(Vatican Radio ) February 11 2014 marks 85 years since the signing of the Lateran
Pacts. But what exactly were these Pacts?
That's what Veronica Scarisbrick
asks Jesuit historian Gerald Fogarty who's currently teaching at the University of
Virginia in the United States who says : ..."There's never been a Concordat in an
English speaking country because of the use of common law ...in the Roman law tradition
which runs throughout most of Europe you have the rights the State gives you, so therefore
the Concordat was an agreement between the Holy See and the government to guarantee
the rights of the Church within a particular country"...
In this interview
Professor Fogarty also tells Veronica Scarisbrick how since 1870, when Pius IX retreated
of his own will into the Vatican, the Roman Pontiffs never went on an official visit
to their own Cathedral. Clearly not until the signing of the Lateran Pacts on the
11th February 1929. Listen: