or Lateran Pact
(1929) Pact of mutual recognition between Italy and the Vatican, signed in the Lateran Palace, Rome.
The Vatican agreed to recognize the state of Italy, with Rome as its capital, in exchange for formal establishment of Roman Catholicism as the state religion of Italy, institution of religious instruction in the public schools, the banning of divorce, and recognition of papal sovereignty over Vatican City and the complete independence of the pope. A second concordat in 1985 ended Catholicism's status as the state religion and discontinued compulsory religious education.