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The Roman Queston and the Jerusalem Question
Meir Mendes
The Risorgimento, the movement for a united Italy, had as its ultimate aim the annexation of Rome and its proclamation as the capital of Italy.
An Italy without Rome would lose its historical, political and spiritual meaning.
Many nations were opposed to this annexation because they considered that the Centre of Catholicism should continue to be under Papal authority, and consequently could not become the capital of a State.
The French were the most persistent in this point of view.
In October 1867 Garibaldi, with the battle cry: "Rome or Death", pressed on towards Rome, but his advance was halted at Mentana by the pontifical troops, commanded by the Swiss General, Raphael de. Courten. The French Minister of State, Eugene Rouher, declared in the French parliament:
"We proclaim in the name of the French Government: Italy will not occupy Rome! The people of France will never accept this affront made to our honor and the honor of Catholicism! Never"
In September 1870 the Piedmont troops attacked Rome and at dawn on the 20th after a heavy bombardment, the walls were broken through: the famous "breach of Porta Pia". At 9.30 the Pope ordered the white flag to be raised over the dome of St. Peter's.
Pope Pius IX declared the occupation illegal and resolved to consider himself a prisoner. He did not leave the Vatican until his death in 1878.
At the beginning of October 1870 the Italian Government, by a great majority, voted for the annexation of Rome. Pius IX refused to acknowledge the fact and rejected any attempt at a compromise made by the Italian Government. When the famous "law of Guaranties.' was voted upon by the Italian Parliament in May 1871, the Pope declared:
"We will not consent to any reconciliation which destroys or lessens our rights which are those of God and of the Holy See."
Three successive Popes, Leo XIII, Pius X and Benedict XV, never left the Vatican from the day of their election until their death, looking on themselves as prisoners.
Only fifty-nine years after the annexation of Rome, on February 11, 1929, the Roman Question was resolved by the Lateran Pact and the Concordat. A compromise was found and in addition, the Holy See recognized Rome as the capital of Italy.
Today, history is being repeated for Jerusalem. Israel has found that its recognition of Jerusalem as its capital has been refuted in so far as it is also a Center for Islam and Christianity. There is thus an attempt to deprive the State of Israel of what is its only historical, religious and spiritual center, its very reason for existing.
Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel, even if it also must wait for some decades for the recognition of this reality.
Reprinted from Studi, Fatti, Ricerche, No. 14, April-June 1981.
* Dr. Meir Mendes was, until a year ago, attached to the Israeli Embassy in Rome where his special task was to maintain relations between his Embassy and the Vatican. He is now living in Israel.
