Page "Pope Pius XII" Paragraph 24

1932.

Others followed: Austria ( 1933 ), Germany ( 1933 ), Yugoslavia ( 1935 ) and Portugal ( 1940 ).

The Lateran treaties with Italy ( 1929 ) were concluded before Pacelli became Secretary of State.

Roman Catholicism had become the sole recognized religion ; the powerful democratic Catholic Popular Party, in many ways similar to the Centre Party in Germany, had been disbanded, and in place of political Catholicism the Holy See encouraged Catholic Action, ' an anaemic form of clerically dominated religious rally-rousing.

' It was permitted only so long as it developed " its activity outside every political party and in direct dependence upon the Church hierarchy for the dissemination and implementation of Catholic principles.

' Such concordats allowed the Catholic Church to organize youth groups, make ecclesiastical appointments, run schools, hospitals, and charities, or even conduct religious services.

They also ensured that canon law would be recognized within some spheres ( e. g., church decrees of nullity in the area of marriage ).