(Vatican Radio ) When Pope Francis visited the President of the Republic of Italy
Giorgio Napolitano at the Quirinal Palace on the morning of Thursday 14th of November
he mentioned the so called '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: ..."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. That's not until the signing of
the Lateran Pacts on the 11th February 1929. Listen: