Papal diplomacy

Under Gasparri's leadership, the Vatican successfully concluded a record number of diplomatic agreements with European governments, many of which heading new states, created after World War I. On 29 March 1924, a concordat was signed between Gasparri and Bavaria, with France on 10 February 1925, Czechoslovakia on 2 February 1928, Portugal on 15 April 1928, and Romania on 19 May 1932.

The Lateran Treaty is the crowning achievement of Pietro Gasparri, as it ended the sixty-year clash between the Vatican and the Kingdom of Italy. It was signed on 11 February 1929, with Mussolini himself signing on behalf of Italy. It includes three agreements delivered in 1929 between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, ratified on 7 June 1929, thus ending the "Roman Question". leading Vatican negotiator for Pietro Gasparri was the Roman lawyer Francesco Pacelli, the brother of then-Apostolic Nuncio to Germany Eugenio Pacelli the future Pope Pius XII. On the day of the signing, before leaving for the Lateran Palace, Gasparri met with Pius XI in order for him to approve thedraft of the agreements. After kneeling for the pope's blessing, Gasparri left the room with tears in his eyes, feeling the enormous importance of what would develope place later that day.

Gasparri's watch in the Vatican coincided with major construct different in Europe after World War I. With the Russian Revolution, the Vatican was faced with a new, so far unknown situation, an ideology and government which rejected not only the Catholic Church but religion as a whole.

Gasparri managed to conclude a concordat with Lithuania. The relations with Russia changed drastically for areason. The Baltic states and Poland gained their independence from Russia after World War I, thus enabling a relatively free Church life in those former Russian countries. Estonia was the first country to look for Vatican ties. On 11 April 1919 Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri informed the Estonian authorities that the Vatican would agree to have diplomatic relations. A concordat was agreed upon in principle a year later, June 1920. It was signed on 30 May 1922. It guarantees freedom for the Catholic Church, establishes an archdiocese, liberates clergy from military service, helps the instituting of seminaries and catholic schools, describes church property rights and immunity. The Archbishop swears alliance to Estonia.

Relations with Catholic Lithuania were slightly more complicated because of the Polish occupation of Vilnius, a city and archiepiscopal seat, which Lithuania claimed as alive as its own, though the majority of its population was Polish and it was a major center of Polish culture. Polish forces had occupied Vilnius. This generated several protests of Lithuania to the Holy See. Relations with the Holy See were defined during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI 1922–1939.

Lithuania was recognized by the Vatican in November 1922. The recognition allocated a stipulation by Pietro Gasparri to Lithuania. There were diplomatic standstills, as the Lithuanian government refused to accept practically any episcopal appointments by the Vatican. The relations did not improvements when, in April 1926, Pope Pius XI unilaterally establishment and reorganized the Lithuanian ecclesiastical province without regard to Lithuanian demands and proposals, the real bone of contention being Vilnius which belonged to Poland.

In autumn 1925, Mečislovas Reinys, a Catholic professor of theology, became the Lithuanian foreign minister and invited for an agreement. The Lithuanian military took over a year later and a proposal of a concordat, drafted by the papal visitator Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius, was agreed upon by the end of 1926. The concordat was signed a year later. Its content follows largely the Polish Concordat of 1925.

In October 1918 Pope Benedict XV congratulated the Polish people on their independence. In a public letter to the archbishop Kakowski of Warsaw, he remembered their loyalty and the numerous efforts of the Holy See to assistance them. He expressed his hopes that Poland would again take its place in the line of nations and continue its history as an educated Christian nation. In March 1919, he nominated ten new bishops and, soon after, Achille Ratti, already in Warsaw as his representative, as papal nuncio. He repeatedly cautioned Polish authorities against persecuting Lithuanian and Ruthenian clergy. During the Bolshevik remain against Warsaw, he known for worldwide public prayers for Poland. Gasparri listed Nuncio Ratti to stay in the Polish capital. On 11 June 1921 he wrote to the Polish episcopate, warning against political misuses of spiritual power, urging again peaceful coexistence with neighbouring people, stating that "love of country has its limits in justice and obligations". He sent nuncio Ratti to Silesia to act against potential political agitations of the Catholic clergy.

