Continental Concordat of 1928

  

Continental Concordat of 1928

Concordat between the Holy See and the United Commonwealth
The signing of the Continental Concordat on 20 July 1928 in Chicago. (From left to right: Continental priest John A. Ryan, Continental negotiator Samson Zima, Secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs Giuseppe Pizzardo, Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, Alfredo Ottaviani, and People's Commissar for Internal Affairs Wyatt Baughman)
Signed	20 July 1928 (1928-07-20)
Effective	10 September 1928 (1928-09-10)
Signatories	Eugenio Pacelli Samson Zima
Parties	Holy See United Commonwealth

The Continental Concordat ("Concordat between the Holy See and the United Commonwealth") is a treaty negotiated between the Vatican and the senior leadership of the Continentalist Party of the United Commonwealth in the first half of 1928. It was signed on 20 July 1928 by Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII), on behalf of Pope Pius XI, and Continental official Samson Zima, on behalf of President Seamus Callahan and the Continental government. The treaty aimed to protect the rights of the Roman Catholic Church and its adherents in the United Commonwealth, after the Continentalist Party eased its anti-religious stance that characterized it in the early 1920s, immediately after the Continental Revolutionary War. Among other conditions, the treaty stipulated that Continental Catholic clergy would take an oath of loyalty to the leader of the Continentalist Party and state in accordance with Landonist law, and that the clergy would not work with any other political parties or movements. The appointment of bishops in the United Commonwealth would be done by the Holy See, but among candidates approved by the Continental government, and the persecution of individual Catholics by the state would cease. In return, the Holy See recognized the Continentalist States as the legitimate government of the United Commonwealth, ending its relations with the Federalists in the Antilles, becoming one of the first states to do so.

For the first few decades of the Concordat, it was viewed as symbolic by many in the Continental government and frequently violated, which was condemned by the Holy See. Further negotiations between the Vatican Secretariat of State and the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs later clarified the implementation of parts of the concordat. It was also the most controversial concordat that was reached by the Holy See, leading Pope Pius XI to face a barrage of criticism from traditional Catholic clergy as engaging in appeasement of the communists and legitimizing Landonist usurpers. The concordat would be one of the reasons for the Second Western Schism that began in 1934, with a significant portion of the Catholic hierarchy opposing the Vatican's turn towards the left. The Vatican argued at the time that it was necessary to protect the rights of the millions of Catholics in the United Commonwealth. The Continental Catholic clergy agreed with the Vatican's position and saw it as preventing an even greater persecution against the Church by the Continentalists. The conditions of the treaty are still in force today.

Background

Main articles: Holy See–United Commonwealth relations and Apostolic Nunciature to the United Commonwealth

The United States established relations on the consular level with the Holy See in 1797 during the tenure of President George Washington and Pope Pius IV. However, relations declined by the American Civil War and the War of Contingency due to a rise in anti-Catholic sentiment following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Relations with the Federalist Party-led United Commonwealth initially remained cold, due to the Protestant faith of much of the party's leadership, though it gradually improved as Catholics became a larger portion of the United Commonwealth's population with the increase in immigration from southern Europe. An apostolic delegation was opened in Chicago in 1893, as part of an effort by Pope Leo XIII to improve relations with President Levi P. Morton, though a delegation strictly represents the Holy See to the Catholic Church hierarchy in the host country and is not a diplomatic mission accredited to the government. Relations continued to improve gradually for the next few decades until the Continental Revolutionary War and the revolutionary violence in Chicago led the apostolic delegation to close and relocate to the Federalist-controlled south in September 1917. After the retreat of the Federalists to the Antilles in 1921, the delegation accompanied them, given the radically anti-religious nature of the early Continentalists. Catholics were heavily persecuted in the years immediately after the Continental Revolution and the Holy See attempted to make contact with Aeneas Warren's government to negotiate an end to the state attacks against Catholics. Pope Pius XI made it a personal goal to acquire guarantees of protection for Catholics in the United Commonwealth.

Contact between the new state and the Holy See would be first initiated in April 1922, when People's Commissar for Foreign Relations Samson Zima met with papal nuncio Ambrogio Ratti, the future Pope Pius XI, while in Europe for the Marseilles Conference. Zima at this time was privately against strict anti-religious policies and wished to repair relations with the Catholic Church, believing it more important to normalize relations and achieve international recognition. Under Seamus Callahan, who came to power at the end of 1922, a period of anti-religious policies was undertaken throughout the next decade. Among these policies was the banning of Catholic Schools, limiting of religious-based assemblies, and the removal of church privileges. The Roman Catholic Church was targeted on the basis that the church promoted allegiance to the Pope and a greater, foreign church hierarchy, rather than the Continental state.

John A. Ryan, a prominent Continental Catholic priest who had been a critic of the Federalist regime and of its capitalist system, became a bridge between the Holy See and the Continentalist Party. After initially facing persecution, including spending several months at Kentucky Bend in 1923 for participating in Catholic protests against the government's anti-religious policies, he joined the Continentalist Party as many of his theological writings justified the kinds of economic policies being considered by the new government (which had gotten him placed under surveillance by the Federalists as a dissident). He believed the Continentalist system could be effective if it maintained distance from state atheism, which he believed would put society on a path to nihilism and breakdown. With permission from the Secretariat of the United Commonwealth, Ryan traveled to Rome in 1926 to meet with Pope Pius XI and informed him on the conditions within the country, as well as the state of Catholicism. After the meeting, Ryan became a de facto liaison between the Vatican and Chicago. He arranged for Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli's first visit to the country in March 1927, where they met People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Samson Zima, and was appointed as apostolic delegate to the United Commonwealth, at which point the Vatican cut its ties with the Antilles. In this way, between 1926 and 1928 the Holy See engaged in negotiations with the Continental government to defend the rights of Continental Catholics, establishing conditions that would become the basis for a concordat.