The Vatican City State, sovereign and independent, is the survivor of the
papal states that in 1859 comprised an area of some 17,000 sq mi (44,030 sq km).
During the struggle for Italian unification, from 1860 to 1870, most of this
area became part of Italy. By an Italian law of May 13, 1871, the temporal power
of the pope was abrogated, and the territory of the papacy was confined to the
Vatican and Lateran palaces and the villa of Castel Gandolfo. The popes
consistently refused to recognize this arrangement. The Lateran Treaty of Feb.
11, 1929, between the Vatican and the kingdom of Italy established the autonomy
of the Holy See.
The first session of Ecumenical Council Vatican II was opened by John XXIII
on Oct. 11, 1962, to plan and set policies for the modernization of the Roman
Catholic Church. Pope Paul VI continued the council, presiding over the last
three sessions. Vatican II, as it is called, revolutionized some of the church's
practices. Power was decentralized, giving bishops a larger role, the liturgy
was vernacularized, and laymen were given a larger part in church affairs.
On Aug. 26, 1978, Cardinal Albino Luciani was chosen by the College of
Cardinals to succeed Paul VI, who had died of a heart attack on Aug. 6. The new
pope took the name John Paul I. Only 34 days after his election, John Paul I
died of a heart attack, ending the shortest reign in 373 years. On Oct. 16,
Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, 58, was chosen pope and took the name John Paul II. Pope
John Paul II became the first Polish pope and the first non-Italian pope since
the 16th century. His rule has been characterized by conservatism regarding
church doctrine. He has been the Vatican's greatest ambassador, traveling to
more than 115 countries.
On May 13, 1981, a Turkish terrorist shot the pope in St. Peter's Square, the
first assassination attempt against the pontiff in modern times. On June 3,
1985, the Vatican and Italy ratified a new church-state treaty, known as a
concordat, replacing the Lateran Pact of 1929. The new accord affirmed the
independence of Vatican City but ended a number of privileges the Catholic
Church had in Italy, including its status as the state religion. The treaty
ended Rome's status as a “sacred city.”
In March 2000, the pope issued an apology for sins committed by Catholics
over the past 2,000 years, including religious persecutions and discrimination
against women. Several groups criticized the vagueness of the apology, wishing
the pope had specified the church's particularly egregious sins.
The pope remained circumspect about the U.S. church's sexual abuse scandals
in 2002, calling pedophilia an “appalling sin” and describing the crisis as “a
dark shadow of suspicion . . .cast over all the other fine priests who perform
their ministry with honesty and integrity and often with heroic self-sacrifice.”