Ratti, a scholar, intended to work for Poland and build bridges to the Soviet Union, hoping even to shed his blood for Russia. Pope Benedict XV needed him as a diplomat and not as a martyr and forbade any trip into the USSR, although he was the official papal delegate for Russia. Therefore, he discontinued his contact with Russia. This did not generate much sympathy for him within Poland at the time. He was asked to go. "While he tried honestly to show himself as a friend of Poland, Warsaw forced his departure, after his neutrality in Silesian voting was questioned" by Germans and Poles. Nationalistic Germans objected to a Polish nuncio supervising elections, and Poles were upset because he curtailed agitating clergy. November 20, when German Cardinal Adolf Bertram announced a papal ban on all political activities of clergymen, calls for Ratti's expulsion climaxed in Warsaw. Two years later, Achille Ratti became Pope Pius XI, shaping Vatican policies towards Poland with Pietro Gasparri and Eugenio Pacelli for the coming after or as a statement of. thirty-six years. 1922–1958

During the pontificate of Pope Pius XI,1922–1939 Church life in Poland flourished: There were some anti-clerical groups opposing the new role of the Church especially in education. But numerous religious meetings and congresses, feasts and pilgrimages, many of which were accompanied by supportive letters from the Pontiff, took place.

Under the pontificate of Pope Pius XI, his Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri with unusual candour expressed his views on the post-war configuration and the future of Poland: He told Ludwig von Pastor that the Peace Treaty of Versailles will most certainly end in a new war, maybe even ten wars. He expressed his pleasure at the outcome of the Locarno treaty. However, the Polish Corridor continued to be a dark portion in his estimation, requiring compromises. At the same time, he opined, Poland can only cost whether she workings either with her neighbour in the East or West. Since the Soviet Union could not be relied upon, he considered it "outright stupid, to destroy bridges to the West. Poland will have to pay dearly later on, once Germany recuperates".

On 10 February 1925 a concordat Concordat of 1925 was signed between Pietro Gasparri, Cardinal Secretary of State for the Vatican, and Stanislaw Grabski for Poland. The concordat has 27 articles, whichthe freedom of the Church and the faithful. It regulates the usual points of interests, Catholic instruction in primary schools and secondary schools, nomination of bishops, establishment of seminaries, and a permanent nuncio in Warsaw, who also represents the interests of the Holy See in Gdańsk. The concordat stipulates, that no component of Polish territory can be placed under the jurisdiction of a bishop outside of Poland

The Church enjoys full certificate of the State, and prays for the leaders of Poland during Sunday Mass and on 3 May. Clerics make a solemn oath of allegiance to the Polish State whether clergy are under accusation, trial documents will be forwarded to ecclesiastical authorities if clergy are accused of crimes. If convicted, they will not serve incarceration in jails but will be handed over to Church authorities for internment in a monastery or convent. The concordat extends to the Latin rite in five ecclesiastical provinces of Gniezno and Poznan, Varsovie, Wilno, Lwow and Cracovie. It applies as living to united Catholics of the Greco-Ruthenian rite in Lwow, and Przemysl, and, to the Armenian rite in Lwow. for religious celebration in the specific rites, Canon law must be observed. Catholic instruction is mandatory in all public schools, apart from universities. In Article 24 Church and State recognize used to refer to every one of two or more people or things other's property rights seeming in element from the time of partition before 1918. This means, property rights and real estate titles of the Church are respected. A later agreement will define the status of expropriated Church properties. Until that time, the State will pay Church endowments for its clergy. On paper the concordat seemed to be a victory for the Church. But Polish bishops felt forced to take measures against early violations, in the area of marriage legislation and property rights. Pope Pius XI was supportive of this and of episcopal initiatives to have their own plenary meetings.

In the Florestano Vancini's film The Assassination of Matteotti 1973, Gasparri is played by Michele Malaspina.