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 We have already reviewed the illicit religio-political relationship that catapulted Hitler into power in Nazi Germany. Other nations have also suffered because of religion's meddling in secular affairs. For example: In fascist Italy, on September 11, 1929, the Lateran Treaty was signed by Mussolini and Cardinal Gasparri, making Vatican City a sovereign state. Pope Pius XI claimed that he had "given Italy back to God, and God back to Italy." Was that the truth? Consider what happened six years later. On October 3, 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia, claiming that it was "a barbarous land which still practices slavery. " Who, really, was being barbarous? Did the Catholic Church condemn Mussolini's barbarity? While the Pope issued ambiguous statements, her bishops were quite vocal in blessing the armed forces of their Italian "fatherland." In the book The Vatican in the Age of the Dictator, Anthony Rhodes reports:

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