
Mussolini
international prestige
church portrayed as ally
church helped governments message reach the rural masses
no catholic political youth organisations
Church
vatican state had full sovereign rights
catholic doctrine message spread in schools
a state within a state: could develop its own non-political institutions