The Pope was gifted the Vatican statehood by dictator Benito Mussolini in the Lateran Treaty of 1929. Here Cardinal Gaspari (representing Pope Pius XI) and Mussolini sign the treaty.

Last Tuesday we completed and went over the first half of Chapter 24.

In this first half of this chapter, we’re covering the groundwork of our modern age into the 20th and 21st centuries.  Here we saw the decline of Christendom in Europe.  During our discussion, we all agreed that Christendom was faltering for the most part as a dominant political (and even social/spiritual) institution from the 18th century onwards, but its decline was precipitated by the start of World War I.

To say the least, the start of the 20th century was marked by brutality and upheaval of enormous proportions, especially with the onslaught of World War I.

Here are our essays for the first half of this chapter.