How .17 Square Mile Vatican Became a Nation, Under Mussolini

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From Newsweek May 3, 2010:

"His Holiness is also an alleged head of state. The so-called Vatican City, a political nonentity covering about 0.17 square miles of Rome, was created by Benito Mussolini in 1929 as part of his sweetheart deal between fascism and the papacy. It is the last survival of the political architecture of the Axis powers. Its bogus claim to statehood is now being used to give asylum to men like Cardinal Bernard Law.

"This is a question of crime—organized crime, by the way—and therefore of punishment. Or perhaps you would rather see the shade of Mussolini thrown protectively over the Vicar."

From: Bring the Pope to Justice
By Christopher Hitchens in Newsweek online now.
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